IF FRANCE IS THE DISEASE, IS HE THE CURE?:

Fast-rising young challenger eyes Chirac's crown: Hugely popular French interior minister makes his ambitions plain (Jon Henley, November 27, 2003, The Guardian)

France's young, hard-hitting and hugely popular interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has made his intentions clear: he will be running for president in 2007 - against Jacques Chirac if necessary. [...]

A recent poll showed that Mr Sarkozy, diminutive, pugnacious, plain-speaking but somehow always human, is regarded as "the man most capable of changing things in France" by 42% of the population, against 9% for Mr Chirac. Fifty per cent said the 48-year-old would be an "excellent" or "good" rightwing presidential candidate.

Since his appointment 18 months ago, the man the French press often refers to as Goldfinger (because all he touches succeeds) has resolved the long-running dispute with Britain over the Sangatte refugee camp; sent thousands of asylum seekers home; cracked down on juvenile delinquency, crime and prostitution; hired the first of 15,000 new police officers; dramatically reduced traffic offences and road deaths and overseen the capture of France's most wanted terrorist in Corsica.

His extraordinary rise (he has won praise from such political opposites as the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and the communist mayor of Calais) is due not just to his energy but to his determination, highly unusual in French politics, to call a spade a spade and, if it is a problem, to do something about it. In Sarko-speak, drunken drivers are "murderers", teenage gang-rapists "barbarians" and misbehaving youths on run-down council estates "yobs" and "thugs". He sees part of his job, he has said, as curing "a French disease: the notion that because we cannot tackle everything, we end up tackling nothing".

The Chiracs' personal dislike for him is a good sign.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 27, 2003 7:21 AM