Before that, Sarkozy served notice on his partners in the European Union that the European Central Bank would have to become more responsive to the politicians' demands for more growth and less unemployment, despite their charter of independence from political pressure.

And before that, he walked around the battlefield of his sweeping election victory, shooting the wounded. That at least is the way that some of the humiliated French Socialists see it, now that he has eviscerated their party and stolen their best talent as well as trounced it at the polls.

One of the Socialist Party's most popular and charismatic figures, Philippe Kouchner, founder of the renowned aid group Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has become Sarkozy's foreign minister. Another, former Culture Minister Jacques Lang, has agreed to chair Sarkozy's new national commission of inquiry into the modernizing of the French constitution (a modern invention of Charles de Gaulle, it dates from 1958).

Former Socialist Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, the man who coined the term hyper-puissance (hyperpower) to describe the American dominance of the late 1990s, has also been brought into Sarkozy's fold as a special adviser. And most cunning of all, Sarkozy has engineered the gilded exile of the Socialists' most formidable heavyweight, former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who will be taking over the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

In the meantime, he has won another victory for his party in the elections last month for the National Assembly, France's legislative body, and started ramming through an ambitious reform program of tax cuts and university reform. He is also pushing into law his most dramatic economic reform, to transform the rigidities of the 35-hour working week that the last Socialist government enacted.

Sarkozy has been cunning. Instead of scrapping the 35-hour week, which is popular with the labor unions and with a majority of the French according to opinion polls, he has made it wonderfully flexible. He proposes to keep the 35-hour week on the books, and those employees who so wish may continue to limit their work to 35 hours. But those who wish to work more are free to do so and will pay neither income taxes nor social insurance payments on the overtime they work.

The result of this, which will reward the willing, the hardworking and the ambitious, should be a very significant increase in French economic output, combined with a psychological change about the importance of incentives. Bear in mind that the French already have a higher productivity output than the United States, because the high cost of labor has encouraged employers to invest in more capital-intensive production systems and in labor-saving machinery. Combine that sunk investment with hard work and longer hours, and a French economic miracle seems possible.

There is always, however, a "but" in such glowing projections. And this time, there are several buts. The first is Germany, which jealously guards the independence of the European Central Bank, and is watching with alarm the way the differentials that are starting to widen between Eurobonds issued by Germany and those issued by France. This means that the markets are already starting to price in a risk factor with Sarkozy's policies.

There is a further problem with Germany: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has become the de facto leader of the EU over the past few months when she very impressively ran the European presidency, the G8 summit and the last EU summit with its new draft reform treaty. Merkel represents the largest EU state, with 81 million people, and its largest economy, with a GDP of $2.5 trillion. She would not be human if she did not look slightly askance at Sarkozy's bid to be Europe's new driving force. He represents the third largest population and the third largest economy, considerably behind Britain.

And Britain, which this week's IMF forecast says will grow 3 percent this year, faster than the United States, Japan or the eurozone, is also under the new management of the dour Scotsman Gordon Brown, who is cool about Europe and even cooler about flashy, media-savvy charisma merchants like Sarkozy (or like Brown's predecessor Tony Blair).

Brown likes Merkel, as a sound, low-key and reliable partner. Merkel and Brown each have their doubts about the histrionic Sarkozy. Merkel will do nothing to weaken or disrupt the Franco-German axis that has traditionally run the European project, but she certainly wants to have an equally strong Anglo-German axis. And Brown and Merkel each know, along with the dismayed EU Commission, that Sarkozy's private deal with Putin on the Shtokman gas field has probably sunk any hope of a common and firm EU energy policy toward a Russian leadership that sees its energy reserves as a geopolitical weapon.

Sarkozy doubtless understands Merkel's need to be courted and reassured, and Brown's need to be impressed by solid accomplishments. The time when the Franco-German axis was sufficient to lead the Europe of which they were the two dominant economies is over. A credible Europe needs solid British commitment as well, together with EU solidarity where it matters most, on energy policy and the independence of its central bank. France and Europe may yet pay a stiff price for Sarkozy's flamboyant economic nationalism.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
The Economy

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News