Newly Humble Sarkozy Admits Mistakes in First Year

Nicolas Sarkozy last night issued a humble "mea culpa" to the nation, admitting in a prime time TV interview that he had made numerous mistakes and disappointed the French, but he stood firm on his reform strategy despite polls showing a majority think his first year in office was a failure.

Sarkozy used the 90-minute live interview from the Elysee to try to restyle himself as a reassuring father-of-the-nation figure after the anniversary of his first year in office was marred by a disastrous run of plummeting personal poll ratings, government in-fighting and policy U-turns and confusion.

The "Super Sarko" of old, accused by his critics of arrogance, control-freakery and ostentatious "bling-bling", was last night replaced by "humble pie Sarko". The word "mistake", which had rarely ever made an appearance in his presidential vocabulary, was deliberately repeated five times. The French press immediately noted his "new humility".

Sarkozy swept to power last year vowing that he was the only person brave enough to radically reform France. But one year on, opposition politicians, the public, and even some in his own party, have accused him of producing a jumble of unexplained piecemeal measures, some half-baked, some abandoned, which have left France confused, mistrustful and in need of a road map. Last night he accepted that there was confusion.

"Without doubt, we didn't explain enough. Without doubt, I myself made some mistakes," he said, adding France was "in a bad mood, you have to take it into account." Asked if the life of French people had improved since he took office, he said "not enough".

He also accepted "part of the responsibility" for having pushed his private life into the public eye. His intentionally public whirlwind courtship and marriage to the ex-super model Carla Bruni caused his poll ratings to nose-dive in France. Previously he has used press conferences and TV appearances to express his love for his new wife. This time he acknowledged that the public did not want to hear it. "Tonight I came to talk about France and the problems of the French," he said. "Regarding my private life, everything is back under control."

But he was steadfast in his political convictions, driving home his mantra that France was 30 years behind other reformed European countries and people needed to work more. He defended his loosening of the 35-hour week and the need to reform pensions. He said he would continue to cut the number of public-sector workers, including teachers - despite growing street protests by high-school pupils and education staff. "I can see people's annoyances very clearly, but I know where I'm going. I know very well that there is no other strategy. The disappointment would be ever bigger ... if I stopped just because high school pupils or unions were not happy."

Despite concern within his own camp that the government should prioritize certain reforms instead of shaking everything up at once, Sarkozy insisted he would reform on all fronts. He said he had already launched "55 reforms". He also reiterated his hard line on illegal immigrants and said he would hold a referendum on Turkey's entry to the European Union.

While polls show only 28% of French people believe Sarkozy's presidency is going in the right direction, 11.7 million people tuned into the interview last night, less than previous record-breaking figures.

France's biggest concern is families' inability to make ends meet - pay bills such as food, heating or rent - and their feeble "purchasing power". Sarkozy yesterday pointed to external factors like oil prices, the strong euro and the world financial crisis as explanations for some of the limitations of his economic policy. He was concerned at high prices in France and said he would change France's rules on supermarket competition, but political commentators felt he was less than from convincing on the key issue.

The rightwing paper Le Figaro lauded his performance as an "evolution" into what the majority of French people see as true presidential standing, adding that it would take time for Sarkozy to completely reconquer French hearts. The left-leaning daily Liberation felt the president's "tone" had changed - he no longer had the approach of a "cocky lawyer" - but the substance remained the same.