Sarkozy won the elections in 2007 with the promise to modernise France and make it ready for the 21st century. This energetic message was welcomed by the French after the unproductive last years of Sarkozy’s predecessor Jacques Chirac. For Sarkozy, this basically meant an opening of French society in American style. This policy soon backfired when the financial crisis of 2008 broke out. As a real pragmatist, Sarkozy changed course and took a traditional Gaullist line by declaring ´the end of capitalism´. Nevertheless, being deprived of a credible orientation, Sarkozy abandoned his reform agenda for many years. Only recently did he pursue a new economic agenda, now with the German economic model, more specifically Schroder's trade-off between lower income tax and higher VAT, as his prime example.

Unfortunately, this was too little and too late. After almost five years in office, the structural unemployment is still well above 7%, economic growth is at best moderate and the national debt has increased significantly. Of course, these disappointing figures can be in large part ascribed to the financial crisis and the subsequent economic recession of the past few years. However, as Hollande correctly has pointed out, they are not an excuse for Sarkozy’s lack of political initiative. Seven years after the banlieu riots in many of France largest cities, nothing has been done. Unemployment is still above 40%, crime figures are still running high and people lack a credible prospect for a brighter future.

Important as these social and economic hardships may be, Sarkozy´s main weakness is his contempt for the responsibilities of the highest office. The president personifies the ´one and indivisible´ French Republic, which in turn embodies the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. As the founder of the modern Republic and first president Charles De Gaullle aptly noted ´France cannot be France without grandeur´, thereby setting the moral standard for future presidents. 

Unfortunately, this is precisely what Sarkozy has been lacking in the past few years. After his wife left him, he quickly remarried with a, although amicable, former model and singer. Even worse, Sarkozy tried to make his 23 year old son head of the management committee of the capital's business district. In a country where money is still considered as a means to an end, this kind op nepotism created a public outcry. 

This makes the sober and uncharismatic Hollande the right candidate at the right time. The French Socialists are notoriously bad in winning presidential elections, which enabled them to deliver only one president in the past fifty years -the pragmatic Francois Mitterrand in eighties and nineties. Now, they have a good chance of winning again, at a time when Europe is predominantly governed by liberal and conservative governments. That in itself is already a verdict of the French people.

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