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Carla Bruni showed her chic baby bump off to the world this weekend as she took a stroll in the gardens of the Elysee Palace in Paris. One little girl seemed transfixed by the French First Lady's bump, which she'd covered in a stylish black dress and winter coat. Carla, who is due to give birth in October, greeted crowds on her walk at the palace, which was part of France's Day of Patrimony, when all its private state buildings open to the public. The new baby, Nicholas Sarkozy's fourth and Carla's second, will be the first born to a...

President Nicolas Sarkozy became a grandfather yesterday after the wife of his second son, Jean, gave birth to a baby boy. Ministers congratulated Mr Sarkozy, who will turn 55 this month, after a cabinet meeting. "There was no applause but we all congratulated him," said Eric Woerth, the budget minister. The prime minister had the opportunity on behalf of the government to congratulate the president who said that this birth gave him great joy," said a government spokesman. "Yes, he had a grandson this morning," said a presidential aide, who added that he had been given a "very unusual" name....

MOSCOW: Georgia and Russia agreed in principle to an EU-brokered peace plan over South Ossetia on Wednesday as the U.S. showed disapproval of Moscow's attacks on its neighbour by cancelling a joint naval exercise. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili agreed late on Tuesday to a modified version of a six-point peace plan endorsed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "It is a political document. It 'is an agreement of principles...and I think we have full coincidence of principles," Saakashvili told a joint news conference with Sarkozy. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Moscow's military operations...

Nicolas Sarkozy, the man they call the hyper-president, moved back into hyper-drive after the new outbreak of riots in the Paris suburbs. First thing Wednesday morning, barely off the plane from a state visit to China, he was at the sick-bed of the police chief badly beaten by a mob on Sunday night.

That Nicolas Sarkozy is France's most pro-American president in generations - in fact, come to think of it, ever - there is no reason to argue over. It is the one point on which both he and his enemies would agree. A man who declared his intention on going to Washington of "reconquering the heart of America" - and who in his speech to Congress cited Elvis Presley, Charlton Heston and Neil Armstrong as his heroes - is clearly not lukewarm about "les Etats-Unis".

Sarkozy cuts off `stupid' CBS interview 25 minutes ago France's president abruptly ended a "60 Minutes" interview aimed at introducing him to U.S. audiences, dubbing it "stupid" and a "big mistake" and refusing to answer questions about his wife. Before the CBS news show interview in Paris even began, Sarkozy called his press secretary "an imbecile" for arranging the session on a busy day. "I don't have the time. I have a big job to do, I have a schedule," Sarkozy said through a translator before the interview began. In English, he added: "Very busy. Very busy." In the interview...

Nicolas Sarkozy made headlines this week by telling his diplomatic corps that "an Iran with nuclear weapons is for me unacceptable." But the French President did more in his speech than name the gravest current threat to global security, itself a feat of clear thinking. He also signaled that France means to be something more on the international scene than an anti-American nuisance player. That's worth applauding at a time when the conventional wisdom says the next U.S. President will have to burnish America's supposedly tarnished reputation by making various policy amends. In Germany, under the conservative leadership of Angela...

Au Revoir De Gaulle, Le Pen, and the Communist party have been expunged from French politics. By Laurent Murawiec Good news for the French, good news for us: Nicolas Sarkozy’s impressive victory in this weekend’s French presidential election sounds the death knell of key components of French political exceptionalism. GAULLISM AT HOME… First, the Gaullist exception in both the domestic field and in international affairs has finally been done away with. Domestically, Gaullism has been terrible for the Right. In France, after 1945, the figure of General de Gaulle singlehandedly prevented the consolidation of a powerful and durable Christian-Democratic party...

First official results in French first round presidential elections (my translation from the live feed): Estimation from SOFRES (French pollsters). Sarkozy: 30% Royal: 25.2 % ------------- Bayrou: 18.3% Le Pen: 11.5%

In just over two months, French voters will elect their next president. This election will be critical to the future of France domestically and to its standing in the world. France has lost significant economic and political power over the past decade and needs reform and reinvigoration. The new president must also seek to repair frayed ties with Washington. It is highly doubtful that this would happen under Ségolène Royal. Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate has outlined a 100-policy presidential pact "for France to rediscover a shared ambition, pride, and fraternity."Royal is frequently touted as the face of change, a...

- Nicolas Sarkozy remains the frontrunner in this month’s presidential election in France, according to a tracking poll by Ipsos released by SFR and Le Point. 31.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) contender. Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 25 per cent, followed by Union for French Democracy (UDF) leader François Bayrou with 18.5 per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front (FN) with 13 per cent. In a prospective run-off scenario, Sarkozy holds an eight-point advantage over Royal. In addition, Bayrou leads Sarkozy by...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Nicolas Sarkozy remains the most popular contender in the French presidential race, according to a tracking poll by Ipsos released by SFR and Le Point. 30.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate in next month’s ballot. Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 25 per cent, followed by Union for French Democracy (UDF) leader François Bayrou with 18.5 per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front (FN) with 13 per cent. Support is lower for Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) member Olivier...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Nicolas Sarkozy remains the most popular candidate in the French presidential race, according to a poll by Louis-Harris released by RMC. 29 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) contender in next month?s ballot. S?gol?ne Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 26 per cent, followed by Union for French Democracy (UDF) leader Fran?ois Bayrou with 22 per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front (FN) with 12.5 per cent. Support is lower for Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) member Olivier Besancenot, Marie-George Buffet of...

PARIS: French President Jacques Chirac last night threw his weight behind his party's presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, overcoming hostility between the two in a move that could bolster the Right's campaign. Mr Chirac also said Mr Sarkozy would leave his post as Interior Minister on March 26, an announcement that had been expected after the candidate said he would leave the centre-right government ahead of the first round of the election on April 22. The President said he would give his "vote and support" to the 52-year-old Mr Sarkozy, as the candidate of the governing Union for a Popular Movement...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Nicolas Sarkozy remains the most popular presidential contender in France, according to a poll by TNS-Sofres released by Unilog. 31 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate in next month’s election. Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 25.5 per cent, followed by Union for French Democracy (UDF) leader François Bayrou with 18.5 per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front (FN) with 12 per cent. Support is lower for Marie-George Buffet of the French Communist Party (PCF), Revolutionary Communist League (LCR)...

Sarko knows what's wrong with France. The voters know he knows. But they wish he didn't A band played the Marseillaise, tricolores fluttered in the garlicky haze, and 51-year-old Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who would be France's next president, pleaded with the crowd for its votes. All this was happening not in France but London; home to at least 300,000 escapees from a country that Sarkozy portrays as "exhausted". Exhausted by what, though? Not overwork, for France's 35-hour-week, a form of mass torpor-by-decree, is ruthlessly enforced by government inspectors, empowered to perform after-hours checks on company car parks, and to...

A ccording to the latest polls, by spring 2007 the president of France could well be Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who The Washington Post described as “not your everyday French politician.”[1] For a start, the current French Interior Minister and leader of the UMP conservative party is pro-American. He understands that the war on terrorism is the world’s fight and not one America should have to bear alone. He grasps the nature of the threat facing Continental Europe from Muslim extremism and favors fighting terrorism head-on and without apology. His worldview is not one that ends in the Michelin-starred restaurants...

In just over two months, French voters will elect their next president. This election will be critical to the future of France domestically and to its standing in the world. France has lost significant economic and political power over the past decade and needs reform and reinvigoration. The new president must also seek to repair frayed ties with Washington. It is highly doubtful that this would happen under Ségolène Royal. Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate has outlined a 100-policy presidential pact "for France to rediscover a shared ambition, pride, and fraternity."[1] Royal is frequently touted as the face of change,...

Good news. This spring, the French elections--both presidential, in late April and early May, and parliamentary, in early June--are going to be well worth watching. For the first time in decades, there are comparatively young presidential candidates, and quite independent-minded ones. The main conservative candidate is Nicolas "Sarko" Sarkozy, 52, who achieved a reputation for toughness as minister of the interior and wrested the UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party from Jacques Chirac's men three years ago. On the left, Ségolène "Ségo" Royal, 53, governor of the Poitou-Charentes province in western France, also a contrarian in many respects, stormed...

Nine weeks out from the French Presidential Elections, A new IFOP poll published February 12, 2007, shows Nicholas Sarkozy, UMP (Right) candidate beating Segolene Royal, PS Socialist Party (Left) candidate.. The results for the 1er Tour ( first round) are Sarko 33.5% Royal 26% with Francois Bayrou (+4 ) at 14% and le Pen at 10%.( -3 ) In the 2eme Tour (runoff) the results are Sarko 54% Royal 46%. The interesting thing is the rise of Francois Bayrou, center right candidate, and the fall of JM le Pen.