Sarko is an historical accident imho, it is very very difficult to stay within the bounds of acceptible of the many constituent groups on the right while at the same time having the bona fides of a true outsider for very long. Eventually, the stench of association with those constituent groups, which by dint of being on the right are almost necessarily associated with the neo-liberal establishment (or pariahs, like the FN) rubs off on the erstwhile outsider, who no longer remains an outsider. Witness John McCain.
If they stay outside the neo-liberal establishment mainstream, they usually crash and burn brightly, like Boulanger, largely because they are outside that establishment and therefore are not sustainable for any period of time. Vox populi can be duped for awhile, but it takes money, resources and control of the means of communications to keep them duped for any length beyond a political season or two.
I think the Sarko phenomenon is a fluke; it takes a very improbably peculiar personality to pull that off, which he undoubtedly has a little bit of. I'm guessing it will wear off - either he does become associated with the corrupt establishment currently pushing neo-liberalism in France and by consequence falls in the eyes of vox populi, or he maintains his indepedance and eventually loses the establishment. (Seeing his strike proposals makes it appear as though he has in fact chosen sides...)
Don't forget that a large share of the French establishement haven't got many problems with the far right ; Pasqua was mayor of Neuilly before Sarkozy. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I know anecdotally that in my family circle just about everyone was taken in. Even longtime left voters, for example, the father of the one who did my procuration, whose father had been long-time socialist mayor of a small town between Marseille and Toulon, voted something other than PS for the first time in his life - detests the FN, profession liberale (medicin) and all that. Ditto my wife's family, in fact, I remember having a convo with her mother just before the 2nd round where she's asking me what's wrong with Sarko, so I go down the list, and finally I get to who he would name as PM, and that seemed to have worked but I imagine she turned in the same ballot anyway. Sarko yes, Fillon not so much, as the subsequent legislatives showed.
My point is that, given where he is going fiscally and legislatively, he's going to lose a lot of these people, probably the same who didn't think much of what Borloo was leaking, because his bona fides as an outsider will be shown to have been utter bullshit. Enough people believed it the first time around but not the next time, five years is too long before the bullshit starts to smell.
