Sarkozy Goes the Spoils

Nicholas Sarkozy, the French candidate from the UMP (Union pour le mouvement populaire) party, defeated socialist candidate Segolene Royal in the French elections on Sunday. The voter turnout, according to this blog, was a whopping 85.5%. In his victory speech, Sarkozy said that voters "have chosen to break with the habits and behavior of the past...I want to give French people back the pride of being French," in reference to the economic decline that has been haunting France. Economic reform is high on Sarkozy's agenda--He plans to boost economic growth by way of tax cuts, reducing defecits, and loosening labor laws, the kind of free-market economic policies embraced by the United States and Britain.

An unabashed admirer of America, Sarkozy had a special message for the United States (with which France has had a lot of tension lately, especially in regard to the war in Iraq): "I'd like to appeal to our American friends to say that they can count on our friendship, but I would also like to say that friendship means accepting that your friends don't necessarily see eye to eye with you." With a fresh look at relations with the United States, it will be interesting to see the development of American/French relations under Sarkozy.