"We wanted to demonize Sarkozy"

Ask and you will be answered.

Eric Besson has finally explained why, after participating in writing a violent report against Nicolas Sarkozy for the Socialist Party, he finally rallied Sarkozy.

Emphasis mine.

"We had decided (...) we would demonize Nicolas Sarkozy, to scare people, based on actions, words or mistakes he had said and done" explained [Eric Besson]. He was referring to a document against Nicolas Sarkozy that the Socialist Party had published on the Internet last January, in which the UMP candidate was called "an American neo-conservative carrying a French passport".

"This way of demonizing, this skepticism about being able to be elected without demonizing and create fear of the other [candidate], you will see it, be certain, between the two rounds", he warned. According to Eric Besson, socialists leaders "were convinced" that in a loyal Sarkozy-Royal battle, "Nicolas Sarkozy would win, and I still believe this."

. . . . [Eric Besson] insisted, in front of 10.000 UMP voters who applauded him, he was "a man of the left that is going to support and vote for a man who claims to be from the right (...) it's a right-wing republican that holds better the values in which I believe."