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PARIS - A European president or prime minister used to be able to go off on summer holiday with regal hauteur.
Whether the vacations was spent in a villa in the Maldives, a chateau in the Swiss Alps or a yacht on the Riviera, a quiet life was
assured. He disappeared into a black hole, emerging back into public view three or four weeks later. Nobody asked any searching questions.
All that has changed for the "new generation" of politicians running Europe's major countries. They face unprecedented scrutiny of where they go on holiday - and who pays their bills.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, taking his first break since the May election, is getting first-hand experience of life under the vacation microscope.
In a bold break from French presidential tradition, Sarkozy picked the United States for his summer holiday, taking up residence at a luxury lakeside home at Wolfboro, New Hampshire, an hour's drive from President George W. Bush's family home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush invited him over for lunch.
Nasty questions are being asked why Sarkozy chose to holiday so close to Bush (suspicions of toadying to the Americans never go down well in France) and who paid the US$60,000 ($83,620) cost of the president's two-week holiday rental.
Sarkozy says the rent was paid by "friends who have vacationed here for years. They rented a house and they invited us."
He said he and his family made the trip on scheduled airlines, and not the presidential aircraft.
Such defensiveness is a contrast to Sarkozy's predecessors, notably Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, who would jet off for hunting in Africa, sunning in Morocco, a few days in Mauritius or Japan, often with family, flunkies and cronies.
They were never hassled about the cost to the taxpayer or ethical questions arising from a host's generosity.
Sarkozy is paying the price of jettisoning this imperial aloofness. Since his election, the hyper-active president has been micro-managing his government, issuing statements on even minor issues, dropping by to comment on the Tour de France and even doling out advice to the French rugby team, portraying himself as open and approachable.
In contrast to Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Romano Prodi have all opted for low-key holidays.
Prodi has been at the Tuscan seaside town of Castiglione della Pescaia, and Merkel and her husband are trekking in the Italian Dolomites, staying at €50 ($94) a night hostels.
Before leaving, Merkel went to her local supermarket, hauling a trolley around the aisles and queueing at the checkout, where her picture was conveniently snapped.
"She's a simple woman, a dream woman, a supermarket woman," the mass-selling daily Bild drooled.
Brown went off for a "bucket-and-spade" vacation with his wife and two young children at a family home in Dorset.
His image has reaped huge rewards - Labour is now 10 points ahead in the opinion polls, its biggest lead since the Iraq War began in 2003.
These holiday choices by Brown, Merkel and Prodi are not an accident, commentators say.
People now want leaders who seem humble in their ways, in contrast to their predecessors.
"Before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Brown usually holidayed in Cape Cod," said commentator Daniel Finkelstein in the Times. "Choosing to holiday in Weymouth this year is reverse grandstanding."
