Last autumn, amid much controversy, one of the most popular and influential French political bloggeurs, Loïc Le Meur, came out in support of the UMP's official presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Now Le Meur - a consummate self-publicist, the author of a book on monetarising blogs, and an employee of the blogging software company Six Apart - is an key part of Sarkozy's campaign strategy. At least, that's what the UMP campaign organigramme revealed by Libération and republished by Le Meur yesterday reveals, although I would not be altogether surprised if Le Meur were found to have suggested it himself. ("Well researched, Libé, not at all far off what I know and a pretty good graphic," he congratulated the newspaper.)
The man in charge of the UMP's blogging strategy, meanwhile, is blogging Paris politician Thierry Solère. On the fringes are various old-media types, the boss of the luxury goods firm LVMH, Jean-Claude Decaux - you've probably stood underneath a bus shelter or a billboard owned by him - and various "people", the unofficial French term for celebrities. They include the Johnny 'Allyday clan, the actor Christian Clavier and Doc Gynéco, a hip-hop artist of Guadeloupian ancestry who was born in a deprived suburb of Paris.
Why is Le Meur backing Sarko?
He admits he never used to be very interested in politics, but says his job at Six Apart and the demonstrations against Dominique de Villepin's proposed employment reforms last year made him realise how hard a time entrepreneurs have in France. He now believes Sarkozy can build the "creative, entrepreneurial society" he wants.
The newly launched Sarkozy.fr may be less freewheelingly inclusive than Ségolène Royal's Desirs d'avenir, but it certainly shows commercial acumen: in the Boutique des Amis de Nicolas Sarkozy, a Tout Devient Possible pencil case picturing a smiling Sarko costs a whopping 18 euros; a shopping bag costs 38.
A number of bloggers were impressed by the new candidate's acceptance speech yesterday. "[He] gave us a good, inclusive speech," writes Embruns. "Now he has to stop frightening people, lose the label of France's top cop and become a president of France. I noticed that he didn't mention Ségolène Royal at all."
Ségolène Royal didn't mention him either, preferring to meet farmers in her home region of Poitou-Charentes. Libération says the "panache sarkozien" on show yesterday has put her presidential campaign on the back foot. She is now under pressure to set out the Parti Socialiste's financial plans.
Sarkozy's first campaign poster, meanwhile, has been the subject of much deconstruction. It shows him alone in front of a rural French landscape. For Carnets de Nuit, it was reminiscent of François Mitterrand's 1981 campaign poster, La force tranquille ("quiet strength"). But while Mitterrand's background was bathed in a warm mist redolent of A Year in Provence, Sarkozy's countryside is colder and greener, with a bluebird hovering above it.
"If I were Ségolene," writes Versac, "I would go for the opposite approach, as she seems to be doing already ... No single slogan, real photos of her in a crowd and at small meetings where she is right at the centre of things."
The anti-Sarko sites, meanwhile, have gone into overdrive. Sarko may have shopping bags, but Antisarko.net has posters and attacks on his "populism", "cold liberalism" and "Americanism". Sarkostique is entirely devoted to discussion boards dissecting his policies and suggesting ways to undermine them. The race is still wide open.
