Is Sarkozy a closet socialist? asks The Economist

I think that this question is by far too much an ideological one. If we look at the facts it is obvious that Mr Sarkozy is a statist. He is an interventionist and a statist who believes that political willingness is the driven force of progress. He shares this with leftists but the main character of his political action is that a strong state is the answer to the different problems of society. Saying that, I recognize that he is a conventional french politician. No less no more. For instance he delivered a lot of speeches but in several areas these were not followed by results. Above all the most important discrepancy between his believings and reality is the continuous growth of the public debt. In this subject his political willingness was and probably will remain unefficient. At last the good question would be:
is Sarkozy different from other french politicians?
As a miracle is difficult to occur in economy, the answer will be clear in a few months.

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12607041