— PHOTO: AP

BELLIGERENT MOOD: Youths set afire a motorbike on the Place de la Bastille following the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Sunday. — PHOTO: AP

Paris: Nicolas Sarkozy's stunning victory in Sunday's presidential election left the mauled Socialist party licking its wounds wondering about its future. Barely had the polls closed than a bitter internecine fight broke out within the socialist ranks with leaders like Dominique Strauss Kahn and Laurant Fabius who had failed to win the party nomination calling for serious introspection and restructuring.

As predicted by Segolene Royal, riots broke out in Paris and its suburbs and in several other cities including Rennes, Lyon and Nantes as a result of the Sarkozy win. Nationwide police made 270 arrests, half of them in the Paris region, after clashes left several protestors and police injured, including two officers slightly hurt by acid in the western city of Nantes.

Immigration suburbs

Youth gangs burned 360 cars in the high-immigration suburbs of Paris and other cities, where the former Interior Minister's tough stance on crime made him a hate figure for many. But despite the trouble, a police spokesman said that the widespread violence and rioting some had feared if Mr. Sarkozy won, was largely averted.

Mr. Sarkozy who has left for "a secret destination" (many believe its Corsica) will name his cabinet upon his return. He has a reputation for moving quickly and he is reportedly impatient to usher in radical socio-economic reforms.

"The French people have chosen to break with the ideas, the habits and the actions of the past," Mr. Sarkozy said in a victory speech following his emphatic triumph over Ms. Royal.

Tough line

The former Interior Minister with a tough line on immigration campaigned on a pledge to change France to face the realities of the 21st century and get the country back to work — a platform viewed with a mixture of anticipation and fear.

Mr. Sarkozy's programme includes the abolition of tax on overtime, big cuts in inheritance tax, a law guaranteeing minimum service in transport strikes, and rules to oblige the unemployed to take up offered work.

World leaders were quick to congratulate Mr. Sarkozy, with U.S. President George W. Bush telephoning him within an hour of polls closing. Mr. Sarkozy's presidency carries hopes of a new era in U.S.-France relations after the frostiness caused by President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war.

Global warming

In his victory speech, Mr. Sarkozy said Washington could count on France's friendship but urged it to show leadership in the struggle against global warming.

Mr. Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a host of European leaders also called Mr. Sarkozy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current EU president, said she was convinced he would maintain the French-German axis at the heart of the European Union.

Mr. Sarkozy has said his first foreign policy goal would be to chart a way out of the crisis sparked by the French rejection of the EU constitution two years ago.

In his acceptance speech Mr. Sarkozy tried to play down his image as a divisive figure that had pitted one France against another. "For me there is only one France. I will be President of all the French. I will speak for all of them," he said in a speech at the headquarters of his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

Gracious in defeat

Ms. Royal was gracious in defeat. "I gave it all I had and will continue to be with you and close to you."

This is the Socialists' third consecutive presidential defeat and party leader Francois Hollande who is also Ms. Royal's partner, warned his troops on Monday that he would tolerate no "score-settling" as the party prepares to battle the right in legislative elections next month.

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