Can Nicolas Sarkozy reform France?

French political scientist Alfred Grosser worries that the new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, could get even more power than Jacques Chirac – that is, if his party wins the parliamentary elections in June. "Sarkozy says he wants a non-partisan country. But he'd be president of a republic in which all of those who were of service to him would get the top posts in the police and administration... Sarkozy says the president will play a larger role, but in fact that has been the case for quite a while, even if the constitution says the opposite. There, it says the president actually has little power, as is evident in the shared role. Because the Prime Minister has a free hand when it comes to economic and social policy, as was the case from 1997 to 2002 with Chirac and Lionel Jospin. But as soon as the president also has the parliamentary majority, he becomes truly all-powerful."

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