Hyper-president - Haaretz

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Sat., November 24, 2007 Kislev 14, 5768

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Hyper-president

By Daniel Ben Simon

Tags: public sector, France

PARIS - Six months on the job and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has almost eradicated any memory of his predecessors. France has never seen a president like him. He is a scrapper, a megalomaniac or a revolutionary who is at present causing a social shake-up.

All of his predecessors threw up their hands the moment millions of demonstrators took to the streets; given the choice between confrontation and survival, they preferred the latter. Now the time for the payoff has come. For years the country has been stuck in an obsolete economy, anti-competition, bound by lush labor contracts and fearing globalization. A free economy is perceived in France as injurious to social solidarity.

Sarkozy has declared war on 15 particular sectors, among them 1.5 million workers who are entitled to ridiculous retirement agreements. What started out as a caprice of King Louis XIV in 1648, when he reduced the retirement age of several hundred workers at the Paris National Opera, has burgeoned into gargantuan dimensions. Sarkozy has decided to put an end to an outrageous legacy that has done well by the people at any price, with no connection to the country's economic capability. When he was finance minister under President Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy understood that a country stuck in growth of 0 to 1 percent is not able to fund those workers' early pension.

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The most difficult challenge is to change those ways of life on which the French have been nurtured. The new president is trying to reduce the public sector in a country that has coddled it excessively. Every year 17,000 academics fight for 300 positions as postmen. The French mother's dream is that her children will find a place in the postal system. Therefore the public sector recently grew to 5 million workers when the country could get along fine with half that number. No president ever dared to touch this sacred cow until Sarkozy decided to reduce this sector considerably and to increase the workweek by five hours.

Will he carry out the mission? Will Sarkozy, who grew up outside the elite institutions from which all of France's previous presidents and political leaders came, succeed where his predecessors failed? Thus far he has been evincing determination, which sometimes costs him dearly.

On his visits to workplaces he is bombarded by curses and insults, but he also fights back. A striking fisherman called out to him in front of the television cameras, "Go screw yourself!" Previous presidents would have ignored such a shout. Sarkozy stopped walking and answered: "Let's see you, you big hero. Come on over here," as though inviting him to a fistfight.

The French like his feistiness and his impudence and are relying on his toughness to change the country. This week, despite the gridlock at the hands of the transportation workers, 69 percent of those surveyed expressed support for him and hoped he would continue to hang tough in face of the striking sectors.

The test of this hyper-president will be determined in the quarrelsome domestic arena and according to his ability to bring about a resolution in the character of the French who have sunk into conservatism and comfort. To judge his record, there is a good chance he will accomplish this mission successfully.

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