President Sarkozy?

When he took charge of the Finance Ministry in April, Nicolas Sarkozy had one goal: to kick-start the stalled French economy. Boosting consumer spending seemed an obvious place to start. But Sarkozy, as always, was in a hurry: instead of spending months trying to push through a complex legislative fix, he leaned on France's leading supermarket chains to lower their prices by as much as 2-3% on hundreds of brand-name goods. The result: a mini-spending spree that contributed to estimated growth of more than 2% this year, compared with 0.5% in 2003. Publicizing the agreement, Sarkozy told the press it was merely "what the French people want." Asked how he got the supermarkets to agree to pinch their prices, Sarkozy smiled and told TIME: "I said, if any [company] refused, I would go on television and tell the public who it was."

Call it Sarko's Way: a unique brand of retail politics that has made Sarkozy among France's most popular politicians — and the odds-on favorite to succeed President Jacques Chirac in 2007. He lasers in on an issue that resonates with the public, devises a quick fix, and then basks in the media's attention. Sarkozy has used this method to great effect since joining Chirac's Cabinet as Interior Minister in May 2002 and then moving on to the finance post in April — and he has some real achievements to show for it.

In 2002, insecurité — fear of rising crime and a sense that illegal immigration was out of control — was on peoples' minds and fueling the surge of Jean-Marie Le Pen's xenophobic National Front. Interior Minister Sarkozy put more cops on the street and introduced monthly performance ratings so people could see the results. He ordered high-profile raids on organized crime gangs, chased prostitutes out of residential areas, and built detention centers for illegal immigrants, accompanying each initiative with a media blitz that let people know what was going on — and who was making it happen. Although the number of assaults rose, the overall crime rate dropped for the first time in five years, and the French started feeling safe again. "People were very worried about crime," Sarkozy recalls. "The élite, the pundits, said, 'There is no threat. People just think there is.' I helped reduce that perception gap, and acted on those real fears." Now he wants to take his approach to the Elysée. Is France ready to put Sarko in charge?

Sarkozy, 49, has no doubt. During a conversation with TIME last week in his top-floor office overlooking Notre Dame, he rejected the view that France was too stuck in its ways to embrace the kind of dramatic change he envisions — lower taxes, flexible labor markets, more freedom for innovation and enterprise, more equality for minorities. "Is France reformable?" he asked himself, sitting at a long conference table with a dossier-laden desk at his back and a humidor stuffed with good cigars to his left. Then he lunged across the table to press home his point. "My reply is, without hesitation, yes. France not only can reform, it's waiting for it."

France may not have to wait too long. Next month Sarkozy will resign as Finance Minister after his expected election to the relatively obscure post of president of his party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The ump is the successor to the Rally for the Republic, the party President Jacques Chirac founded in 1976 to support his presidential ambitions. Sarkozy is expected to use the ump post for the same purpose.

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