Sarkozy backs off push for reforms

PARIS

As he prepares to entertain President Obama at a NATO summit later this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy - sometimes likened to a racehorse that has to be reined in - is slowing down his quest for dramatic reforms in a nation increasingly doubtful of their success.

He is stymied by the world economic crisis, a rift within his governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and a barrage of labor union demands that, he says, France cannot afford.

Two major strikes and the threat of more industrial action were merely warning signals, his critics say. Opinion polls show a steady loss of the president’s popularity, with close to 70 percent of those who voted him into power now saying they would not do it again.

“We have a president who aggravates the crisis by making the wrong economic and social choices,” said Benoit Hamon, a spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party. He accused the president of “deafness to the general dissatisfaction” and a refusal to answer questions on key economic subjects.

Mr. Sarkozy responded to his critics, saying, “I have the duty to listen to those who protest. But I am also accountable for the ones who are not marching in the streets.”

“Those who suffer the most are not the ones who protest the most,” he said in an hourlong speech last week in the northern town of St. Quentin. He was referring to a nationwide strike that disrupted French air and rail transport on March 19.

The unions say about 3 million people took part in marches accompanying the strike. The authorities estimated the number at 1.5 million.

“This is not just a day of protest,” said Francois Chereque of the powerful CFDT union. “We have made hard proposals, and the government has to give us some serious answers.”

France is accustomed to union-organized strikes, but the social movement that took place two weeks ago also drew oil, banking, pharmaceutical and retail workers as well as people from the auto industry. They marched alongside the public-sector employees who usually form the bulk of French street protesters.

Likewise, opinion polls found French public opinion overwhelmingly supportive of the movement.

In an IFOP opinion poll conducted last week, 78 percent of French people said they believed the one-day strike to be “justified.”

“Opinion polls have to be put into perspective” UMP spokesman Frederic Lefebvre told The Washington Times. “President Sarkozy’s positive ratings at the very peak of the worst economic crisis in decades are significantly higher than the one of his predecessors at the same time of their mandates under less trying circumstances,” he said.

Mr. Lefebvre added that Mr. Sarkozy’s popularity was higher than that of his European counterparts, such as Gordon Brown in Britain or Angela Merkel in Germany. “He copes pretty well with the situation,” the spokesman said.

Some of Mr. Sarkozy’s supporters now wonder whether France is willing to submit to dramatic changes, most of which are only on paper, or whether the nation of 61 million with well-embedded social and political concepts can be substantially reformed.

Story Continues →