A Crisis for France, and Sarkozy

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant father and a French mother with Jewish roots, has created a public image as a tough-talking outsider who did not attend the prestigious universities and political institutes that have produced most of the country's leaders -- including Villepin.

"He can be seen as provocative by French standards," said a Sarkozy aide who spoke on condition he not be identified by name. "But he doesn't want to be seen as the usual candidate with the old-school ways of doing things."

For the angry young men and boys -- most of them the French-born sons of immigrants -- who are torching cars and schools amid the housing projects of the French suburbs, Sarkozy is the voice of what they consider a hostile government. Now, instead of wading into crowds and confronting his critics in nose-to-nose debates in the shirt-sleeve style he relishes, he makes carefully orchestrated appearances in police meeting halls and the chambers of the Interior Ministry.

But Sarkozy also has angered the country's right-wing factions, proposing to change the century-old law separating religion and state by letting the government provide space for mosques and Muslim cultural centers in unused buildings. He argues that it is preferable for the French government to help finance mosques rather than allow foreign countries with radical Islamic elements to fund them.

"What is dangerous is not minarets, but cellars and garages that keep clandestine religious groups hidden," Sarkozy wrote in a small book he produced last year titled "The Republic, Religions and Hope."

He also has instituted programs to teach French to immigrant imams, saying, "I don't want any more imams who don't speak a word of French." He also has advocated evicting imams considered too radical in their preaching.

Sarkozy's personal political fortunes will likely be determined by the public perception of his handling of the crisis, according to political analysts.

"His reputation was made on his fight against crime," said Bruno Jeanbart, deputy director of policy studies for the polling group CSA. "He has to show now that it's still the case and he can still respond."

Some critics say Sarkozy's policies, though they produced significant declines in crime, have contributed to the crisis. During his first term as interior minister, he reorganized the national police agency's community-based squads, abandoning the practice of assigning officers to neighborhoods where they had local connections.

"He put an end to community police who were weaving links with people, trying to create social links," said Bertrand Badie, a professor of international relations at France's prestigious Institute of Political Sciences.

"He wanted to be presented as the champion, to have power and order."

But that policy has contributed to the feeling of mistrust between police and the impoverished communities of immigrants and their offspring where the police are assigned, according to Badie and others.

The fear of police harassment led two teenage boys from the northern suburbs of Paris to leap into a power substation on Oct. 27 while trying to dodge police at a checkpoint, according to their parents. The deaths of the youths, who were electrocuted, set off the current wave of violence.