"Prime Minister Fillon is suffering no more than Pompidou or Debre under President Charles de Gaulle or Mauroy under President Francois Mitterrand," the French head of state told the Thursday edition of the daily Le Monde.
"Francois Fillon is fully in charge of his mission. At the moment, he is suffering a lot from back pain, that is true," said the president, adding: "But I do not think that he is suffering more in exercising his functions than his other predecessors."
The French head of state made the remarks while responding to a question from a journalist who wanted to know whether Prime Minister Fillon's current poor form was in anyway related to Sarkozy's "style of politics and leadership."
"It is only normal that whoever gets elected sets the pace compared to the one who is appointed," said President Sarkozy, who had selected Fillon as his prime minister long before he was triumphantly declared France's president after the second round of last year's polls.
Since the two started working together at the helm of the French state, there have been constant rumors and speculations regarding tensions and certain fallout, but the two have maintained that both their "personal and working relations are as stronger as ever."
In a country where there are 64 million inhabitants, the office of Prime Minister "is useful and critical" in terms of governance, said the president, who has never hidden his liking for Fillon despite persistent rumors.
The head of government "can relieve the president in arbitrations between ministers, in the management of the country's problems and the international dimension of functions," said the head of state.
"I do not think that there is a reserved domain for the prime minister" and "I was content to rely on Francois Fillon to prepare for the French presidency of the European Union," said Sarkozy, who has been dispatching his premier to the four corners of the world to follow up on initiatives.
In a recent televised interview, the prime minister himself was quoted as wondering "whether the journalists who report on the rumors, together with their sources, were living in the same world" as him and the president.
Meanwhile, President Nicolas Sarkozy, in what marked some kind of a turnaround, has described "the press is a strategic industry that deserves to be developed" in the same way as other economic sectors.
The president, who was answering a question on his agenda for the press, often seen as a "against the government," said that he contested the view that the press was "against the government."
"The media is a power that does not solely thrive on confrontation. The president is not wrong to develop the French nuclear sector. He is not wrong to seek measure to save the Frenchsteel industry. And he is not wrong to promote the emergence of stronger communication groups."
"The press is an economic sector, a strategic industry that deserves to be developed in the same way as health, transport and the environment," said the head of state, who lashed out against a section of the French press mid this year.
"The problem of France is that we have no French communication groups that can claim an international dimension," said Sarkozy: "And is it not the responsibility of the president of the republic to try to build an economic model that will enable the emergence of large independent French groups?"
Commenting on the controversy that has been generated by his proposal to appoint the head of state-owned television channels, the head of state said that his move was "not abnormal."
"It is not unusual that the president appoints the president of a company that is 100 percent owned by the state. With two guarantees: an assent from the High Audiovisual Authority and select parliamentary committees. Where is the trouble? said the head of state, adding: "Someone must come up with name."
The proposal, which was made during a policy speech on June 25, has sparked a major controversy in France, with the opposition and trade unions accusing the head of state of trying to install a dictatorship in the media.
