BRITAIN: Lara Marlowewent to London with the standardbearer of the French right as he visited the political home of Tony Blair - and of Margaret Thatcher
"With a name like yours . . . you'll never get anywhere in France," Nicolas Sarkozy's father Pal, a Hungarian immigrant, told the right-wing presidential candidate when he was growing up.
But Sarkozy believed in destiny. To prepare himself, he read biographies of historic figures, keeping notes on the strategies that led them to victory.
Opinion polls now credit Sarkozy with a 54 per cent to 46 per cent lead over the socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, in the May 6th run-off; the French presidency could be within his grasp.
Sarkozy often gives the impression he is watching his own Hollywood movie. His visit to Winston Churchill's cabinet war rooms earlier this week, like his lunch with Tony Blair, was meant to convey the image of a French statesman in communion with world leaders, past and present.
In the second World War bunker packed with television cameras, Sarkozy adopted the appropriate gravity and, for once, refused to speak to journalists.
"He was very moved to be in the room where Churchill held his cabinet meetings, to see the bed where Churchill slept," said Michel Barnier, the former European commissioner who may become foreign minister if Sarkozy wins the election.
In keeping with his quest for greatness, Sarkozy has invited Yasmina Reza, perhaps France's most talented contemporary novelist and dramatist, to follow him everywhere, including to lunch with Blair. The two grew up in the same affluent suburb of Neuilly.
The Sarkozy personality cult was in evidence at Old Billingsgate market on Tuesday night, when Sarkozy starred in what his aides billed as the first French presidential campaign rally abroad.
"France has become a country of emigration," explained Thierry Mariani, the UMP deputy responsible for 800,000 French voters registered outside the country. Up to 300,000 French people are believed to live in London.
"They come [ to political meetings] for Nicolas Sarkozy, for his image, for his youth, not for the UMP," said Laurence Azzena-Gougeon, the head of the London chapter of the party that Sarkozy stole from the president, Jacques Chirac.
The crowd who gathered in the City of London were mostly students, bankers and businessmen who moved to London in search of opportunity.
Béatrice Buisseret, a banker's wife, described Sarkozy as "between Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. He has the youth, charm and breadth of Tony Blair; let's hope he has the discipline and tenacity of Margaret Thatcher." Jean-François Christou, the owner of a shipping company who moved his headquarters from Paris to London, was among a group of businessmen and bankers who met privately with Sarkozy before the rally.
"We liked what he told us," Christou said. "If Sarkozy doesn't win, I'll shut down in France. They prevent you from working, tax you to death and then look down on you. It's desperate. We need to liberate business, like they've done in Ireland."
In the same group of wealthy Sarkozy supporters, Stéphanie Stevenson told me French law prevented her from firing or replacing an employee on her property who went on long-term sick leave for a minor hand injury.
"They have all the rights," she complained. Who were "they"? I asked. "The employees. They're constantly drumming it into them, that they have this right and that right."
At a rally in a factory in the depressed Ardennes region in December, Sarkozy said: "Protecting people is the first responsibility of a president of the republic." He promised to "make economic life more moral" and swore that "abuses of financiers are not acceptable".
Stevenson was not worried by the socially conscious version of Sarkozy. "He has to go after votes everywhere," she shrugged. "That's not the real Sarkozy."
The "real Sarkozy" extolled "effort, success, work and merit" in London. Paying high taxes and social charges for wastrels was demoralising to honest Frenchmen.
"The big problem of France is that she works less when others work more," Sarkozy said. "It's outrageous that we should be the only country in the world that mobilises to stop people working," he added, referring to the 35-hour week and restrictions on overtime and work after retirement.
"Come back!" Sarkozy told the expatriates. "We need you!" He received loud applause when he spoke of "all these French people who leave because they feel there's no place for them in France. Because they feel the future is blocked. They leave because they can't find jobs, because work doesn't pay." France ought to attract the wealthy and talented, not just illegal immigrants, he added.
On the steps of number 10 Downing Street, Sarkozy praised Tony Blair for bringing peace to Northern Ireland and full employment to Britain.
"One of the problems of French political life is that it's too centred on itself," he said. "We must look at what has worked elsewhere."
Blair was "very interested" by his idea of a simplified European constitutional treaty, Sarkozy claimed. The German chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he will visit on February 12th, is hostile to the idea.
Because of his liberal economic policies and support for the war in Iraq, Blair is anathema to French socialists. "European socialists should be proud of what one of theirs has accomplished," Sarkozy said.
At the Marylebone job centre, Sarkozy noted that Britain has a 4.6 per cent jobless rate, compared to 8.6 per cent in France. "Full employment is possible in France," Sarkozy insisted. "I commit myself to it. There is no reason why other democracies can achieve full employment and we cannot."
If elected, Sarkozy intends to merge the administration that pays benefits with the job placement agency, as Blair did in Britain.
He wants to replace France's 17 different types of job contracts with one set of rules, under which job security and benefits would increase in proportion to the amount of time on the job. And he would lower social charges and remove tax on hours worked overtime.
If Sarkozy wins, he's expected to push through economic reforms during the summer months, while France is on holiday. But it would take a miracle for Sarkozy to impose his will without provoking social unrest.