When Nicholas Sarkozy was elected as president, common French public hoped that as a person who was the Ministre de l’Intérieur et de l’Aménagement du Territoire (or Minister of the Interior), he would be better suited for the President that would cure some of the domestic ailments that had been plaguing France. I was not too sure if Dominique de Villepin who was the former prime minister would have made a better president. He was the foreign minister when he became very popular with his opposition to the Iraq war, and prime minister that gave him a deep insight of France’s internal problems. The Parti Socialiste or Socialist Party did not have any solid stand. Therefore, the incumbent government of Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (or Union for a Popular Movement) was preferred but with the old guard gone and new face taking over France’s affairs. Villepin was a spent force by then. Sarkozy’s credential was impressive. He was also the Minister of Finance and Minister of the Interior. He was relatively young at 52 years.

France has many problems like high unemployment, labour unions, old age pensions (40 and older people have no employment scopes), rising fundamentalism, immigrants, trade deficit within EU countries etc. This is a critical time for France to come out of the woods. President Nicholas Sarkozy and Prime Minister François Fillon gave that hope.

Within a few days in office, Sarkozy started sending out vibes that started upsetting Frenchmen like me. First, he said that he would cooperate more closely with the big bully USA. Then he started showing his temper in public. A public figure like him has to understand that the people who elected him to office have some rights to know about some personal matters. One TV reporter asked him about his divorce and he just walked out of the interview and called his press secretary ‘imbecile’. This, I thought, was unbecoming of a president of a great nation.

France is not like other governments in Europe; say for example – Britain. Tony Blair himself came to court for hearing during the David Kelly suicide following the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq scandal. In France, such a thing is unthinkable. There is too much bureaucracy, too much distance between government heads and general public. French people thought that this perception might change with fresh heads of governments. But it did not happen. Whenever public tried to get close to Sarkozy, he just shunned them.

That is not the problem to think about deeply. The problem is that Sarkozy is doing little or nothing and too busy with his personal life. He first divorces, within days find a new highflying Italian model girlfriend and goes for an Egyptian holiday with his new lover. Then gets married within weeks of divorce, sues companies for copyrights violation etc. he does not seem to have any time for France’s affairs. It looks that cooperation between him and the prime minister is non-existent. His foreign policy is also ambiguous. He seems to make more statements and comments than doing real work.

All old problems remain and there is no effort to solve them. I do not know where he is leading France to. It seems like old wine in new bottle that tastes even bitter. Hope he understands the French public’s disappointments and pull his socks up.