Sarkozy's showiness spells his doom

Paris When Nicolas Sarkozy bounded up the steps of France's presidential palace in jogging shorts and shoes on his first day in office five years ago, many French instantly sensed they were in for something new. His idea of change wasn't exactly what many had in mind.

Sarkozy's meticulously built political career all but collapsed on Sunday, after he lost to Francois Hollande in France's presidential run-off. Sarkozy becomes the first French one-term president since Valery Giscard d'Estaing lost his re-election bid in 1981.

"I take full responsibility for this defeat," he said.

Some political brethren grumbled that Sarkozy should have officially jumped into his re-election race earlier, instead of clinging to his mantle as head of state until February. Other pundits suggested that less controversial conservatives such as Prime Minister Francois Fillon or Foreign Minister Alain Juppe would have had a better shot at beating Hollande.

A frank-speaking, energetic and media-savvy former interior minister, Sarkozy won the presidency in 2007 over Segolene Royal with an unlikely campaign built on promises of "rupture" from the policies of Jacques Chirac, his fellow conservative and former mentor.

It was personal style, many pollsters said, that largely did in Sarkozy. After his 2007 victory speech, Sarkozy sped over to one of the ritziest restaurants on the Champs-Elysees to "celebrate" then he jetted off to the yacht of a tycoon friend in the Mediterranean. Critics pounced on the showiness.

A lacklustre economy and his inability to make good on his promises to shrink persistently high joblessness didn't help.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, France's unemployment rate was nearly 10 per cent. In January, S&P downgraded France's state debt rating from its top tier, delivering a blow to his image as financial-manager-in-chief.

On the 2012 campaign trail, he repeatedly pointed to Europe's financial crisis — in places like Italy and Greece — that endangered the euro zone. He sought to cast himself as a "ship captain whose boat was in a full storm."

In many ways, Nicolas Sarkozy was an anomaly as France's president.

He had a foreign-sounding surname. He didn't attend the most elite French university for public servants. He seemed to relish in chucking out the regal niceties of the presidency. His off-the-cuff remarks, like calling a somewhat belligerent passer-by at a Paris farm fair "a poor jerk," got him in trouble.

Sarkozy reportedly once said he'd foreseen himself more as a prime minister.