Je ne sais pas bien ce que des comptes « non certifiés » laissent comme
latitude légale aux dirigeants des syndicats, qu’ils soient patronaux ou salariés. L’affaire de l’UIMM permettra peut-être aux citoyens lambdas dans mon genre, censés ne rien ignorer de la loi,
d’être mieux éclairés. Puisse la justice en passant faire œuvre pédagogique. Cela dit, les cris d’orfraie du moment autour de l’UIMM et surtout ceux qui émanent des milieux patronaux ont un
goût quelque peu nauséeux. Il est difficile de croire les patronats, lorsqu’ils prétendent ignorer des us et coutumes qui sont des secrets de Polichinelle bien au-delà de la seule métallurgie.
Seuls les montants des sommes concernées peuvent surprendre, sauf le secteur bancaire et apparemment les instances de contrôle du blanchiment. Ces dernières semblent bien - dit-on - avoir
alerté Bercy dès la fin des années 90, sans que l’on juge bon de creuser plus avant le sujet. Comment regarder cette non-intervention des pouvoirs publics sinon comme une complicité, voire une
tolérance excessive poussant à la faute les délinquants. Même si l’on veut faire croire que c’est DGS qui aurait inventé ces pratiques à l’UIMM, ce dont je doute, cela ferait 15 ans de
complicités bancaires et politiques, ce qui, du fait des alternances, pourrait concerner tout le monde.President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right party got a rebuke from French voters in recent local elections, with leftist parties narrowly beating Mr. Sarkozy’s party and its allies. The opposition Socialists tried to spin this as a rejection of economic reforms, the platform on which Mr. Sarkozy was elected 10 months ago, but they knew as well as everyone else in France that was not the issue.
For a politician who worked so long and hard to get into the Élysée Palace, Mr. Sarkozy has demonstrated a curious notion of how to behave once there. His stormy divorce and almost immediate remarriage to a glamorous singer-model were only the most sensational of moves that got Sarkozy onto 252 glossy French magazine covers in 2007.
Some are fairly classified as personal business, but some were bad judgment by any measure: when he stalked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl of CBS News while calling his press spokesman an “imbecile,” or his crude crack at a guy who refused to shake hands with him at the Paris farm show, which became an instant Internet hit. Such tidbits of sensation have been coupled with badly garbled messages from Mr. Sarkozy’s administration, with the president or his aides often talking and acting at cross-purposes to the ministers. Mr. Sarkozy proposed in February that fifth-graders research individual French children killed in the Holocaust, a peculiar foray into classroom issues that caught his government by surprise and was soon scrapped.
With luck, the election rebuff will be just what Mr. Sarkozy needs to refocus his boundless energy on what he promised: serious economic reforms. He has said he would “draw conclusions” from the local vote, and Élysée officials are taking steps to “represidentialize” the president. Mr. Sarkozy is far too ebullient to be turned into a clone of his staid and pompous predecessors, but when a politician’s behavior gets in the way of his mission, it’s time for a dose of discipline.
