Sarkozy to stick to politics and thus to his strengths. Sarkozy had already written the script of what was set to be a triumphant presidency. Setting up the new institutions set out in the Lisbon treaty should have been one of Sarkozy's top priorities. Sarko has hardly been in the job five minutes and he’s got himself all three, an heiress-model-chanteuse rolled into one, making him the envy of every hot-blooded male on the Old Continent. And surely it’s that easy: just hang a stunning, talented woman on your arm and your popularity will shoot through the roof.
Sarkozy gained even greater credibility in his negotiations with Moscow as a result of his very deliberate overtures to Central and Eastern Europe?new EU member states that have long harbored suspicions of French leaders. Chirac told the Eastern European leaders that backed the United States on Iraq in 2003 that they "missed a good opportunity to shut up.".By contrast, Sarkozy has made frequent trips east as president and promoted bilateral cooperation on issues like agriculture and energy. Sarkozy accepts that a referendum might be suitable for the constitution, but sees no prospect that one might be won in the next few years. In any case, he is not willing to make the kind of concessions to the French left that might make such a referendum winnable. Sarko, you need training in basic economics before you try meat axe surgery on your nation but even so, I don't think France will submit to the anesthesia in order to give you a free hand at it.
Sarkozy’s government wishes to increase the retirement age, while labor unions are demanding that he first increase the employment rate of those aged 55 and over. Currently, that rate is 38.1 percent in France, compared with a European Union average of 43.6 percent. Sarko's distinctive traits have nothing to do with his Jewish, Greek, Hungarian, or Catholic origins, even less so with his so-called American tastes. He knows diddly-squat about American culture.) He grew up in Paris and that's all you need to know. Sarkozy was asked if while shaving in the morning he sometimes thought of the presidency. Such disarming candor, however "American," appealed to French voters accustomed to the oblique sonorities of the French political class and its obsequious deference to the chief of state, whom Sarkozy was openly challenging.
