French presidency gets a bold new style Elaine Sciolino | International Herald Tribune | May 30, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/30/news/sarkozy.php?page=1 To their admirers, the Sarkozys are the French Kennedys: The president is outdoorsy and athletic, the first lady beautiful and designer-dressed, the passel of children smiling and photogenic. To their detractors, the Sarkozys are more like former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and his clan: showy, vulgar, acquisitive, more nouveaux riches than old money. Certainly, Sarkozy's arrival at Élysée Palace two weeks ago has already brought radical change, including what the French call the "people-ization" of the presidency. Gone are the much older and more formal Chiracs, with their discretion, impeccable manners, old-fashioned style and easy slow motion. In their place is a 52-year-old president, armed with naked ambition, a hyperactive style and close friendships with some of France's richest men. By his side - episodically - is his somewhat mysterious 49-year-old wife, Cécilia, who left him for another man in the summer of 2005 and then returned several months later. She was absent during most of the campaign and did not bother to vote in the second and decisive round of the election. Then there are the children: two daughters (Judith, 22, and Jeanne-Marie, 20) from her first marriage, two sons (Pierre, 22, and Jean, 21) from his, and one (Louis, 10) whom they bore together. At least for now, some of the fiercest critics of Sarkozy are dazzled by his energy and hopeful that he will fulfill even some of his promises for reforming France quickly. Paradoxically, the French are both ready to put the most positive spin on the first family's "normalcy" and eager to gossip about the most lurid rumors. Speculating about the lives of the Sarkozys has become a popular parlor game at Paris dinner parties. "They look like an ordinary French family - divorced, remarried - with all their problems out in the open," said Marie-Pierre Lannelongue, a senior editor at French Elle. "Before, when the president was unfaithful everyone knew about it but no one talked about it. Here is a great drama of love with its ups and downs. Everyone's talking about the first lady: Were there suicide attempts? Why did she come back? We don't know exactly, but we want to know." Stéphane Bern, a journalist and specialist in French royalty and society, calls it the "de-sacred-ization" of the French presidency, adding that he is reserving judgment over whether all this change this will be better or worse for France. Activism is the leitmotif of this presidency. Sarkozy has been described as the "lapin Duracell" - the "Energizer bunny" - of politics. Perhaps a more apt comparison is Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit, perpetually rushing to a very important date. Since taking office, Sarkozy has already traveled to Berlin and Brussels, visited hospital personnel in Dunkirk, eaten with workers at Airbus in Toulouse and campaigned in Normandy for upcoming parliamentary elections. He has received dozens of visitors, from French union leaders to the emir of Qatar. He interrupted his jogging jaunts during his two trips to Brégançon, the official presidential summer residence, to shake hands with the locals. On Thursday, he makes a brief trip to Madrid. Photographers embedded with him have captured his jogging jaunts in detail. One of the first iconic photographs of his presidency is of him running up the steps of the Élysée in Nike jogging shorts and sneakers. The cover of Le Point last week was a photo of Sarkozy jogging with Prime Minister François Fillon, who is also a race car driver and a mountain climber. Indeed, Sarkozy uses the informal "tu" instead of the formal "vous" with colleagues and journalists alike. But two weeks ago, when Sarkozy addressed Alain Juppé, one of his senior ministers and a former prime minister in the formal Chirac era, with "tu," Juppé seemed so flummoxed that he replied in a convoluted formulation, avoiding both "you" forms. Sarkozy's style has translated into a historically high popularity rating. According to a poll published Sunday in Le Journal du Dimanche, 65 percent of those questioned were "satisfied" with their new president, the highest early rating since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958, according to the polling institute IFOP. Much of his popularity is driven by the national media. "Kennedy has come back," wrote Le Point. "He's named Sarkozy. Never has a president shown such a relaxed nature, such an absence of complexes." A four-page spread in the latest issue of French Elle magazine on Cécilia Sarkozy (who once moonlighted as an in-house model at Schiaparelli and Chanel) poses the question, "Something of Jackie?" The article ran side-by-side photos of the two first ladies, pointing out that Cécilia, like Jackie, "is adept at minimalism," has "a prima donna style," embraces sports "as a way of life" and "has always been casual." "I knew Jackie, and Cécilia is much more casual," the designer Sonia Rykiel told Elle. "But they both have the same natural beauty that comes from elsewhere and that allows them to wear whatever they want." The conservative daily Le Figaro splashed an Internet poll on its front page last Friday under the headline, "The Sarkozy style seduces the French." It reported that 91 percent of those questioned found their new president dynamic; 85 percent called him modern, and 75 percent said he was easygoing. Only 29 percent thought he was too informal. But showing off one's money is considered culturally vulgar in France; discretion is respected. And if the Figaro poll is to be believed, 52 percent of the French believe that Sarkozy is "flashy." His first act after his electoral victory was announced was to dine with Cécilia, other family members and friends at Fouquet's, a touristy Champs-Élysées restaurant owned by a business group better known for its casinos. His post-election two-day mini-vacation with her and their son Louis, spent in the Mediterranean aboard the luxury 190-foot yacht of a billionaire friend, was mercilessly criticized by both the political elite and the man on the street. "You cannot identify with General de Gaulle and behave like Silvio Berlusconi," the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut wrote in Le Monde. "For three days, he made us ashamed." Certainly, both Sarkozys seem to resist understated, traditional dress and reject stately protocol. The cover of the popular magazine VSD this week ran a photo taken last summer of Sarkozy in a dark suit without a tie, his white shirt unbuttoned enough to reveal a gold chain. Cécilia Sarkozy wore oversized aviator glasses but not enough undergarments to hide the contours of her breasts or her panty line. He wears Christian Dior suits, Ray-Ban sunglasses, Ralph Lauren polo shirts, Breitling watches and jeans with blazers. In the final days before the second round of the election, he sported a braided leather bracelet. On election night, Cécilia wore white pants and a casual, oversized grey Lanvin sweater that she tugged at, whispering in a side conversation as her husband delivered his victory speech. On Inauguration day, Sarkozy, like Jacques Chirac that day, was in tasseled loafers - although Sarkozy is half a head shorter and his heels at least half an inch higher. Both Sarkozys wore Prada - she a $1,950 shiny duchess satin sheath with a partial slit down her back, he a dark suit. One of Cécilia Sarkozy's closest friends is Mathilde Agostinelli, the public relations spokeswoman for Prada in France, who was at her side at Fouquet's, at Brégançon two weeks ago and shopping in St. Tropez. "Cécilia's become a little like Marie-Antoinette, moving around with all her friends trailing behind her," said Alix Girod de l'Ain, a columnist at Elle. Some arbiters of presidential politics and style find the Kennedy analogy far-fetched. "People said the same thing about Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974 - that he was very young, very active, very easygoing," said Dominique Wolton, a sociologist at the National Center for Scientific Research. "The French people are too smart for this. The luster will wear off." That said, even Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, seems to have gone soft on Sarko, as the new president is popularly called. In an interview with the tabloid Le Parisien on Sunday, Le Pen accused Sarkozy of stealing his right-wing message and using "American advisers who know how to work the great popular masses." But then Le Pen confessed: "The man has some charm. And it comes naturally."
