Thanks, Seggy

So there’s post-French election insurrection. Segolene Royal’s pre-election warning of violence if she lost should now properly be seen as providing reckless encouragement to the lawless:

May 7 — Anti-Sarkozy demo at Paris Bastille

PARIS (AFP) - Some 200 protestors, most of them high-school students, staged a rowdy protest against rightwing president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday.

Blocking traffic with metal barriers and camping in the centre of the road near the Place de la Bastille — the scene of violent clashes with police the night before — the demonstrators urged drivers to show their support by honking their horns.

Chanting “Sarko, Fascist, the people will get you!” and “Sarko, Rabble, you’ve got to go!” — referring to Sarkozy’s notorious description of young troublemakers as “racaille” — they draped a French flag scrawled with the slogan “Resist Sarkozy” across the steps of the Bastille Opera house.

May 8 — Sarkozy holidays as fresh violence hits French cities

PARIS (AFP) - France’s next president Nicolas Sarkozy holidayed Tuesday in Malta ahead of launching a radical reform programme, while back home cities across the country were hit by more violent “anti-Sarko” protests.

Sarkozy doesn’t start until May 16, but I guess the press wants to make him appear unconscientious for not being around for the riots someone else caused.

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UPDATE, May 9: The French press is already playing the “rich right-winger bought and paid for by the rich” meme:

Sarkozy takes luxury break after poll win
LA VALETTA, May 8, 2007 (AFP) - France’s next president, the hyper-energetic Nicolas Sarkozy, was enjoying a break in the middle of the Mediterranean on Tuesday to savour his resounding weekend electoral triumph.

The 52-year-old rightwinger, who has promised to shake up France’s economy with an infusion of US-style liberalism once he takes office May 16, was in the middle of a three-day getaway with his family on board a yacht somewhere near Malta.

Officials on the tiny island, which lies just south of Sicily, said Sarkozy, his wife Cecilia and their 10-year-old son Louis arrived Monday on board a private jet and immediately boarded the waiting vessel.

Records in France showed that both the plane — a Falcon 900 EX luxury jet with the tail marking F-HBOL — and the yacht — a 60-metre (200-foot) vessel flying a French flag — were owned by Vincent Bollore, a wealthy French billionaire businessman.

Does anyone remember the press calling attention to who owned the various vacation spots in Martha’s Vineyard and elsewhere the Clintons vacationed to? Neither do I.