President On the Precipice

Such is Sarkozy's overt inclination to let ambition outweigh diplomatic amity that he has seemed determined to keep a hand on the helm of Europe, no matter what diplomatic conventions, or other leaders, stand in his way. The Frenchman is due to hand off the rotating EU captaincy he has held since July to Prague at the end of the year. But as early as August, French diplomats wondered aloud, if in private, whether a smaller country than France could have faced the global challenges of the day so ably.

Sarkozy—there's no secret here—very much liked being president of a continent as well as a country and could argue with some justification that he acted where others might have stalled and got results where others would have given only rhetoric. When Russia invaded Georgia in August, for instance, Sarkozy himself got on a plane to Moscow and then to Tbilisi, a city about to be besieged, to negotiate a ceasefire that may well have saved the government of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Certainly Sarkozy gave that impression, regaling the Georgians with stories of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's grabbing him by the lapels while growling, "I want Saakashvili's head on that wall!" And the Georgians credit Sarkozy with keeping that from happening. "Sarkozy is an extraordinary person," says Temur Iakobashvili, an influential member of the Georgian cabinet, "and his extraordinariness is explained by different people in different ways: you can say 'crazy,' 'heroic,' 'hotheaded,' 'mercurial'." But "we should not underestimate the role Sarkozy played," says Iakobashvili. He took the diplomatic lead in stopping the Russian military advance, says the minister, and ultimately he "saved Georgia."

There's no question that a personality like Sarkozy's thrives on crisis. After global financial calamity began in earnest with the collapse of Lehman Brothers' investment bank in the United States on Sept. 15, Sarkozy reportedly rejected the text of a speech that would have soft-pedaled the extent of the disaster. Instead, he told his compatriots bluntly 10 days after Lehman, "This is the end of a world." And with no opposition on the left or the right, he could turn his economic policies in a whole new direction. Having been elected on a platform of less state intervention—the smaller-government, lower-taxes mantra the Republican Party has long made an article of faith in the United States—Sarkozy suddenly embraced state intervention with a vengeance, promoting this month a €26 billion stimulus package that would dramatically increase France's budget deficit.

The pirouette is classic Sarkozy. Indeed, it's one of the reasons he has been so successful at destroying opposition parties. Despite a long career brandishing conservative Gaullist credentials, his most important political credo is what the French call volontarisme, his faith in the ability to influence events through sheer willpower. To that end, he adopts whichever policies look like they'll work, and whichever put him out front. On his way to the presidency, Sarkozy proved himself a genius at co-opting the most popular political ideas of his potential opponents. As interior minister, he proved he could exploit fear of immigrants and a widespread sense of public insecurity just as effectively as the far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen—long a spoiler in French politics—and without the heavy taint of anti-Semitism that accrued to the National Front. On the left, he brought Socialist stars like Bernard Kouchner into his cabinet. Sarkozy also supported the bid of former Socialist economy minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a potential presidential contender himself, to be appointed as head of the International Monetary Fund.

Through the intensifying economic crises of the past three months, the Socialists have mustered only feeble criticisms, and sometimes praise, for Sarkozy's policies. In fact, he has proved more compelling a voice for big government and big spending than the traditional left has been. As editorialist Françoise Fressoz noted in Le Monde, the main complaint about his plan to kick-start the economy is that it put too much emphasis on business investment and too little on household income, but still the Socialists "didn't much challenge its usefulness."

As the EU presidency comes to an end on Dec. 31, however, Sarkozy's better nature may be frustrated. In an obvious effort to keep the momentum of his leadership alive, Sarkozy will be hosting a conference the first week of January with Tony Blair and a horde of world-class intellectuals. In April, France is expected to rejoin the unified command of NATO more than 40 years after President Charles de Gaulle pulled out. The occasion will be the 60th anniversary of the alliance, a perfect setting for Sarkozy to create headlines, perhaps even by increasing the French commitment in Afghanistan. He is always ready for the grand gesture, and even if the move is unpopular, there's no well-organized opposition to make him change his mind.