PARIS, Jan 24 (Reuters) – French President Nicolas
Sarkozy is facing up to the possibility that he could lose power
in April’s election, admitting to aides that a stubborn lead in
polls by his Socialist rival means his days could be numbered.

The conservative leader, stuck with dismal ratings as France
endures a third year of economic gloom, sounded
uncharacteristically defeatist as he remarked during a weekend
trip to French Guyana that the election could spell the end of
his political career.

PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – France lost its triple-A
credit rating with Standard & Poor’s on Friday, putting it a
notch below Germany in a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy three
months from a presidential election.

S&P cut France to AA+ from AAA as it downgraded a swathe of
euro zone countries, blaming insufficient policy measures by the
bloc’s leaders to tackle worsening strains.

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy is taking a dangerous gamble months from a presidential election with his plan to raise sales taxes to ease the burden of social welfare contributions on companies struggling to emerge from economic crisis.

The centre-right leader is trumpeting “Social VAT” as a way of bolstering competitiveness and propping up the flagging economy, but he risks a backlash from voters who would face higher prices for everything from household goods to handbags.

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged in a grave New Year’s message to find ways to pull the economy out of stagnation in the four months left before a presidential election and vowed no further public spending cuts.

Sarkozy told the nation that the worst economic crisis since World War Two would continue to hurt households in 2012 and urged people to be stoical.

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The man who nurtured a
generation of aspiring writers at a rickety English-language
bookstore in Paris, offering supper and a bed to literature fans
providing they dusted the shelves or penned their memoirs, has
died aged 98.

George Whitman, an American, died in the little apartment at
the top of his Shakespeare and Company bookstore where he hung
with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac half a century
ago and until recently hosted literary tea parties on Sundays
for anybody who cared to come by.

PARIS, Dec 11 (Reuters) – The warm smiles and
backslapping when Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron feted their
Libyan victory in September were a distant memory this week as
the French leader shoved Britain aside to make way for a new
treaty to save the euro.

The ease with which Sarkozy left Britain stranded as the
rest of Europe opted to steam ahead with new budget rules showed
how little the island nation counts for today in Paris, as
France and Germany battle to end a devastating debt crisis.

PARIS (Reuters) – This week’s blanket euro zone credit rating warning by Standard & Poor’s has infuriated Paris and Berlin, yet it could help President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid by giving new impetus to Franco-German relations.

The balance of power between France and its economically weightier partner is the topic of raging debate ahead of an April election, with opposition Socialists accusing Sarkozy of capitulating to German demands for budget control in Europe.

MARSEILLE, France/PARIS (Reuters) – France and Germany planned to lobby conservative European leaders on Thursday to back a plan to defuse the euro zone’s debt crisis, as Europe’s central bankers began a crucial meeting hours before a high-stakes EU summit.

Paris and Berlin need to win backing quickly for their plan to amend the European Union’s Lisbon treaty to toughen budget discipline, if they are to have it ready as they hope by March.

MARSEILLE, France/PARIS, Dec 8 (Reuters) – France and
Germany planned to lobby conservative European leaders on
Thursday to back a plan to defuse the euro zone’s debt crisis,
as Europe’s central bankers began a crucial meeting hours before
a high-stakes EU summit.

Paris and Berlin need to win backing quickly for their plan
to amend the European Union’s Lisbon treaty to toughen budget
discipline, if they are to have it ready as they hope by March.

PARIS (Reuters) – This week’s blanket euro zone credit rating warning by Standard & Poor’s has infuriated Paris and Berlin, yet it could help President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid by giving new impetus to Franco-German relations.

The balance of power between France and its economically weightier partner is the topic of raging debate ahead of an April election, with opposition Socialists accusing Sarkozy of capitulating to German demands for budget control in Europe.