Word: frenchness
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Since taking office on May 16, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's pace has wowed almost everyone. At home, he rammed through reform legislation aimed at encouraging work, cutting taxes, fighting crime and clamping down on immigration. Abroad, he helped break the logjam over the European Union's institutional setup, negotiated the freedom of six Bulgarian medics imprisoned in Libya and strengthened Franco-American relations over a vacation lunch with U.S. President George W. Bush...
...bear up under scrutiny: was the Libyan triumph linked to troubling nuclear and military contracts? Does Sarkozy's penchant for economic interventionism, visible in Sept. 3's megamerger between utility giants Gaz de France and Suez, mock his free-market rhetoric? Time asked a group of French and international experts to evaluate the spectacular start to the Sarkozy era and how - or whether - he can meet that promise in the months and years to come...
Sarkozy has demonstrated incontestable virtuosity in taking up the French presidency. Opinion polls ranked his popularity nearly as high as General de Gaulle's three months after De Gaulle's return to power, and ahead of all other French Presidents. Sarkozy even seemed to break with the past - quite a feat for someone from the same political family as outgoing President Jacques Chirac. Thanks to his policy of "opening" to rival forces, Sarkozy has attracted Socialist stars to his team, forging a cooperation that is uncommon in France...
...with his phenomenal hyperactivity, Sarkozy seems to have the four arms of the god Vishnu. It is not by accident that he has won over French voters. Sarkozy has skillfully used the media to trumpet the fulfillment of campaign promises such as tax reform, a tougher tack on crime and a more supple stance on the official 35-hour workweek. He has reacted to every tragic headline with the energy and compassion of a national psychotherapist. Never before under the Fifth Republic has a President personally taken and stood behind so many decisions in such little time. Even if Articles...
...those same French voters are famous for rapid political mood changes. Once the novelty of a situation has worn off, the French quickly readopt their famously corrosive spirit. His backers most want to see unemployment lowered (it's officially at 8% today) and purchasing power increased. But French economic growth, unlikely to exceed 2% in 2007, is too weak for that, and public deficits are still too high. Sarkozy's economic margin for maneuver is therefore much more limited than he would have liked...