Two Takes on Sarkozy

Ezra Shabot:

The poor level at which the Mexican justice system functions is well known, but in this one, where the lights of the national and international press were present, there was no possible way to alter the facts, beyond the failed television show. The deep links between the Cassez family and President Sarkozy can partially explain the insistence of the French leader, not in the innocence of his countrywomen by in her right to be transferred to France to finish her sentence. It has also been argued that it was a propaganda campaign from Sarkozy based on a demagogic nationalism that obliges the French state to defend it nationals in any part of the world, regardless of what they might have done.

All of these arguments come against the backdrop of French cultural superiority...over what underdeveloped nations like Mexico can seek to explain. It's hard to imagine Sarkozy having confronted a similar situation with one of his partners in the EU, or with the United States. But with African nations, or with Latin America, the problem isn't innocence or guilt of the French citizen, or the incidents along the judicial process, but rather the fact that the only valid justice is that of an oil empire today on the verge of economic and in many senses cultural bankruptcy.

Mauricio Merino:

Of course President Sarkozy has shown an arrogance unworthy of a democratic leader. The shots of verbal aggression and discrimination like those that the Frenchman has launched seem extracted from the first half of the 20th century, when the European powers felt that they were the owners of the rights and destiny of peripheral nations. But I can't ignore that behind his disdain for Mexican justice there is a reasonable doubt about the veracity of the proof and of the process carried out against Florence Cassez. If the police were capable of using her, literally, to carry out a television smokescreen altering the timing, manner, and place of the capture of the criminal band to which she supposedly belonged, how can we demand trust in the objectivity and the impartiality of the rest of the process?

These are two basically opposing opinions, but the striking thing is how much resentment you see of France as thinking itself superior. You don't really see that a whole lot with Mexicans' commentary regarding Europe.