> Social Issues - on 01/02/2010

The 1000 days of Nicolas Sarkozy: first Overview before 2012

6 May 2007, 31 January 2010 : Nicolas Sarkozy has been in power for 1,000 days. While regional elections are to be held soon, it is time for a first overview. Based on the data available thanks to the Barometer of Nicolas Sarkozy’s Reforms published by the Thomas More Institute since 2007, this note proposes a more global approach which, beyond a numerical review, shows how and in which fields the President’s action has been efficient or not and gives, based on its analysis, some perspectives for the second half of the term. Available in French only.

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Elected with a comfortable majority on 6 May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy’s mid-term has been difficult. He only has about one third of favorable opinion in the polls as he celebrates his 1000th days at the Elysée. Yet, 2010 appears as a key year of his mandate.

First of all because Nicolas Sarkozy himself has made of this year an important step of his term. Refusing to slow down the rhythm of his reforms, thinking for sure that the French will be grateful in the end, he announced that he would deal with the issues of pensions and deficits. If the word actually disappeared from his vocabulary, he intends to remaining the President of the “rupture”. Then because the crisis still has heavy consequences and the electors ask the President who promised that “everything is possible” for concrete results, especially concerning unemployment. Finally because the regional elections in March 2010, local elections that he nationalized by launching the campaign of the UMP in November 2009, will obviously be interpreted as a test of confidence regarding the 2012 elections. For these reasons, March elections will be the turning point towards the preparation of the presidential elections.

For all these reasons, it is possible – and legitimate – to make an overview, a mid-term review, of Nicolas Sarkozy’s action at the head of the state since a bit more than two years and a half. Respecting his campaign creed, the candidate of the “rupture” soon transformed into an hyper-president, deeply changing how to exert power, imposing a new style, engaging in every field, and positioning himself on the front line. The current context, very different from that of 2007, did not change the theory of the “block of reforms” which guides its action since the beginning and according to which all the reforms have to be carried out in the mean time to have an effect – at the risk of giving an impression of disorder and to reform only on the surface… During the crisis and at the beginning of this year, Nicolas Sarkozy said it, he will not slow down. Far from concentrating on the social and economic consequences of the crisis, new reforms were carried out in 2009 about housing, oversees territory and the agenda is crowded for 2010.

The Thomas More Institute is offering, for one moment, a photography of the 1254 commitments (1147 measures that are being addressed and 107 measures that have not been tackled) listed by its Barometer of Nicolas Sarkozy’s Reforms since May 20071 and to answer to some useful question to understand the two remaining year until the 2012 presidential elections : Is Nicolas Sarkozy keeping his promises? Does he do what he said he would? Are the reforms fully implemented? Considering what has been done since 2007, what will the second part of his term look like? With a context completely different with the crisis, is there some room for the “rupture”?

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Download below the note in PDF (in French, 32 pages).

pdf Document

More information: http://www.barometre-sarkozy.com