A taxing day as Sarkozy goes walkabout among the fruit and veg

What a start to the day for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. He was up and about before dawned cracked rubbing shoulders and pressing flesh with the hoi polloi at Rungis, France’s largest wholesale food and flower market just south of Paris.

And as soon as he was done with mixing with the masses it was off to the airwaves of a national radio station for his first broadcast away from the comfort of the presidential palace since taking office.

Along for the ride at Rungis, so to speak, was the inevitable pack of hacks recording his every move as he pounded from aisle to aisle meeting and greeting in a way only Sarkozy can manage. Ah yes they had been forewarned and must have been delighted by the early-morning press call.

Indeed it was pretty much a case of déjà vu, a harking back to the good old bad old days of just 18 months ago when Sarkozy was in full flow as he stumped up and down the country during his presidential campaign.

Mind you the major difference this time around perhaps was the presence of none other than the first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, looking disgustingly radiant so early in the morning as she seemed to glide ethereally alongside her husband.

Quite what she made of being surrounded by heaps of kidneys and tripe at five o’clock as the couple set off on their 90-minute mystery tour leaves the mind boggling. Blow the cynics, it really must be love.

One thing’s for sure, the media hounds looked a lot more bleary-eyed than she did as they shuffled along camera-toting and snap happy for lunchtime television news broadcasts and tomorrow’s front pages. Ah the blessings of stage management.

From the heaps of offal on to slabs of meat, then past crate-loads of fruit and veg before pausing in front of hunks of cheese. Bruni-Sarkozy allowing herself to spend the longest time wickedly nibbling the smallest piece, hardly gorging herself to Fatdom and pronouncing it “delicious.” Once a model always a model.

And so the ambulant presidential cavalcade proceeded to the sweeter scents of the flower section, Not quite 6.30am and Sarkozy still smiling and exchanging banter – far removed from the ill-humoured scenes and insults back at the agricultural fair in February when he famously told a visitor who refused to shake his hand to “get lost” in no uncertain terms.

This really was Sarkozy at his best, driving home the impression once again that he was leading by example and paying tribute to the agricultural backbone of France – those who stirred themselves into action at such an inhumane hour every day of the week, 52 weeks a year.

And in case anybody had forgotten that these were exactly the same tactics that had endeared him to voters just over a year ago, he reminded them - in a pre-arranged impromptu press conference there on the floors of Rungis.

His message yet again was basically those who work hard would get their just rewards. A sort of “early bird catches the worm” variation on his “work more to earn more” mantra that he seems to delight in repeating.

So much for the early public relations exercise, this was always going to be a marathon of a day, with policy issues taking centre stage.

Sarkozy had an all-important radio interview scheduled, during which he would outline part two of his economic strategy to “save” the country, boost purchasing power (yes that again) and counter possible industrial action. So enough of enjoying himself at Rungis, time for more serious stuff as he headed back towards the capital.

With French fishermen still blocking ports in protest against rising fuel prices the government is desperate to avoid action spreading, especially to the nation’s 35,000 truck drivers who could bring France to a standstill as they have before.

Sarkozy needed to pull a rabbit from somewhere – not an easy trick to do when the state’s coffers are empty and the government can’t afford to decrease the price of fuel because it relies too much on the tax it levies – currently accounting for around 65 per cent of the price of each litre.

Somehow though the president announced that he has managed to magic up a special fund of between €150-170 million for every trimester. It’ll be used to compensate those who are most exposed to the recent world hike in oil prices - haulage companies, fishermen, taxi drivers - and will be financed by siphoning off some of the money from VAT on fuel.

So really it amounts to a numbers game that involves shuffling around taxes without addressing core issues of alternative energy supplies, which anyway would take far too long to be implemented and fail to address the immediate need for action. Ad hoc economics some would say.

Because the rise in fuel prices is not confined to France, Sarkozy can of course always blame global market pressure should his stopgap measure not work. Still top marks for finding some sort of bunny.

And still on the issue of taxes, and because he has proclaimed himself as the “president who wants to cut taxes not increase them”, Sarkozy also announced that there’s going to be no rise in the television licence.

That came as rather a surprise – he’s good a that – as it still leaves many wondering how the heck he is going to finance the state-owned television channel, France 2, when the planned ban on advertising kicks in.

Did someone say privatisation?

Sarkozy outs himself as Céline Dion fan

Thankfully nobody broke into song but emotions were running high on Thursday as the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, bestowed this country’s highest honour, the Légion d'honneur, on the Canadian chanteuse Céline Dion.

The ceremony took place at the president’s official residence, the Elysée palace; the day after Dion had opened a series of sold-out concerts in the French capital – the first time she has performed in Paris since 1999.

In what might have been a speech inspired by listening to a few too many of her songs, Sarkozy waxed lyrical in his praise for Dion who has released albums in both English and French. He thanked her for “making the French language shine abroad” and extolled the power of her music.

“Love has an essential place in our lives and has had a particular importance in your artistic career,” he said.

“There is only one way to love – totally – and there can be no embarrassment in sharing that. It’s a refreshing change,” he added.

For once a visibly moved Dion, who normally talks at nineteen-to-the-dozen, seemed almost lost for words. But don’t pause for breath too long as that obviously didn’t prevent her from being as effusive as ever in accepting the award.

“To receive this from your hands monsieur le president is a great honour. It’s very difficult to express exactly what it means to a simple girl from Champagne, Quebec such as me,” she gushed.

The Elysée was fair awash with Dions as the singer went on to thank her mother, her husband (and agent) René Angelil, their son René-Charles, as well as the whole gaggle of her brothers and sisters – all 13 of them – who were present at the ceremony. She also paid tribute to her father, who died five years ago.

“He would have been proud to see his little girl, his last child, acclaimed in this way by France,” she said.

The Légion d'honneur was created in 1802 by Napoleon as an order of merit to recognise "outstanding services rendered to France or a feat befitting humanity."

And in the past it was limited to intellectual greats, artists, and in general those who had made what was considered an “important” historical contribution.

But many of the more recent recipients have tended to come from the ranks of show business and Dion joins Sean Connery, Barbra Streisand, Clint Eastwood and Johnny Hallyday to name just a few among – some would say far too – many other celebrities.

Purists naturally remain pretty sniffy about the award and some cynics in France have suggested that by bestowing this latest honour, Sarkozy was taking the opportunity to show that he has similar tastes to the masses.

That would not only be somewhat small-minded – after all he has held back somewhat on the Bling Bling glitz and glamour of his presidency recently – but also wrong.

In fact Sarkozy had nothing whatsoever to do with Dion’s selection. He was merely in the right place at the right time to confer the honour

Dion was apparently awarded it three years ago – but depending on which report you might believe she a) never had the time to pop over to Paris to receive it because she was too busy wowing her fans and playing to full houses in Las Vegas. Or b) didn’t find out about it until just over one month ago.

It was a busy week for Sarkozy in terms of handing out awards. On Wednesday he also upgraded US film director Steven Spielberg to the highest order of the Légion d'honneur.

Sarkozy sees sense on Blair presidency

It has not been made official yet but it’s already doing the rounds of the media both here in France and across the channel in Britain. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is apparently not going to back former British prime minister, Tony Blair, as a candidate to become the first president of the European Union.

Instead Sarkozy is thought be ready to throw his weight behind the prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker.

That should come as a relief to many a committed Europhile. During his decade in office Blair did little to move Britain any closer to the heart of EU policy making. On the contrary, if anything he pandered to a domestic public that had been force-fed euroscepticism for far too long.

Blair showed no political will for adopting a common currency, dragging his heels to such an extent that Britain still remains outside of the Eurozone – a position which is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

He also resisted adapting Britain’s justice system to meeting European standards and kept the country outside of the passport-free Schengen zone. In other words Blair hardly had the credentials of a truly committed European,

Then of course there was his perceived “poodling” to US president George W. Bush during the invasion of Iraq, which saw him out of step with the EU’s other two political and economic powerhouses, France and Germany

It might seem somewhat extraordinary that Sarkozy should have put Blair’s name forward in the first place and on the surface at least this latest move marks an about turn for the French president. Just last year he declared Blair’s possible candidacy as a “smart move.”

But that might have been a combination of the rush Sarkozy had from being newly elected – remember he was very much in his omnipresent, firing-on-all-fronts-simultaneously stage - and an attempt to flex his muscles as the new kid on the block.

Dropping support now for Blair though isn’t necessarily a “new” Sarkozy in action. Ever the consummate politician, he would have realised from the outset just how unlikely he was to succeed with proposing Blair. And his apparent about turn could also be interpreted as a calculated move to assert his authority at just the moment when France is preparing to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU on July 1.

Sarkozy will be eager to get the timetable rolling along before the end of the year and wrapping up agreement of a common candidate could well help remove hurdles to the process whereby all 27 EU member states have to ratify the Lisbon treaty.

It’s a watered-down version of an earlier proposal for a European constitution, which was rejected by both French and Dutch voters.

Under its proposals a new president would be appointed for two –and –a half years, chairing EU summits, and taking on some of the functions of the current presidency, held on a rotating six-month basis by EU heads of government.

The president would also represent the EU on common foreign and security policy.

Although Sarkozy is now said to favour Juncker, the current president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Baroso, cannot be ruled out either.

There’s likely to be a fair amount of horse-trading over the coming months with perhaps a compromise candidate being the final option. That is after all the way things have always happened in the past in a smaller EU and enlargement is probably only going to make it a more vital component for reaching an agreement.

Whatever happens, Sarkozy will have his work cut out.

Sarkozy’s first year in office

No prizes for guessing what’s filling the column inches of many a newspaper editorial here in France today. It’s the first anniversary of the election of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the media is having a field day to mark the occasion.

Much of the comment addresses Sarkozy’s staggering tumble in the popularity polls and what seems to be generally accepted as a turbulent first year in office. There’s no denying that a drop from 65 to 32 per cent approval ratings in the space of just one year doesn’t exactly sit easily with a man who came into office with such high hopes.

But it’s worth taking a moment to look at how Sarkozy is faring in comparison with his predecessors.

He has been accused of being omnipresent, stepping on the political toes of many of his ministers, yet by comparison with the founder and first president of the Fifth French Republic, Charles de Gaulle, he has kept an almost low profile.

At the end of his first year, de Gaulle had not only rewritten the constitution – something Sarkozy is trying to update – he had also taken the country to war in Algeria. In spite of that his approval ratings were at 58 per cent.

In 1970, one year into office, Georges Pompidou had poured money into the arts and commissioned the building of a national museum in his honour and still had the enviable level of 67 per cent approval.

Sarkozy could also look back longingly at the first year of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing who in a sense might be termed the precursor of an action-packed president, if not with glamour and glitter then certainly in policy reform.

By 1975 Giscard d’Estaing had appointed the country’s first minister for women, pushed through abortion legislation and increased taxes within the space of a year. And still he managed to retain 59 per cent approval ratings.

After entering office François Mitterrand didn’t hang around and by the end of his first year in office in 1982 had abolished the death penalty, opened up radio airwaves giving rise to a media boom and introduced wealth tax. Admittedly he witnessed a drop in popularity to 51 per cent, but he still hung around for another 13 years.

Sarkozy’s immediate predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was the president whose first year in office the present incumbent’s most closely mirrors. In 1996, just one year into his first tenure, Chirac’s approval ratings had dropped from 59 to 36 per cent, but by the same token he didn’t really achieve very much apart from ending compulsory military service.

And the true lesson for Sarkozy to learn – and part of the reason expectations were so high when he was elected in May 2007 – is that much of Chirac’s time in office was characterised by political inertia.

That brings us back to Sarkozy's first 12 months into the job. The truth of the matter is that his style has raised more than a few eyebrows and left many feeling decidedly uncomfortable with his ability to be “statesmanlike”.

His quick divorce and even faster remarriage certainly made too many headlines for a nation used to a “private life” remaining exactly that. Sarkozy is undoubtedly a gifted orator, but sometimes his infamous temper and almost petulance has seemed to get the better of him such as when he coarsely insulted a visitor to the agricultural show in February.

Aside from style, policy has been Sarkozy’s biggest problem. He has so far failed to deliver on his election promise to increase purchasing power, there are ongoing talks with trade unions to introduce pension reform and he’s struggling to kick start the economy by tackling the 35-hour working week.

It’s not enough to keep promising that results will come – the French want to see the proof.

Even Sarkozy’s admission that he failed to “communicate” by getting the message across from the very beginning doesn’t seem to have stemmed his drop in the polls, nor does his oft-repeated reminder that he has five years in office and results should be judged at the end of his tenure.

In spite of the grumblings Sarkozy does have some factors on his side.

First up of course is the rotating presidency of the European Union, which France takes over for six months at the beginning of July.

That could give him the opportunity to shine on the international stage and relieve some of the pressure he’s feeling on the domestic front – a common ploy of many a beleaguered leader.

He still has a healthy parliamentary majority, which might prove vital if there’s more industrial action. Already there’s a national education strike planned for the middle of this month and the jury is out on how unions will react to civil service cuts or how those pension reforms will pan out.

In addition the opposition Socialist Party is still licking its wounds after last year’s defeats in both the presidential and parliamentary elections, even if it did better in March’s local elections. There’s likely to be even more infighting later in the year when the Socialists choose their new leader with every week seeming to bring a new candidate into the reckoning.

All those factors combine to give Sarkozy what many political observers consider a certain amount of leeway. After all the bottom line is that he still has four years to go and nobody ever said that being president meant having to be popular.

Sarkozy backtracks on human rights promise

When running for office last year, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to include the respect for human rights as a vital part of France’s foreign policy.

Yet during his two-day state visit to Tunisia, he has not only failed to live up to that promise, but also left international and local human rights groups aghast as he went as far as to congratulate his Tunisian counterpart, Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, for the efforts he had made in improving his country’s human rights record.

It was a case of Sarkozy turning a blind eye to the facts and preferring to concentrate on Tunisia’s fight against terrorism, which he called the “true enemy of democracy.”

“I come from a continent whose recent history includes abominable tragedies,” Sarkozy said.

“ And I cannot see in whose name I have the right to start giving lessons especially to a country where I have come as a friend and where I am treated as one.”

Sarkozy went on to praise Ben Ali for the progress he had made in improving civil liberties and human rights, declaring that he was confident those efforts would be continued.

While Tunisia may well be recognised as one the north Africa’s most westernised countries, Ben Ali’s regime is constantly under fire from international groups for its abuse of human rights. And there are a few facts that Sarkozy cannot possibly have overlooked, even though he seems to have chosen to do so.

Ben Ali has been in power for over 20 years and elections are far from being free and democratic by any stretch of the imagination, with political opposition barely represented. Current estimates put the number of political prisoners in the country at around the 200 mark and opponents of the ruling regime have no access to the state run media. Human rights groups accuse the government of regularly beating and jailing opponents, accusations that it denies. It goes without saying that the press is not free

But all that seems to have escaped Sarkozy’s attention even though he declares himself to be a defender of human rights.

Once again business has won the day with the power of the chequebook proving the most persuasive argument for Sarkozy and his entourage of leading French industrialists. Deals worth billions of euros were signed by both Airbus and Alstom.

All eyes will now be on the outspoken French junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, to see whether she will fall into line with the statements of her boss or be more critical. Yade is due to meet representatives from Tunisian human rights groups on Tuesday.

Sarkozy convinces the converted

The French remained largely unimpressed by Nicolas Sarkozy’s performance on prime time television last Thursday according to the latest opinion polls.

But unsurprisingly the French president did manage to reassure the party faithful, which is at least a start in his attempt to re-establish his popularity among his core voters.

It certainly didn’t take long for the French press to grind out inexorably their analysis of Sarkozy’s marathon interview, broadcast live from the president’s Elysée palace.

Almost 12 million people tuned in to watch him face a barrage of questions from five approved journalists over 90 minutes on economic, social and international issues.

Viewers were also treated to the sound and sight of the president actually apologising for some of the mistakes he had made in his first year in office.

The first polls to appear – and there were three of them over the weekend – don’t make especially great reading for Sarkozy.

In one of them, published in the national daily Le Parisien, 52 per cent remained “unconvinced” with his performance in general.

And 72 per cent weren’t persuaded by Sarkozy’s explanation of his fiscal package. That’ll be a bit of a blow as it was at the heart of one of his major apologies. Sarkozy admitted that he had failed from the start to spell out the advantages of allowing employees to work overtime rather than claim the days off to which they were entitled.

If viewers didn’t buy that explanation then there was worse news for Sarkozy on rising prices and purchasing power.

In another poll in the Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, those were the two areas in which viewers found Sarkozy’s arguments to be the least convincing – barely more than 20 per cent gave him the thumbs up.

Of course that might not sound as grim as it appears. It could also be an indication that the French have pretty much resigned themselves to the idea that things are not going to change as fast as initially promised.

Once again, as with all statistics, it’s very much a matter of interpretation – a fact that another national daily, Le Figaro, overwhelmingly displayed in the way it reported the results of the third opinion poll.

Now Le Figaro is in general a supporter of both Sarkozy and his governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement UMP) party. So it was a lot gentler and kinder in maintaining that Sarkozy had “seduced” almost 49 per cent of the French, which of course is another way of looking at the same set of figures.

It was also without doubt, as the paper was at pains to point out, far greater than Sarkozy would probably have expected given that his current popularity ratings have been hovering between 30 and 40 per cent.

Le Figaro also went in for a bit of “stating the obvious” in reassuring its readers that Sarkozy had in particular convinced his own supporters – so all-in-all a real case of preaching to the converted then.

These are just the first in what is likely to be a slew of polls to appear in the next couple of days, weeks and months. The French media loves them and even though they might confirm at the best of times what many French had already suspected and didn’t really need to be told, at the very least they’ll give political spin doctors something to chew over.

Sarkozy’s triple mea culpa

In Thursday evening’s much anticipated television interview, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, admitted that he had made some mistakes during his first year in office, and that they might go a long way to explaining his tumbling popularity ratings.

But he insisted that he would continue the pace and direction of reform and reiterated the promise that the government would balance the budget by 2012.

It wasn’t exactly make or break time during the marathon 90-minute primetime interview, broadcast live from the president’s Elysée palace, but Sarkozy did have the humility to recognise the “errors in communication” he had made.

Facing a barrage of questions from the five “approved” journalists on economic, social and international affairs, Sarkozy was in fine combative form, reminiscent of the man who had led such an effective election campaign to secure office last year.

He admitted three times that mistakes had been made and, in a none too heavily disguised reference to statements from some members of his government over the past year - in particular by the junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade - Sarkozy said he wouldn’t tolerate any more embarrassing faux pas.

Right from the start Sarkozy made it clear that the interview was not going to be a repeat of some of the Bling Bling tendencies that have characterised much of the media coverage he has received since coming to power.

“I’m here to talk about France and not my private life,” he said. “As far as that’s concerned, everything’s back under control.”

Thankfully for the millions of viewers, none of the five journalists pressed him further on the point, and for the moment at least the overexposure of his quick divorce and even faster remarriage just months into his presidency, have been relegated to the passage of time.

His major mistake, Sarkozy said, had been a failure to explain adequately the thinking that lay behind some of his policies, and in particular the fiscal reforms which had been introduced immediately after he took office.

They’ve often been criticised as only giving tax breaks to the already well-off without contributing to the much promised and certainly longed-for improvement in people’s purchasing power.

But Sarkozy insisted the reform had been not only appropriate but also timely, although he confessed that he should have been clearer in outlining the benefits from the start.

The policy had not just increased the personal wealth of a few, but had allowed those with modest incomes to pass on more of their lifetime’s savings to their children by easing inheritance tax, Sarkozy insisted. Furthermore the fiscal “package” – had been just that. A package, which had helped put the country back to work by addressing the crippling economic restrictions of the 35-hour working week. Employees were now free to choose between claiming the days off to which they were entitled or being paid for the overtime they worked. What’s more, Sarkozy insisted, it was a policy that had been copied and adapted by many of France’s neighbours.

Of course it’s always easy to blame global economic conditions for some of the problems a country is facing, and Sarkozy didn’t hesitate from trotting out the often-heard excuses from many a political leader.

The subprime mortgage crisis, the dramatic rise in oil prices and the climb of the euro since his election had presented particular difficulties over the past year, he maintained. But the measures his government had introduced so far had stood the country in good stead and would continue to do so should there be further uncertainty in the international financial markets.

Again he emphasised that the aim of the government was to balance the budget by 2012, undoing more than 30 years of continuous deficit. But he refused to say how this would be done stage by stage, as many of his critics have demanded, simply sticking to the promised goal even though growth for 2008 alone has been recalculated downwards at 1.9 per cent.

While he remained reticent about whether he would attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing – a matter which has been making headlines around the world for much of the past month - Sarkozy said he had been shocked by China’s security clampdown in Tibet.

Once again he called on Beijing to resume talks with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and said the 27-strong European Union needed to present a united front in encouraging the Chinese to reopen those discussions. Sarkozy will be particularly well placed to wield a little more diplomatic influence from the beginning of July when France takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.

Although in general he made no major policy announcements, Sarkozy stressed that reform would continue unabated. More than 30 reforms had already been passed, he said, and not even his harshest critics could deny that it would take some time for the full benefits to be felt.

He defended both his ability and that of his prime minister, François Fillon, to deal with any challenges that might occur, which could also be interpreted as saying that if things go belly up Fillon will take the blame and be replaced.

The true measure of the political success of this carefully stage-managed interview in the sumptuous setting of the Elysée palace will probably be seen in the results of innumerable opinion polls the French press is so keen in conducting over the next couple of of weeks.

For now the criticism from his opponents remains fairly muted, but there is still concern from the population at large that prices are increasing faster in France than elsewhere in Europe and purchasing power remains stagnant.

And then there is the likelihood of industrial unrest and how the government deals with it. There have already been a series of strikes in several sectors, including transport and education, and more are scheduled in May to protest against job losses in schools.

Sarkozy addresses the nation

Television viewers here in France will be treated to a double dose of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, this evening when he appears on both the country’s main channels simultaneously in his first live interview since November last year.

Over one and a half hours he’ll face a barrage of questions from five of the nation’s top journalists as he attempts to convince them and the rest of the country that he has got a coherent and effective plan to lift France out of the economic doldrums.

He’ll have a hard job given his current popularity ratings. In the latest survey to hit the newsstands, only 28 per cent of those polled thought Sarkozy was doing a good job.

His ratings started to tumble a few months ago when he was in the most manically omnipresent phase of his presidency.

The chief criticism at the time was Sarkozy’s inability to deliver on his election promise to increase purchasing power and the over-exposure of his private life.

Conventional wisdom certainly assumed that once he took himself off the front pages of the celebrity gossip magazines and turned his attention to things a little more presidential – such as giving the country political leadership – he would bounce back.

But that doesn’t appear to have been the case and instead Sarkozy’s approval ratings have gone from bad to worse.

And still his biggest failing as far as the French are concerned, remains that failed election promise coupled with the inability to tackle inflation.

Just to put into perspective how unpopular he is, it’s worth drawing a quick comparison with his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, at the same point during his last term in office. Back in 2003 after almost a year into his second mandate, Chirac was boasting a healthy 58 per cent approval rating.

Thursday evening’s stage-managed invitation-only party political broadcast on behalf of himself is being touted by political pundits as Sarkozy’s chance to answer his critics on his own turf.

It’ll be broadcast live from the presidential HQ, the Elysée palace, and the “approved” journalists will be able to ask him everything and anything and be guaranteed frank and full replies. Let’s not forget that Sarkozy is the consummate politician and he cleared his desk over the past couple of days to prepare his answers carefully.

It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to questions about his perceived incompetence in managing the economy. Polls show that a majority of people believe that his plans for reform, although ambitious, are largely unrealistic. And the figures get worse when he’s assessed for clarity and coherence of purpose.

For many a major problem during what will soon have been a year in office has been Sarkozy’s tendency to present himself as a man in too much of a hurry to get things done. He has fired up people’s expectations to such an extent that they feel let down that little or nothing seems to have changed.

There is however one fascinating titbit in all of the statistics flying around, apart that is from the fact that the French are polling crazy. In the midst of all the apparent unpopularity, a whopping 80 per cent of people expect there’ll be a need for more belt-tightening.

To a great extent that could give Sarkozy the signal he needs to introduce what might turn out to be unpopular legislation. As he likes to remind everyone, he has a mandate for five years, and wants to be judged on what he will have achieved at the end of that time, not on a constant popularity contest held on the front pages of newspapers on an almost weekly basis.

So the nation awaits tonight’s dose of political doublespeak with anticipation, although it’s unlikely the marathon interview will reach the 19 million-viewer mark of last November’s prime time broadcast. But there is certain to be one man who’ll be keeping a watchful eye and ear on what the president is saying.

When asked how he felt about what he expected his boss to say, the prime minister, François Fillon, responded that at the very least it would give the government a “road map” as to what direction policy would be taking in the future.

That was quite an extraordinary thing for the head of government to admit in public and a clear indication that he at least has been kept out of the loop.

Paris delivers blow to French Olympic charm offensive

The Dalai Lama has been made an honorary citizen of Paris.

On Monday the city’s council passed a resolution made be the mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, to bestow the symbolic title on the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet.

The timing couldn’t have been more pertinent or sensitive. It came just hours after the arrival in China of the first of three emissaries to be sent this week by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

He’s going all out - short of getting on a ‘plane himself – in a full blown diplomatic charm offensive to try to ease tensions after several days of anti-French protests in town and cities across China.

That job may well have been made a little more difficult by the decision back in Paris, which Delanoë - a leading candidate to win the race to become the national leader of the opposition Socialist party later this year – said showed support for the people of Tibet and their struggles.

Sarkozy’s centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party is in the minority in the French capital and had opposed the adoption of the resolution.

In a double whammy, unlikely to have been welcomed by Sarkozy, his emissaries or more importantly the government in Beijing, Paris councillors also bestowed honorary citizenship on the dissident Chinese political activist Hu Jia. Earlier this month Chinese authorities sentenced him to three years imprisonment for inciting subversion of the state.

Hours before the vote in Paris, the first of Sarkozy’s three emissaries had arrived in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

Christian Poncelet, the president of the French Senate, was in the city to deliver a personal letter from Sarkozy to the wheelchair-bound athlete, Jin Jing.

She has become a powerful symbol of anti-French sentiment in China ever since pictures were transmitted of pro-Tibetan protesters trying to grab the Olympic torch from her during her leg of the now infamous relay in Paris.

In the letter Sarkozy said he condemned the attacks that had been made on Jin Jing as she tried to protect the torch and understood why the Chinese felt hurt by the incident.

Later this week both former French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic advisor, Jean-David Levitte, are due to arrive separately to continue the Gallic charm assault.

The president himself still hasn’t made the one gesture that would surely take the steam out of any of the “spontaneous” anti-French demonstrations, neither officially sanctioned nor condemned by Beijing. Namely making up his mind to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics games in August without setting any conditions for Beijing to reopen talks with the Dalai Lama.

That of course would require a certain loss of face as far as the French president is concerned, All he has said on the matter so far is that France would do everything to encourage talks, and that he would make a decision on what conditions he might attach to his attendance based “in light of the resumption of such a dialogue.”

Those words don’t seem to have worked their magic so far and given Sarkozy’s unwillingness to make a decision one way or the other, he is perhaps only succeeding in making a diplomatic spat even more complicated to resolve.

Sticking plaster to heal Olympic row

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is to send not one, but two emissaries to Beijing this week in an attempt to heal the growing diplomatic squabble between China and France.

After the recent apparently non-orchestrated spontaneous anti-Western, and in particular anti-French demonstrations in China, Sarkozy seems to have decided that it’s time to bring a little calm into play.

Those demonstrations were against allegedly biased Western media coverage of the Chinese security clampdown in Tibet and in particular at the protests that took place in Paris at the beginning of this month as the Olympic torch made its way through the streets of the French capital.

Sarkozy has chosen a contrasting couple to do this country’s bidding in what for him is a somewhat unaccustomed mild-mannered counter attack.

Next weekend he’s sending his diplomatic advisor, Jean-David Levitte, to sweet talk the Chinese authorities. No great surprise on that front perhaps as Levitte is clearly the right man for the job. He’s a former French ambassador to the United Sates and a recognised “Sherpa” or personal representative of Sarkozy, responsible for preparing the president’s participation at international summits.

The other emissary however is something of a surprise. It’s the former prime minister and current vice president of Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who will be arriving in China on Wednesday.

On first sight that decision isn’t so extraordinary, after all the two men belong to the same party and were in government together under Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

But Raffarin, while not exactly condemning the current president over the past year, has not held back in his criticism of Sarkozy’s personal style and some of his policies.

What’s more, Raffirin will also be delivering a letter from Chirac, apologising for his being unable to make a planned trip to China himself on medical grounds.

That should go down well with the authorities in Beijing, as Chirac remains immensely popular there. And it might bring an amused smile to the face of many commentators here in France who know how little love is lost between the former and present French presidents.

Further proof, if it were needed, of how canny a political operator the present incumbent can be when it suits him.

In fact the whole business of sending emissaries to China is something of an interesting departure for Sarkozy. If this had all happened a couple of months ago when he was still in his supersonic omnipresent presidential phase, he would more than likely have boarded the first Beijing-bound plane himself to try to sort out the problem.

This then is perhaps more evidence that the newly presidential Sarkozy is calmer, more measured and statesmanlike and actually allowing others to do the jobs for which he wasn’t elected.

Sarkozy's Olympic message

Up until now the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has remained pretty reticent about whether he's planning to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing in August. But on Tuesday, he finally broke his silence and tentatively called on the Chinese authorities to reopen discussions with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"France will do everything to encourage such talks," he said. " There are still several months to go (before the opening of the games) and there's no time to lose.'

"It'll be in light of the resumption of such a dialogue that I'll decide what will be the conditions for our participation."

By explicitly linking his presence at the ceremony with the reopening of talks, Sarkozy has moved on from the only statement he had made on the matter so far a couple of weeks ago, when he said that "all options were open."

That's a slight change in rhetoric perhaps, but not exactly encouraging to those who have been urging a boycott in protest over China's security clampdown in Tibet.

Sarkozy remained silent over the weekend as his junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, said in a newspaper interview that the president had set three indispensable "conditions" for Chinese authorities to meet before he would confirm his attendance. Yade later backtracked, maintaining she had been misquoted.

And there was not a peep from his office at the Elysée palace on Monday after demonstrators cut short the journey of the Olympic flame as it chaotically passed through the streets of Paris.

Commenting for the first time on those protests, Sarkozy said that although the sight of the athletes and the torch being whistled and jeered had saddened him, it was normal in a democracy that people should be allowed to express their opinions. The solidarity shown with the Dalai Lama and Tibet was understandable, and that was proof, as far as he was concerned, to call on China to reopen discussions with the Dalai Lama to "find a political solution."

While Sarkozy played down the impact Monday's demonstrations might have diplomatically and above all economically on relations between Paris and Beijing, his sentiments were not necessarily being shared elsewhere.

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the protests had made diplomatic relations between the two countries a little more complicated. A somewhat extraordinary declaration for some of Kouchner's critics, who view it as rather at odds with his track record as a man who has always been a firm supporter of Tibetan rights and counts himself as a friend of the Dalai Lama. Besides, who ever said diplomacy was easy?

There was also some anxiety from within the business community over potential fallout from Monday's incidents. French industrial giants such as Airbus, Alstom and Areva all have billion-euro contracts lined up with the Chinese, but know that Beijing can always take its custom elsewhere.

Sarkozy has given himself some breathing space, upped the ante just a tad and, without promising anything, not excluded the possibility of boycotting the opening ceremony.

A hateful act

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, didn't mince words in issuing an official statement denouncing the vandalism of 148 Moslem graves in the country's largest First World War military cemetery this weekend.

Racist and sexist abuse was painted on the graves, a pig's head was left hanging from one of the headstones and there were also slogans directly insulting the country's justice minister, Rachida Dati, whose parents are from North Africa.

"This is an act of unacceptable racism and the president of the republic shares in the pain of all the Moslem community in France ," Sarkozy said in the statement.

"This hateful act is also an affront to all First World War combatants irrespective of their religion," he added, stressing that he wanted the perpetrators to be caught and punished "as they deserved it."

The desecration of the graves occurred on Saturday evening in the Moslem section of the military cemetery at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette à Albain-Saint-Nazaire near Arras in northern France. It was built in 1925 on the site of one of First World War's largest battles and contains the graves of 40,000 including 22,500 unknown soldiers.

The section with 576 Moslem tombs is situated at one end of the massive cemetery with the gravestones facing towards Mecca.

Sadly it was also the scene of a similar racist attack in April 2007, when Nazi slogans and swastikas were painted on some 50 Moslem graves. Two men were convicted and sentenced to a year in prison for that act.

Although the word "graffiti" crops up in many of the reports describing what happened at the weekend, it has proven in fact too mild a word for the hate-filled slogans discovered on Sunday morning.

There was nothing decorative or artistic in the act. It was a case of vandalism pure and simple expressed in terms of the most abusive and revolting language imaginable.

Politicians were unanimous in their condemnation and a junior defence minister, Jean-Marie Bockel, quickly made his way to the cemetery on Sunday at the request of the president, where he held a one minute's silence in the name of the government.

A police probe has been launched with about 100 officers being sent to investigate the incident.

An estimated five million Moslems live in France - or eight per cent of the population - making it the largest Moslem community in Europe.

A minister’s word

How satisfying it must be to sit back and watch members of government apparently trip over their tongues. It’s all the better when you’re trying to stay out of the limelight a little in an effort to revamp your image and improve your popularity ratings.

That might be the cynic’s interpretation of what has been happening here in France over the weekend, and what the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been doing. But it might not be too far off the mark.

First there was the interview the junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, gave the French national daily, Le Monde, on Saturday. In it, she’s quoted as saying that Sarkozy had set out three conditions which the Chinese authorities had to meet for him to attend the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing.

They had to open talks with the Dalai Lama, free political prisoners, and put an end to the violence against Tibetans and launch an investigation into recent clashes there. These conditions were “indispensable” she told the newspaper.

Then Yade backtracked on what she is reported to have said, claiming she was misquoted and insisting the word “conditions” was never used.

But the paper is sticking to its story and maintains that it accurately reported what was said. So it’s the word of the junior minister against that of one of the most respected newspapers internationally. That could be a tough call especially as neither politicians nor journalists are blessed with the best reputation in the world.

Although it’s hard to imagine that Yade spoke (or didn’t) without the full knowledge of her boss, let’s not forget that she has been in trouble before. When she criticised Libya’s human rights record during a visit to France last year by that country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, she was hauled in to answer to Sarkozy, but held on to her job.

During his short term in office, Sarkozy has been criticised for putting economic concerns and billion euro contracts ahead of human rights, both with China and Libya. In “allowing” Yade to speak out and then do an apparent volte face, Sarkozy manages to give the impression that he is indeed concerned with humans rights without actually having to make a statement himself. In a sense Yade plays the role of a spokesperson, saying and retracting without damaging Sarkozy’s image.

There has been no comment from the president’s official spokesman at the Elysée palace regarding Yade’s interview – a fact that for many speaks volumes.

But Yade’s immediate boss – the foreign minister and internationally respected humanitarian, Bernard Kouchner, was quick to react. He insisted that France would impose no conditions on China about whether Sarkozy would attend the opening ceremony, as that would be counterproductive to keeping a dialogue going over human rights.

“The president will decide according to how the situation (in Tibet) turns out,” Kouchner told French television. “ How that evolves must be followed but all possibilities remain open.”

The chances are this story will still be making the headlines on Monday when the Olympic flame is due to pass through Paris. It’ll be interesting to see whether Yade joins protesters in the streets of the French capital, or whether she feels she has said more than enough for the moment.

Taking a lead - sort of

It has taken a fair bit of time for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to decide as to whether he's going to boycott the opening ceremony of this summer's Olympics in Beijing.

And contrary to what headline writers here in France and around the world are saying he still hasn't actually made up his mind. But he is a little further along in the decision-making process if we're to believe his junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade.

In an interview with the French daily, Le Monde, on Saturday she said that Sarkozy had set down a checklist of three conditions that the Chinese authorities needed to meet. They had to open talks with the Dalai Lama, free political prisoners, and put an end to the violence against Tibetans and launch an investigation into recent clashes there she told the newspaper.

Yade insisted that meeting the three conditions was "indispensable" in ensuring the French president attended the opening ceremony, although she admitted that Sarkozy would only take his final decision after having consulted other European Union leaders,

So in a sense Sarkozy has almost declared his position, but not quite. He still has a "get out" clause because of course some of his European partners might not agree with his stand. And let's not forget he hasn't actually made a statement himself, even if allowing his junior minister to put his position in a newspaper interview is tantamount to doing so.

There's no denying that the French president has some potential clout to wield with Beijing - morally and politically if not necessarily economically.

France will take over the rotating presidency of the 27-state European Union at the beginning of July - one month ahead of the games. If he could persuade the rest of the EU to present a united front in boycotting the official opening unless his conditions are met, it would be a major personal political coup for him.

The Chinese will also be keen to avoid the embarrassment of having little or no political representation from the bloc and perhaps only a token presence of athletes from those countries at the opening ceremony.

Pressure groups have been lobbying Sarkozy to take the opportunity to wield a little more influence and he looks set to grab it - almost.

The Olympic flame is due to pass through Paris on Monday and already protests are expected as it makes its way along the streets of the French capital.

Reining in spending

It’s good to know that the French government’s plans to reduce its budget deficit by €7 billion by 2011 isn’t an austerity programme, but a series of reforms.

At least that's what the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his ministers would have the country believe after Friday's announcement of "150 ways to cut spending."

"It's not by economising that we will be able to reform, but instead reforms will allow economies to be made," Sarkozy said in a wonderful doublespeak sound bite.

His plan is to modernise the State by introducing reforms aimed at cutting the deficit to zero by 2011. Last week the government raised it projected deficit for 2008 from 2,3 per cent of GDP to 2,5 per cent.

But the problem as far as many of his critics are concerned is that Sarkozy didn't actually give details of how those cuts are to be made. Instead he defined the problem - as if anyone really needed telling - and gave a broad outline of want he wants to have achieved in three years time without specifically saying how he expects to get there.

There's no annual timetable for cuts for example, an essential gauge of how on target the state would be in getting rid of the deficit.

Instead he presented a wish list of what he thinks will help, and his government ministers will now have to come up with the actual policies.

Sure he says one way to cut spending would be to overhaul France's civil service by only replacing one of every two retiring civil servants. That's an election promise he made.

But it'll be an uphill battle even if a majority of the French think it's a good idea. Around a quarter of the country's working population, or five million people, are employed as civil servants.

And they're not likely to sit back and see privileges taken away (such as early retirement or annual pensions based on the last six months of employment) that might actually help reduce the deficit. Perhaps that's why Sarkozy didn't go in to specifics.

There is of course already the spectre of that other (failed) election promise - increasing purchasing power - that has simply not materialised. Reducing the number of civil servants could well go the same way.

Another plan is to cut defence spending - no not on weapons, before any pacifists out there start getting excited. Instead Sarkozy maintains that the armed services could be administered more efficiently. At the moment each of them, the army, navy and air force, is regulated separately.

But even though it might make common sense, again there is no mention of how he is going to change that. Something presumably for the defence minister to be getting on with.

Sarkozy also wants to revamp the diplomatic service without actually saying how but simply by pointing out some of the many anomalies that currently exist.

"Is it normal," he wonders "to have 721 people working for the diplomatic service in Senegal while there are 271 in India?" Nobody would disagree with the absurdity of such statistics, but again Sarkozy neglects to say how it should be changed. That'll be a job for the foreign minister.

Friday's announcement was the second in a series of three major policy declarations. The first was in December when he summarised plans to cut back red tape in government.

And the third tranche is scheduled for May, when welfare benefits and social spending are due to come under scrutiny, with Sarkozy ominously confirming that "we are just at the beginning."

As far as today's declaration is concerned it would seem a case of the outline has been sketched and now it's up to the various ministers to do their bit and make savings. And to that end the president wants to set up an audit, presumably staffed with more civil servants.

The fear must be that as with pension and education reforms which the government has pushed through with mixed success, the opposition will protest loudly about the latest plans and the country will respond in its usual fashion with strikes and demonstrations.

Missing the deadline

It can’t be an April Fool surely, as the news broke a day too late for that.

But according to a scoop in the weekly satirical, le Canard Enchaîné, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, created something of a political blunder when he voted in last month’s municipal elections.

Apparently, says the paper, even though he cast his ballot he shouldn’t have done because he had missed the deadline to appear on the electoral register.

It was only the fact that the local mayor, François Lebel, who just happens to be from Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party, had turned a blind eye in return for a bit of quid pro quo that the president was able to trundle on down to the local polling station to exercise his democratic right.

When Sarkozy was elected in May last year, he upped sticks and moved from the ritzy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine to the president’s official residence, the Elysée palace in the capital’s VIII arrondissement. As such he was supposed to have registered with the local town hall by December 31 if he wished to vote in this year’s municipal elections. Yes even the president has to bow to bureaucracy here in France.

Now Sarkozy is a busy man at the best of times and certainly in the first few months of office, before he settled happily into married life, he seemed to be on hyperactive overdrive – omnipresent almost. So it’s probably not much of a surprise that he didn’t get around to registering himself.

Instead, according to le Canard Enchaîné, he left it to two of his staff from the Elysée, and they did in fact pitch up at the town hall complete will all the necessary paperwork, and their boss’s identity card. But that wasn’t until January 3. In other words hey had missed the closing date and in theory deprived him of his right to vote.

In theory only, because of course he did vote thanks largely to a little bit of pre-dating on the forms that were filled in.

Now this is where the tale gets a little confusing because there seem to be contradictory reports – from the very same source – Lebel.

One has it that the mayor, who would surely have known whether such a high profile voter had been along to register, knew nothing about the apparent stretching of the deadline – along the lines of “it’s all a bit of a mystery to me guv." And he has promised to look into the matter with his own internal inquiry.

The other version is that Lebel discovered what had happened a day later on January 4, he rang the Elysée palace and had a little tizzy fit down the ‘phone. But evidently Sarkozy was able to offer him a sweetener to help him forget the matter by asking him to officiate at his marriage to Carla barely one month later.

Lebel has dismissed such a conversation ever occurred as pure invention – but he would, wouldn’t he. After all it does nothing for the integrity of either man.

Meanwhile one of the president’s closest allies – and generally least liked in the media – Claude Guéant, said that all he knew about the matter was that the paperwork had been completed in time and that was all he was going to say.

What the story really reflects is probably the attempts by Sarkozy’s detractors to ridicule him at exactly the time when he’s trying to brush up his image and take on a more presidential demeanour.

Perhaps then it’s not surprising that it was le Canard Enchaîné that started the buzz. After all it enjoys getting a rise out of any political figure, from whatever party.

Nor is it particularly shocking to see the national daily, Liberation, and the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, pick up and run with it, as both are centre-left.

All a bit of a proverbial storm and brings back memories of the fun the media had when it discovered that his former wife, Cecilia, hadn’t bothered to vote in the first round of last year’s presidential election.

And little was made of the fact that a former French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, didn’t bother voting in last month’s elections.

But this is Sarkozy of course – always good for a headline or two. And maybe after all it was an April Fool.

A last chance?

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has made a fresh appeal to the leader of Farc, the Colombian rebel movement, for the release of the hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

The French-Colombian, former senator has been held prisoner by the left-wing group since February 2002 when she was kidnapped while campaigning for the Colombian presidency.

It was last December in the full throes of his Bling Bling presidency that Sarkozy took the unusual step of making his first direct call to the Farc leader, Manuel Marulanda, in a taped radio and television message.

He took a fair amount of stick at the time as detractors viewed the move as just another attempted media coup as he launched himself on the international stage. In the end his hopes to have Betancourt released by Christmas came to nothing.

This time around though it was a different Sarkozy making his recorded appeal once again directly to Marulanda. He appeared both determined and impassioned in a speech that shows he seems quickly to have acquired some of the necessary presidential gravitas that was perhaps until now lacking.

In urging Marulanda to act immediately, Sarkozy said the Farc leader now had a rendezvous with history.

“Release Ingrid Betancourt and the other hostages who are in a weakened state,” Sarkozy implored.

“Don’t lose this chance that’s being presented. It would be a grave political mistake as well as a human tragedy. It would be a crime and you would be responsible for the death of a woman.”

Betancourt’s is thought to be in a weakened condition and her life in danger. She is reportedly suffering from Hepatitis B, has a tropical skin disease and has been on hunger strike since February 23 – the day that marked the anniversary of her sixth year in captivity.

A video released late last year showed her in a weak and gaunt state

But just as important as the content of Sarkozy’s latest appeal is the fact that he has backed it up with a thought-out plan.

He had already been in touch with his Columbian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, and secured his agreement to suspend all military operations in the area where Betancourt is being held and allow a humanitarian mission to recover the 46-year-old once her exact whereabouts are known. A ‘plane with two French emissaries and Red Cross representatives is on standby in Paris just waiting for the green light.

In an attempt to get the whole process moving along, the French government last week also offered to take in Farc rebels released from prison in exchange for Betancourt’s liberation.

Not getting involved

For someone who claims he’s going to steer clear of campaigning during the run-up to the second round of the local elections on Sunday, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has a funny way of remaining silent.

On Tuesday he put in an appearance in the southern city of Toulon – long a favourite stomping ground of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s far-right Front National (National Front, FN) party.

And it was surely no coincidence that he was just a hop, step and jump away from France’s second city, Marseille. After all that’s where the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP) party candidate, Jean-Claude Gaudin, is facing an almighty challenge from the Socialist party contender, Jean-Noël Guérini, in the mayoral race.

Gaudin, who has held the post for the past 10 years, is not only a close buddy of Sarkozy, he’s also the UMP’s vice-president. Defeat on Sunday would therefore not reflect too well on the president.

But let’s remember Sarkozy himself is not campaigning. He has already said as much on several occasions. After initially insisting that it was the job of the president to rally the troops, he saw his popularity ratings plummet and, deciding both he and his party would fare better if he kept a lower profile, left the bulk of the work to his prime minister, François Fillon.

So there was no way that Tuesday’s speech in which he addressed the FN’s pet issues of immigration, integration and national identity was a campaign address. Nor was it an appeal to a section of the voters that was vital in securing his election in last year’s presidential race.

No, no, this was, as Sarkozy insisted, a call for people simply to go out and cast their ballots on Sunday – regardless of how they were going to vote.

Clearly he had one eye on the disappointing turnout in last weekend’s first round. At just 65.7 per cent, it was the lowest in local elections since 1959.

His other eye, reporters have suggested, was on his mobile ‘phone, scanning for incoming text messages, just as he was caught doing on camera during a state visit to Saudi Arabia back in January.

He repeated Fillon’s assertion that these elections were not a vote on the success of government policies – or the lack thereof. Voting should not hinge on national issues, he argued, but be driven by local matters closer to the hearts of the electorate.

Such statements though do not seem to be falling on particularly sympathetic ears and perhaps only serve to underline his unpopularity and the general dissatisfaction felt throughout much of the country with his inability to deliver on his own electoral promise of increasing purchasing power.

Marseille isn’t the only traditional UMP stronghold under threat on Sunday. Nice, Strasbourg and Toulouse could all swing to the Socialists.

Further proof perhaps that Sarkozy himself doesn’t believe in what he’s saying is that although he might maintain the local elections are not a vote on national issues, he has also promised to draw lessons from whatever the electorate might say.

And he’s slated to put in another two non-campaigning appearances in two other towns before the week is up.

Memories

He came he saw he conquered – oh yes and he ate and he drank a-plenty as well.

On Tuesday the former French president, Jacques Chirac, spent almost four hours at what he admits is virtually his home-from-home - the annual agricultural fair in Paris.

And what a contrast it was to Saturday’s bad-tempered outburst by his successor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

There was no false bonhomie, no rude jostling and moreover no foul language as Chirac, surrounded by cameras and microphones, strode the aisles smiling and chatting with what was clearly an adoring and somewhat nostalgic public.

This was a man in his element, a swig of French beer here, a quick nibble on a regional cheese there, a happy crunch of an apple and plenty of praise and slapped rumps for the fine beasts on show. Chirac displayed a firm understanding of all things so dear to the heart of many in this country and left more than a few wistful of a bygone era.

“We miss you Monsieur Chirac. It’s not the same now,” lamented a group of teenagers shortly after the former president had stopped to pose for a picture with them.

Such words brought a smile to his face as he continued on his way, refusing steadfastly to be goaded into answering the inevitable question of how he felt about Sarkozy’s “casse toi, pauvre con”. A lesson in itself on how a head of state should behave when confronted with the unexpected. Mind you, in his glory days, Chirac was not one to mince words. He just did it more “presidentially”.

Back in 1996 for example during an already controversial visit to Jerusalem, he famously lost his rag with Israeli security who were continuously shoving Palestinians, reporters and even his own aides to one side.

At one point he turned around to an official and shouted, “I’m starting to have enough of this. What do you want, me to go back to my plane and go back to France? Let them go. Let them go.”

Later the same day the then Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made a public apology and Chirac declared the incident forgotten. Sarkozy obviously wasn’t taking notes.

Of course it’s easy to sentimentalise about the past – we do it all the time – but Chirac’s presence at the agricultural fair and in particular the reception he received, was in stark contrast to Sarkozy’s visit.

It certainly helped that he was unencumbered by the shackles of office, but there was a humanity and sincerity about him that seemed to strike a chord with those around him.

All right, so admittedly this is the same man whose last years in office were characterised by a stagnant economy and whose political career was dotted with intrigue, claims of corruption and unspoken philandering. He’s still being investigated for dodgy deals during his time as mayor of Paris.

Hardly commendable by any stretch of the imagination. But that was – and perhaps still is – pretty much par for the course when it comes to French politics.

In contrast the new hyperactive, “Bling, Bling” incumbent runs a supposedly transparent but simultaneously stage-managed machine and that’s proving a little too hard a hard pill for many here to swallow. Open government has become a media deluge concentrating on one person firing on all fronts all the time.

In addition there’s none of the much promised economic prosperity on the horizon, prices are rising and belt-tightening being made almost a national requirement. And then of course there’s the overexposed private life that hits the headlines with an alarming frequency.

It might be a common trait of the French to forgive past presidents their failings once they leave office, but on Tuesday’s evidence, Chirac could teach Sarkozy a thing or two. Such as how to strike a more statesmanlike pose while downing a glass or two of wine rather than milk and showing a genuine interest in discussing the relative merits of a Charolais bull.

Speaking to the people

It’s possibly his way of avoiding talking to journalists and facing potentially awkward questions. But in his own fashion the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has lived up to his promise to speak to the nation when and how he sees fit.

In Tuesday’s copy of the popular national daily Le Parisien, there’s a full-length five-page transcript of Sarkozy’s meeting with a panel of the newspaper’s readers.

Although the “interview”, held at the president’s official residence the Elysée palace, was scheduled over a week ago, recent events changed its tone somewhat. It became clear that it would give Sarkozy the chance to reduce the temperature of the debate that has been raging ever since he insulted a visitor at the agricultural fair on Saturday. And on first appearances it seems to work

The readers’ panel – made up of eight men and women from across the political spectrum - had two hours to pose any number of questions on a whole host of issues. Those included purchasing power, Sarkozy’s relationship with his new wife Carla, his nosedive in the opinion polls; the president’s challenge to the country’s constitutional council (Supreme court) and of course first and foremost that blooper on Saturday.

So what did Sarkozy have to say of that incident, when he insulted a man who refused to shake his hand during a press-the-flesh session at the agricultural fair? Well apparently the president, although not issuing an outright apology or regretting his remarks, admits that he would have been better advised not to have responded.

So not quite “mea culpa”, but almost. Except it turns out that wasn’t what he told the panel.

Such a question and answer session is common practice here in many newspapers and magazines, as is the custom of allowing the interviewee to see the final draft before it’s published.

And that’s exactly what happened after the two-hour session on Monday morning, when Le Parisien whipped off the text to the Elysée palace for the presidential advisors’ perusal.

After a day’s worth of hot headlines, not just in France but around the world, Sarkozy’s spin doctors clearly decided it was time for him to show a little remorse, even if he hadn’t actually done so during the interview. So at the last moment, just as the printers were ready to roll, the paper received the “amended” version and went to press.

In a sense then today’s readers are being misled. And the headlines in many of the country’s other newspapers also give the impression that Sarkozy showed some remorse.

But as the editor of Le Parisien, Dominique de Montvallon, admitted in national television this morning, at no time did Sarkozy ever give the slightest hint that he regretted his behaviour – on the contrary.

Of course, such a revelation raises the question as to whether the paper came under any sort of pressure from the Elysée palace to print what had after all never been said. And it undermines somewhat its own integrity vis-à-vis its readers.

De Montvallon has promised that Le Parisien, recognised as a newspaper, which on the whole is not unsympathetic to Sarkozy’s politics, will publish a behind-the-scenes piece on the machinations of the interview, the intervention and the reasons for running with the story in the way it did on Wednesday. There’ll also be the original version in its entirety, presumably guaranteeing a boost in the paper’s circulation figures.

Of course the way in which the story has been handled casts a rather dubious light on how much of the rest of the interview readers should actually believe or care about. Maybe it also reveals how far Sarkozy and his advisors are prepared to go to seem to say the right thing or change what was said for the sake of popularity ratings. There’s nothing new there.

What is perhaps most astonishing though is that a man who has taken so much care to groom a thoroughly stage-managed image should so totally appear now to have lost the plot.

Meanwhile as the media furore rumbles on, over three million people worldwide have taken the chance to log and listen to the clip of the infamous presidential retort.