French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his prime minister on Monday after securing an unexpectedly small parliamentary majority and losing a senior minister — setbacks that nonetheless left his reform programme on track.
Sarkozy formally reappointed Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and their first task will be to find a replacement for government number two Alain Juppe, who said he would quit after a shock defeat to a little-known Socialist in Sunday’s election.
”You’d really love things to be bad for me. You’d be happy if I died,” the mayor of Bordeaux snapped at reporters in the city where he lost his seat and his Cabinet post.
Sarkozy’s allies won 345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, well short of the crushing 470-seat bloc predicted in some pre-poll estimates.
The Socialists’ relief at winning 207 seats and avoiding a drubbing was partly overshadowed by the separation of the party’s ”power couple” — defeated presidential candidate Ségolène Royal and party chief Francois Hollande.
”I have asked Francois to live his life his way and he accepted. We no longer live in the same home,” Royal, who is expected to seek the party leadership, told France Inter radio.
Commentators blamed the right’s sudden loss of support on a row over the government’s decision to consider raising value-added tax, and said opposition warnings that a huge majority would give Sarkozy too much power had taken their toll.
”Voters signalled their rejection of a monochrome [lower] chamber and of total power being handed to one man,” the left-wing daily Libération said in an editorial.
The conservative daily Le Figaro said the result was a shot across the bows of the government and said the sales tax row had cost the right support on a night the UMP became the first party since 1978 to win re-election.
”If the French have been won over by the idea of reform, they are not ready to accept what has not been fully thought through,” the paper said.
Reform agenda
The government is studying plans to increase VAT so as to cut social security charges on payrolls to make it cheaper for companies to hire.
Despite the setback Sarkozy now has the legislative muscle to press ahead with reforms to ease rigid labour laws, trim fat from the public service, cut taxes, slash unemployment and boost growth in the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
Among measures due before the new Parliament are tax breaks on mortgage interest repayments and overtime, a 50% cap on personal taxation, tighter immigration laws and stiffer terms for repeat criminal offenders.
Sarkozy is expected to move quickly to replace Juppe, the only one of 11 ministers to fall foul of Fillon’s ruling they must quit if they lost their seat, and name a handful of junior ministers before attending his first European Union summit later this week.
Socialist euphoria at their better than expected poll performance could soon fade as recriminations over the party’s defeat in both major elections this year give way to a bout of blood-letting that could force leader Hollande to step down early.
The announcement that he and Royal, who have four children, are to separate added spice to the impending leadership battle, in which Royal is expected to be a candidate. – Reuters