Nicolas Sarkozy

Age: 57
Occupation: French President

Sarkozy's difficulty in persuading French voters to return him to the Elysée contrasts with the plaudits he receives abroad as a game-changing leader. His success in recruiting allies to mount a NATO-led air intervention in Libya averted mass slaughter of rebels by the now deposed Muammar Gaddafi. His partnership with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to forge European rescues for debt-swamped euro partners was equally important. But Sarkozy may have created divisions between E.U. members looking for greater integration and those who want no part of that.

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