Posted on 05/08/2007 2:37:17 PM PDT by knighthawk
On Sunday, Nicolas Sarkozy won France's presidency in an election featuring the heaviest turnout (85%) of any French election in 25 years. In defeating his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, Mr. Sarkozy received a majority of both men's and women's votes. Even 49% of blue-collar workers, 32% of Greens and 14% of Communists voted for Mr. Sarkozy, who now has a strong mandate to carry out la rupture-- the clean break with welfare-state policies he blames for France's economic stagnation.
A centrepiece of the Presidentelect's campaign was a call for an end to France's legislated 35-hour work week. Canadians on average work nearly 30% more than French workers. Mr. Sarkozy is intent on disabusing his countrymen of the notion that they can expect ever-higher wages without increased effort in the workplace. At present, French bureaucrats and unions closely watch pay records for anyone putting in more than 35 hours a week. Workers who go over, and their employers, are liable for fines. Having correctly labelled this "absurd," Mr. Sarkozy intends to ask the French parliament to make overtime pay tax-free.
Highly skilled French workers and entrepreneurs have increasingly been forced to move outside the country to find highpaying jobs or set up new businesses. Mr. Sarkozy pledged to end this practice too, by easing the restriction on business startups and eliminating the surtaxes on high incomes.
But perhaps Mr. Sarkozy's ace in the hole was his greater credibility than Ms. Royal on stemming violence among France's burgeoning Arab and African immigrants, mostly Muslims. For nearly two years now, immigrant enclaves on the outskirts of Paris and other large French cities have been seized with riots and general lawlessness. Mr. Sarkozy -- who famously once called the idle youths behind the violence "scum" -- has promised a crackdown. Police, firefighters and paramedics are afraid to enter many immigrant neighbourhoods for fear of being beaten or firebombed. "No more," the incoming President emphasized. He wants to integrate immigrants into France's economy and culture. Paris will now expect immigrants to conform to French secular society and government.
Encapsulated by the five pillars that he outlined in his victory speech in Paris on Sunday evening -- work, authority, morals, respect and merit -- Mr. Sarkozy's reforms could be the most conservative tried in any Western nation since Margaret Thatcher's in Britain and Ronald Reagan's in the United States two decades ago. Compared to those two giants, Mr. Sarkozy will have more difficulty making a similar impact on French society: As David A. Bell argues on this page, the French political system imposes severe constraints on presidential power. But overall, his instincts seem laudable. And if given the opportunity to make good on them, Mr. Sarkozy will transform France for the better.
Ping
Is it too much to hope for that the French have finally decifered the muslim handwriting on the wall?
Or at least decided to stop punishing personal industry?
I wish him the best of luck. He’ll need it.
Good Luck to M. Sarko, he will need buckets full!
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