by Luc Ciotkowski

France’s controversial head of state, President Nicolas Sarkozy, continued his current campaign of courting enemies, as a video of his appearance at Saturday’s French Agricultural Fair makes headlines all over the world this week.

The French president was caught on film by the newspaper, Le Parisien, retorting at a man who refused to shake his hand, “Casse-toi… Casse-toi alors, pauvre con !”, which translates into British English most accurately as, “Piss off… Well piss off then, you miserable little shit!”.

Many, both inside and outside France, have condemned his behaviour as unbefitting of a president. His rivals have held it up as evidence of Sarkozy’s lack of self-control. It’s not the first time ‘Sarko’ has been unable to keep his ’sang-froid’: just a few months ago he called his press officer an “imbecile” as he stormed out of an interview in which the interviewer had dared to ask him about the divorce process he was going through.

His popularity has hit an all-time low, with the outburst coming as the high profile nature of his relationship with Carla Bruni is being found distasteful by the French public, who have traditionally preferred to know as little as possible about their politicians’ private lives.

One must be fair to Sarkozy, the visitor to the Salon d’agriculture, who he insulted, provoked the right-wing politician. Among the people crowding around the president, the man brushed off Sarkozy’s attempted handshake, saying, “Eugh, no, don’t touch me. You’re dirtying me” (”Ah non, touche-moi pas. Tu me salis.”). That was when ‘Nicol-arse’ spat his belittling insult through half-gritted teeth and a sarcastic smile. Jumping to his defence, ex-prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dismissed the altercation as, “A direct and verile private dialogue. Man to man”. Repeating that it was a private exchange, he said it had nothing to do with politics.

As the debate rages on, some would argue that if the man hadn’t wanted to greet the president, then why did he get so close? And that being called dirty perfectly warranted a retaliatory insult; why should Sarkozy be different from anybody else in his reaction? Perhaps more damaging than the insult was how it betrayed his mood at he fair. His greetings to visitors were clearly forced and he stayed for just two hours. Ex-president Jacques Chirac used to spend six hours at the fair, drinking wine with the farmers, while ‘Sarko’ had just a quick glass of milk on his flying visit. The whole incident reinforces a distance between him and rural voters in the biggest country in Europe for agricultural industry.

 After Sarkozy’s spiteful insult and King Juan Carlos’ asking why Chavez wouldn’t shut up, it leaves me wondering when the British head of state will do something as funny. I suppose we’ll have to wait until Charles becomes king.