The Hindu : Front Page : Nicolas Sarkozy is France's new President

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 07, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Nicolas Sarkozy is France's new President

Vaiju Naravane

The Conservative defeats Socialist Segolene Royal by 6% points; his win raises tensions in migrant areas.

AFTER A BITTER CONTEST: A jubilant Nicolas Sarkozy waves to the crowd on polling day.

Paris: Fifty one-year-old Conservative, Nicolas Sarkozy, was on Sunday elected President of France with 53 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls, beating his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, by 6 percentage points. The margin is likely to change as the counting proceeds through the night, but his victory is clear and unambiguous. Voter participation was at least as high as the first round — almost 85 per cent. His election caps a long political career during which he served in major ministerial capacities and today holds the presidency of the ruling conservative party, the UMP.

Tough policies

With this vote France has taken an irrevocable step to the right, the Conservative candidate having campaigned on a programme that urged a return to the values of national identity and rigour, promising tough policing and anti-immigration measures, fewer taxes and state handouts, a less bulky bureaucracy and a renewed work ethic.

Ms. Royal fought back hard, but could never quite overcome the early lead Mr. Sarkozy established. In the last few days her campaign, which had picked up momentum, suffered a slump, and opinions polls predicted a massive Sarkozy victory.

The Conservative candidate was able to convince voters that in order to overcome the current economic malaise — unemployment runs at over 8 per cent — France needed tough economic and social reforms that would extend working hours, reduce state benefits and crack down on crime and immigration. A massive transfer of vote from two extreme right parties, the National Front and the ferociously anti-Muslim MFP or Movement for France, increased his margin of victory. A majority of voters from Francois Bayrou's UDF party also voted for Mr. Sarkozy indicating that despite belated support from the first round's "Third Man," centrist voters were not enamoured of Ms. Royal. The main losers of this campaign are clearly Ms. Royal, Jean-Marie Le Pen and Mr. Bayrou.

There was palable tension in France's volatile, high-immigrant suburbs where Mr. Sarkozy is the focus of intense dislike, even hate. In Argenteuil, as in other suburbs hit by riots in 2005, there have been warnings of fresh unrest if Mr. Sarkozy is elected. Some 3,000 anti-riot and military gendarmes were at hand in the Paris area to quell any outbreak of violence, with surveillance helicopters to be deployed, if necessary, over some suburbs.

Dream realised

Mr. Sarkozy who, by his own admission, has dreamt of this moment since entering politics as a young man 30 years ago, thus succeeds Jacques Chirac to become the sixth President of the current Fifth Republic which was founded in 1958 when General Charles de Gaulle was elected by direct universal suffrage. Mr. Sarkozy's father was a Hungarian aristocrat while his mother was a Greek Jewess. He was born in France after his parents fled Hungary in 1941. A habitué of wealth and privilege, Nicolas Sarkozy has been the mayor of the wealthy Parisan suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine and has held several senior Cabinet posts, including those of Finance and the Interior.

The verdict of France's 44.5 million voters was clear and unambiguous. Mr. Sarkozy's supporters released thousands of blue balloons, chanting "Sarko President" and "On a gagne, on a gagne" or "we have won" before heading out to the Champs Elysees in madly hooting cars for an all night street party.

Fifty three-year-old Segolene Royal, the only woman to have come so close to winning the French Presidency, conceded defeat. There were long faces at the Socialist Party headquarters in Rue Solferino where supporters had massed carrying red banners. Several of them burst into tears as the announcement of Ms. Royal's defeat came in at 8 p.m. local time. This has been the most closely fought and most exciting election France has witnessed since Francois Mitterrand toppled President Valery Giscard D'Estaing in 1981, putting an end to 38 years of conservative rule.

Electoral polls have long predicted a Sarkozy victory. The only shade of doubt was over its magnitude. "Today's vote means that Turkey will not enter the European Union and that France will embark upon a much closer relationship with the United States. Mr. Sarkozy has also said he will submit the European Constitution for approval to the new French Parliament to be elected in six weeks. The coming months will tell whether Mr. Sarkozy will take France on a pro-Atlanticist route or whether he will moderate his views and return to a traditional foreign policy that translates as an independent voice within the United Nations Security Council and a certain pro-Arab stance," said Vincent Jauvert, a commentator with the left wing magazine Le Nouvel Observateur.

Market-friendly

France will become more market friendly and will start the process of dismantling its highly priced social security and pension schemes that, with a rapidly aging population, are now considered too expensive for the state to finance.

Under Mr. Sarkozy India can expect to see protectionist barriers go up, since he has promised to put up import tariffs against goods coming from countries "such as India or China that practice social dumping."

France goes back to the polls in six weeks to elect a new Parliament. The extent of Mr. Sarkozy's victory could translate itself into a massive mandate for the Right, since French voters believe in giving their President a workable parliamentary majority. It will also have immediate consequences on the destiny of the Socialist Party.

There will inevitably be a massive reorganisation of the Left. Heads are bound to roll and a schism within the socialist ranks cannot be excluded.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page