At the back and front of Sarkozy's mind is his campaign to win re-election as president of France next year. He is currently behind Marine Le Pen, the daughter of the founder of the far-right National Front party (FN), who is enjoying high ratings after taking over from her father.
Marine Le Pen did well in the first round of voting of local elections in France over the weekend to score 15% of the vote. Angelique Chrisafis, our Paris correspondent, wrote on Monday night that around 400 candidates from the FN will go through to the second-round vote on 27 March. Until now the party has had no councillors.
Sarkozy the showman has been caught out by Marine Le Pen.
Is Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election campaign setting pace of Libyan action? | Politics | guardian.co.uk