Now It's Sarkozy - President in Love

He has outed himself as an immigrant's son, a jogger, an unashamed rightwinger and an Elvis-loving pro-American.

But today, under the twinkling chandeliers of the Elysee Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled his latest, taboo-breaking persona - President in Love.

"It's serious," he swooned from a lectern at his biggest-ever press conference, letting it be understood that Carla Bruni, the supermodel turned popstar who he met for the first time less than two months ago, would soon be France's new first lady.

The maths was giddying - less than a year in office and barely three months after his quickie divorce, Sarkozy was presenting his second first lady and his third wife.

When he lovingly uttered the word Carla from his platform in front of the French and European flags, he deliberately brought decades of French presidential precedent crashing around his shoulders.

There would be no more Jacques Chirac-style secret 15-minute late night rendezvous across Paris, and none of François Mitterrrand's second family hidden away with his mistress.

The Sarko Show - as his starry photo-opportunities with Bruni have become known - was no longer a question of naff, celebrity-style jaunts in aviator shades around the Pyramids or watching the Mickey Mouse parade at Disneyland.

It was all in the name of Sarkozy taking the moral high ground and ending the vile French trend of leaders who were dishonest about their private lives.

"I've reflected a lot on this question - I didn't want to lie," the president preached from his lectern. "I have been a part of a break with a deplorable tradition in our country: hypocrisy and lies."

He alluded to Mitterrand who, while married, kept a secret mistress and child - something the press covered up. "I don't judge - life is so difficult, so painful," he said of the former socialist president.

However, Sarkozy found it "very satisfying" that, under his leadership, France had "evolved". A sign of that evolution was that, at his lengthy press conference to set out his political agenda for the economically ailing France of 2008, the second question from French journalists was: "When are you getting married?"

"With Carla, we've decided not to lie. We don't want to exploit things, but neither do we want to hide," he said.

As for the wedding date, "it's highly likely that you'll hear about it when it's already happened", he smiled, waving his ring-free left hand to prove he hadn't already whisked Bruni to Las Vegas.

Sarkozy in Love had a different look to Recently Divorced Sarkozy. He appeared slimmer and calmer, his tan was a shade lighter and his physical ticks of shoulder-shrugging, head-nodding and leg-twitching were under control.

His move to rebrand himself as a crusader against love-life hypocrisy was typical of his determination to turn failure to his advantage.

Six months earlier, in the same room - the Elysee's plush Salle de Fetes - Sarkozy had celebrated his inauguration, kissing his wife Cecilia and posing for photographs with his children and stepchildren, presenting a model family despite problems at home.

Having deliberately ushered his private life into the media spotlight for years, Sarkozy yesterday told the press of his holidays canoodling with Bruni, saying: "If you're afraid of being exploited, don't send a photographer."

Polls have shown that the seemingly endless pictures of Sarkozy and Bruni hugging on the Nile at Christmas turned off the older, traditional voters who elected him.

Sarkozy today said his dip in the polls didn't worry him, promising a year of labour, health and state reform while balancing a flagging economy.

His speech was peppered with his favorite new soundbite - "the politics of civilization" - but he also stopped to utter the word "love" several times.

"You know the president of the republic doesn't have any more right to happiness than the average person," he added. "But no less right either."