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“Certain people in France call me Sarkozy the American. I'm proud of it. I'm a man of action. I do what I say and I try to be pragmatic ”
- Sarkozy during a trip to the U.S.
Leaders are always under pressure, but taking on the role of contrarian adds to the challenges. And Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, seems to be cast in that role. His controversial threat of walking out of the G-20 summit in London if his counterparts failed to agree to his demand for regulating financial markets made all the headlines. He declared that, “The empty chair policy would mark a failure, which would be that of the summit.” Backed by his equally contrarian fellow European leader Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, the French leader characteristically ruffled some feathers.
Sarkozy’s reputation precedes him. In 1993, he daringly rescued a group of children from a potentially dangerous hostage situation while he was the mayor of Neuilly in 1993. He then was elected as President of France amidst much fanfare in 2007. The pugnacious son of a Hungarian immigrant, he heralded a major change in French politics as it shifted to the right. Winning the heart of mostly rural France, he promised to boost economic growth and employment by cutting taxes and reducing deficits.
But right now, France is reverberating in reaction to Sarkozy’s perceived failures. The populace is demanding tangible results as well as a tax increase on high-income earners. Soon after he took office, Sarkozy reduced the maximum tax on France’s wealthiest citizens from 60% to 50%. Branding this as a “fiscal shield,” Sarkozy’s critics, including the labor unions, were not happy. But Sarkozy maintains that he wasn’t elected to increase taxes, and has not budged.
In March, thousands of protestors filled the streets across France after unions called for a general strike in response to what they termed Sarkozy’s inadequate handling of the economic crisis. An astonishing 78% of French citizens agreed that the strike was justified, according to a poll in Paris Match magazine. A similar protest in January resulted in the president offering $3.5 billion in tax cuts and aid to low-paid workers and the unemployed. His government’s stimulus measures now add up to $34 billion, with much of it focusing on a public-private partnership rather than welfare spending. But the unions maintain that this is not enough to counter the continuously rising numbers of unemployed, which have reached more than two million, with another 350,000 lay-offs expected this year. If the French economy contracts 2% this year, as predicted, this environment will get even worse.
Sarkozy has ruled out social spending or more tax hikes and has instead tried to calm the population by supporting demands for caps on executive bonuses. He has remained firm on his stance that there will be no turning back from his controversial plan of liberal market reforms since he believes that this is the only way, “France can emerge from the crisis stronger than she went in.”
‘There are times when Nicolas Sarkozy resembles a force of nature rather than a conventional political leader. He has energy, ideas and vitality in abundance…. a capacity to take decisions and implement them. He sees a problem and wants to solve it. What's more, he believes he can.’ That is how Tony Blair, former British prime minister, profiled Sarkozy for the Time magazine Person of the Year 2008 award. Sarkozy would probably have won it even, instead of finishing as runner-up, if only it had not been so indisputably Barack Obama’s year.
Sarkozy may never match the fan following of the first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy but, despite all his travails, he remains more popular than any other politician in the country. He may be known as the ‘bling-bling president’ for his love of expensive watches and holidays, but Sarkozy became president by calling for ‘la rupture’ or a break with old style politics – a la Barack Obama.
Since then, he has tried hard to live up to that promise. He made Bernard Kouchner, a socialist political opponent and one of the founders of the Nobel peace prize winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), his foreign minister. Sarkozy has also appointed as many as seven women in his cabinet of 15, including a Muslim woman who is the first person of non-European background to become a minister in France. His decision to recast French foreign policy by aligning more closely with the U.S., culminating in France’s recent reentry to NATO, has been controversial; but a more significant demonstration of Sarkozy’s desire and ability to bring change.
Critics and opponents alike have been outsmarted many times by Sarkozy, with his ability to redraw the political landscape through astute, but measured maneuvers. Chances are, they are likely to be surprised this time as well. In any case, France, which is remolding and repositioning itself on the world stage, very much needs Sarkozy’s energy, resolve, confidence, and above all, his penchant for the unconventional.
Image Credit: Guillaume Paumier under a Creative Commons license.
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