Earlier this year, Mr Sarkozy dropped in on angry fishermen in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and promised a thorough review of European Union fishing quotas during the French presidency of the EU. France gives up this position at the end of December, yet nothing of the sort has happened.
To wit, one example, which is that France would not be stepping next year into the presidency of the G20 had the United States of America not supported France for this presidency.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama and President Sarkozy at the White House
The upright Mr Balladur can hardly, they say, be accused of sympathy for the Front: only this spring, after a regional election, he refused to take the presidency of the Ile de France region (which surrounds Paris) if that meant accepting votes from Fronters.
Jacques Chirac, president of France, which holds the current six-month presidency of the European Union, has contemplated holding such a grand Balkan summit in the autumn.
Mr Sarkozy hopes to use these platforms to boost his standing abroad and his poll numbers at home, just as he did when France held the presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2008.
The Socialists now control almost all of France's political institutions: the presidency, the National Assembly, the Senate, all but one of the 22 regions and most local government.
One minister muttered darkly about efforts to destabilise France ahead of its presidency of the G20 later this year.
So too and at a time when France holds the rotating presidency of the European Union are his political counterparts in Europe, blaming him for the copycat tactics that have blocked their roads too.
France, which holds the presidency of the European Union, had already called an emergency summit for September 1st to review ties with Russia.
France, which holds the presidency of the Group of 20 (a club of the world's biggest economies) wants to discuss tax havens at next month's meeting in Cannes.
She also spoke with the foreign ministers of India, Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, Wood said.
In mid-November France takes over the 12-month presidency of the G20, and in 2011 the G8 as well.
But after five years of Sarkozy's hyperactive presidency, during which time France's economic status has taken a knock, polls suggested voters were keen for a change from the president's flamboyancy.
Mr Chirac, in particular, fears he is unlikely to keep the presidency without looking good on the world stage, where France's head of state is expected to shine.
ECONOMIST: Still the best of friends in the Franco-German motor? | The
Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba whose father was a pillar of the relationship between France and Africa during his 41-year presidency announced plans last year to pick English as the country's second official language, alongside French.
If the left fails to win, France would enter into a period of "cohabitation", in which the presidency and the lower house are controlled by political rivals.
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Mr Hollande - the first Socialist to win the French presidency since Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s - earlier gave his victory speech in his stronghold of Tulle in central France.
BBC: Francois Hollande to set France on new course after win
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, later in Jerusalem.
Mr Lemierre's upset victory suggests a quid pro quo for Italy, in the form of an understanding that France will not oppose Mr Prodi's candidacy for the commission's presidency.
To be fair, the first years of his presidency did witness achievements: bold plans to end conscription and streamline the armed forces, to overhaul France's sickly public-health system, revamp the arms industry, sell off or deregulate swathes of the public sector.
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