Main focus of Monday, March 17, 2008

The French express disenchantment with the government in local elections

The second round of municipal elections confirmed a left-wing victory on March 16th. Several traditionally right-wing cities have been conquered by the left. The press takes stock of these elections, considering whether voters have thus expressed their criticism of President Nicolas Sarkozy and his team's work.

La Tribune - France

Erik Izraelewicz considers that "the French hate to give all the power buttons to a single side. As soon as they can, they swiftly oppose the team they elected with a counter-power. ... Ten months after having entrusted the keys of the Elysée and parliament to the right, they have reinforced the left, already powerful on a regional level, in the communes and cantons. Central power on the right and local on the left. We had thought, since the presidential election of 2007, that the French had rediscovered a flare for the ballot boxes and that the left-right divide was no longer relevant. This was a bit hasty. The record abstention yesterday [around 38%] shows that the gulf between the two major governing parties and public opinion is still very deep. ...The victory of the left also shows that people are suspicious of absolute power, no matter which." (17/03/2008)

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Le Soir - Belgium

"You would have to be deaf and blind to have failed to understand the scalding message addressed to the leadership. A message of terrible disappointment", comments Joëlle Meskens. "If the left is re-conquering numerous urban bastions, it is not merely a mechanical swing of the pendulum. Not only because the French traditionally seek a balancing out of power in intermediary elections, the fact that big symbolic cities such as Toulouse and Strasbourg have swung to the left is proof that doubt has arisen in this conservative France that thought it had found a saviour in Nicolas Sarkozy, for an obvious lack of one in the Socialist Party ... which has won these elections. The losers are a right-wing that has fallen out with a part of its electorate that it has lost. ... President Nicolas Sarkozy would be well-advised to pay heed to this warning." (17/03/2008)

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ABC - Spain

"A large part of the social enthusiasm that the president needs to carry out his major reforms has disappeared", explains the daily. "[Sarkozy] arrived at the Elysée with a clear mandate: to reform socio-political structures so that France doesn't continue to be a big country with a lack of clear direction and in which the population lives with a nostalgia for past times and a fear of the future. His mandate did not of course include winning the municipal elections, but it would have helped him to know that the French still clearly trust him instead of having to take note of the expression of their disaffection. His objective should nonetheless remain the same: the carrying out of reforms that will free the strengths of this big country that has been sent to sleep by decades of complacent dreaming." (17/03/2008)

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Diário de Notícias - Portugal

In its editorial, the Lisbon daily comments on the socialist victory in the French municipal elections and predicts a national career for Bertrand Delanoë, re-elected Mayor of Paris. "The French have waved a yellow card at Nicolas Sarkozy and his government. This vote of protest occurs less than a year after Sarkozy reached power and at a time when his popularity is lower than ever. Indeed, this failure coincides with the criticism expressed by numerous French people saying that there is too great a distance between the president and actual politics. The government is denying claims that there is a pink wave unfurling across the country, but out of prudence it should accelerate the pace of political and economic reforms that France seems in need of. For the socialists, this victory comes as a relief at least as the party has yet to find a direction that would allow it any hope of regaining power." (17/03/2008)

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