Sarkozy’s Victory
Take France Seriously Again?
By D.W.

French conservative Nicolas Sarkozy beat his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a comfortable margin. Hopefully this is good news for the United States since Sarkozy is admittedly pro-American. He should also be good for France since he plans to push through a pro-market, anti-crime legislative reform package that the French really need for their economy and for their society.

Of course he still has to face socialist resistance in the legislative branch.

Perhaps Sarkozy’s best attribute is that he is actually not French, but a Hungarian immigrant's son. And this is no small feat in Europe and especially in France because that country is culturally homogenous and doesn’t absorb immigrants so easily. Reference the recent riots by Muslim immigrants all over France.
 

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His upbringing probably gives him some immunity from the socialist welfare state mentality since his parents fled a communist regime. And contrary to popular belief, the United States, unlike Europe, assimilates immigrants in a common culture because our culture was designed to do that. European cultures don’t do this very well and oftentimes they only tolerate their immigrant guests and isolate themselves from them as much as possible.

The healthy victory from the electorate voted has also given Sarkozy a clear mandate to implement his platform for France's future.

He wants to free up labor markets and revamp the 35-hour work week, which both he and his Socialist opponent advocated revising. Don’t forget that the French also have somewhere around six weeks of paid vacation (it is still very generous ever for new employees). As you might imagine, not a whole lot gets done in the French workplace.

Sarkozy also plans to get tougher on crime and immigration. France is nowhere near as safe and peaceful as most American’s think, and in some cases is more dangerous than the United States.

And like any fiscal conservative, Sarkozy’s agenda consists of immediate tax cuts to include a four percent reduction in income tax and mortgage interest. He will also work for the abolition of death duties for all but the richest. A mere four percent tax cut doesn’t sound like much, but for the tax and waste Europeans it is a lot of money. Needless to say, Socialists abhor this idea and they would prefer to tax even more if they could.

President Sarkozy will also try to encourage people to work more than the statutory 35-hour week. He also wants to strengthen the French consumer’s purchasing power in order to prime a stagnant economy rife with high unemployment. To accomplish this he will apply a Thacther style tactic by reducing welfare benefits if an unemployed adult refuses two offers of work in fields for which they are qualified. Don’t laugh; this is a big deal in lazy Europe where work is an obstacle to a proper life of slacking off.

However, the most important area of cooperation the United States needs with France is with security and terrorism.

France and the United States actually do cooperate extensively on this issue but it is done mostly underneath the radar screen. A stronger, more overt French effort is essential in reigning in Islamic Fascists who present a far more credible long term threat to the French with its large Muslim population than to the U.S.

France so far has kowtowed to the Arabs, refusing to take any hard stands against Islamo fascist aggression, with the exception of some pressure on Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. France could place more pressure on Syria to stay out of Iraq and disengage even more from Lebanon where its busy bodies are still stirring up trouble. They could also help us place more pressure on Iran in the nuclear weapons development stand down.

President Sarkozy also wants the U.S. to take the lead in the global warming fight. I suppose he believes Al Gore too, but you can’t win them all.

However, the United States and France, and the E.U. for that matter, could certainly work on decreasing global dependence on Middle East petroleum. Whether or not you believe in global warming, you probably can agree that it is time for the West to evolve beyond our dependence on Arab crude oil for many reasons.

The U.S. and France could put more money into a joint bio fuel research effort. In addition, both countries could also buy up Third World crops at good prices and turn it into a fuel. France constantly cites its great concern for the world’s poor and global poverty but it refuses to lift agricultural subsidies that would allow Third World farmers to compete in European markets. With bio fuels, the Third World can sell their products and the Europeans can protect their agricultural industry creating food for domestic consumption.

Perhaps it is time to start taking France seriously again, even though it has been a very long while since that has happened. In the meantime, we will have to wait and see how his socialist opponents fare in the legislative branch.

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