Omni-President Sarkozy

Monsieur Exits the Limelight

Nicolas Sarkozy has been in top form as France's turn at the rotating EU presidency draws to a close. Now he'll have to return to the daily grind of being president of France. But domestic politics offers far fewer opportunities for glamor.

He'll miss the crises: Ireland's rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon, the conflict between Georgia and Russia, the collapse of the financial and economic markets. And then, of course, there was the matter of coordinating efforts to combat climate change.

Sarkozy loved to appear at the scene of the latest crisis, taking quick and hands-on action -- and he was always there before anyone else. During his stint as president of the European Union, the French president has played a dual diplomatic role. He was both his nation's supreme foreign policy representative and Europe's agile common representative. The rotating EU presidency lasts six months, but with Sarkozy at the helm the perceived duration of the French term was at the very least doubled. Sarkozy alternated as Europe's first citizen and a glamorous French statesman on the global stage. But most of all it was a spectacle -- with Sarkozy consistently in a front-row seat.

What did this president not undertake? In a bid to shake up "old Europe" and streamline the EU organization, he tried to rebuild EU structures, make headway in agriculture, defense and security policy, tighten immigration laws and introduce measures to fight climate change. There was no lack of energy, even if Sarkozy, with his one-man crusades, tested the patience of the Europeans, accustomed as they are to consensus. The German chancellor, in particular, was sometimes "not amused."

No Lack of Major Events

Even the opening act, Sarkozy's splashy effort to establish a "Mediterranean Union," turned into a crisis between Berlin and Paris. The Union for the Mediterranean, in the end, became an expanded organization under the umbrella of the EU with little to show for itself besides a big media event at the Grand Palais in Paris. Six months on, the new forum has barely managed to designate Malta as its headquarters.

And Sarkozy's attendance at the Olympic Games in Beijing -- in the name of Europe, and in the face of protest after unrest in Tibet beforehand -- left a bitter residue.

But not for Sarkozy, who made himself a force to be reckoned with in crisis situations. Take Georgia, for example. During its conflict with Russia, the French president shone as a manager who went to Moscow --with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in tow. In what amounted to a surprise attack, they brought the impending confrontation to an end.

Then there's the financial crisis. In a speech to the UN, Sarkozy was suddenly conjuring up the end of capitalism, though he's considered a friend of big business and the rich. After that, he even managed to convince US President George W. Bush to host a crisis summit, which, although it produced few binding commitments, portrayed the French president in a favorable light.

Sarkozy accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of being too sluggish when she wasn't prepared to support changing initiatives from Paris (a financial bailout package, a reduction in the value-added tax and an economic stimulus program) at the drop of a hat. Merkel's rebuke from the Elysée Palace was clear: "The lack of mobility has become unbearable. In the future meetings of the European Council, boredom will no longer be an option." To emphasize that economic-stimulus decisions could also be made without Berlin, Chancellor Merkel was simply not invited to the most recent "mini-summit" in London.

Berlin-Paris Friction

So what was going on? Had Sarkozy upset the chancellor?

The president does act with "an idiosyncratic energy," as they say in Berlin, but according to the official version, the "necessity of the Berlin-Paris axis" remains "central." And at the Elysée Palace, the ongoing dispute between Sarkozy and Merkel is described as a "strange phenomenon." Of course, officials there say, "the points of departure in Germany and France are different, but the true miracle is that the countries can agree to a solution in the end." And, of course, they proclaim: "The president is a great, confident European."

Sarkozy has enjoyed successes on issues like security policy and climate change, but he's also failed in his apparent bid to win permanent leadership of the Euro zone. The daily Le Monde called it an "institutional coup attempt."

The French seem to value their president's outspokenness on European matters, with 56 percent giving positive marks to Sarkozy's performance as EU president. But the same approval rating does not apply to domestic policy. According to a poll published in the business publication Les Echos, 61 percent of respondents disapprove of the administration's domestic policies on the economy, social conflicts and unemployment.

The era of glamorous world-stage events is over for Monsieur Sarkozy. The Elysée calendar for the coming days includes a "meeting with representatives from the overseas region of Mayotte," along with a visit to the Vosges Mountains at the end of the week to "promote rural regions." Sarkozy can also look forward to a railroad strike, and additional protests in the education system. To make matters worse, the period between Christmas and the New Year may be marred by riots in the suburbs -- as it is almost every year.

The French president will have plenty to do. But crisis management will be a domestic matter for him from now on.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan