Nicolas Sarkozy: Winning the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong

The New York Times ^ | May 6 2007 | CRAIG S. SMITH

[Cincinna]

Arrogant, brutal, an authoritarian demagogue, a “perfect Iago”; the president-elect of France has been called a lot of unpleasant things in recent months and now has five years to prove his critics wrong.

But what is certain is that Nicolas Sarkozy, who won today’s runoff election, is one of the most polarizing figures to move into Élysée Palace in the postwar era. He is a whirling dervish of ideas who inspires hope and fear on both sides of the French political scene. Even many members of his own Union for Popular Movement party are holding their breath in anticipation of what his presidency might bring.

“Other politicians don’t want to take risks, but he will take any risk,” said Brice Hortefeux, one of Mr. Sarkozy’s closest friends and political allies.

Mr. Sarkozy is also a bit of an outsider; the first son of an immigrant to rise to the French presidency in a country struggling to integrate second-generation immigrants; the grandson of a Sephardic Jew who converted to Catholicism in a country still riddled with anti-Semitism; a graduate of France’s creaky state university system in a country long governed by technocrats trained at a handful of small, elite “great schools.”

He has always been nakedly ambitious, pragmatic and calculating and not beyond betrayal to reach his goals.

He is full of nervous energy, often rocking on his toes when not at the center of attention — a habit that sometimes makes him look taller than he is in photographs but otherwise draws attention to his stature.

[Cincinna]

NYT cannot conceal its contempt and Leftist bias.

[TexasNative2000]

He has always been nakedly ambitious, pragmatic and calculating and not beyond betrayal to reach his goals.

I thought they were writing about Sarkozy, not Clinton.