A hundred days will begin on 16 May

I would not have voted for him. The last time the French elected the man I would have voted for I was fortunate enough to still be living in Paris. I don't think I will ever forget the television coverage which showed Francois Mitterand as he traversed the vast halls and high corridors of the Pantheon, a single rose in his hand. The Ode to Joy provided the sound track and Jack Lang's mise-en-scène became for me a piece of media history.

However, Monsieur Sarkozy is not without his admirers.

And there are those who often try to reassure us liberals that, surprisingly, it is often conservative regimes who manage to push through needed but uncomfortable reforms that the left can never quite manage.

I wonder if this is what Monsieur Tony is hoping, too?