PARIS — President Sarkozy yesterday swept aside rumors that he was undergoing marital troubles, describing the speculations as “fantasies.”

The relationship between the French president and his wife, Cecilia, who have separated before, has been under intense scrutiny.

But speaking to French journalists at the Elysee palace, a relaxed Mr. Sarkozy, cigar and chocolates in hand, said, “Cecilia and I are judged on the basis of people’s fantasies and not on what we are. So we just stay quiet.”

His comments came ahead of his first televised interview since he took office in May. Addressing the French people last night, he vowed to push through his policies, no matter how unpopular some labor and tax reforms might prove.

Adopting a modest tone, he said it was “normal, healthy, and perhaps even useful” for the French not to have given him as big a majority as was expected. But he reminded the public that he had won four elections on the trot, including a two-round presidential poll he said was the hardest to win in the world, save for America. He did not address his marriage.

There had been speculation that Mr. Sarkozy and his wife were on the verge of splitting up when Cecilia failed to appear at party headquarters during the presidential campaign or to vote for her husband in the decisive second round. She also left the G-8 summit in Germany after the first evening. During his meeting with journalists, Mr. Sarkozy, 52, also laughed off the broadcast on the Internet of footage of him apparently drunk at a press conference at the summit, which appeared on the YouTube Web site.

He said he was simply out of breath — not inebriated.

He said he had returned home to Neuilly, the chic western Parisian suburb, to find his wife and their children in peals of laughter watching it.

Speaking after he announced his full 33-member Cabinet on Tuesday, and clearly pleased with his first six weeks in power, Mr. Sarkozy puffed on a cigar, saying, “I am relaxed. If I’m not, I don’t smoke. It gives me a headache.”

He seemed unfazed by the loss of Alain Juppe, the deputy prime minister, who had failed to win a parliamentary seat in elections on Sunday. He was replaced by Jean-Louis Borloo, the finance minister.

Mr. Sarkozy also spoke of his conversation with Francois Hollande, the leader of the Socialist Party, who is facing calls to modernize the party and a leadership challenge from his former partner, Segolene Royal. The pair announced they had separated this week.