The Wall Street Journal-20080204-Sarkozy-s Vows

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Sarkozy's Vows

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The courtship was glitzy, widely publicized and fast, which just about sums up Nicolas Sarkozy's approach to everything. Not so Saturday's exchange of vows at the Elysee Palace between the French President and singer and ex-model Carla Bruni Tedeschi. The first Presidential wedding in 75 years was small, quiet and confirmed in a one-sentence statement after the fact.

Mr. Sarkozy's five months of bachelorhood weren't happy. His October divorce abruptly brought the French Camelot to an end. The President's mood visibly soured, he lost his political focus and his popularity tumbled. In a so-called "Carla effect," some pollsters also blamed Ms. Bruni for giving French voters the impression that their President was distracted from addressing their economic concerns.

A wedding could change that perception. The court now has a new queen and Mr. Sarkozy's partisans may well believe that the king will soon be back in top political form. "This is a man who needs a woman by his side," someone close to the President told us after the nuptials Saturday. The exchange of rings -- the third for him, first for her -- will also end protocol headaches for the Elysee on the handling of an unmarried first couple on his frequent trips abroad.

Mr. Sarkozy's recent political problems, in our view, stem less from his private life than from a reluctance to push ahead harder with economic reforms. That confuses voters. As does, in foreign affairs, his courtship of Moammar Gadhafi, Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, which contradicts his famous election night pledge to stand against "tyrannies and dictatorships."

Mr. Sarkozy remains the President best placed in recent memory to modernize France, and his first nine months in office aren't without accomplishments. But his inconsistencies, protectionist economic rhetoric and, in the brief courtship of Ms. Bruni, unchecked photo- opportunism, got him off track. Only Mr. Sarkozy can get himself back on course.