PARIS (AFP) — A Maoist professor who is one of France's most respected academic philosophers has produced a surprise literary hit with an outspoken attack on Nicolas Sarkozy that compares the president to wartime collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain.
Alain Badiou, 70, whose abstract writings on metaphysics and post-structuralism normally sell just a few hundred copies, has been courted by the media after his reflections on the head of state -- "De quoi Sarkozy est-il le nom?" (Of what is Sarkozy the name?) -- became a minor best-seller.
Heralded by fans as a clarion-call for a resurgent far-left, the book speaks of the president in disparaging terms -- Sarkozy is referred to as the "Rat Man" -- and claims he came to power last year on the back of a "Petainist transcendental".
According to Badiou, Petain became leader in 1940 of a France that was transfixed by fear of war and social change, and the same conditions apply to Sarkozy today.
"Sarkozy is the name of a society which is afraid and asks to be protected. I sense in this society a demand for a master-protector capable of using violence against those who are the origin of that fear," Badiou said in a recent television interview.
"Essentially Petainism is the politics of fear -- Sarkozy's is the softly-softly version," he said.
In the book, Badiou argues that Sarkozy is inspired by the same triptych of values as Petain -- "Nation, Work, Family" -- and that his policies towards illegal immigrants are comparable to France's war-time victimisation of the Jews.
A former interior minister, Sarkozy has been attacked by the left for setting up deportation quotas. Before May's election he was much criticised for his tough language towards teenage delinquents in the immigration-rich city suburbs.
Born in 1937, Badiou teaches philosophy at the elite Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and lectures regularly in the United States. For many years he was a leader of the Maoist movement in France and he continues to profess faith in a Communist future.
"Normally his books appear only in specialist shops, but today we are getting orders from all the big book chains and from the provinces," said Badiou's publisher Sebastien Raimondi.
"There's been a real word-of-mouth effect," he added, saying 20,000 copies had so far been sold.
"It is answering a real need. People are despondent about the state of the left and want some sign of hope," he said.
In "De quoi Sarkozy est-il le nom?", Badiou says that the arrival in power of a unabashed rightwinger is an opportunity for the left to rediscover its roots. He predicts a new alliance of students, workers, immigrants and the poor.
The success of the book has not been universally welcomed on the left, where some decry Badiou's flights of language.
Newspaper columnist Pierre Assouline angrily attacked the philosopher for calling Sarkozy the "Rat Man" -- after a famous case-study by Sigmund Freud -- and his supporters "rats."
"My readers know well that I am no great fan of (Sarkozy), but with this vilification a Rubicon has been crossed .... The last time that people in this country were compared to rats was, let's see, in 1942 in propaganda about the Jewish peril," he said on his blog.
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