The fact that they voted for Mr Sarkozy demonstrated that they were hungry for change.
For Mr Sarkozy economic government would be a means of extending French influence and maintaining parity with Germany.
The question is do they yearn for Mr Sarkozy - or his energy?
Afterwards, we found out the reason for Mr Sarkozy's annoyance, and also that of David Cameron, who looked similarly racked-off.
Speaking to the same news agency, a spokesman for Mr Sarkozy's office described the allegations in the new book as "scandalous, unfounded and untruthful".
One risk for Mr Sarkozy, however, is that Mr Chirac will be condemned to yet another period of cohabitation after the 2002 parliamentary election.
ECONOMIST: The disarray on the French right is bad, and getting worse
Mrs Merkel's decision to campaign for Mr Sarkozy's re-election looks ill-judged.
The plane was becoming a costly embarrassment, especially for Mr Sarkozy, who has long promised a sale to Brazil but has nothing to show for his efforts.
Present polls put her in distant third or even fourth place, with 16%-18% of the first-round vote, compared with 28% or so each for Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande.
The BBC's High Schofield in Paris says there will be some scepticism about what Mr Strauss-Kahn has to say, but with the second round of the French presidential election taking place in just over a week, the allegations come at a difficult time for Mr Sarkozy.
To be sure, the spotlight on security may not be an unqualified boon for Mr. Sarkozy.
"The difficulty for Mr. Sarkozy is that he is far behind in the polls, " Mr. Levy said.
WSJ: Hollande and Sarkozy, Presidential Candidates, Spar in France
Commodity speculators make for tempting scapegoats and populist attempts to limit their activities will play well for both Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel as they struggle to regain favour with voters in France and Germany.
For a start Mr Sarkozy, unlike Jacques Chirac in 1995, has entered office with a strong electoral mandate for change.
For now, Mr Sarkozy seems as keen as his predecessors not just to promote his chums but also, more surprisingly, to favour ENA graduates.
When he was running for office, Mr Sarkozy was quick to identify purchasing power as a popular concern, and to pledge to do something about it.
ECONOMIST: France's government: The unpopular president | The
The argument is hard to disprove, or to disentangle from other factors, most notably a broad loss of influence for Europe and Mr Sarkozy's mercurial diplomatic style.
Many working-class voters who backed Mr Sarkozy for the presidency last year abstained or plumped for the left this time.
Sinclair's husband was seen as the man best placed to unseat Mr Sarkozy for the Socialists before a sex scandal engulfed his career.
Four polls taken late on Sunday tipped Mr Sarkozy for victory on May 6th, giving him between 52% and 54% of the vote.
ECONOMIST: Nicolas Sarkozy and S��gol��ne Royal make the run-off
For the essence of Mr Sarkozy's approach, at home and abroad, is not to allow the niceties of protocol to get in his way.
And Mr Obama also earned a public rebuke from Mr Sarkozy for strongly backing Turkish membership of the EU, which the French president opposes.
Magistrate Jean-Michel Gentil, who leads the inquiry, unexpectedly summoned Mr Sarkozy for a face-to-face encounter with Mrs Bettencourt's butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, in the city of Bordeaux.
BBC: Nicolas Sarkozy to be investigated in Bettencourt scandal
According to Pascal Perrineau, a political scientist, as many as 11.5m voters who had backed Mr Sarkozy for the presidency in 2007 failed to support the UMP this time.
ECONOMIST: The French voters blow a raspberry at their president
And, with economic growth flat in the second quarter, and an austerity drive under way, many voters seem to think that there is little to thank Mr Sarkozy for.
For the first time, Mr Sarkozy has begun to look fallible.
ECONOMIST: The French voters blow a raspberry at their president
For the moment, Mr. Sarkozy is sanguine about the first round, dismissing the CSA poll's findings on Wednesday and noting that other surveys show him ahead of his challenger in the first round.
"I ask of those in charge of all the TV channels in possession of these images not to broadcast the images under any pretext out of respect for the victims and out of respect for the republic, " Mr Sarkozy said.
应用推荐