Europe should be wary of France's reformist president

In 2006, President Jacques Chirac stormed out of a European Summit meeting because he wanted French rather than English to be spoken. In 2007, the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is not so sensitive about people speaking English and spends his summer holidays in America, cheerfully posing for the media with President George W. Bush.

In his still short time in office, Sarkozy has presented himself as a reformist leader equipped with new élan; as someone who takes a pragmatic and ...