Sarkozy Buries "The France of the Strikers"
From AFP:
This is precisely the point, some regional and left-wing protests notwithstanding. Sarkozy was elected over the ususal candy-distributing Socialist by telling his countrymen that things cannot stay as they are, France needs dramatic changes, and (this is the part that astounds me) you French voters know that only I have the guts and the will to push this bad-tasting medicine down your throats.
And so he has.
It was little noted in the United States, but just a few days ago Sarkozy gave a fierce answer to the usual cynical press by loudly proclaiming that he would never bend on this issue, never compromise and that the France that these strikers represent is gone.
These SNCF/RATP workers, who, remember, are willing to bring the country to a standstill to protect their unique right to retire at age 57 rather than age 62, are nothing less than Sarkozy's PATCO air traffic controllers. As with Reagan's action, this signals a new man in charge, a new political culture. Sarkozy said there was a silent majority sick of these strikes and he was right.
UPDATE: Le Figaro also reports today:
This is not the old French Right on display here. Given his approach so far, Sarkozy is embarking on a project of breath-taking difficulty and complexity: the re-alignment of the Right, resulting in its complete break with Vichy, with Maurras, with Brasillach, and, thus, shed of its baggage. A new Right that can then compete and restore order to the Republic's poltical balance. It's an amazing thing to behold.
PARIS - Almost normal service resumed on the French railways Friday after a crippling nine-day strike, as opinions divided over whether its end marks a victory for the reform programme of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
For the first time since the start of last week, most Paris commuters enjoyed an untroubled trip to work, and nationwide the state rail company SNCF said the network will be fully operational by the weekend.
After the country's longest train strike since 1995, the government insisted that it had held firm on its central aim of increasing railway workers' retirement age in line with the rest of the population.
"I promised this reform, and I kept my word," Sarkozy said in an address Friday, a day before leaving on a state visit to China.
Raymond Soubie, Sarkozy's councillor on social affairs, said decrees promulgating the pension reform will be drawn up in about a month, after the conclusion of round-table talks between unions, management and government representatives.
These discussions, whose opening on Wednesday triggered the end of the strtike, will focus on pay-rises, top-up pension schemes and other accompanying measures.
For supporters of Sarkozy's six-month old government, the outcome marked an unequivocal triumph for the right-wing president.
Le Figaro newspaper said the president had proved he was not a "paper tiger" and that his determination to remedy the ills of French society had passed a ground-breaking first test.
"Everyone knows that the head of state has in store other earth-shaking changes. If the pension reform -- the mother of all reforms -- has persuaded opinion that things had to change in the country, it will have greatly served the designs of the president," the right-wing paper said.
This is precisely the point, some regional and left-wing protests notwithstanding. Sarkozy was elected over the ususal candy-distributing Socialist by telling his countrymen that things cannot stay as they are, France needs dramatic changes, and (this is the part that astounds me) you French voters know that only I have the guts and the will to push this bad-tasting medicine down your throats.
And so he has.
It was little noted in the United States, but just a few days ago Sarkozy gave a fierce answer to the usual cynical press by loudly proclaiming that he would never bend on this issue, never compromise and that the France that these strikers represent is gone.
These SNCF/RATP workers, who, remember, are willing to bring the country to a standstill to protect their unique right to retire at age 57 rather than age 62, are nothing less than Sarkozy's PATCO air traffic controllers. As with Reagan's action, this signals a new man in charge, a new political culture. Sarkozy said there was a silent majority sick of these strikes and he was right.
UPDATE: Le Figaro also reports today:
Nicolas Sarkozy a remis ce soir a Beate Klarsfeld, la celebre pourchasseuse de criminels de guerre nazis, les insignes d'officier de la Legion d'honneur et a decore son fils Arno, qui a participe a l'oeuvre de ses parents, de l'ordre national du merite.
Lors de son allocution, le chef de l'Etat a longuement evoque le combat mene par Beate, de nationalite allemande, et son mari Serge Klarsfeld pour "empecher la banalisation voire la rehabilitation du nazisme".
"Vous futes parmi les premiwres, si ce n'est la premiwre, a convoquer votre pays au tribunal de son histoire et de sa memoire", a declare Nicolas Sarkozy. "L'Allemagne et la France ont eu la chance de vous avoir ensemble pour fille, chacune vous doit beaucoup et conjointement encore plus", a-t-il ajoute.
Le president de la Republique a ensuite rendu hommage a son fils Arno Klarsfeld pour sa participation decisive "a l'action de memoire et de justice" de ses parents, et pour ses combats "au nom de la tolerance et de l'entente entre les peuples et les cultures".
"Comme ta mere, tu es un militant qui agit, pas un militant qui declame", a poursuivi Nicolas Sarkozy. "Je suis tres fier de t'avoir comme ami", a conclu le chef de l'Etat.
This is not the old French Right on display here. Given his approach so far, Sarkozy is embarking on a project of breath-taking difficulty and complexity: the re-alignment of the Right, resulting in its complete break with Vichy, with Maurras, with Brasillach, and, thus, shed of its baggage. A new Right that can then compete and restore order to the Republic's poltical balance. It's an amazing thing to behold.
