HE HAS already received an endorsement from German chancellor Angela Merkel, but France’s beleaguered president, Nicolas Sarkozy, yesterday received public support from another two high-profile figures: his wife and the British prime minister.
“I find his ideas are fabulous,” Carla Bruni-Sarkozy said in a rare newspaper interview about her husband yesterday. “He is very good, and he has experience and courage . . . When I see what is happening in Greece, I’m afraid. But I’m less afraid when I think that he is the president.”
His wife’s endorsement is one thing, but did British prime minister David Cameron yesterday row in behind a man with whom he has had a famously fraught relationship?
Mr Cameron’s words were more ambiguous when, standing alongside Mr Sarkozy at a press conference in Paris, he was asked about the presidential campaign.
“We’ll be following your fortunes in the weeks to come on the campaign trail and, as I said, I wish you luck,” Mr Cameron told Mr Sarkozy, before pointing out that a British endorsement might not serve the president well in France.
Mr Sarkozy, having formally launched his re-election bid on Wednesday, is expected to see a jump in his poll ratings thanks to the heavy coverage of his first steps on the campaign.
With two months to go to the election on April 22nd, he is trailing socialist frontrunner François Hollande by up to 5 per cent in most polls.
Surveys carried out in the aftermath of Mr Sarkozy’s declaration showed scant signs of recovery. A daily Ifop tracking poll yesterday showed him on 26 per cent, down 0.5 per cent from Wednesday, although the gap between him and Mr Hollande has been narrowing slightly over the past week.
Mr Hollande was unchanged on 29.5 per cent yesterday, as was National Front leader Marine Le Pen on 17 per cent.
At his first campaign event, in the town of Annecy, Mr Sarkozy made a vigorous call for reforms he said could propel France out of the economic crisis. “A weak France leaves people vulnerable. Only a strong France can protect your families,” he said. “The biggest risk would be to carry on as before.”
He admitted to having made errors as president, but said if he had not passed more structural reforms it was out of concern for not destabilising society.