Is French 'hyperpresident' all hype?

Yet behind the diplomatic scenes, a rising level of grumbling is being heard in European circles about Sarkozy taking credit for more than he has achieved, in such moves as the freeing of the Bulgarian nurses. He has also been criticized as being less avowedly free-market oriented than his campaign suggested. The Financial Times warned early this month that Sarkozy is close to "upsetting" his allies over what appear to be French protectionist policies in the EU.

Sarkozy has been called another Napoléon, referring to inordinate energy and forcefulness. "There is this hyperactivity that is puzzling," says Pierre Haski of Rue89, a news-policy website in Paris. "You feel somehow there is no more government, because Sarkozy is always on the scene making the quick decision. It seems like the government is being run by the president, his chief of staff, and Mrs. Sarkozy."

Indeed, the Libyan negotiations seem to have taken place entirely without the input of Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who, as The New York Times described it, was in "diplomatic darkness" about the Sarkozys' meetings with Mr. Qaddafi.

"What democratic legitimacy do they have, save that she is the wife of the president and he was appointed secretary general of the Elysee?" said Benoît Hamon, a French member of the European parliament, of Mrs. Sarkozy and presidential aide Claude Gueant, who accompanied her to Bulgaria.

As a matter of foreign policy, some analysts say, it is almost as if the French president is employing the tack that his finance minister, Christine Lagarde, recommended last week as a means to improve France economy: Don't think, work. "France is a country that thinks," Ms. Lagarde offered, addeding, "Enough thinking, let's roll up our sleeves."

'Spectacular' style draws criticism

French politician Pierre Moscovici, a senior Socialist and former Europe minister, contrasted years of patient EU efforts with the "more spectacular" intervention of the Sarkozy family. Mrs. Sarkozy's two trips to Libya garnered criticism from Europeans who complained that she and her husband were sweeping in at the last minute to capture the glory of a process that had been in the works long before Sarkozy became president.

But Diederik Vandewalle, associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and author of several books on Libya, says that the Sarkozys' last-minute grand gestures carried out what many viewed as the inevitable. Mrs. Sarkozy's unorthodox approach may have offered the Libyans a door of opportunity, he adds.

"[The Libyans] were just looking for the right moment," he says. "This is the kind of gesture Qaddafi likes because what she did was thumb her nose at the EU.... It's all part of a much larger strategic process."

François Heisbourg, head of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, said Sarkozy's critics had missed the point. "It's a new style, high profile, high gain, potentially high loss, requiring a very high level of energy, requiring extremely fine judgment for the nature of the situation," Mr. Heisbourg said.

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