It's Sarkozy

The election in France is over and, in a somewhat surprising move, the French electorate chose the conservative, pro-American Nicolas Sarkozy as their next president. Segolene Royal, the Socialist, ran an impressive campaign in favor of keeping the country's social welfare system intact and maintaining restrictions on French companies to benefit the workers, but the bottom line is that France's economy has stagnated and their way of doing things can't remain completely intact. It's worth noting that no matter how much tinkering Sarkozy does, though, the French will still have more social benefits than we hapless Americans.

Sarkozy hopes to expand the work week from thirty-five hours and allow French companies more leeway over their hiring practices, proposals that are likely to arouse ire from powerful unions. But a majority of French voters are at least ready to give Sarkozy's ideas a chance and give the country a fresh start - something it could never get from a veteran professional politician like Jacques Chirac.

Incidentally, PBS's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" sent reporter Margaret Warner to report on the election from France. (Sending NewsHour personalities to be foreign correspondents is a new phenomenon.) And to think, Margaret Warner has to suffer the drudgery of reporting from. . . Paris! That should give Christiane Amanpour something to shoot for. ;-)