France Bids Adieu to 35-Hour Work Week

Sarkozy embraces entrepreneurs, pushes limits on worker's rights

(NEWSER) - France could see a longer work week and new limits on workers' right to strike if President Nicholas Sarkozy gets his way. He's already reduced wealth taxes on certain investments and practically eliminated the inheritance tax, the Los Angeles Times reports. But supporters insist he will not erode social benefits or copy the freewheeling American style of capitalism. More»

Vows to bond with U.S., break with nanny state

(NEWSER) - Newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared an economic revolution for France and closer friendship with the United States to thousands of jubilant supporters at Paris's Place de La Concorde last night. But there were riots in Bastille and car burnings in the suburbs as disappointed Socialists reacted to the pugnacious right winger's victory. More»

Nicolas Sarkozy has left the building

(NEWSER) - France today installed Socialist Francois Hollande as its new president for the next five years, replacing conservative Nicolas Sarkozy with a mandate to ease up on the austerity measures with which Europe has fought its economic crisis. Hollande, the first Socialist to have access to France's nuke codes in 17 years, promptly called for "compromise" in Germany's stripped down approach to the crisis, reports the BBC . He'll name a prime minister and fly to Berlin this afternoon to face the music—and Angela Merkel, who supported Sarkozy—there. More»

...But François Hollande might be even more simpatico with Obama administration

(NEWSER) - France's election was something of a can't-lose proposition for the Obama administration. On the one hand, the US isn't pleased to see the backside of Nicolas Sarkozy, an ally so steadfast that in France he was sometimes called "Sarko the American." Sarkozy, after all, was in lockstep with the US on Iran, Libya, and other foreign policy issues. Incoming president François Hollande isn't likely to be nearly as accommodating in that arena, the New York Times reports. More»

President-elect has a packed first 40 days

(NEWSER) - Following last night’s victory over Nicolas Sarkozy , Francois Hollande will have to jump right in to his new role—he will be sworn in as France’s president next Tuesday, the BBC notes. What does his election mean?

• Hollande has vowed to renegotiate the eurozone budget treaty Sarkozy championed along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but the German government today is trying to cut that off at the pass, calling it “not possible.”
• Though Hollande's election has fueled hope among many French hungry for jobs, economic growth, and the end of austerity, he faces the same debt problems Sarkozy did. Der Spiegel notes that Hollande knows just how tough is the job ahead of him: Rather than appearing celebratory last night, the unsmiling victor “seemed tired, weak, and overwhelmed,” the paper reports.