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Also from Le Figaro : Fillon and Kouchner received well by public opinion

by Claire Bommelaer

http://www.lefigaro.fr/english/20070518.WWW000000981_fillon_and_kouchner_received_well_by_public_opinion.html

According to OpinionWay, 61 per cent of the French approve the appointment of Francois Fillon. He is brave (68 per cent), competent, likable, and able to carry out reforms: the 19th Politoscopie Le Figaro-LCI-OpinionWay poll finds that the French had a good image of Francois Fillon even before he was named. For 61 per cent of them, "it is a good thing" that he is at Matignon. More than a fourth of the voters of the non-socialist left and 30 per cent of Royal's voters also approved of his arrival beforehand, as well as 60 per cent of Bayrou's voters. Francois Fillon will have 15 ministers in his government and OpinionWay sounded out the French on the appointment of two of them, the former prime minister Alain Juppe and the socialist Bernard Kouchner. For the former, only 43 per cent of those questioned feel his appointment to the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Rransportation, and Regional Management would be a good thing. The voters of the left in particular are not very favourable about the arrival of the former prime minister, who in 1995 tried to reform the special retirement systems and drew more than a million people into the streets. But that is not the key point, because 65 per cent of Nicolas Sarkozy's voters approved the presence of this heavyweight Chirac supporter who rallied to the future president on behalf of the unity of the right and avoided "sound bites" in recent months.

Symbol of Opening Opinions are largely favourable to the appointment of the highly popular Bernard Kouchner to Foreign Affairs, at 71 per cent, and it is approved by 55 per cent of those who voted for Royal in the first round. If Kouchner's participation in the Fillon government is a symbol of opening for the right, it is also a sign of a weakening of the left, as the Socialist leaders bitterly observed. Last of all, OpinionWay questioned the French about the legislative elections. On 10 May, more than half of those questioned wanted Nicolas Sarkozy to have a majority when the elections are over. Six days later this proportion had risen, as if the French people wanted to firmly turn their back on a power-sharing government and consolidate the gains of 6 May.

The FRENCH ELECTION PING LIST will continue to report on the Sarkozy government as it takes effect.

The Legislative Elections are in June. Two rounds, same as for the Presidential.

Instead of multiple threads, I will be posting one thread a day that will link to other important developments.

Please FReepMail me to get on or off the LIST

Many thanks to all for your enthusiastic participation.

We all have great hopes and expectations for Sarko and France.

À votre santé !

This just in from The Financial Times UK

SARKOZY HIJACKS THE LEFT AND CENTER

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/dd6e4ec0-0571-11dc-b151-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e17a8288-890f-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

By Peggy Hollinger and Adam Jones in Paris

May 18 2007

Valérie Pécresse was a bit flustered when she arrived to take up her new job as France’s minister for higher education and research on Friday. Summoned to her new ministry with just a few minutes’ warning, the 39-year-old mother of three was forced to hitch a ride from a stranger to get there on time.

Nothing illustrates better the sense of urgency that is besetting this new French government, which for the first time brings together 15 ministers from across the political spectrum despite a clear parliamentary majority for the right.

Unemployment, the labour market, the tax system, justice, and higher education – all these are targeted for significant reform, many even before the summer is out. So it was important that President Sarkozy’s new government not only got moving but was made up of individuals capable of delivering on his campaign pledges. For despite his firm majority in the presidential elections, Mr Sarkozy will know the risk he runs from France’s traditional street protests.

Naming a centrist and socialist as ministers and three others from the left as secretaries of state – including Jean-Pierre Jouyet, a close friend of Socialist party leader François Hollande – was “a hijacking of the left and the centre,” says Dominique Moisi, a political commentator. “It is shrewd political manoeuvring.”

Shrewd indeed, as Mr Sarkozy appears to have saved his political peace-making appointments for posts where either he or Prime Minister François Fillon will exert the greatest direct control. Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist minister, becomes foreign minister. Hervé Morin, who was head of the centrist UDF’s parliamentary party, is defence minister, an area where Mr Fillon is expected to take great interest.

Meanwhile his desire for successful reform is equally evident in the decision to restructure certain ministries and to appoint either close allies or politicians well versed in delicate social issues to run them.

Mr Borloo, who won popularity as the dishevelled but effective social cohesion minister, will take charge of a revamped economy and finance ministry. He shares responsibility for employment with Xavier Bertrand, the former health minister and a Sarkoziste, who becomes labour and social relations minister. It is Mr Bertrand who will be charged with the difficult task of winning over unions to the liberalisation of France’s notoriously rigid labour market, reforming pensions and introducing a minimum service in the transport sector in the event of strikes.

Meanwhile another loyalist, Eric Woerth, will take on the uphill task of managing France’s public debt and finances.

Elsewhere Brice Hortefeux, Mr Sarkozy’s closest ally and longest supporter, takes charge of the sensitive ministry for immigration and national identity, while campaign spokeswoman Rachdia Dati will lead reform of the penal code as justice minister. Christine Lagarde, former foreign trade boss, will become agriculture minister, while Chirac supporter and former defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie was rewarded with the interior ministry.

Finally Mr Sarkozy’s closeness to several media moguls – and its effect on journalistic independence – has long been a source of controversy in France. But this has not stopped him from appointing Catherine Pégard, a journalist who wrote articles about his campaign for Le Point magazine, as a presidential communications adviser.

Her appointment and that of Miriam Lévy, a reporter at the Figaro, to advise Prime Minister Fillon is a clear signal that the new government knows its biggest risk is in the domain of public opinion. If that battle is lost, the frenetic energy of these early days will all have been for nothing.

Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordian.

FRENCH ELECTION UPDATE :: ECONOMICS

Also from the Financial Times UK :

Politics of a split finance ministry

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/acbc886a-0570-11dc-b151-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e17a8288-890f-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu in London

May 18 2007

The desire to splice and dice the “money” ministry usually reflects a country’s national priorities or political imperatives at a given time in history. Nicolas Sarkozy’s splitting of the main functions of the finance ministry and expanding its remit, is partially aimed at making state spending more transparent at a time when public debt is under particular scrutiny.

The new overarching ministry for economy, employment and finance is to have the reach of Japan’s Miti, encompassing trade as well as the economy. When the ministry of international trade and industry was created in Japan in 1949 the nation was recovering from the economic disaster of the second world war. It helped strengthen the country’s industrial base and export competitiveness.

Germany has separate ministries of finance and economy while in the UK, the functions of the Treasury were briefly split in the 1965, when Harold Wilson, Labour prime minister, set up a department of economic affairs. It was wound up in 1969 after conflicts within government.

More recently advisers to Tony Blair, UK prime minister, suggested that the Treasury be split – partly as a means of constraining Gordon Brown, the powerful chancellor of the exchequer and future prime minister.

The success of a split depends on the objectives, according to Professor Roger Middleton of Bristol University. If they are principally political, as was the case with the UK’s department of economic affairs, then “not much can be expected”. But if they are largely economic “then much depends on whether a ministry of economic affairs is motivated by more or less interventionist industrial policies [as Britain suffered from in the 1970s] or genuine market-liberalising supply side policies”.

Martin Weale, director of the UK’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: “In Germany, the economics ministry is the junior department to the finance ministry because being in charge of the money is what makes you important. Nevertheless, splitting up rather than having a big super-ministry, favours the development and maintenance of specialist skills, so long as it is headed by a good minister.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Message from our friend Boz at French Election 2007 :

Boz has a new site to cover French Politics :

http://frenchpolitique.blogspot.com/

“Welcome to Politique. Here you will find the latest news and analysis of French politics. This is the successor to the site French Election 2007, which covered the French election from November 2006 through May 2007. Enjoy! “

Thanks Cincinna. Pakistan and India are the new areas of expansion for al-Qaeda activity.