The scene was watched by over 11 million viewers last Wednesday. Live from the Elysée, the President of the Republic was interviewed by Claire Chazal, who appeared quite enamored, and Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, who was decidedly more biting. Reflecting on the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, the TF1 presenter “explained” to Nicolas Sarkozy that he came across as a “little boy,” happy to be “in the big league.” Let us gloss over the very presidential serenity of the reaction, probably unexpected for the detractors of the new Elysée resident. At most, after another blunder by Poivre d’Arvor about the “age” of the President, a remark not without irony was cleverly addressed to the journalist.
There is no need to condemn the aggressiveness of the latter to then boast about the good conditions of press freedom in our country. Such an exchange would have been unthinkable in Venezuela, because the opposition televisions no longer exist, or in Russia where all that remains of independent journalists have found themselves unemployed. Even in France, there were Presidents who would have immediately ended the interview over such a remark. No. The essence lies elsewhere. Probably in this brief moment and the nature of this dialogue lies the fundamental mark of the coming five-year term.
PPDA’s comment, although unflattering, ultimately reflects this new mindset: that of a break in tone defended from the start by the former UMP candidate, claimed throughout his electoral campaign, and now fully assumed by the victor of May 6. It is the same philosophy that he now tries to instill in the political practices and aging institutions of the Fifth Republic by inviting them to “breathe.” As an example, we might usefully recall the promises to fight the “techno-structures” made by a former President during his electoral campaign. Barely three weeks after his election, he was once again trapped to the point of struggling to retain the oldest of his collaborators who had not had the good fortune to go through ENA.
The recommendations expressed to the members of François Fillon’s government during the last Council of Ministers testify to this: President Sarkozy’s major concern lies in the immobility and isolation inherent in any power capable, like a powerful spell with effects of narcissistic comfort, of depriving men of their initial will to think, to speak, and to act. Hence the repetition in his speeches of the “I” anxious not to be diluted in the “we.” “Chilling,” the state power most often reflects on the human being who exercises it and who becomes “frozen,” to plagiarize the words of the head of state. It shapes him in a way while he illusorily believes he is mastering it. The difficulties that await Nicolas Sarkozy are thus not where they are generally expected. If he intends to respect his commitments to “break,” it is perhaps with himself that he will have to wage the most strenuous of battles.
