Winners and Losers in ... France

It was a good year for ... Sarkozy

In a fraught year for the French, the diminutive but unstoppable Nicolas Sarkozy - aka The Most Exciting Man in European Politics - was a shining exception, moving from the interior ministry to finance and thence to be head of the ruling UMP party, an ideal position from which to launch his now inevitable bid to become president in 2007.

It was a bad year for ... Chirac

The incumbent had a correspondingly bad time, presiding over the crushing defeat of his government in local, regional and Euro-elections and seeing his younger and snappier rival seize control of the centre-right movement he founded. At least Jacques Chirac was let off the hook over the £1.4m he allegedly spent on truffles, foie gras and champagne while he was mayor of Paris.

Other losers included French football, which said goodbye to Zinedine Zidane and a clutch of other ageing stars after yet another ignominious exit from a big tournament; French rock, whose biggest star (arguably), Bertrand Cantat, got eight years in jail for killing his lover; French architecture, after a section of Charles de Gaulle airport's Terminal 2E collapsed; and French honour, after Cesare Battisti, a reformed Italian terrorist promised sanctuary by François Mitterrand, was ruled extraditable.

Coming up in 2005 ... Referendum

Chirac faces the daunting hurdle of France's referendum on the EU constitution, which the country's contrary voters are by no means certain to approve. Other than that, it's a safe bet that Sarko will continue his irresistible rise, Chirac will try to drag him down by fair means or foul, and the country we all love to loathe will continue to proudly proclaim its difference.