Sarkozy on the hot seat

Author: Rosa Maria Young

Yesterday evening, Thursday April 24th at 8 p.m. French time, Nicolas Sarkozy, the now beset French president gave a 90 minute TV interview direct from the Elysée, the presidential palace. With this appearance, on the anniversary of the first year in power, the government hopes to get back some of the public support. According to polls the majority of French people think his first year in office has been a failure and a great number are dissatisfied and confused over the supposed reforms his government has proposed. Most of the hardest reforms, such as general pensions and health care, remain to be made and the economic downturn leaves little room for maneuver.

Some of the conversations I hear in the shops or I have with neighbors and friends point clearly to this lack of satisfaction. The French people in general like reform but when it touches them personally as it is bound to happen now, their opinions become loud and many times negative. As in the US or in the other nations of the EU, the economy due mostly to the price of oil has turned sour. Price of basic things such as food has increased and the average family has to take more care with their euros. The public mood has gone from general support for the painful reforms presented to them to hostility when realizing that their standard of living has been hurt by inflation. To add to this, in a country where there is an excellent and universal health care, any idea of reforming needs to be presented very clearly and treated very carefully. And the same has to happen with the general pensions. The French don’t generally let their government ‘fool around’ with their lives and what they consider their rights.
At the same time of his fall in popularity among the people, Sarkozy is battling with his own administration which is threatening to sink into a soggy ground of internal bickering.

Nicolas Sarkozy has a hard task ahead of him: convince the citizens that the reforms will benefit them and that he intends to follow them in the four years that he has left in power and at the same time try to bring his administration in order. We will see how he manages these difficult tasks