FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy, sinking in the opinion polls and facing growing economic problems, is trying to get his reform agenda back on track after weeks of government infighting and policy confusion. With approval ratings at record lows, a fractious cabinet and a worsening economic climate, Sarkozy is counting on a televised address on Thursday to restore momentum. Just under a year after his triumphant election in May 2007, the climate has changed starkly for his centre-right government. Discord among ministers, grumbling by rank and file members of parliament and a series of missteps over issues ranging from family benefits to genetically modified crops had made “couac” (“wrong note”) the newspapers' favourite word in recent weeks. The opinion polls have followed. Sarkozy's most recent approval rating of 36 percent, down a point from the week before, is the lowest recorded by a modern president after his first year in office, according to the Journal du Dimanche, the Sunday newspaper that published the poll. Sarkozy was forced to read the riot act to his squabbling cabinet last week, threatening to sack any minister who could not stick to an agreed government line. That followed a series of barely concealed rows, which broke open most bitterly when junior environment minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet accused colleagues of “cowardice” over a proposed new law on genetically modified crops. The opposition Socialists, used to attacking Sarkozy for arrogance, have increasingly switched their accusation to incompetence and have even been backed by some from the centre-right's own ranks. “This is a government that's all over the place,” Herve de Charette, a former foreign minister and current member of parliament for the ruling UMP party said last week. Sarkozy's aides have brushed off the turbulence and dismiss criticism from the Socialists and what they say is a handful of disaffected voices from the UMP. But a string of gaffes and upsets over past few weeks has underlined the difficulty of keeping the government focused, while implementing potentially unpopular changes. Earlier this month, confusion over funding for discount rail cards offered to large families led to suspicions the government planned to abolish a much-treasured benefit introduced in 1921. That was followed by a spat over reimbursement of the cost of new spectacles and then by a change to family benefits the government said was aimed at helping very young children but which critics denounced as a de facto cut. “There is a permanent muddle -- back-tracking and denials following on from spectacular announcements,” Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist mayor of Paris and potential challenger to Sarkozy at the next election in four years told the Le Parisien daily. The economy has not helped. After recent consumer sentiment data showed morale at its lowest in 20 years, inflation data last week showed prices rising at their fastest since the 1990s, adding to chronic worries over declining spending power. The government has already cut its growth forecast for 2008 to 1.7-2.0 percent and faces growing scepticism over how it will meet its pledge to eliminate its bloated budget deficit by 2012. After a year of near-constant movement when he appeared omnipresent, Sarkozy appears to have toned down the sometimes brash personal style that ended up by grating with many voters. But the Journal du Dimanche survey still found that 79 percent do not believe he has improved the situation in France. __
