Fall from grace

German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted the Brussels meeting to concentrate on the stability pact designed to support the euro. Instead, she and the other 25 heads of government were treated to a slanging match over France's expulsion of Roma to Romania and Bulgaria.

The French president had some reason to be irritated. Viviane Reding, the Luxembourg commission vice president, had made a parallel with World War II when Jews and gypsies were sent in abominable conditions to Nazi death camps. In 2010, Roma expelled from France fly out with the promise of a 300-euro resettlement grant.

In Brussels, Sarkozy put the cherry on the cake by saying at a news conference that Germany too was planning to kick out Roma. In Berlin, Merkel's office humiliated him by denying any such intention. Back in Paris, Sarkozy found a new poll giving him just 32 per cent of positive opinions. In another a few days before, Carla Bruni, his wife, garnered 54 per cent, with 71 per cent saying the Italian supermodel turned singer was good for France's image.
In Paris salons, there was chatter that Sarkozy's fall from grace was so flagrant that he had no hope of winning a second term in the next presidential elections in 2012. A former subprefect, who worked with Sarkozy when the president was interior minister, said he believed that his Union for a Popular Movement would press him to make way for a new candidate such as the Prime Minister François Fillon.

On Sarkozy's plate as the French returned from their holidays was opposition to one of his key reforms - of the state pensions system.

According to government estimates, pension coffers face a 45 billion-euro deficit in 2020, up from 32 billion this year, if nothing is done.

In a timid package, the government proposed raising the right to retire to 62 from 60 with maximum benefits kicking in at 67 rather than 65. In early September, trade unions staged strikes and demonstrations against the reform and promised to follow up with more even though parliament have passed the bill.

Ségolène Royal, Sarkozy's unsuccessful opponent in the 2007 presidential election, said live on television that, if the Socialists win the elections in 2012, they will put the retirement age back to 60. A few days later, Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry began to row back, saying the Socialists recognised the need for more years of pension contributions over the current 40 working years even though they remained committed to the right to retire at 60.
As the Left is staking out its claim to power in 2012, former Socialist Party First Secretary François Hollande, Royal's former companion and the father of her four children, suggested it was time to draw up a real platform rather than just surf on Sarkozy's plummeting popularity. To win, Hollande said, the Socialists must “raise the level” and demonstrate “credibility and authority”.