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When the political news is bad for the president, "Sarko the showman" enters the fray to divert attention. Yesterday he appeared before journalists in Paris to trumpet his achievement in "breaking with a hateful tradition of hypocrisy" by making public his relationship with former model Carla Bruni. …

Seven months into his presidency, a majority of French voters are hungover. Newspaper surveys show Sarkozy's approval rates slipping. …

He has refused to raise the minimum wage on the grounds that there is no money to do so (while giving himself a salary rise of 170%), decreased health subsidies, and introduced TV licence fees for the poorest households. On the other, he has scrapped inheritance tax and reduced taxation on the highest incomes.

His campaign slogan "work more to earn more" has turned out to be a sham. Before May 2007, it was possible to work more than the legal 35-hour week. Sarkozy has not "freed work", for such a right already existed. He has decided that all working hours beyond the 35-hour limit will no longer be paid at a higher rate. This means salaried workers will, in effect, work more to earn less. …

Sarkozy's relentless pursuit of "national unity" is part of his ambition to disarm the left, the trade unions and the public. This plebiscitary posture aims to depoliticise his ideological attempt to dismantle the social state. It is also a way of transcending ideological divides. Such trickery has enabled him to avoid a clear stand on economic redistribution. When riots erupted again in the Paris suburbs last month, Sarkozy said the situation in the banlieues was only a matter of public order: he did not utter a word about the abject socio-economic conditions in which most of the rioters live. …

From an ideological point of view, "Sarkozyism" comes across as an incoherent bricolage. From a socio-economic point of view, it is consistently devoted to implementing the economic agenda of global capitalism. …