Nicolas Sarkozy: A French Paradox

On a recent cover, weekly French newsmagazine Le Point featured a photo of a confounded- looking President Nicolas Sarkozy in a heavy rainstorm with a headline that read what's happening to him? Both the image and the question captured Sarkozy's transformation from a leader who could do no wrong to one whose every move seems to incite opposition or controversy — even among allies. Many of the French President's woes exist because voters are confused about what he stands for. His decisions seem to contradict each other, they complain, and his policies are often ideologically schizophrenic. "For the first two years of his presidency, Sarkozy convinced French public opinion that all he had to do was announce reform for it to be as good as done — that his word and desired results were one and the same," says Denis Muzet, president of Médiascopie, a public-opinion research institute in Paris. "Since last January, however, people have not only begun complaining it's all gesticulation with little real result, but that the reforms themselves are clashing in nature, illegible in content, and often harmful in what they achieve. They see no ideological coherence ... in Sarkozy's reform or leadership."

Which means that the more salient question might actually be: Who is Nicolas Sarkozy? The answer depends on when you study him. Is he the man elected President in May 2007, who immediately set out to lower income taxes, scrap France's 35-hour workweek, revoke special retirement privileges for public-transport workers, and harangue employees to "work more to earn more"? Or is he the leader who in the past year has slapped down greedy bankers, fumed at U.S. and British resistance to French plans for strict new regulations of the global finance sector, and preached the gospel of "moralizing capitalism"? Is he the man, a son of a Hungarian immigrant, who, newly elected, challenged French pretense of color-blind égalité by arguing for American-style affirmative action? Or is he the leader who, facing critical regional elections next March, has begun openly courting voters of the extreme-right National Front with a crackdown on illegal aliens and a divisive national debate on immigration and French identity?

All politicians contradict themselves, of course. It's almost impossible to remain perfectly consistent and ideologically pure under the watchful gaze of the media — especially in an age when conflicting statements are just a click on YouTube away. But Sarkozy's slipperiness is notable because his political success has been built around his reputation as a straight talker and someone who acts rather than bloviates. Now many voters — and even some of his former allies — are questioning the President they thought they knew. "This is classic Sarkozy: claiming [that] adaptable principles and a willingness to take any stand likely to reinforce his own political interests are in fact proof of pragmatism and openness to all views," says a former adviser to conservative politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Zero conviction and fidelity — except to himself."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1945259-1,00.html#ixzz0Ynfjc3Xd


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1945259-1,00.html#ixzz0Ynfa7GQw