I agree with Nicolas Lecaussin on this:
President Sarkozy has pursued a theme of "soft" reforms, even though he had the Senate and Assemblée Nationale on his side. This reluctance to go full-throttle with his own stated agenda is also evidenced by his declaration of March 12, 2009: "Universities, Sunday work, 35 hours, overtime. . . We will perform an audit of all the reforms to improve them. Then in the second half of 2011, the government will take a break so that Parliament can, if desired, de-legislate [sic]." Another commission? Another report?
Certainly, Mr. Sarkozy has presented several qualities that differentiate him from his predecessor, especially in his control of opinionated communications with the public. But who can define with certainty his convictions and the vision that guides him? Does he have any? Or is he just driven by a thirst for power? Without real reforms, the country has once more fallen into the rut of sterile governance, typical of the Fifth Republic.
Sarkozy is at the defining moment of his presidency, one when control is escaping him and creating potential adversaries for him on his own side of the political spectrum. For this reason, he has to decide who he needs to be and what he wants to do quickly before he is irreparably damaged by the perception that he can't get reelected and becomes a lame duck He has started to return to his favorite theme of security probably because he is ticked up by the resurrection of the extreme right, which he thought that he had killed,. The trouble is that talking tough on security is not enough to unify his right and to keep on weakening the left because he has done too much of it already and he hasn't had good results to show the French. To say in bluntly, Sarkozy's main challenge is to redefine himself to keep at much of the Right with him as possible to avoid the rise of a strong challenge within his own party. It s too late for Sarkozy to become the reform president because he is too weak politically to pass any great reform. He is going to have to focus on strategy, communication , and image to get reelected while doing symbolic gestures. Something tells me that he is going to venture more on the international scene and try to take the lead on issues such as Iran and climate change to get his mojo back.
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