SO HELP HIM, ZEUS?:

A French Neoconservative?: Nicolas Sarkozy is France’s first anti-anti-American leader. (Guy Sorman, 11 May 2007, City Journal)

Is the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, a neoconservative? Ever since his ascent to power, the French media have been brimming with various answers to that question. [...]

First, by not being anti-American, by actually meeting George W. Bush during his campaign, Sarkozy has given legitimacy to American ideas. It is no longer unpatriotic to compare France with the United States in ways not necessarily favorable to France. Many French intellectuals who didn’t dare cite American ideas of capitalism and democracy suddenly can do so without finding themselves dismissed as traitors or mavericks.

Moreover, Sarkozy’s rhetoric finds common ground with that of certain American neoconservatives, including an emphasis on ethics, law and order, and the free market. Sarkozy repeatedly mentions that Christian values are the basis of his political convictions.