FRANCE: The presidential candidate projects an image of a ruthlessly ambitious economic liberal, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris
Should one be afraid of Nicolas Sarkozy? In a broad-ranging opinion poll about the leading right-wing presidential candidate published on June 24th, Le Figaro magazine asked: "Would you say that Nicolas Sarkozy reassures you or worries you?" Some 55 per cent of respondents said he worried them; 36 per cent that he reassured them.
Sarkozy projects the image of a hyperactive, ruthlessly ambitious economic liberal who is tough on immigration and law and order. Though he has accused his chief rival, the socialist Ségolène Royal, of copying-catting his ideas, Royal, who has four children, comes across as a maternal figure who often slips in the line, "I'm talking to you as a mother".
Earlier this month, Royal told France 2 television: "All children are our children and I want to do for the children of this country what I would do for my own children." By contrast, Sarkozy has threatened to expel illegal immigrant children next month. When he promised to make an exception for some 720 well-integrated families, Le Monde asked sarcastically: "Does Nicolas Sarkozy have a heart?"
Sarkozy's entourage attributes the anxiety to his promise of a "rupture" with hidebound tradition, and believes he can reassure the French by explaining his intentions.
Sarkozy's enemies see him as a "lite" version of the extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. They cite Le Pen-like rhetoric in the National Assembly last month: "If there are people who are bothered by being in France, let them leave it," Sarkozy said. "You can't ask a country to change its laws, its habits, its customs, just because they don't please a tiny minority . . . We've really had it with feeling obliged to apologise for being French."
The Sarko-anxiety uncovered by Le Figaro magazine's poll must have increased with a two-page report on Sarkozy's relations with the media in yesterday's Libération newspaper.
Alain Genestar, the editor of Paris Match magazine, is being fired by the magazine's owner, Arnaud Lagardère. Lagardère is - surprise - a close friend of Sarkozy. Genestar's "sin" was publishing a cover photograph last August of Cécilia Sarkozy, the interior minister's wife, with Richard Attias, described as her "boyfriend" in New York. Mrs Sarkozy returned to her husband this month, but according to Le Canard enchaîné, he vented his fury on Lagardère. The press magnate never forgave Genestar for publishing the story without consulting him.
Several months after the offending cover story, the black tennis star turned pop singer Yannick Noah told Match: "If Sarkozy wins [ the presidential election], I'm getting out!" The quote disappeared from the edition that made it to the newstands.
Sarkozy's influence over French media combines a network of carefully cultivated friendships with television and newspaper owners with a tendency to self-censorship among the editors they employ. Sarkozy sometimes reminds journalists: "I know your bosses." During last November's race riots - when Sarkozy's ministry was on the front line - French television was cautious. France 3 stopped broadcasting the number of cars burned every night. France 2 decided not to show images of burning cars and TF1 bored viewers with bromides about self-help projects in the banlieues. Sarkozy telephoned news editors to thank them for their sense of responsibility.
Sarkozy has built up a "task force" of young men known as "Sarko Boys" or "The Firm". They have a certain aura - Ralph Lauren suits, sunglasses, slicked-back hair - and make Royal's team look like amateurs. Michaël Darmon, Sarkozy's biographer and a journalist at France 2, assesses "The Firm" this way: "When you see the machine close up, yes, it sometimes functions in a cynical, efficient fashion, without soul-searching. But I don't think there's some kind of fascistic tendency behind it that means one should fear him."
Partisans of prime minister Dominique de Villepin accuse one of the "Sarko Boys", Pierre Charon, of leaking negative information about their boss to journalists.
It was Charon, Libération reports, who threatened lawsuits against newspapers tempted to publish the name of the Figaro journalist who lived with Sarkozy during his wife's absence. And he let reporters know that the youngest son of Francois Hollande and Ségolène Royal was arrested for being drunk and disorderly with his friends last month.