President Sarkozy is planning to marry Carla Bruni, his singer girlfriend, in early February, just over two months after meeting her and three months since his wife divorced him, according to French and Italian reports.

A wedding is provisionally planned for February 8 or 9, according to yesterday’s Journal du Dimanche. As the Elysée Palace made no attempt to deny this, pollsters said that the President’s parading of the former Italian supermodel and his haste in replacing Cécilia, his wife, helped to explain a seven-point slump in his approval rating over the past month.

“Speedy Sarko”, 52, yesterday gave the traditionalists more reason to view his conduct as unseemly when he posed for photographers holding hands with Ms Bruni, 40, on a trip to Jordan as guests of King Abdullah II. Talk of marriage has been in the air since Mr Sarkozy took Ms Bruni on a trip to Egypt over Christmas. Marisa Tedeschi Bruni, her mother, told newspapers that the President had asked for her daughter’s hand. “I said to him, ‘Monsieur le Président, I have no reason to refuse’,” she said. “Carla is living an authentic love story. I think that they make a good couple.”

Mr Sarkozy’s display of his high-speed romance and his taste for le bling bling has turned the tradition of presidential decorum on its head and helped to sour his image as France enters a new year in a state of anxiety over the economy. His approval rating has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since his election last May. The monthly CSA poll showed that 48 per cent expressed confidence in Mr Sarkozy compared with 55 per cent in December and 65 per cent last summer. Those with no confidence rose seven points to 45 per cent.

The main cause of the slump, however, is Mr Sarkozy’s inability to fulfil campaign promises to halt a slide in the economy that has left the French feeling poorer than at any time since the early 1990s. He promised in a new year TV address to deliver this year, but Christine Lagarde, the Finance Minister, said at the weekend that France faced higher inflation and a battle to weather the global slowdown.

Stéphane Rozès, director of the CSA polling agency, also blamed Mr Sarkozy’s exhibition of his wealth and love life for alienating traditional party supporters.

The pop psychologists and dinner table chat hold that Mr Sarkozy is revealing a vulnerable side with his rush to become an official couple with Ms Bruni, a woman whose prolific past love life has earned her the nickname of “man-eater”. Her past conquests range from Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton to former French Prime Ministers.

The President is expected to give an account of his private life tomorrow at a two-hour meeting with the media at the Elysée Palace. The former Mrs Sarkozy, meanwhile, is preparing to deliver her version of life with Sarko in a book that she is writing with a journalist. Mr Sarkozy is said to be eager for an advance copy, but the publishers are maintaining absolute secrecy.

Times Recommends

• Both sides blame US for worsening relations
• Stieg Larsson: losing the plot over his cash
• Odd creature paralysed by incompatible parts