Sarkozy continues to hog the headlines in France and still enjoys good popularity ratings, which seems a little paradoxical to me because the various rumblings of social discontent continue unabated. Fishermen have been blockading ports and vandalising Customs boats in protest at the cost of marine diesel (which is already untaxed), and a student rebellion over new laws to give universities greater autonomy (which they view as a short cut to privatisation and two-tier higher education) is gaining pace. Makes me feel all nostalgic for the late seventies/early eighties in Britain, when people cared about things other than their own personal well-being...
An example of Le Président's style of government occurred earlier this week. Hours before he flew off to meet Bush in Washington he charged down to Bretagne, indulged in a shouting match with a crowd of angry fishermen, caved in to most of their demands, then had time to put foot in mouth and upset the entire Tchad nation while commenting on the 'Arche de Zoe' affair before jetting off to the US. This after he'd flown to Tchad a couple days earlier to secure the conditional release of the journalists and cabin crew caught up in the affair.
His energetic omnipresence has led to him being characterised as the 'hyperpresident' - he appears on the front line of everything that falls under the media spotlight, with his ministers left to trail in his wake looking like mere poodles. There was an amusing item on the main news on TF1 (the tv channel owned & run by a close pal of Sarkozy's which rarely shows any critical coverage of the government) last night, following the (youngish, attractive, blonde, female) Education Minister during the day as she met with university and student leaders in response to the student protests. It was a fairly obvious attempt to counteract the impression that Sarko takes charge of everything and that the rest of the government aren't just sitting on their backsides watching...
