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Sarkozy: A New Hope?
He's popular, pro-US and doesn't get on with Jacques Chirac. Does France's interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy represent the best hope for Franco-American relations in decades?
The worst-kept secret in French politics was revealed on Monday when ambitious young interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy admitted that he hopes to run in 2007's presidential election - against incumbent Jacques Chirac if necessary.
Last week, Sarkozy told television viewers that he often daydreamed about becoming president. On Monday, he went further, arguing that French presidents, like their US counterparts, should serve no more than two terms in office. Chirac, who is into his second term, has suggested that he may run for a third - a decision motivated, at least in part, by the fact that he could face criminal charges once his presidential immunity expires.
However Sarkozy, who at 48 is a pup by French political standards, said that public figures who have "given their all" to their people, should step aside. According to the Telegraph, France worries that Chirac, who will be 74 in the next election, could end up like his predecessor Francois Mitterand, who spent much of his final term enfeebled and distant.
Sarkozy also argued that fixed term limits concentrated the mind on action and reform. Commentators fear that Chirac has become so comfortable with office that he risks becoming an inactive 'regal' president - the last thing France needs with its flatlining economy and seeming inability to confront the globalized market.
Sarkozy's rise has been spectacular and controversial. He became mayor of Neuilly, Paris' poshest suburb at 28. He is rumoured to have dated Chirac's daughter and former campaign manager Claude.
Despite Chirac taking the young hopeful under his wing in the 1970s, Sarkozy committed what for the older man was the ultimate sin of publicly supporting his rival, Eduard Balladur, in 1995's presidential election. This perhaps is not as ungrateful as Chirac's supporters make out: Balladur too was charmed by Sarkozy, and made him a finance minister in the early 1990s. In any case, Chirac appointed Sarkozy interior minister when he won the presidency in 2002.
So what does he stand for? Unlike many wannabe premiers, Sarkozy has gone out of his way to make his views clear. He's clearly right-wing, with a law and order authoritarian streak that drives leftists to daub "Sarko = Facho" (Sarkozy is a fascist) on the walls of the Paris metro. The son of immigrants himself (albeit aristocratic Hungarian ones) he has embraced causes dear to the immigrant community, while coming down hard on certain illegal operations.
He has made efforts to appear sympathetic to France's large Muslim community - last week, he even suggested France bend its sacred equality laws to ensure more Muslims found jobs in public service. Nevertheless, he is not afraid to stand up to Muslim pressure groups when required. He refused the absurd demand that Muslim women should be allowed to use fully-veiled portraits on their identity cards, for example.
Furthermore, he has threatened to expel preachers who incite violence or call for the breaking of French law.
On last Thursday's 100 Minutes show, where he declared his presidential hopes, the interior minister successfully faced down anti-Semitic Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sarkozy has taken a hard line on anti-Semitic attacks in France, the majority of which are carried out by young Muslims. He forced police to label attacks on Jewish-owned buildings anti-Semitic, rather than simple vandalism, as was the case before he became minister.
"Speedy" Sarkozy (the nickname is due to his hyperactivity) has promised to hire 15,000 extra cops, much to the delight of police unions - but has demanded that those already in jobs get out and do some policing - much to their despair. France's lawless quartiers sensibles ("Sensitive neighbourhoods) have been a particular target for the minister's enthusiasm for tough policing. He has campaigned successfully to reduce road deaths in France, which despite some of Europe's best roads and newest cars has third-world accident statistics. (Slightly tarnished, this success - Sarkozy's official car was nicked for speeding outside Paris a fortnight ago.)
As for foreign policy, Sarkozy is a rumoured member of the group within Chirac's cabinet who opposed the president's obstructionist stance on the Iraq war.
The Telegraph adds that Sarkozy "adores America". He spoke warmly of Arnold Schwarzenegger's election victory, telling a French radio show,
"That someone who is a foreigner in his country, who has an unpronounceable name," can become the governor of the biggest state in the United States, "is not nothing!"
Rumour has it that the interior ministry was offered to Sarkozy as a "poisoned chalice", as successive governments have been unable or unwilling to confront France's spiralling social problems. Sarkozy's can-do approach is very American: He once told reporters that French politicians believe that because it is impossible to do everything, they must do nothing. He went on to infuriate France's intellectual left by claiming that they only saw the problems of the poor while travelling past them in their official limos.
Despite - or perhaps because of - the left's disapproval, Sarkozy enjoys easily the highest approval ratings of any French politician, and if he manages to keep his hands clean in a tough job, would be a shoe-in for the 2007 race.
His affection for America - a rare commodity in French public life, but one not so rare as some imagine - would help greatly in rebuilding relations between the two countries.
Until Sabine Herold runs for office, Nicolas Sarkozy could be the best thing to happen to France. Let's just hope the French realise this.
