NICOLAS SARKOZY, the president of France, will appeal to his countrymen for calm this week in an attempt to stop the spread of unrest after a giant demonstration of anger against his government.

He will make a broadcast to the nation on Thursday night, when he is expected to tell people how deeply he feels their pain and understands their fears. He will also attempt to convince them that the international financial crisis rather than his politics is to blame.

His efforts to present a gentler image have suffered a setback, however, after complaints that, in a fit of pique, he demoted two regional police chiefs for allowing him to be jeered by protesters.

The prefect and police director in the northern La Manche region were removed from their posts after a presidential visit on January 12 when “Sarko” was furious to be booed by protesters.

Members of the president’s own party have expressed outrage about what they called an abuse of power that made a mockery of Sarkozy’s defence last week of the right to publicly vent grievances.

“He was very annoyed to hear protesters jeering him,” said Philippe Gosselin, an MP for La Manche in the president’s centre-right party.

“It’s scandalous,” added Jean-François Le Grand, president of the local council, complaining that Sarkozy had disposed of Jean Charbonniaud, the 57-year-old prefect, “like a Kleenex”.

Their complaints are an embarrassment to a president trying to present a more caring image less likely to provoke revolt. The prospect of violent social upheaval has been preying on Sarkozy’s mind - not just since Thursday, when between 1m and 2.5m people took to the streets in protest against his rule.

The demonstrations, a ritual of French political life, are a test of strength between the unions and the president, but also a glimpse of what some believe the whole of Europe can expect as the global financial crisis worsens and public fears about joblessness intensify.

Sarkozy, who came to power on promises of “rupture” with the past, used to laugh at his predecessors for caving in to “the street” instead of pressing ahead with reforms.

He would mock the French “culture of protest” as a perverse product of student demonstrations in Paris, which shook the world in the 1960s.

In recent weeks, however, he has sounded more cautious and caring. Some have attributed the shift to his wife Carla Bruni, the Italian model and singer, who describes herself as a woman of the left.

Sarkozy, who turned 54 last week, appears to fear the French record of regicide. In recent conversations with underlings he has dwelled on how the people rose up against their rulers just over two centuries ago to chop off their heads. He has urged restraint on his ministers.

“The financial crisis has made everything fragile,” he told a group of aides recently. “The ground we walk on is less firm. The time for forcing things through is over.”

Part of the strategy was to encourage the “coming out” last week of Roger Karoutchi, junior minister for parliamentary relations and the first senior government official publicly to acknowledge being gay.

The “new-look Sarko” will be on display again on Thursday night, but his television appearance is unlikely to satisfy the unions, whose leaders are calling for concrete measures.

The “black Thursday” of national gridlock that they had promised did not happen: a “minimum service” law introduced by Sarkozy last year to take the teeth out of strikes ensured that public transport continued to function.

Even so, union leaders argued that the turnout, the biggest since 2006, could not be ignored by the president.

“We will keep up the pressure,” said a union official, referring to union bosses’ meeting tomorrow to plan protests.

Even if the political will existed, it would be hard for the government to satisfy all the aggrieved, from police officers demanding “cash for the cops” to pensioners finding it hard to make ends meet.

“The worst thing is that our salaries don’t even keep up with inflation,” said Charles Péguy, a 32-year-old science teacher who is struggling on £2,000 a month, as the protest got under way in Paris.

Drums were throbbing and there was a whiff of barbecue smoke in the winter air as merguez sausages went on the grill for marchers in need of refuelling.

Munching one of them was 70-year-old Dominique Ménage, a retired baker from Lyons. “I’m fed up with being taken for an idiot,” he said. “They say there’s no money for us, but there’s money for the banks.”

Others simply seemed to want their dislike for Sarkozy to be made known. “Get lost, idiot!” was the placard of choice for many protesters, a reference to a comment Sarkozy bitterly regrets having made last year to a man who refused to shake hands with him.

As for his outburst over La Manche, it was not the first time the president had lost his temper with a police chief: the head of security in Corsica was sacked after nationalists staged a protest on the front lawn of an actor friend of Sarkozy.

“It is an unacceptable abuse of power,” said Jean-Karl Deschamps, a regional opposition leader.

“What is more,” added Gosselin, “it is unfair.”

GALLIC GRUMBLES
SalariesWorkers complain wages have fallen behind inflation

BanksBailout cost taxpayers £24 billion but did nothing for workers

Unemployment Teachers and health staff want to stop jobs being axed under reforms

EducationStudents say reforms will make class sizes too large

PensionsMany pensioners say they have barely enough to eat

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