Patriot Gains

In his long march to the French presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy pitted himself against the moldy pieties of an obsolete status quo — much as the leftist revolutionaries of May 1968 had done. Some 19 million voters followed him. In a terse speech on May 6 after his overwhelming victory, Sarkozy said France “has chosen to break with the ideas, habits and behaviors of the past.” No more fealty to the notion that France’s unique social model can insulate it from the ravages of globalization; no more reflexive opposition to the U.S., which enjoyed a rare expression of Gallic affection when Sarkozy said: “France will always be by their side when they need it.” Sarkozy also declared that he wants “to rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect and merit.” André Glucksmann, a philosopher who has embraced Sarkozy, sees a parallel to this revolutionary epoch. “France was liberated in May ’68,” he says. “Now Sarkozy, with his plain talk, has shaken up France again.”

The shaking has only just begun. Sarkozy, 52, vows before the end of summer to reduce taxes on overtime, make interest on mortgages tax deductible, and impose minimum sentences for recidivists. He seems intent on tearing up France and rebuilding large parts of it from scratch. Sarkozy has never been big on patience. Throughout his career, he’s been the one who pasted up the most posters, made the most phone calls, organized the biggest crowds. Proud of his brashness, he once boasted: “When I’m not invited to dinner, I ring the bell anyway, and it’s rare that I’m not asked to stay.” But now that he’s presiding at the head of the table, the question is whether his hard-driving, often divisive style will serve France as well as it has served his stellar political career. Patrick Devedjian, a colleague of 30 years and a possible minister in the government Sarkozy will name after he assumes office on May 16, says France knows exactly what it’s getting in Sarkozy. “The people voted for him because he had a clear and concrete message,” he says. Sarkozy’s taste for direct action is bound to make the Elysée Palace a hub of policy making that it hasn’t been under President Jacques Chirac. Manuel Aeschlimann, Sarkozy’s special adviser for public opinion, says: “He injects himself in everything. There are very few things he considers negligible. He’s vigorous, young and full of spirit. We’ll have a very different Elysée.”

Sarkozy’s basic working style isn’t likely to change: he surrounds himself with trusted lieutenants and then keeps a sharp eye on them. “He’s not on your back, but he wants to be informed about everything, good or bad,” says Eric Cesari, a member of Sarkozy’s presidential Cabinet at the Council of Hauts-de-Seine, the suburban belt outside Paris that includes his fiefdom of Neuilly. “He can be demanding, even harsh and rude, but what he wants is that you tell him the truth. He has no use for yes men.” Says Jacques Gautier, Sarkozy’s vice president on the Council: “You never have to wait for him to decide.”

Eschewing the fierce partisanship of his campaign, Sarkozy has said he will be President of all the French. That would require him at times to go against the will of his own party, the Union for a Popular Movement. It may be against his nature, but he has done it before. In 2003, as Interior Minister, he opposed many in his party by reversing a law that allowed foreign convicts to be deported once they’d served a jail sentence, which amounted to a form of double jeopardy. “If it wasn’t for Sarkozy, it wouldn’t have happened,” says Bernard Bolze, a prisoners’ rights advocate otherwise deeply critical of Sarkozy’s hard line on crime. Arno Klarsfeld, a lawyer who worked for him when he was Interior Minister, says Sarkozy also faced down Ministry advisers who opposed his policy allowing some illegal immigrants to stay in France if their children were in school. “The Socialists never made a moral ruling about immigration; they were fuzzy,” says Klarsfeld. “Sarkozy did.”

Others are unconvinced that Sarkozy has it in him to bridge political divides. Michèle Canet, head of the Socialist group at the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine, says he made similar vows to collaborate with opponents when he took over there in 2004, “but he never worked with us. He just used the office as a tool for his campaign.” Indeed, now that the campaign is over, Sarkozy may well prove as hard-edged and polarizing as ever. If he channels even half the abrasive, risk-taking energy he expended on his rise to the top, France will be in for a bracing five years.