Fresh breeze felt at Elysee after 100 days of 'super-Sarko'

By Ulrike Koltermann Aug 22, 2007, 2:29 GMT

Paris - The man had barely taken office and already he was showered with nicknames - 'Super-Sarko' and 'Omnipresident' and 'Hyperpresident.' Cartoonists drew him with tiny satanic horns.

Nicolas Sarkozy had promised there would be a 'break' but many French have been astonished at the drive which the man who was sworn into office as president last May has shown.

August 24 marks his first 100 days in office and it has become clear that Sarkozy has above all had his eye on one goal - quick, publicity-making results.

At least at home this calculation has succeeded. The majority of French are enthusiastic.

On the international stage, on the other hand, the first wave of relief about the new start in France after the end of the encrusted old regime of Jacques Chirac has gradually given way to a feeling of scepticism about France now starting to go it alone.

One of the first projects of the new president was to dismember the opposition. Increasingly, prominent leftists have abandoned ship and signed on with Sarkozy's government. Most prominent of these is Bernard Kouchner, now foreign minister and also now public enemy number one to his former Socialist party comrades.

Former Socialist Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn was promulgated to become named as head of the International Monetary Fund, while Sarkozy brought more women than ever before into the cabinet. Among them is a young black woman, while he appointed as justice minister Rachida Dati, a woman from an Algerian immigrant family.

On the European level, Sarkozy got off to a good start with the agreement on a simplified EU treaty. After the 2005 French referendum 'non' to the new EU constitution, France again became a country to be seriously reckoned with.

Sarkozy underscored Paris' claim to a new leadership role on the country's July 14 national day when he allowed units of every army in Europe to march along with the French military down the Champs-Elysee boulevard. Similar to the way he presented his new cabinet, this event was highly colourful - and strongly symbolic.

But the prestige which Sarkozy had acquired with his European partners he immediately gambled with when he sent his wife Cecilia to Libya.

Without any further consultation, she had intervened in the negotiations shortly before the release of the five Bulgarian nurses who under torture had confessed to infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus.

Sarkozy for his part had lobbied his wealthy friends in the Gulf for financial support for the deal, and the nurses were flown out of Libya on board the French presidential plane, accompanied by Cecilia.

The French media hailed it as a successful public relations coup. The European partners were less enthusiastic - particularly in the aftermath when Sarkozy flew to Tripoli, met with revolutionary leader Moamer Gaddafi who till recently had been regarded as a backer of terrorism, and promised Libya a nuclear reactor.

Even his holidays were an occasion for Sarkozy to continue his policy of symbolic gestures. Not even the most gullible could believe it was mere coincidence that Sarkozy chose a US vacation destination just 80 kilometres from the summer holiday residence of the family of President George W Bush.

Despite all the efforts - a picnic with hotdogs and a spin on a boat - to portray the Bush-Sarkozy get-together as merely a bit of informal vacation fun, it was clear to both sides that Sarkozy aimed to open a new chapter in French-American relations.

Many commentators in France are now asking out loud whether Sarkozy can keep up such a frenetic pace. He does keep himself in shape with regular long-distance runs and is known for not drinking any alcohol.

But no matter which side of the political line the French may stand, many of them are in any event relieved that finally a fresh breeze is blowing through Elysee Palace.