French President Nicolas Sarkozy came out of this month's European parliament elections as one of the big winners and he is looking to build on the momentum with a carefully staged relaunch of his reform agenda next week. Sarkozy is due to address a special sitting of both houses of the French parliament on Monday, for the first time, to lay out the course for the second half of his presidency.
He is also expected to proceed with a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle. The glittering Palace of Versailles will provide a grand ceremonial setting for the speech, which will focus on local government and pensions and mark a return to the reform agenda. After a burst of activity at the start of his presidency with tax breaks, new rules on overtime and the dismantling of the 35-hour work week, Sarkozy has been a crisis manager for much of the past year and the drive for reform has stalled.
An unemployment rate expected to top 10 percent in 2009 and a budget deficit set to pass 6 percent of gross domestic product highlight both the risks facing the euro zone's second biggest economy and the constraints Sarkozy faces. Given France's deep attachment to a comprehensive system of social welfare, particularly in times of crisis, and Sarkozy's own pragmatic instincts, radical overhauls are not expected.
But union-organised protests against the centre-right government appear to have run out of steam, leaving the way open to cautious adjustments and a relaunch of the reform agenda. "There's no enthusiasm but no one can see any other way out," saidJean-Daniel Levy, director of the political opinion section of pollsters CSA.
With his approval ratings picking up and the opposition Socialists humiliated in the EU ballot, Sarkozy is as dominant as at any stage since he came to power in 2007, even if the high rate of abstentions in the European poll has prompted caution. He is expected to strike a solemn tone on Monday, the first time in the modern era that a president has addressed parliament after a change in the constitution he enacted last year.