Nicolas Sarkozy restores the Royal (sorry) Presidential Hunts

This information was the subject of a Broadcast Editorial on France Inter, France’s only independent “talk radio”, this Monday, 7th February. President Chirac had abolished the hunts at Marly and Rambouillet and although the 160 hectares of the hunt at the Chateau of Chambord remained they were never used. But, ‘Little Nicky’ likes expensive toys so he has appointed his advisor and personal friend Pierre Charon as the functionary to be responsible for the restoration of Chambord. The orders are t to make it into an object of “Prestige and Influence”.
The first hunt took place last Friday and everything was done in the Grande Tradition. It began with breakfast for the 30 invited guests assisted by their wives or husbands and finished with a dinner at the Chateau preceded by the tableau de chasse, a display of the day’s kill, with the Republican Guard in full ceremonial uniform and armour holding flaming torches (all the better to see you by). All of the obscene and bygone splendour rolled out for a minority President who would have liked to have been king. Where ever he goes hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of military police are drafted in to evacuate any protests before coach loads of his supporters are bussed in to ensure that he can shake hands for the cameras. Day by day the power and abuse of the police gains ground and the state motto Liberté Égalité Fraternité means less and less. This week saw a fourteen year old girl taken from her home at dawn, in her pyjamas,handcuffed and detained in police cells for questioning. Her crime? She is accused of brawling in the school playground! She says she was trying to break up a fight. A middle aged man, perfectly respectable, watched police lining up teenage boys, faces against the wall arms and legs spread, in the Metro. He asked what was going on and got no answer. He left the station and was immediately arrested. The charges are, “insulting a police officer” and “resisting arrest”.
More news will follow.