Protest on Sarkozy Hitler salute jibe

POSTERS which show President Sarkozy appearing to make a Hitler salute are to be pulled down by the Young Socialists group who put them up.

President of the Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes (MJS) Laurianne Deniaud said the posters were not in the best taste and admitted to Libération that it was a “very clumsy” move.

The posters had shown Mr Sarkozy with his arm raised and the slogan “How far will you let him go?”

Leader of Mr Sarkozy’s UMP Jean François Copé denounced the campaign saying that the Young Socialists had sunk to a new low by shamelessly comparing the president to Hitler and his followers as Nazis.

He called on Parti Socialiste leader Martine Aubry to halt the campaign and “leave the gutter of scandalous innuendo of Nazism or Pétainism” and return to real republican debate.

MJS communications chief Jonathan Debauve said they had only learned of the poster campaign this week. It had been a local effort started by the federation in the Vienne, Isère, several months ago after the furore over the expulsions of the Roma and had not been approved at national level.