Ratings Fall For The Super Sarko Show: Monsieur Bling is Now Just Boring

 

French critics have been complaining about how Nicolas Sarkozy has exposed his private life so openly. After just over six months, the Président has already acquired several different nicknames; “Super-Sarko” after his hyperactivity in comparison with the reclusive Jacques Chirac, “Sarko I” after his absolutism, referring to his monarchical style, and “President Bling-Bling” after his high-society life style, and now “Speedy-Sarko” due to his new wedding plans.

Indeed, the Sarko saga started three months into his presidency, where he upset the classic French left by choosing to holiday with an American millionaire, during which he, in a pirate fashion, pulled alongside and hopped aboard a boat containing a few journalists, and was furious to say the least. Shortly afterwards, he caused yet more outrage by visiting the Bush family, but instead of the cool business approach taken by Gordon Brown, Sarko was too friendly for the French.

The leaking of his private life to the press has been an effective cover up, as currently French media are reforming into the post-modern western journals of the UK and USA, concentrating more in personality instead of policy, giving France its first celebrity president. For instance, Sarkozy chose the day of the first national strike against his government to announce his official separation from his wife Cécilia.

Now though, this may be starting to lose its effect, since recent polls for Sarkozy have been sliding. After his divorce announcement in October, the Sark-opera (as it is referred in comment circles) has gone too far for the French, who have always had strong reservations about where to draw the line between private and public life. His approval rating has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since his election last May. The monthly CSA poll showed that 48 per cent expressed confidence the president, falling from 55 per cent in December and 65 per cent last summer. Those with no confidence rose seven points to 45 per cent, although, it has been argued that this slide is not solely based on his private life, but his failure to deliver his manifesto promises. France (as well as the UK) begins the year feeling anxious about the economy for 2008.

Just over two months after meeting his singer girlfriend and three months since his wife divorced him, Mr. Sarkozy is planning to marry Carla Bruni in early February. His display of this high-speed romance and his taste for le bling bling has thrown the tradition of presidential decorum out of the window. It is very different from not just the intensely private Charles de Gaulle, who believed that in order to lead; the president must maintain an air of mystery about him. Even Chirac, after his defeat at the hands of the unions (a battle currently revisited by Sarkozy) he retreated to the Elysée Palace and was rarely seen again.

Ms Bruni has added a great deal to the Sarko-show. Last February she was interviewed in Le Figaro, saying, “Monogamy bores me stiff. I am monogamous from time to time. Love lasts a long time, but ardent desire only for two or three weeks.” Some newspapers have discreetly mentioned Bruni as une dévoreuse d’homme (a man-eater) considering that former ‘close’ friends range from Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton to Laurent Fabius, the former Socialist Prime Minister.

Segolène Royal, the defeated left-wing presidential candidate, has shown her usual tenacity, attacking Sarkozy by claiming that he had “undermined the independence and dignity of the presidential function.” Whatever the case, it is clear that over the next few months, The Super Sarko Show will make compulsive viewing.

Article originally published in Impact on 14/01/08