Critics of Blunt, Scattered Sarkozy Pile On

Crucial strike looms as discontent with the hyperpresident mounts
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 17, 2007 1:08 PM CDT
Critics of Blunt, Scattered Sarkozy Pile On
A commuter squeezes between the closing doors of a rare departing regional train at the Saint Lazare railway station in Paris, in this March 10, 2005 file photo, as unions were calling for major transport strikes and a massive demonstration to defend the 35-hour work week and to push for more jobs...   (Associated Press)

Railing against Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform, France is bracing for a punishing transit strike tomorrow as hordes of foreigners descend for the Rugby World Cup finals. It's only the latest setback for the new president and his broad-sweeping modernizing campaign, leading the New York Times to ask if the Sarkozy honeymoon is over.

U-turns on taxes and public sector reform and Sarkozy's penchant for publicly calling out ministers have alienated friend and foe alike. MPs and the press have begun to wonder whether any strategy unifies the scatter-shot measures that Sarkozy has proposed. Le Monde even accused Sarkozy, with no shortage of irony, of lacking "ambition." (More Nicolas Sarkozy stories.)

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