Indeed in terms of "electorate’s disapproval", Nicolas Sarkozy and his successor François Hollande suffer the same fate, although the two have " strikingly different personalities" and don't share the same "approaches". It's most likely that Hollande meets his "inglorious" end, like his predecessor.

Sarkozy on the other hand looks set to make a political comeback, despite corruption investigations. He was held for 15 hours in police custody on 1 July 2014, which was unprecedented for an ex-president, prompting supporters to believe in an attempt to sabotage his return to poltics.

No doubt Sarkozy has a hard time to come to terms with the humiliation of going down in the Fifth Republic's history as the first president not to be re-elected for a second term since Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1981. Now he must be feeling smug that Hollande, the man who beat him, is the most unpopular French president in modern times, according to opinion polls.

The former "bling bling" president sees himself as the "savior", who would rescue France from the "edge of an abyss", saying he couldn't allow himself to leave his country "between the drama of the National Front and the end of Socialism". Indeed his "selection as the UMP’s presidential candidate is far from assured, given the resurrection of Juppé".





Alain Juppé may have a chance to run for president, because he is a seasoned politician and had seen political turmoil, while trying to carry out sweeping reforms despite mass protests. During an inauspicious stint as prime minister between 1995-1997 he had managed to survive various setbacks - a welfare reform led to crippling strikes and a stunning defeat at the polls. In 1993, as a minister under Edouard Balladur, he trod a careful path, when Balladur and Jacques Chirac were rivals. While Balladur challenged Chirac for the presidency in the elections of 1995, Juppé said he was "loyal to Balladur" and "faithful to Chirac", who was his mentor.

During Chirac's presidency, Juppé as prime minister took on the gauntlet of pushing through social, welfare and public-sector reforms. These attempts ran against strong opposition both from public-sector workers and the population at large. In 1997, his approval ratings were very low and polls showed two-thirds of the population had "little confidence" in him. Lionel Jospin won the election and succeeded him. Yet many analysts said that Juppé should never be written off as a political force.