French business media on Monday said conservative Nicolas Sarkozy’s emphatic presidential election win gave him a strong mandate to reform and left-wing papers came out in mourning.
“A sparkling victory,” conservative daily Le Figaro said in a banner front-page headline over a picture of Sarkozy. It said he had won a historic victory by beating Socialist Segolene Royal with about 53 percent of votes to her 47 percent.
Les Echos business daily reminded readers of Sarkozy’s promises to cut unemployment, change labour laws and stimulate growth in the euro zone’s second largest economy.
“Sarkozy president: A large majority to profoundly reform the country,” the daily said in a headline.
It said Sarkozy’s victory had been all the more significant because of the high turnout of about 84 percent of the electorate.
Sarkozy, a former interior minister, presented himself as the “candidate of work”, promising to loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax breaks on overtime and to trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment.
He also promoted a tough law-and-order line, sparking some concern among leftist voters.
“Hard,” left-leaning Liberation daily said on its front page, playing on Sarkozy’s hard-line image and the difficulty some of his opponents have in swallowing the idea of a Sarkozy victory.
“With Sarkozy, France keeps to the right,” it said.
“He owes his victory to his aggressive frankness, to this idea of a break that makes 53 percent of voters hope that we will get out the slump of the past two decades through energetic -- unjust? -- methods,” the paper said in an editorial.
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“Hard, but in line with the people’s intentions. (Former British Prime Minister Margaret) Thatcher without skirts? Let’s get prepared.”
Newspapers said Sunday’s victory was a bitter defeat for Royal, marking divisions in her Socialist party.
“(It’s) the third consecutive (defeat) in a presidential election,” Communist daily L’Humanite said. “The left , all the left, must go the bottom of the analysis of this failure.”
Royal had campaigned on what some called unorthodox methods, often setting herself apart from her Socialist party and raising eyebrows with proposals, such as a call to send young troublemakers to military boot camp.
Royal, a regional leader who was hardly known to most French only three years ago, sparked criticism and praise within her party when she courted centrist voters ahead of Sunday’s poll.
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