This year, 2012, may see either see Nicholas Sarkozy re-elected as French president, or the socialist candidate François Hollande take his place.  There’s also Sarkozy’s far-right rival Marine Le Pen. The Euro crisis, a recession, and high unemployment, makes Sarkozy very unpopular to voters now, but a combination of factors (he’ll make rightwing noises on immigration and Muslims to woo rightwing voters away from Le Pen and the National Front; and Hollande’s bad campaigning) might save Sarkozy in the second round of voting. My friends and the musicians that we listen to – mostly the children of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean – prefer Hollande and the Socialists.

We cannot forgive Sarkozy for his behavior as Minister of the Interior in 2005 when he referred to rioting residents of the Parisian banlieues (or suburbs; basically high density neighborhoods of high-rise apartments) as “scum.” Marine Le Pen, who hides her bigotry better than her father, has referred to Muslims praying on sidewalks as an “occupying army” and the banlieues as resembling “tribal areas like in Pakistan.” Most of the rappers I’ve featured already in this series make digs at Sarkozy and Le Pen (like L’Algerino for example). However, the most direct example of this kind of rap against Sarkozy, for me at least, is that by female rapper Diams, “La Boullette,” from 2009.

It comes at the 3:00 minute mark when Diam’s (mother French, father is Cypriot converted to Islam and married an Algerian), referring to Le Pen and Sarkozy, stops her rapping and addresses her audience: “I have a note for the President, as usual I have something to tell the president: The President does not like us, I read it in his wishes, by the way he doesn’t like himself either, I can see it in his eyes. I have the love in me, and very little hate which I reserve for few journalists of shit. And about Le Pen (Marine) I’ll try to be polite. Ladies and gentlemen, if you don’t like us, go look elsewhere, because we’ll stay and we’ll take what we have of this country …”

A close second is Joey Starr’s track “Sarkozy.” This song was supposed to be on his new album but he was forbidden to include it because the CSA [Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel; the French media regulating body] decided it was “too insulting against Sarkozy.” There’s a line in here reminding Sarkozy “you’re nothing but an immigrant” – referring to Sarkozy’s Hungarian father, an immigrant like us.