DAVID COMMON: DIARY
Sarkozy's shift from style to substance
March 24, 2008
France has got itself a new president. Or, at least, it has the one it voted in 10 months ago.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivers a speech during a visit to Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2008. (Remy de la Mauviniere/Pool/ Associated Press)
Having been spanked by the electorate during municipal elections in March 2008, widely viewed as a referendum on his presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy is chastened and shifting his public persona from style to substance.
Within a week, the president turned to policy — and polishing his leadership image. Sarkozy put on a statesman-like appearance as he launched a new nuclear submarine and articulated France's nuclear weapons policy. He also further created six new secretary of state positions, to target issues of concern to the French, such as purchasing power.
Sarkozy's trademark Ray-Bans are likely to be put back in a cupboard somewhere. His jaunts aboard the luxury yachts or private planes of billionaire friends are history, after his popularity tumbled by a shocking 30 per cent.
His whirlwind romance and marriage to supermodel-turned-singer/songwriter Carla Bruni — just weeks after divorcing his second wife — showed the French a far less regal attitude than they'd become used to from their presidents. More though, it was as if the man voters had elected in May 2007 was not the man in the Élysées Palace.
Bruni will accompany her husband on an upcoming state visit to Britain — the first for a French leader since 1996. But Sarkozy is expected to tone down the affair, ever mindful of a British press ready to pounce on any potential gaffes.
Watershed municipal elections?
Sarkozy won election after a bitter campaign in which he was explicit about France's problems — from a bloated bureaucracy to restrictive labour laws — and he outlined a clear, controversial plan for change. He promised swift, decisive action.
The French instead got a lot of flash, blinding them from what substance he achieved. To many of them, it seemed he was too consumed by his personal life and not concerned by France's woes — especially as food and fuel prices went through the roof.
The moment where his presidency turned (if, in fact, that is what is now happening) was those municipal elections. Sarkozy's right-leaning Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) lost the popular vote. The main opposition party, the Socialists — still in disarray following the presidential race — made significant gains, including wresting control of 15 key cities, thus eroding Sarkozy's base of support.
Though the power of the French president is nearly absolute, losing mayor's offices denies Sarkozy pillars of power to support his reforms.
However, some pundits suggest that Sarkozy, now free from the constraints of an electoral test, can ram through his agenda. His team argues that is exactly what's going to happen now, though privately they worry.
Public appetite for an active president
But an important sign may be in the popularity of Sarkozy's low-profile prime minister, François Fillon. His approval ratings are much higher than those of the boss. And in a recent poll, two-thirds of respondents also said they want the reforms that Sarkozy and Fillon have suggested to go ahead.
The suggestion that the municipal elections were a rejection of Sarkozy's plan is thus wrong. The French daily newspaper Le Monde may have said it best in a recent editorial: "In reality the French are not asking Nicolas Sarkozy to change. On the contrary, they are asking him to be what he said he would be: an active president, absolutely committed to his reform program."
A majority is convinced by Sarkozy's original message that France must catch up with other Western industrialized nations by shedding the dead weight of regulation and over-taxation. So Sarkozy needs to act fast — if he can.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Biography
David Common is the CBC News correspondent in France, from where he covers much of Europe and often travels as far afield as Afghanistan where he has spent weeks at a time reporting on Canada's military operations there.
