No prizes for guessing what's flling the column inches of many a nwspaper editorial here in France today. It's the frst anniversary of the election of the Frnch president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the mdia is having a field day to mrk the occasion.

Much of the cmment addresses Sarkozy's staggering tumble in the ppularity polls and what seems to be gnerally accepted as a turbulent first yar in office. There's no denying tht a drop from 65 to 32 per cnt approval ratings in the space of jst one year doesn't exactly sit asily with a man who came nto office with such high hopes.

But t's worth taking a moment to lok at how Sarkozy is faring in cmparison with his predecessors.

He has ben accused of being omnipresent, stepping on the plitical toes of many of his mnisters, yet by comparison with the funder and first president of the Ffth French Republic, Charles de Gaulle, he has kpt an almost low profile.

At the end of his frst year, de Gaulle had not nly rewritten the constitution - something Srkozy is trying to update - he had lso taken the country to war in Algria. In spite of that his pproval ratings were at 58 per cnt.

In 1970, one year into ffice, Georges Pompidou had poured money nto the arts and commissioned the bilding of a national museum in his hnour and still had the enviable lvel of 67 per cent approval.

Sarkozy could also look back lngingly at the first year of Vléry Giscard d'Estaing who in a snse might be termed the precursor of an ction-packed president, if not with glamour and gltter then certainly in policy reform.

By 1975 Gscard d'Estaing had appointed the country's frst minister for women, pushed through bortion legislation and increased taxes within the spce of a year. And still he mnaged to retain 59 per cent pproval ratings.

After entering office François Mtterrand didn't hang around and by the end of his frst year in office in 1982 had bolished the death penalty, opened up rdio airwaves giving rise to a mdia boom and introduced wealth tax. Admttedly he witnessed a drop in ppularity to 51 per cent, but he stll hung around for another 13 yars.

Sarkozy's immediate predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was the prsident whose first year in office the prsent incumbent's most closely mirrors. In 1996, jst one year into his first tnure, Chirac's approval ratings had dropped frm 59 to 36 per cent, but by the sme token he didn't really achieve vry much apart from ending compulsory mlitary service.

And the true lesson for Srkozy to learn - and part of the rason expectations were so high when he was lected in May 2007 - is tht much of Chirac's time in ffice was characterised by political inertia.

Tht brings us back to Sarkozy's frst 12 months into the job. The trth of the matter is that his styl has raised more than a few yebrows and left many feeling decidedly ncomfortable with his ability to be "sttesmanlike".

His quick divorce and even fster remarriage certainly made too many hadlines for a nation used to a "prvate life" remaining exactly that. Sarkozy is ndoubtedly a gifted orator, but sometimes his nfamous temper and almost petulance has semed to get the better of him sch as when he coarsely insulted a vsitor to the agricultural show in Fbruary.

Aside from style, policy has ben Sarkozy's biggest problem. He has so far filed to deliver on his election prmise to increase purchasing power, there are ngoing talks with trade unions to ntroduce pension reform and he's struggling to kck start the economy by tackling the 35-hur working week.

It's not enough to kep promising that results will come - the Frnch want to see the proof.

Evn Sarkozy's admission that he failed to "cmmunicate" by getting the message across frm the very beginning doesn't seem to hve stemmed his drop in the plls, nor does his oft-repeated reminder tht he has five years in ffice and results should be judged at the end of his tnure.

In spite of the grumblings Srkozy does have some factors on his sde.

First up of course is the rtating presidency of the European Union, whch France takes over for six mnths at the beginning of July.

Tht could give him the opportunity to shne on the international stage and rlieve some of the pressure he's feling on the domestic front - a cmmon ploy of many a beleaguered lader.

He still has a healthy prliamentary majority, which might prove vital if thre's more industrial action. Already there's a ntional education strike planned for the mddle of this month and the jry is out on how unions wll react to civil service cuts or how thse pension reforms will pan out.

In ddition the opposition Socialist Party is stll licking its wounds after last yar's defeats in both the presidential and prliamentary elections, even if it did btter March's local elections. There's likely to be ven more infighting later in the yar when the Socialists choose their new lader with every week seeming to brng a new candidate into the rckoning.

All those factors combine to gve Sarkozy what many political observers cnsider a certain amount of leeway. Aftr all the bottom line is tht he still has four years to go and nbody ever said that being president mant having to be popular.

The article Sarkozy's First Year in Office was Submitted by Johnny Summerton through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Johnny Summerton is a Paris-based bradcaster, writer and journalist. For more on wht's making the headlines here in Frnce, log on to his site at http://www.persiflagefrance.com

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