Sarkozy's rise an echo of a younger, harder-driving Chirac

He won the presidency on promises of change for a morose France fed up with soaring joblessness, and he was openly fond of the United States.

That was Jacques Chirac in 1995.

Fast-forward to May 2007: Same scenario, same ambition, but this time the star is Nicolas Sarkozy, and the language of change is even more forceful.

Sarkozy takes over from Chirac as president on Wednesday, pledging reforms to get more people in the work force, kindling Washington's hopes of a new friendship, and promising to revive the self-esteem of his nation of 60 million.

Chirac, 74, will step down after 12 years as head of state that veered between acts of high statesmanship and corruption scandals, and left many promises unfulfilled.

Months after becoming president, he breached a wall of denial by declaring that the French state abetted the Holocaust. He believed deeply in a united Europe in a peaceful world, and European Union membership nearly doubled to 27 nations on his watch.

Yet he ultimately failed to kindle his nation's enthusiasm for deepening the union, as demonstrated in 2005 when the electorate blocked his push to endorse a constitution for the EU.

In another early departure from the French mindset, he shocked language purists by going on CNN's Larry King Live and speaking English. Yet 11 years later, when he heard a French official address a European gathering in English, he stormed out in protest.

It was typical of the contradictions that marked his two terms as president.

A center-rightist, he carried the mantle of Charles de Gaulle into the 21st century, but little of the late great general's iron will and grandeur rubbed off on him. His accomplishments abolishing the draft, revamping the state pension scheme pale against the backdrop of the November, 2005 immigrant riots that engulfed France, and the failure to streamline the country's weighty bureaucracy and rev up its economy for a globalized world.

He was successful in marginalizing the ultra-right, and the 12.2 percent jobless rate he inherited fell below 9 percent though remained higher than the European Union norm.

"He is prudent too prudent, some would say," remarked Dominique Reynie of the Institute of Political Sciences. "He felt he had to reform the country slowly."

Sarkozy, on the other hand seems raring for action a short, kinetic man brimming with energy, sharp of tongue and already courting trouble by proposing to clip the powers of French trade unions.

Under Chirac, daring decisions were left for foreign affairs. Leading the opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq was a career-defining moment but also a drag on trans-Atlantic ties which Sarkozy and US President George W. Bush both are determined to heal, judging by their post-election pronouncements.

By the end of his presidency his approval ratings were low, and Sarkozy, his one-time protege campaigned on "rupture" with the past.

Chirac hinted at his disappointment in a speech in March, saying: "I would, of course, have liked to push a bit more the conservative and egotistical (forces) to respond more quickly to the difficulties some of you face." In listing what he did get done, he used the word "proud" a half-dozen times.

Source: China Daily/Agencies