FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac may take some solace from an opinion poll to be published in Paris Match today. The poll, taken before Paris lost its bid for the 2012 Olympics, shows Mr Chirac's approval rating has risen seven points in one month to 35 per cent.
More important for Mr Chirac, his arch rival, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has fallen to seventh place among France's most popular politicians, and is now just ahead of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Earlier this week, Mr Sarkozy discussed European policy in an interview with Europe 1 radio station. In France, foreign policy is considered the president's prerogative.
At present, Mr Sarkozy is favoured to succeed Mr Chirac in 2007. His depiction of a Europe led by five or six big countries, in which the Franco-German alliance would be sidelined, is likely to anger Mr Chirac. Mr Sarkozy has also said that further EU enlargement should be suspended, and that Turkey should not be allowed to join the union.
"In a Europe of six members, the engine was obviously Franco-German," Mr Sarkozy said. "A Europe of 25 needs an engine of five at first and probably six, with Poland."
He suggested that a meeting he chaired of five EU interior ministers (from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) could be a model for future integration.
"Countries of 40, 60 or 80 million inhabitants count for more in Europe than countries with a few hundred thousand inhabitants," Mr Sarkozy added.
Mr Chirac and the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder have developed a close relationship, building on the reconciliation forged by Gen Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer in 1963. That closeness is now threatened by the likelihood that right-wing Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel will unseat Mr Schröder in the September elections.
On his last trip to Berlin, British prime minister Tony Blair called on Ms Merkel before Chancellor Schröder. Mr Blair, Ms Merkel and now Mr Sarkozy have all said the Franco-German relationship can no longer be the core of Europe.
Except for Germany, the other four countries Mr Sarkozy named sided with the US in the Iraq war. Three months after the invasion, Mr Sarkozy dined with the US ambassador in Paris. According to Le Monde, Mr Sarkozy told the ambassador: "I like the United States. I like the American people. You can count on my devotion, even if my duty to be loyal forces me to support Chirac's decisions."