The move will bring an end to the strife that has crippled the group for the past two years. In an astonishing volte-face the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who met German chancellor Angela Merkel in Toulouse, agreed that German Tom Enders, the EADS co-chief executive, should head Airbus and another German executive, Rüdiger Grube, become sole chairman at EADS. A third German, Hans Peter Ring, remains chief financial officer of both EADS and Airbus. Louis Gallois, ex-head of French state railways SNCF and now co-chief at EADS, becomes sole CEO and Mr Enders will report to him.

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The French CFTC union at Airbus, always a prized French fiefdom, accused Mr Sarkozy of allowing the Germans to take over virtually the entire shop but the French president said it was a "great day" for the company and the Franco-German axis. "This is the dream team," insiders said. "But it only takes effect in the final quarter of this year [when shareholders approve it] and may only last two years."

Mr Gallois, current Airbus chief who is in charge of implementing the Power 8 cost-cutting plan which sees six plants sold off and 10,000 job cuts, told the Guardian last month he plans to retire in 2009. But he could, sources said, step up to be chairman, allowing Mr Enders to be sole EADS chief and Fabrice Brégier, now chief operating officer at Airbus, to be CEO at the loss-making plane-maker.

"The French would regain control under this master-plan," the sources said. Analysts and unions doubted whether the arrangement would genuinely end the dual-nation structure, and Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy fell out over proposals to raise extra capital to fund new planes.

The Germans say it is off the agenda, the French say it is on. But both eventually want to see a new shareholders' structure which is balanced between French and German interests, each holding 22.5% stakes, including 15% in French state hands. Spain holds 5.5% and Dubai 3.2% while Russian bank VTB says it wants to sell its 5% holding.

The deal leaves little room for Arnaud Lagardère, head of the eponymous media group, which is cutting its holding to 7.5% and may swiftly exit the business. Mr Lagardère, ousted as co-chairman after falling out with Mr Sarkozy, will remain on the EADS board and could return as sole chairman in 2011, according to the French president. Nobody expects this.

The new EADS board will see the French and Germans relinquish two seats each and four new independent directors will be elected at the next shareholders' meeting.

The latter move is in line with British proposals to the French senate last month that non-executives form a majority and chair important committees such as audit and remuneration.

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Alarm bells rang in the nation's conscience on the night of Sarkozy's election. What was our energetic president doing? We gasped in disbelief, watching him getting out of his car on the Champs Elysees to dine at Le Fouquet's, a kind of posh Hard Rock Cafe. He then eloped for three days on a yacht in Malta, the cost paid by tycoon Vincent Bolloré. Some of us reached for our history books. We found it all in the chapter called Second Empire. Bling culture, a coterie of rich and powerful friends in power - Sarkozy was our new Napoleon the third.

This was the ruler who presided over the Second Republic from his election as president of the republic in 1848, then reigned as a dictateur éclairé, an enlightened or liberal emperor, as he saw himself, from his coup in 1852 to his demise in 1870. This period of history, known as the Second Empire, has striking similarities to the new France.

Napoleon III believed first in himself, then in action rather than morals. This is what his supporters, the reactionary Catholics and the nouveaux riches, believed France needed. He had one objective - to make the French believe they'd get richer, and thereby resolve the social problems shaking the country. He had forged liberal economic policies based on his years in exile in the US and England. France turned bling, and gold adorned every wrist, cleavage and home. Rich bourgeois flaunted their wealth in the face of the people. His supporters relied on him to keep the "little people" quiet while they got wealthier, and the republicans' most active representatives had to live in exile.

A young lawyer, Gambetta, a future republican leader, gave this frank assessment of Napoleon's entourage: "Nobody knew these men before [the coup of 1852], they had no talent, no rank, no honour; they are the opportunists who always emerge during coups, the kind Cicero referred to when talking of the scum surrounding Catilina."

Under Napoleon, the press was free in theory only, and publications that appeared too critical received friendly "warnings" from the government. Auto-censorship thus became second nature to journalists, and although great artists did emerge, they did so in exile or were at risk of being tried for "immorality", like Flaubert and Baudelaire.

As with most things in France, eventually the people had had enough. The Paris commune was born and Napoleon fled to Kent. Although short-lived, the commune and its effect on world history proved far more important than 18 years of Napoleon III's prosperity. Let's hope Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a summary of France's history to the Elysee. It could prove useful reading.

· Agnès Poirier is the author of Touché, a French woman's take on the English, published in paperback on July 19.

agnescatherinepoirier@hotmail.com 

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