Sarkozy is put to the test

For Jacques Juillard, "Since yesterday [Thursday October 18th], it is official: the Sarkozy magic has stopped working. ... That a strike triggered by such a debatable objective, as unpopular as the defence of special pensions schemes, has been unanimously voted by trade unions, followed by the large majority of those concerned and caused such little protest from travellers is the sure sign that the Sarkozy rocket is entering the lower layers of the atmosphere. Why this change of climate? For an obvious reason: the leadership has just moved on from gratifying reforms (inheritance, overtime, a tax shield) to penalising reforms (special pensions schemes, franchising medication, cracking down on immigrants). The first set of reforms mainly favoured the well-off layers of society; the second hit the working-class layers, in such a way that the real nature of the Sarkozy regime, its class nature as we used to say, is being revealed in the bright, broad daylight".

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