Even as political sniping between candidates in France's presidential elections resumed yesterday a CSA poll out put Mr Sarkozy two points ahead of his Socialist rival Francois Hollande on 30 per cent in round one.
Thanks to his statesmanlike role during the crisis as a dependable crime fighter, Mr Sarkozy has also lengthened his lead in opinion polls over the far-Right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen.
Yesterday Mis Le Pen renewed hostilities by accusing Mr Sarkozy's government of surrendering poor suburbs to Islamic radicals and demanded answers on security failings.
"The government is scared, said Miss Le Pen, who is third in opinion polls but hopes to catch up if the issue of domestic security becomes a key campaign theme.
"I've been saying this for 10 years. Entire districts are in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists and I say it again today the danger is underestimated," she said, claiming there were thousands of Islamic militants in France. Experts normally put the number at a few dozen at the most.
Miss Le Pen's poll rating was down to 13.5 per cent in round one, just ahead of far-Left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Bayrou, the centrist Modem candidate – both on 13 per cent.
Yesterday, Mr Mélenchon, whose popularity has taken France by surprise, slammed Miss Le Pen by calling on France to create a "rampart against hatred" and to "protect Muslims from vilification".
After an anti-immigrant start to his re-election bid, Mr Sarkozy had refrained from campaigning this week but was omnipresent in his role as head of state, calling for calm and unity after the murders of French Muslims and Jews.
But he was back on the offensive barely an hour after the 23-year old self-proclaimed al Qaeda killer's death, promising a raft of new laws to combat Islamist indoctrination and recruitment via the internet, through foreign travel and in prisons.
He held rally in Strasbourg last night and will appear beside popular centrist Jean-Louis Borloo at a factory in Valenciennes today.
Mr Hollande took a back seat during the crisis but was nevertheless accused by the head of the President's UMP party of "failing to observe the truce".
In the same breath, Jean-François Copé said: "Francois Hollande never made security a priority in his programme." The left-winger dispatched his camp to respond.
Calling Mr Sarkozy's record "disastrous", Mr Hollande's spokesman Bruno Le Roux said: "With Nicolas Sarkozy, the knee jerk announcement is often an attempt to hide a failure." Jerome Sainte-Marie from the CSA pollster warned his poll bounce could prove short-lived if the Left manages to return the debate back to issues like the economy, jobs and education.
"However it is also possible, since this shift had already begun, that Nicolas Sarkozy manages to turn the whole campaign around to his own agenda, which is about order, values, immigration, integration, security and national identity."
One Socialist MP admitted to Le Parisien: "We are on a slippery slope."
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