THE PROBLEM WITH THE PRESIDENT T1 Extra | President 'Moi' ++ He swaggered into the Elysee Palace on a promise to reinvent France for the 21st century. But after just eight months, Nicolas Sarkozy's popularity is plummeting - and his personal life is becoming a soap opera.
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Imagine, for a moment, President Jacques Chirac in the Vatican, fiddling compulsively with the buttons of his mobile phone as his companions are being presented to the Pope. The presidential entourage includes, incidentally, France's most vulgar and foul-mouthed comedian, Jean-Marie Bigard, a kind of Gallic Bernard Manning.
Imagine, for a moment, President Francois Mitterrand receiving ministerial visits to his office in the Elysee Palace with his feet up on his desk. Worse, imagine the suave, icy President Mitterrand addressing almost everyone he meets with the familiar "tu", instead of the dignified and respectful "vous".
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M. Sarkozy has become a kind of President "moi", governing with a mirror in one hand, seeking permanent, public attention and approval. In the last two weeks, however, events have started to spin out of the control of a man who is desperate to appear always in control.
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It is true. Sarkozy is French for Bush