Eighteen months on, however, and Mr Sarkozy is finding that his feisty minority ministers are giving him more than a spot of trouble.
'people love to know that they're helping the penguins because they're so cute and small and they waddle up the beach and they're so feisty.
This is why temperament descends easily into caricature: the feisty Give-'Em-Hell Harry, the cool-as-crystal Kennedy, the Vesuvian Lyndon Johnson.
Even an expert witness called to discuss statistical movements of stock prices turned feisty as he sparred with prosecutors seeking to discredit his analysis and testimony.