Sarkozy sentence of the day

Merkel will not rally to Sarkozy’s agenda on reining in the ECB, fighting tax competition and developing an EU-wide industry policy.

That’s from today’s FT, "Victor given a wary welcome in Europe."  A headline on the same page reads "Sarkozy will put French interests first."  That is perhaps a duh, but the risk is that Sarkozy will find it easier to implement the nationalistic parts of his agenda than the liberal parts.  I’m not going to call Sarkozy the "Thatcher of France" until the first strikes start, and end.  I am, however, amused by his plan to push through key legislation while everyone is on vacation.