WHO EXACTLY IS THE "DIVISIVE" SARKOZY DIVIDING

TAB has been covering the reactions to Sarkozy's election coming from some of the more violent segments of the French population (e.g. here and here) . We'd like to be more specific than that, but we only know what we read in the press - and although they've been very insistent that Sarkozy is "divisive", they've been a little less forthcoming on precisely where those divisions lie. Because that description seems a little weird to us, given how he drew support from across almost all sectors of French society:

Nicolas Sarkozy won the women's vote and fared well among blue-collar workers, even though his rival for the French presidency was a woman and a Socialist. It was one of the surprising subplots in Sarkozy's resounding election victory over Segolene Royal — and shows his vision of pro-market reforms and scaling back immigration appeals to a wide audience. Sarkozy's ability to attract votes from a broad spectrum of the public is an early indication he may be able to overcome his image as a polarizing force and achieve crucial popular support for pushing through his ambitious program of overhauling France's welfare system.

Well, almost all sectors. AP got the number of burned cars wrong by an entire order of magnitude, did they? And that's compared to the undoubtedly lowballed numbers provided by the French press, is it? We refuse to believe it.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]