Ségolène Chávez, out; Silvio Sarkozy, in.

Financial Times afirma que Nicolas Sarkozy cuenta con el callado voto / apoyo de Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, José Manuel Barroso. Mientras que, a su modo de ver, Ségolène Royal solo está apoyada por JL Rodríguez Zapatero y Romano Prodi.

FT estima que la Europa fuerte, moderna y reformista está con Sarkozy; mientras que Madrid y Roma se perciben como capitales más o menos periféricas.

Financial Times, 26 abril 2007, by George Parker, Europe’s leaders eye Sarkozy partnership

Nicolas Sarkozy may still have work to do to win the French presidency but he has already secured the unspoken support of Berlin, Brussels and London.

To leaders in Europe’s big power centres, Mr Sarkozy may be an abrasive Gaullist, but he is best placed to bring a reformed France back into the political mainstream, making him the fourth member of a powerful group of Atlanticist European Union modernisers.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Tony Blair, British prime minister, have privately discussed the idea of forming a “strategic partnership” with Mr Sarkozy.

Gordon Brown, Mr Blair’s presumed successor, has also spoken to Ms Merkel and Mr Barroso on how the four might work together to promote economic reform and build a more outward-looking Europe, with strengthened US relations.

All of them speak the language of results and reform rather than being obsessed with deeper European integration. “Brown is definitely interested in the idea of a partnership with Merkel, Barroso and Sarkozy,” says an official close to the talks.

While Mr Sarkozy’s allies lie to the north and east, Ms Royal looks south: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s socialist prime minister, and Romano Prodi, Italy’s centre-left premier, are among her highest-profile supporters.

However, Madrid and Rome are a less powerful force in EU politics than the tight Berlin-Brussels-London triangle, whose liberalism is shared by many Nordic and central European countries.