Not really him, but the way he is portrayed. It's, hmm, well, check this out:

Many blacks and Muslims in the troubled neighborhoods ringing French
cities voted for the first time, saying they were motivated by one
desire: to stop law-and-order, tough-on-immigrants Nicolas Sarkozy from
becoming president.

So, he is the law- and -order candidate, and that's suppsoed to be his weakness? The reason why he is disliked? And the people from the troubled french regions, the areas of highest crime rates and the cause of the fear fueling the french people to vote this time, are opposing him for it? 

How exactly do your opponents expect you to lose an election when they are calling you law-and-order guy, and they are the ones causing the most criminal trouble in the country? Wouldn't that be like Bin Laden getting mad at Bush for going after him? I mean, even Bin Laden knows better than to do that. But it gets worse…

Sarkozy's campaign has been haunted by his use of the word "scum" to
describe young delinquents days before widespread riots erupted in 2005
in the bleak suburbs on the outskirts of the country's cities. Some
youths took Sarkozy's comment as a declaration of war.

"If Sarkozy wins, there will certainly be riots here in Clichy and
all over France," said Mohammed Saidi, a first-time voter who was born
in Morocco. The 43-year-old electrician and father of four voted in
Clichy-sous-Bois, where the riots broke out and spread nationwide.

Another first-time voter, 20-year-old Fatma Celik, said that if
Sarkozy wins the runoff May 6, "people are going to go crazy here."

So they shouldn;t vote for Sarkozy, because the people he cracked down on, who broke the law, might break the law again? Aren;t they saying that he better not win or else huge riots and acts of mayhem will take over the country? Isn't that using fear and the threat of violence to ensure getting their goal? Would we be stretching it, if we said that this is similar to terrorism?

Again, I am not a Sarkozy supporter, but god damn, If I was an undecided frenchman, and I see this piece in the newspaper, saying that the gangs do not want Sarkozy to win because he is tough on crime and they will conduct riots if he does get elected, well, I would want to elect this guy. Get some order restored to the streets, no?  And again, this is the image that his detractors and critics are penning of him. Amazing, no?