PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy hinted yesterday that he soon may marry former model Carla Bruni, but polls suggest he is heading toward divorce from some of the voters who put him in power.
Many are irritated by Sarkozy's flaunting of his whirlwind affair with someone whose cast of past partners includes Mick Jagger and Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the sickly French economy prompts worry.
Yesterday, in his first full-fledged news conference since his election in May, Sarkozy deflected criticism of his lifestyle, his courting of hard-line world leaders, and his changes to France's labor laws, universities and health care. He basked, though, in confirming his relationship with Bruni.
The 40-year-old, Italian-born former model, now a singer, first appeared publicly at the 52-year-old Sarkozy's side at Disneyland Paris last month. Then she joined him on vacation in Egypt and Jordan.
"You've understood: It is serious," Sarkozy said. He suggested wedding plans were in the works but stopped short of confirming reports that a ceremony was planned in early February.
"There is a strong chance that you will learn about it after it's already done," he said with a grin.
Sarkozy defended his decision to take the relationship public, saying he wanted to break with a long tradition of French leaders keeping their love lives hidden, with the media's tacit accord.
He alluded to the late Francois Mitterrand, who kept his mistress and out-of-wedlock daughter secret from the public for most of his 1981-95 presidency.
Sarkozy became the first sitting French president to divorce when he split in October from his second wife, Cecilia - like Bruni, a tall, dark-haired former model.
"Normally the Elysee [presidential palace] is a boring place where nothing ever happens, where there are men who wear ties, with wives they've had for 40 years and mistresses that they hide," said Loic Sellin, editor of the popular magazine Voici. He said his staff was "blown away" by Sarkozy's openness.
Not everyone is thrilled. More traditional voters and political commentators question whether Bruni - with her rich romantic history - is the appropriate spouse for a French president.
"The problem is the president mixes his private and his public life," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations. "If it becomes a permanent fixture, it becomes embarrassing."
Sarkozy's approval rating stands at 48 percent - a drop of seven points in a month, and down from 65 percent in July, according to a new poll from the CSA agency.
"Sarkozy had a very long political honeymoon, and it is finally ending," said Pascal Perrineau, head of the think tank Cevipof.
Sarkozy defended his decision to invite Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Paris and his swift congratulations to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin after parliamentary elections heavily tilted in the ruling party's favor.
He offered few solutions for French households that are feeling the pinch of stagnant salaries and for economic growth that is expected to be measured at below 2 percent for 2007.
He made a few gestures to workers, pledging state money to protect strategic companies from foreign takeovers and pushing for all workers - not just executives - to have access to stock options.
He declared that current measures of gross domestic product did not take into account the quality of life in France. To counter that, he announced he had recruited Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to advise on a new method of measuring growth.