Omnipresence and Sarkozysm

“He is, of course, everywhere. Physically and metaphorically. He crisscrosses France almost daily, mingling with ordinary folk.

Where his stuffy predecessor Jacques Chirac was a prisoner of protocol, Mr. Sarkozy's informality is as refreshing as it is destabilizing to the French.

"They say: 'Monday, he's at the supermarket, Tuesday he's in the factory.' But what do you want me to do? Stay at the Élysée [presidential palace] awaiting clients and watching dust collect on the files," Mr. Sarkozy shot back at reporters in Strasbourg last week.

Even more jolting than his physical ubiquity - so overwhelming that there are calls for a National 'No Sarkozy' Day on Nov. 30 - is the president's finger-in-every-pie style.

It is unheard of for a French head of state to get directly involved in the daily affairs of government. The latter are usually left to the prime minister and his cabinet.

Not in Mr. Sarkozy's regime. L'état, c'est lui. As long as the right hangs on to a majority of National Assembly seats, Mr. Sarkozy will be the de facto head of government, too.

It is not just because he is a control freak that Mr. Sarkozy assumes this all-encompassing role. Just as in his dressing-room pep talk, there are echoes of Charles de Gaulle prodding the French to their manifest destiny - greatness - in Mr. Sarkozy's endless exhortations. It seems that for Mr. Sarkozy, the French must relearn to love work not to get rich, but to regain their dignity.” Konrad Yakabuski, “Sarkozy’s Rupture Engulfs France.”