URGENT Refugee center to be closed by end of April
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1) A refugee center at the heart of growing tensions between Britain and France over illegal immigration will be closed by the end of next April, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday.
2) The announcement was made following a meeting between Sarkozy and his British counterpart David Blunkett.
3) The Red Cross-run center near the Channel Tunnel has been used as a stepping stone for refugees to sneak into Britain.
4) After being named interior minister in June, Sarkozy had said he favored closing the refugee center.
5) The center will be closed between ``the last trimester of this year'' and ``the first trimester of next year,'' Sarkozy said.
6) (parf-eg)


French minister to visit ground zero, meet Giuliani
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1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy will overfly the World Trade Center site, meet former Mayor Rudolf Giuliani and go on police patrol during a three-day visit to New York starting Friday.
2) Sarkozy, who heads France's police forces, will also meet New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the Interior Ministry said. Sarkozy left for New York on Friday morning. jl-jc


France's ``Speedy'' Interior Minister raises hackles _ and cheers PAR106-108 of Jan.14
(APW_ENG_20030115.0278)
1) He's smooth, tireless and oozes ambition. To admirers, he's a long-awaited crime-fighter supreme. But to critics, he's a bully who, in a worst-case scenario, could one day become France's president.
2) Like or hate him, you can't ignore Nicolas Sarkozy. The French Interior Minister, France's top cop, has emerged as the brightest star of the center-right government that took power eight months ago, tasked with settling a France shocked to its roots by a stunning election showing by the extreme right.
3) This week, France's lower house of parliament began examining a centerpiece of Sarkozy's vision for a safer, less crime-ridden France: a law to widen police powers against guns, prostitutes, loiterers, squatters and beggars, among other measures.
4) Sarkozy's law has two targets: criminals and the extreme right. By showing its determination to fight rising crime, the government hopes to lure back voters who propelled ultra-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen into a run-off against Jacques Chirac in presidential elections in May.
5) Chirac won overwhelmingly, with a record 82 percent of the vote, but even now, politicians both left and right are still debating how Le Pen did so well and how to keep extremism down.
6) ``The 5.5 million who voted for the extremes, why did they do it?'' Sarkozy said on television in December. ``Because they asked themselves why we, the democrats, abandoned them.''
7) Sarkozy, who turns 48 this month, had been tipped as a possible prime minister before Chirac settled instead for portly Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
8) Nevertheless, Sarkozy is proving no slouch.
9) Towing camera crews, he regularly drops in on police stations. He pushed through measures and funding to hire 13,500 police officers and buy bulletproof vests, uniforms and other equipment. He created special investigation teams that, he says, put 330 people behind bars in just five months.
10) He's also showed a steely side, facing down truckers who blocked roads in November for more pay and removing an irritant to relations with Britain by closing a Red Cross refugee center in northern France that was a hotbed of illegal immigration across the English Channel.
11) ``For too long in our country, we've accepted everything, let anything go: the ravages of violence, of drugs, of brutality,'' Sarkozy says. ``We must get back our bearings.''
12) His work-pace earned him the nickname ``Speedy'' from police unions and the French press. At times, he overshadows the more modest Raffarin with his vim. Already, tongues wag about Sarkozy as a possible presidential candidate if Chirac retires at the end of his second term in 2007.
13) Politicians on the left, human rights groups and civic associations criticize Sarkozy's anti-crime proposals as repressive, but opinion polls suggest that many, including some on the extreme right, welcome his hands-on approach and beefed-up policing.
14) Sixty-three percent of 1,003 people questioned in a Louis Harris Institute poll on Jan. 7-8 said they favored his proposed Interior Security Law, which passed a first reading in parliament's upper house Nov. 19.
15) A march against the law last Saturday in Paris drew a meager 2,000 people, although freezing temperatures possibly kept others away. Another 500 marched in the southern city of Toulouse, with placards declaring: ``Sarko's law: If you're not a cop, you're suspect'' and ``Sarko Superstar: the unending increase in police powers.''
16) ``They want to forbid us from traveling freely,'' said Francis Landouer, a Gypsy at the Paris march worried by proposed punishments for travelers who park their caravans on private land.
17) ``We are a free people, and with this law we'll have to give notice wherever we go,'' he said.
18) Sarkozy, a teetotaling father of two who is invariably impeccably groomed, his hair as slick as newly laid tarmac, says he is just acting where previous governments merely dallied. It's an argument fitting for a man who long has been in a hurry.
19) Born Jan. 28, 1955, in Paris' 17th district, to a French mother and Hungarian immigrant father, Sarkozy was just 22 _ and still four years away from completing his training as a lawyer _ when elected municipal councilor for the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1977. It took him just six years to rise from councilor to mayor.
20) Elected a lawmaker in 1988, Sarkozy entered government in 1993 as budget minister and spokesman for conservative Premier Edouard Balladur. Then, he stumbled.
21) Sarkozy backed Balladur against Chirac in presidential elections in 1995. When Chirac won, Sarkozy was plunged into the political desert.
22) But come 2002, Sarkozy fitted Chirac's need for a tough law-and-order minister at the Interior. Rehabilitated, Sarkozy appears more savvy, if no less ambitious.
23) ``I used to think you only needed talent and to work harder than everyone else to get where you want,'' he told an interviewer last year. ``I was wrong. It has taken me twenty years to understand that I had overlooked the human dimension.'' _ _ _
24) On the Net:
25) French Interior Ministry: http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/
26) Official biography:
27) http://www.info-france-usa.org/atoz/bio/bio _ sarkozy.asp
28) French Human Rights League:
29) http://www.ldh-france.com/actu _ derniereheure.cfm?idactu = 581
30) (jl)


France, China reach agreement on cooperation to fight illegal immigration
(APW_ENG_20040108.0250)
1) France and China agreed Thursday to expand cooperation between their law-enforcement operations _ a move aimed partially at stemming the tide of illegal Chinese immigrants coming to France.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy, France's interior minister, has spearheaded controversial efforts to reduce the tide of illegal immigration to France as part of his overall crackdown on crime. On Thursday, he met with Chinese officials on exactly that issue.
3) ``This is a visit of great significance,'' Sarkozy said at a news conference after signing the agreement with Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.
4) Under the agreement, the two sides will strengthen exchanges in police work, anti-drug efforts and the fight against terrorism. France also plans to sent police officers to China more frequently, Sarkozy said.
5) ``China and France have similar views on international terrorism,'' Sarkozy said. ``Wherever the Chinese government needs us to invest effort, we'll respond.''
6) Zhou, paraphrased by the official Xinhua News Agency, said it was ``particularly important for Chinese and French police departments to enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism and transnational crime.'' He said Sarkozy's visit would ``push forward the comprehensive partnership between China and France.''
7) Last year, France expelled more than 22,000 illegal immigrants _ mostly from 10 nations, including China. Sarkozy said legalizing those illegal immigrants is ``not possible.''
8) ``We've tried that. There were too many problems,'' he said, citing population increases.
9) Sarkozy didn't answer a question about France's search for an Afghan who was on a U.S. list of suspected terrorists. The man _ or someone who shares his name _ failed to board a trans-Atlantic flight that was canceled amid fears that planes may be attacked.
10) He said, however, that France was working with ``our American friends'' and that efforts to prevent terrorism with ``good controls at the airports'' in France were proving useful. ``We're taking appropriate measures right now,'' Sarkozy said.
11) Sarkozy visits Hong Kong on Friday, also to discuss illegal immigration.


Crime stats rosy for 2003, but France focused on political rivalry between crime czar and Chirac With AP Photos
(APW_ENG_20040114.0451)
1) Basking in the spotlight of success, France's security czar Nicolas Sarkozy announced a drop in crime for 2003 _ the result of a ``zero-tolerance'' policy that has made him France's most popular politician.
2) But Sarkozy's crime statistics _ notably a 3.8 percent overall drop in crime compared to 2002 _ were hardly the focus of France on Wednesday. The country has become enthralled by the interior minister's presidential ambitions and his rivalry with President Jacques Chirac.
3) Ample time remains before the 2007 presidential race. But the tension between Sarkozy, 49, and the 71-year-old Chirac was the top story in the French press. ``Sarkozy lays siege to the Elysee'' blared the front page of left-leaning Liberation, referring to the presidential palace.
4) At a packed news conference that was broadcast live, Sarkozy sidestepped questions about his presidential ambitions while adroitly keeping the debate alive.
5) ``Nobody knows who the candidates will be _ myself included,'' Sarkozy said, flashing his characteristic toothy grin when asked if he envisioned himself a better leader than Chirac. ``It is not exactly the theme of this press conference on internal security.''
6) A member of Chirac's center-right party, Sarkozy has cast himself as France's crime-stopper. Since taking office in May 2001, he has enforced tougher laws, created thousands more police jobs and reduced everything from traffic fatalities and prostitution to illegal immigration.
7) The overall crime drop he announced Wednesday ended five consecutive years of rising crime rates.
8) The number of juvenile crimes in 2003 dropped nearly 9 percent, while armed theft fell 19.34 percent and robberies dropped nearly 6 percent compared with the year before.
9) ``These results are only an encouragement to go further, to do better,'' Sarkozy said, pledging to reduce crime another 3 to 4 percent next year. ``I will set more ambitious goals for 2004.''
10) It is Sarkozy's self-declared ambition that has provoked open tension with Chirac.
11) In recent months, Sarkozy has done little to hide his presidential aspirations, beginning two months ago with a subtle declaration. Asked during a televised debate in November if he thought about running, Sarkozy replied: ``Oh yes, and not just when I am shaving.''
12) Soon afterward, Sarkozy said he favored limiting presidents to two terms in office _ a not-so-subtle message directed at Chirac, currently in his second term.
13) Sarkozy has also publicly differed from Chirac on some of France's most contentious political issues.
14) Sarkozy initially opposed a government plan to draft a law outlawing Islamic head scarves and other religious symbols from French schools. On Wednesday he downplayed the rift.
15) ``The president of the Republic has made a decision. I will accept it and support it,'' Sarkozy said. Chirac has said the law, expected to pass parliament later this year, is needed to defend France's secular traditions and keep schools free from religious strife.
16) Both Sarkozy and Chirac claim credit for a plan to name a man of immigrant origins as a prefect, the highest state representative of a French region. Aissa Dermouche, named Wednesday, was the first immigrant awarded such a post.
17) Sarkozy favors a quota system of ``positive discrimination,'' similar to affirmative action in the United States, as a way to help immigrants enter the power structure.
18) Chirac opposes quotas but said Friday, on the sidelines of his New Year's address to the media, that redressing a system that favors the elite was his idea.
19) Sarkozy's official trips, meanwhile, have come under intense scrutiny.
20) French media portrayed Sarkozy's trip to China last week, during which he was welcomed in grand style by President Hu Jintao, as a victory of one-upsmanship for the interior minister.
21) Chirac dismissed the fanfare, saying he had ``no problem at all'' with Sarkozy _ before adding: ``I, too, was received by the Chinese president when I was nothing.''
22) (jg-ad)


France's chief crime fighter faces angry youths
(APW_ENG_20040213.0398)
1) A few dozen youths shouting ``You're a fascist!'' greeted France's law-and-order interior minister Friday during a visit to southeast France to attend an anti-crime meeting.
2) The outburst was the second Nicolas Sarkozy has faced in two weeks. A group of angry youths in Paris followed Sarkozy to his car in the other incident, led by a male who blamed the minister for his recent conviction on charges of violent theft.
3) Known as a witty, tough-talking, roll-up-the-sleeves politician, Sarkozy was true to form when confronted by Friday's dissenters, who yelled: ``No to repression,'' and ``You voted in an anti-youth law.''
4) Parliament gave its final stamp of approval Wednesday to a tough ant-crime law that gives police far-reaching new powers, but has come under criticism by lawyers and judges who say it erodes liberties. Critics claim that youths could be unfairly targeted by the law.
5) Sarkozy directed his response to reporters. ``What you see here is the daily life that the people of this neighborhood live.'' Rillieux-la-Pape is in the Lyon region which, like Paris, is ringed by working class neighborhoods where crime is a particular problem.
6) ``I accept these insults, but the next person who comes along _ an elderly person or a young woman _ is going to take a hit,'' Sarkozy said, adding that the goal in cracking down on crime was to rid France of increasing hate crimes.
7) ``Does Islamophobia exist in France today? Yes,'' Sarkozy said. ``I will not accept anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.''
8) ``I want to help your children find jobs,'' Sarkozy told the crowd. ``It's true that when a resume carries a certain name, it is thrown in the garbage ... the son of Mohamed and Latifa needs more help than the son of Nicolas and Cecilia.'' Sarkozy's wife is named Cecilia.
9) That said, Sarkozy turned to the protesters and invited a dozen of the angry youths to join him at a meeting of local officials on fighting crime. They accepted.
10) (parf-jg-eg)


French interior minister proposes harmonizing European terrorism legislation
(APW_ENG_20040318.0703)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that he will urge EU nations to harmonize their anti-terrorism legislation to present a ``a united front'' against extremism.
2) Sarkozy said he plans to make the pitch Friday as the European Union's police and justice ministers meet for emergency talks in Brussels.
3) ``We will present a united front, a resolute front, because everyone's determination must be unfailing,'' Sarkozy said in Meaux, east of Paris.
4) Sarkozy also said he would suggest that the Europol police agency gather a multinational team to investigate terror networks.
5) Friday's talks were called after bombs ripped through four trains in Madrid at rush hour on March 11. On Thursday, the death toll rose to 202.
6) ``What happened in Madrid is truly monstrous, and the people who carried out these acts are just a gang of murderers who must be treated as such,'' said Sarkozy, who spoke at a rally in support of a conservative colleague who is running in France's regional elections that start Sunday.
7) (parf-ad)


France's new finance minister faces tough challenge With AP Photos Expected
(APW_ENG_20040401.0122)
1) France's new ``super minister'' of finance, Nicolas Sarkozy, showed up Thursday for his first day at the office and told staff to get to work to boost the country's economy and jobs.
2) ``The key words will be growth and employment,'' Sarkozy told a waiting audience of senior ministry staff and reporters.
3) ``We're going to get to work straight away, and in all areas I'll be asking for a lot,'' he said.
4) The outgoing interior minister was given the top job at the finance ministry in a reshuffle Wednesday, following the conservative government's resounding defeat by the left in regional elections this weekend.
5) With the title of minister of state _ dubbed ``super minister'' by the press _ Sarkozy is the No. 2 figure in the new government, after Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
6) As interior minister, Sarkozy's high-profile efforts to improve policing and road safety produced clear statistical results. President Chirac now wants him to do the same for the economy _ which could turn out to be the tougher challenge.
7) ``Unlike crime or road safety, economic statistics have a delayed response to the behavior of companies,'' leading French financial daily Les Echos warned on Thursday.
8) Despite a fragile recovery in France, unemployment has stayed stubbornly high, unchanged at 9.6 percent in February.
9) Growth is also returning more slowly than originally hoped for, according to figures published Wednesday. Official statistics institute Insee said economic growth was set to reach an annual rate of 1.4 percent by July, instead of the 1.7 percent predicted last December, thanks in part to the weak dollar.
10) But in an area where feel-good sentiment is key, Sarkozy's skill as a self-publicist could prove a bonus.
11) Helped by his wife, Cecilia, who is also his press officer, Sarkozy is a master at media briefings and photo opportunities _ and it's paid off. He is by far the government's most popular figure, according to polls, and has done little to conceal his ambition to run for president in 2007.
12) Sarkozy's style is in marked contrast to that of outgoing finance minister Francis Mer, 64, who put on a brave face Thursday before dozens of assembled reporters and cameras, stressing his ``personal satisfaction'' with his term in office.
13) ``We didn't plan to have the press here,'' said one of Mer's closest aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``But it's Nicolas Sarkozy's staff that's in charge now.''
14) (lmf-ad)


Raffarin intervenes in French defense budget storm
(APW_ENG_20040422.0552)
1) French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin stepped in Thursday to calm an escalating row over Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to cut defense spending.
2) An aide to Raffarin, who asked not to be named, said the spending cuts demanded by Sarkozy would be subject to further discussion between ministries ``before any government decision.''
3) Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had reacted angrily to the cuts outlined in a letter from Sarkozy as part of efforts to rein in France's public deficit and mounting debt.
4) Sarkozy called for the Defense Ministry to create a EUR 1 billion (US$1.2 billion) reserve from within its budget to finance overseas military operations that are usually covered by other funding sources.
5) French forces are active in global trouble spots including Kosovo, Bosnia, Ivory Coast and Haiti.
6) The cuts were part of a wider program intended to obtain EUR 7 billion (US$8.3 billion) in savings across all ministries.
7) Members of Alliot-Marie's staff said Wednesday that Sarkozy's plans had sparked a ``frontal clash'' between the two ministries.
8) But her spokesman, Jean-Francois Bureau, struck a more conciliatory note Thursday, saying the defense minister was ready to discuss ``the amount, the conditions and the timing'' of the cuts to be made.
9) He added: ``It's clear we'll have to make some savings on our operating budget.''
10) President Jacques Chirac has meanwhile instructed Raffarin to spare the Foreign Ministry from the planned cuts, a source close to the president said Thursday on condition of anonymity, confirming a French newspaper reports.
11) Sarkozy, who took over as finance minister on April 1, faces the unenviable task of tackling France's massive debt and meeting its pledge to bring the public deficit back within the European Union limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product by next year.
12) France's official deficit forecast is 3.6 percent for this year. But days after Sarkozy's appointment, confidential Finance Ministry figures leaked to Le Monde newspaper showed that the deficit was expected to be much bigger, remaining as high as 4 percent in 2005.
13) Sarkozy will be in Washington on Friday and Saturday to attend a meeting of G7 finance ministers as well as the spring gatherings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
14) He is also scheduled to meet U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Friday, the French finance ministry said in a statement. _ _ _
15) Eds: Associated Press correspondent Christine Ollivier also contributed to this report from Paris.
16) (parf-lmf-ps)


Socialist lawmakers protest after powerful finance minister blames left for anti-Semitism
(APW_ENG_20040428.0494)
1) Socialist deputies interrupted the parliamentary session on Wednesday with a protest after Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy accused the former Socialist government of allowing anti-Semitism to fester by ignoring it.
2) ``After five years of Mr. Jospin, we now are to the point of believing that France is anti-Semitic,'' Sarkozy told the National Assembly.
3) Sarkozy was referring to the tenure of former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose five years in office ended in 2002 and were marred by an increase in crime and anti-Semitic incidents.
4) Socialist deputies demanded an apology _ in vain _ and then all walked to the front of the parliament, near the speaker's podium, and refused to budge for the rest of the session. They did not leave the chamber.
5) The incident came a day after Sarkozy sparred with Socialist deputy Henri Emmanuelli on the sidelines of a parliament session.
6) Sarkozy accused the Socialists of ``being responsible for the fact that France has more unemployed people than all the other countries in the world.'' Afterward, he reportedly exchanged harsh words with Emmanuelli.
7) Emmanuelli said Sarkozy lashed out at him, saying, ``Watch yourself.'' The finance minister's entourage claimed Emmanuelli had called Sarkozy a clown.
8) Sarkozy, who served as France's interior minister before being named to head the powerful Finance Ministry in April, became the most popular figure in French politics for his tough stand on crime.
9) Sarkozy helped usher in new measures in 2003 to combat anti-Semitism, including stiffer penalties for anyone convicted of violence against Jews or Jewish institutions.
10) Jewish schools, temples and cemeteries have been hit with attacks that peaked in 2002 when a Marseille synagogue was burned to the ground. Under Sarkozy's direction, the numbers of attacks markedly decreased in 2003. Interior Ministry figures from the first eight months of 2003 show 247 anti-Jewish attacks, compared to 647 in the same period of 2002.
11) (parf-ps-ad-eg)


Sarkozy promises to bring French debt to EU limit
(APW_ENG_20040504.0163)
1) Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that France would respect its commitment to bring the budget deficit in line with EU limits next year.
2) ``France's word must be respected,'' he told a news conference.
3) Sarkozy said he planned to use 50 percent of surplus revenues to cut debt.
4) The EU demands that budget deficit not exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product. France has exceeded the limit for three years running, including this year.
5) Sarkozy said he would introduce a law by the end of the year which would oblige the government to use any surplus tax revenues to pay off France's debt. Under the law, if tax revenues are better than expected, the government would have to devote at least 50 percent of the extra cash to pay off France's debt, the minister said at his first major news conference since taking office on April 1.
6) France's deficit was 4.1 percent of GDP in 2003. Its deficit is forecast at 3.6 percent for this year.
7) Sarkozy also reiterated his plan for the Bank of France to sell 500-600 tons of gold in the next five years to help contribute to debt reduction _ among a series of measures to reduce French debt.
8) Sarkozy said that before the end of June France would put 35 percent of the capital of SNECMA, the aircraft engine maker, on the market, an operation he said would bring in EUR 1.6 million to EUR 2 million. SNECMA is almost entirely state owned.
9) Among other measures, the minister said the state would give up 100,000 square meters (more than 1 million square feet) of office space before year's end.
10) Funds from such operations would ``in no case'' go to financing current spending, but to helping to remove the debt, Sarkozy said.
11) President Jacques Chirac hopes Sarkozy, who cut crime as France's popular law-and-order interior minister, can do the same thing for France's EUR 1 trillion (US$1.19 trillion) debt and help restore faith in the conservative government that was hammered in March regional elections.
12) (parf-lmf-eg)


Sarkozy promises to bring French debt to EU limit
(APW_ENG_20040504.0248)
1) Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to reverse France's burgeoning debt Tuesday and pledged to bring its budget deficit in line with European Union rules next year.
2) In his first major news conference since becoming finance minister on April 1, Sarkozy announced tough new belt-tightening measures for the public sector to help bring the public deficit below the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.
3) But he added that he wanted to see a more ``flexible reading'' of the European Stability and Growth Pact, which was adopted ahead of the euro single currency and set the deficit limit at 3 percent.
4) As well as cutting civil service jobs and selling public offices, Sarkozy announced plans to step up privatizations, sell gold from the Bank of France, eliminate some tax breaks and introduce others to stimulate economic growth.
5) His plan came under immediate fire by Socialist lawmaker Didier Migaud.
6) ``The little measures proposed by the minister do not meet the dimensions of the problem that France is facing,'' Migaud said. ``There is nothing in these proposals that will restore consumer confidence or economic activity.''
7) France promised to bring its deficit into line by 2005 when EU finance ministers voted last year not to impose fines against Paris and Berlin for running excessive deficits for a third straight year in 2004.
8) ``France's word must be respected,'' Sarkozy told reporters Tuesday.
9) The government officially predicts that its deficit will fall back to 3 percent next year after 4.1 percent in 2003 and a forecast 3.9 percent this year, but economists remain skeptical.
10) Official statistics leaked to newspaper Le Monde in March showed that the government had its own doubts, suggesting that the true deficit could be closer to 4 percent next year.
11) To close the gap, Sarkozy said that a freeze in public spending already introduced this year would be extended into 2005.
12) Ministries and public authorities will sell 100,000 square meters (yards) of office space on valuable city-center real estate by the end of this year, Sarkozy said. A policy of not replacing one in every two civil servants who resign or retire will lead to 5,000 job cuts by 2007.
13) Over five years, Sarkozy said the Bank of France will sell up to 600 metric tons (661 U.S. tons) of gold. The proceeds will remain with the central bank but will be used to generate EUR 200 million (US$240 million) in annual interest payments a year to boost government revenues.
14) The government will also sell a 35 percent stake in French aircraft engine maker Snecma, Sarkozy said, in an operation expected to raise up to EUR 2 billion (US$2.4 billion) for the state. State-controlled highway operators SANEF and SAPRR will also carry out new share issues later this year.
15) Tax advantages and exemptions will be limited to five years and systematically reviewed, the minister added.
16) ``Tax breaks that are useless or unfair will be either abolished or reformed and the savings will be recycled and used for tax cuts that benefit all of us.''
17) Tax on gifts from parents or grandparents will be loosened for a year, Sarkozy said, as a one-off measure to stimulate consumer spending and thus economic growth and tax revenues.
18) ``Older people consume less than younger people,'' Sarkozy said. ``We must allow older people's savings to be passed down to younger people.''
19) To improve public finances in the longer term, Sarkozy pledged to introduce a new law by the end of this year to force governments to pay off the national debt in times of solid economic growth.
20) In years when tax revenues beat official forecasts, he said, the government will be obliged to use at least half of the surplus to repay debt.
21) President Jacques Chirac hopes Sarkozy, who cut crime as interior minister, can do the same thing for France's EUR 1 trillion (US$1.19 trillion) debt and help restore faith in his conservative government that was hammered in March regional elections.
22) Sarkozy also took aim at France's revolutionary law that reduced the full-time workweek to 35 hours, which was instituted under the prior Socialist government in order to reduce unemployment.
23) The finance minister said he hoped the government would ask itself the question of whether the measure was doing more harm than good to the economy.
24) (lmf-ps)


Chirac said to give Sarkozy ultimatum in party power struggle
(APW_ENG_20040624.0223)
1) French President Jacques Chirac has offered to back Nicolas Sarkozy as candidate to head France's governing party _ on condition that he resign as finance minister, a presidential adviser said Thursday.
2) Speaking on condition of anonymity, Chirac's adviser confirmed a report in the French daily Le Monde that the head of state met Sarkozy on Tuesday and agreed to his bid to lead the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP but only if he leaves the government.
3) Chirac's ultimatum is the latest development in his bitter struggle with Sarkozy for control of the conservative party, which has suffered two humiliating defeats recently in European and regional elections. Sarkozy holds the No. 2 post in the government after Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
4) While Chirac and Raffarin have seen their ratings sag, polls show that the finance minister remains the government's most popular figure.
5) Sarkozy, 49, has made no secret of his ambition to run for the job of party chief later this year and for president in 2007, when Chirac's second term expires. The president, currently 71, could theoretically run for a third five-year term.
6) Chirac's main allies subtly stressed that the president's ultimatum was not to be interpreted as a green light for Sarkozy to seek the job of party chief.
7) "Let the words reflect their exact message," Raffarin said.
8) The influential party leader job has been up for grabs since the current boss, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, agreed to step down earlier this year after being convicted of diverting public funds to the UMP's forerunner, the Rally for the Republic party founded by Chirac.
9) Chirac was mayor of Paris at the time and Juppe was his finance director. Juppe has appealed the verdict.
10) According to reports, Sarkozy, former interior minister, is reluctant to resign the finance post just three months after being appointed in a government reshuffle.
11) At his meeting with Chirac, Le Monde, without naming sources, said Sarkozy pointed out that previous conservative ministers had doubled up as party leader.
12) Juppe at one point served as foreign minister and party chief at the same time.
13) Sarkozy's ally, Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian, noted that "Jacques Chirac succeeded in being prime minister, mayor of Paris and (party) president" at the same time, between 1986 and 1988.
14) "No one would accept that rules are made solely to bother Nicolas Sarkozy," he added.
15) (parf-lmf-eg)


Cabinet shuffle reported 'likely' in September as power struggle divides governing party
(APW_ENG_20040627.0153)
1) The French government will "likely" be shuffled in September, Budget Minister Dominique Bussereau said Sunday.
2) "It's then that everything will be decided," he said, referring to a power struggle between President Jacques Chirac and Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the No.2 man in the government.
3) Bussereau is close to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and, therefore, considered to have some knowledge of the thinking at the top.
4) Sarkozy is looking to take over the presidency of Chirac's conservative party, the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP. However, the president gave Sarkozy an ultimatum last week _ choose between the Finance Ministry or the party.
5) The ambitious Sarkozy, 49, has not hidden his presidential ambitions, and that has aggravated the 71-year-old Chirac, who ends his second five-year term in 2007.
6) Adding to the tension, Raffarin himself does not exclude seeking the presidency of UMP.
7) "It is difficult to imagine a minister, be it Nicolas Sarkozy or someone else, as president of a party of which the head of government is but a simple militant," Bussereau said. He conceded that this rule was not in the party statutes but said that it was "an institutional practice of the Fifth Republic."
8) The power struggle has effectively divided the party, already weakened by recent losses in regional and European parliamentary elections. The internal troubles became a main topic at a weekend meeting of party bosses south of Paris to contemplate the reasons for defeats to the left.
9) Sarkozy's allies, and Sarkozy himself this weekend, have complained that Chirac's ultimatum is unfair.
10) Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian, noted Thursday that Chirac held the posts of prime minister, mayor of Paris and party president at the same time, between 1986 and 1988.
11) "The rule should be the same for everyone," Sarkozy said at the party powwow which ended Sunday with a forced show of unity as Sarkozy, Raffarin and current party president, Alain Juppe, arrived together. Sarkozy had not been scheduled to attend Sunday's session.
12) Juppe, a former prime minister, is to step down in mid-July. The final date for officially applying for the post is the end of September _ when Bussereau suggested a reshuffle of the government is likely.
13) Juppe agreed to step down after being convicted of diverting public funds to the UMP's forerunner, the Rally for the Republic party founded by Chirac. He is appealing, but the verdict, too, has dealt a blow to the UMP.
14) (parf-eg)


French finance minister not a fan of the 35-hour work week
(APW_ENG_20040707.0018)
1) France's experience with the 35-hour work week has not led its finance minister to recommend other European governments take that step.
2) "We have been talking about the 35-hour working week in France and hope that this problem won't extend to other European countries," France's Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters Tuesday evening after meeting his Spanish counterpart Pedro Solbes.
3) Sarkozy has criticized the shorter work week put in place under the last Socialist government as costly to the government and unwieldy for employers.
4) Spain has a 40-hour work week and it was not clear whether the new Socialist government was considering any change.
5) Sarkozy spent the day in Madrid, first attending a conference at the think tank run by Jose Maria Aznar, who was Spain's prime minister until April. His Popular Party lost the March 14 general elections to the Socialists, but in any event he wasn't a candidate for re-election.
6) Asked to comment on Spanish politics, Sarkozy quipped, "I'm convinced that the Spanish political debate is as rich as the French and besides, I have a great ambition: to leave Spain tomorrow (Wednesday) being friends with everyone."


Political warfare declared, Sarkozy holds his tongue
(APW_ENG_20040715.0213)
1) A day after French President Jacques Chirac publicly scolded his ambitious finance minister and laid bare internal government tension, Nicolas Sarkozy opted Thursday to hold his tongue until a more politically correct moment.
2) "This dispute doesn't interest me, so I'm not getting drawn into it," Sarkozy told reporters as he exited a weekly Cabinet meeting of Chirac's conservative government.
3) He added: "This is neither the time nor the place to make a comment."
4) France's political class eagerly awaited Sarkozy's response to a clear verbal bruising from Chirac. In his annual Bastille Day TV interview Wednesday, the president sought to neutralize their political rivalry and show that he is in charge.
5) Asked repeatedly about their relationship during the interview, Chirac insisted he had no problem with Sarkozy.
6) "For the simple reason," Chirac said. "I make the decisions, and he carries them out."
7) Critics said Chirac's comments revealed a crisis in the halls of power and some predicted Sarkozy's days were numbered.
8) "If I were in his place, I wouldn't stay in the government," said Francois Bayrou, president of the centrist Union for French Democracy. He said Chirac's words indicated a certain "violence between the president and Mr. Sarkozy."
9) The 49-year-old Sarkozy joined Chirac's government in 2002 as interior minister and quickly earned the reputation of a no-nonsense crime fighter. Polls show he is France's most popular politician, and Sarkozy has made no secret of his own presidential ambitions.
10) "The people know very well what I have tried to do for the past two and a half years, for their security, for their standards of living and now for their jobs _ and to try to modernize France," said Sarkozy.
11) (parf-jg-lmf)


Powerful French finance minister a political force to be reckoned with
(APW_ENG_20040716.0390)
1) The spotlight shines more brightly each day on Nicolas Sarkozy, France's rising political star who has picked a very public sparring match with President Jacques Chirac.
2) The focus on Sarkozy sharpened further Friday with the resignation of the chairman of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) _ a job the ambitious finance minister sees as his stepping stone to the French presidency.
3) Sarkozy's poll ratings show he poses a real threat to 71-year-old Chirac _ who hasn't yet said whether he plans to run for a third term _ or whoever he backs to succeed him as UMP candidate for the 2007 election. Party boss Alain Juppe looked set to win that endorsement until January, when a conviction for illegal political funding forced him to announce his planned resignation.
4) The government has twice been hammered at the ballot box by the Socialists in recent months _ first in March regional elections and then in June's European poll _ while Chirac's personal approval rating slid to 34 percent in July from 43 percent at the start of the year.
5) Sarkozy's rating has meanwhile held steady at 51 percent, confirming his status as the government's most popular figure. Some see a paradox in the appeal of a politician whose liberal economics and authoritarian record as interior minister place him somewhere to the right of the government.
6) "There's certainly a gap between the popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy and what the country seems to have said at the polls by choosing the left," said Bruno Jeanbart, deputy survey director for Paris-based CSA pollsters.
7) "But what people appreciate most about Sarkozy isn't necessarily the substance," he said. "They often don't have a very clear idea of what his policies would be if he were president."
8) French voters have been falling steadily out of love with their dusty "enarques" _ graduates, like Chirac, of the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration _ who still dominate the top levels of the political class.
9) Born in Paris in 1955 to a Hungarian immigrant father, the young Sarkozy trained as attorney. He joined the UMP's forerunner, the UDR, while still a teenager and became France's youngest mayor at 28, for the chic suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
10) Today his trademark outspokenness seems to offer an antidote to the more formulated, literary style of Chirac and other senior government figures, as well as being better suited to television sound bites.
11) "There are some big orators who've honed their skills in parliamentary chambers over decades, but it can end up sounding a bit hollow," said Rosine Margat, director of the Cours Simon, one of the most renowned theater schools in Paris.
12) "Everything Chirac says is very well prepared in advance, but when someone sticks a microphone in his face in the street he's very uneasy, he really doesn't like that at all," she said. "Sarkozy handles it very well and comes across calmly. He's basically a great actor."
13) Sarkozy was seen as Chirac's protege in the 1980s, but backed the wrong horse when prime minister Edouard Balladur unsuccessfully challenged Chirac _ then Paris mayor and a powerful party figure _ in the 1995 presidential election.
14) "That's a crime that will never be forgiven," said Philippe Chatenay, journalist and commentator for the French magazine Marianne. When Chirac let Sarkozy back into the fold, first as party spokesman in 1997, then as interior minister in 2002, it was an acknowledgment of his support, not a pardon, Chatenay said.
15) Sarkozy's time as interior minister, when tougher policing achieved apparent improvements in crime and road safety statistics, won him more popular support and even the sneaking admiration of many traditionally left-wing voters.
16) As finance minister since April, he has contradicted Chirac with growing frequency and plain speaking on issues from defense spending to labor market reform _ a trend that prompted Chirac to use a television interview Wednesday to remind the public that "I make the decisions and he carries them out."
17) Sarkozy responded in a speech to UMP members Friday, pledging not to divide the party but adding: "I won't do things I don't believe in."
18) Chirac also confirmed Wednesday that he would not allow Sarkozy to stay on as finance minister if he was elected party chairman in November. The change of role would give Sarkozy more freedom to campaign among the party faithful for the presidential nomination.
19) "France doesn't fear change, she's waiting for it," Sarkozy told newspaper Le Monde in a wide-ranging interview last weekend that threatened to upstage Chirac's traditional July 14 interview.
20) Some observers say electing such an avowed reformist would be a leap of faith for many French voters. On the face of it, Sarkozy is a self-professed admirer of Anglo-Saxon economic institutions and an advocate of tight government spending limits, increased labor market flexibility and welfare reform _ anathema to many, even on the conservative side of the spectrum.
21) But in three months as finance minister, Sarkozy has engineered a state-backed bailout for engineering giant Alstom and rejected a tie-up with German rival Siemens. He has extorted price cuts from consumer goods makers under threat of legislation and forced an all-French merger between drug companies Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis.
22) By diluting his liberal credo with a kind of nationalistic pragmatism, Sarkozy could reassure those waverers, according to CSA's Jeanbart.
23) "These are inconsistencies that run all the way across French society," he said. "In the end, his contradictions could turn out to be his strength."
24) (lmf-ps)


Popular finance minister feels bruising remarks from Chirac were unfair
(APW_ENG_20040723.0235)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, the popular French finance minister, said in a published interview that he felt "injustice" by a public dressing-down from President Jacques Chirac.
2) Sarkozy, who has made no secret of his presidential ambitions, said he was taken aback by comments by Chirac that stirred up French media circles and laid bare tensions that both men have downplayed.
3) In his annual television interview for the Bastille Day holiday on July 14, Chirac insisted he had no problem with Sarkozy: "For the simple reason ... I make the decisions, and he carries them out."
4) Critics read the comments as signs of a crisis in the halls of power _ and some predicted Sarkozy's ministerial days were numbered.
5) Asked to respond by Paris Match weekly in its latest edition, Sarkozy expressed surprise.
6) "My first reaction? A feeling of injustice," he told the magazine. "It didn't hurt me, because right afterward I received hundreds of anonymous messages from French people who gave me their affectionate support."
7) "To tell you the truth, this phrase didn't resemble the Jacques Chirac I know," he said. The comments were published in the July 22-28 edition of the magazine.
8) The fault lines between the two men _ once almost a mentor-protege pair _ have reappeared in recent months on issues as diverse as defense spending and labor market reform.
9) Their falling out first emerged in the 1995 presidential election, when Sarkozy threw his support to then-prime minister Edouard Balladur against Chirac. Chirac won.
10) The biggest recent squabble has been over Sarkozy's hopes to become leader of their ruling Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, party _ a post he sees as a stepping stone to the presidency. Chirac has said Sarkozy would have to quit his job if he wins this fall.
11) Sarkozy insisted he wouldn't be drawn into a spat, and attributed Chirac's comments to "the pressure of journalists who harass him with questions about me."
12) "After 25 years of political fights, I know how to stay impermeable to attacks and bury my inner feelings," he said. "I've reached the age to quote Nietzsche: 'What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.'"
13) "I quite like this Anglo-Saxon expression that summarizes my post-July 14 thoughts rather well," he said in French, then adding in English: "And so what?"
14) (parf-jk-ps)


France's president looks to bury feud with popular finance minister
(APW_ENG_20040901.0300)
1) France's popular finance minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, is expected to quit the government in November to bid for the leadership of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, Chirac's aides said Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy will likely be the only heayweight candidate for the post and should easily win. He would take over from Alain Juppe, a Chirac ally.
3) Meeting with Sarkozy on Wednesday. Chirac gave his blessing for him to stay at the Finance Ministry until the Union for a Popular Movement party elects its next leader in November, Chirac aides said.
4) Sarkozy confirmed to Chirac that he will seek the UMP presidency, and Chirac said he supports Sarkozy's bid, the aides added.
5) Sarkozy makes no secret of his ambitions to succeed Chirac as France's president. He apparently hopes to use the presidency of the UMP as a springboard to victory at the next presidential elections in 2007. Chirac has not said if he will seek a third term.
6) Chirac's endorsement of Sarkozy for the UMP leadership appeared aimed at soothing tensions between them.
7) Fault lines between the two men _ once almost a mentor-protege pair _ burst into the public arena in recent months on issues as diverse as defense spending, labor market reform and whether Sarkozy could be both finance minister and UMP president at the same time. Chirac said he could not.
8) The 49-year-old Sarkozy joined Chirac's government in 2002 as interior minister and quickly earned the reputation of a no-nonsense crime fighter. Polls show he is France's most popular politician.
9) (parf-jl)


Sarkozy seeks to build bridges, and boats, with Germany
(APW_ENG_20041013.0181)
1) A new Franco-German shipbuilding giant could be based in Germany, French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said in comments published Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy was speaking before a visit Thursday with German Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement during which he will seek to calm Berlin's anger over his recent interventions to protect French companies _ sometimes at the expense of German rivals.
3) In an interview with the financial daily La Tribune, Sarkozy revived talk of a new European shipbuilding giant along the lines of EADS _ the defense and aerospace company formed in 2004 from a merger by French, German and Spanish firms.
4) "After the success that the French and Germans have had in building planes together, why shouldn't we succeed in building boats together?" France's No. 2 minister said.
5) Asked whether he would be ready to see a new shipbuilder headquartered in Germany, Sarkozy pointed out that the European Central Bank is based in Frankfurt, Germany. "Have I ever said that's unacceptable?"
6) Sarkozy, who steps down as finance minister next month to run for leader of France's ruling party _ seen as a step toward candidacy for the presidency in 2007 _ signaled his determination to put Franco-German economic ties back on track before he goes.
7) During his German visit, Sarkozy also plans to discuss his controversial April intervention in the takeover battle for Franco-German drug company Aventis _ when he weighed in to broker a Sanofi-Aventis merger, depriving Aventis shareholders of a potentially higher bid from Switzerland's Novartis.
8) Berlin was angered by the intervention as well as by Sarkozy's move to thwart the designs of German engineering group Siemens on its troubled French rival Alstom _ prompting criticism of his "nationalistic" policies from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
9) Sarkozy called Tuesday for tighter economic coordination with Germany.
10) "We don't have the choice," he said, adding that France and Germany should synchronize their national budgets and share economic data and forecasts.
11) "The price of oil is the same in Germany as it is in France," he said.


Sarkozy seeks to build bridges, and boats, with Germany
(APW_ENG_20041013.0386)
1) France's finance minister said he would use a visit to Berlin on Thursday to iron out "misunderstandings" over his interventions to protect French companies, which have irked German politicians and business leaders.
2) In an interview with French financial daily La Tribune and Germany's Handelsblatt, Nicolas Sarkozy indicated he would be seeking to re-establish once-close economic cooperation with Germany when he meets Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement for talks.
3) "We don't have the choice," Sarkozy said. The French No. 2 minister said he would push for France and Germany to synchronize their national budgets and share economic data and forecasts.
4) Until earlier this year, France and Germany were firm economic allies, developing a joint industrial and economic policy and pushing together for a more lenient interpretation of state aid and competition rules by the European Union.
5) There was even talk of a joint foreign policy, and French President Jacques Chirac represented an absent German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at one EU summit.
6) Then in April, when Sarkozy took office, he weighed into a takeover battle over Franco-German drug maker Aventis, forcing a merger with Paris-based rival Sanofi-Synthelabo and fending off a potentially higher offer by Switzerland's Novartis.
7) Aventis shareholders felt shortchanged by the move, which came weeks after Chirac pledged government neutrality over the deal.
8) The following month, Sarkozy hammered out a deal with the EU to allow a euro2.5 billion (US$3.1 billion) government-backed bailout for Alstom _ maker of TGV trains, ships and power plant equipment _ while denying the ambitions of German rival Siemens to acquire parts of its business.
9) This time Schroeder snapped, berating the "extreme nationalism" of Sarkozy's stance. Clement has also condemned what he called France's "relapse into statist, interventionist policies."
10) Sarkozy is due to step down next month to lead France's ruling party _ seen as a step toward a presidential bid in 2007 _ and is keen to achieve a measure of reconciliation with Berlin before he goes.
11) "There have been a certain number of misunderstandings with the economics minister, Mr. Clement, that have to be cleared up," Sarkozy said, adding that he planned to discuss Alstom and Aventis.
12) In an apparent conciliatory gesture, he also suggested that a new Franco-German shipbuilding giant could be based in Germany.
13) Schroeder has voiced support in principle for the creation of a European shipbuilder along the lines of EADS _ the defense and aerospace company created four years ago from a merger among French, German and Spanish firms.
14) "After the success that the French and Germans have had in building planes together, why shouldn't we succeed in building boats together?" Sarkozy said.
15) He also called for greater transparency at the European Central Bank, including the publication of minutes from the council meetings at which interest rates are set.
16) But French officials played down prospects for any substantive decisions at the talks, and Germany's economics ministry would not comment on Sarkozy's visit or his proposals.


France's Sarkozy proposes state funding for mosques
(APW_ENG_20041026.0220)
1) France's finance minister, a presidential hopeful, says mosques need state funding and it's time for a century-old law banning financing for religious groups to be modernized, newspapers reported Tuesday.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy, in a new book hitting shelves Thursday, says extremism is festering in underground mosques and Islamic groups don't have money to build houses of worship, according to excerpts published in French newspapers.
3) "What is dangerous is not minarets, but caves and garages that keep clandestine religious groups hidden," Sarkozy says in the book, "The Republic, Religions, Hope," Le Monde reported.
4) Unlike Jewish and Christian groups with a history in France, Islam is relatively new here and needs a helping hand, Sarkozy says.
5) "In light of our past experiences and our errors, let us prove our modesty and tolerance," Sarkozy writes. "Have we already forgotten our crusades?"
6) The proposal to modify a 1905 law banning state subsidies for religious groups is sure to spark debate in France, which cherishes its secular underpinnings.
7) Sarkozy's book and its headline-grabbing proposals come just as the popular politician revs up his rivalry with French President Jacques Chirac.
8) Sarkozy is expected to quit the Finance Ministry to take over leadership of Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement party next month. Sarkozy makes no secret of his presidential ambitions and could be one of Chirac's main rivals in elections in 2007 if the president seeks a third term.
9) Le Figaro newspaper cast Sarkozy's mosque proposal as a timely political move.
10) "Nicolas Sarkozy thinks _ and who would say he's wrong on this point _ that there is no challenge more crucial for French society ... than integrating the millions of Muslims living here," the paper said in an editorial Tuesday.
11) The debate might not produce immediate results, the editorial concluded. "But it will definitely be a subject of great controversy for the presidential election."


Popular finance minister makes splash with book on religion in secular France
(APW_ENG_20041029.0006)
1) In a new book seen as a prelude to a presidential bid, France's finance minister is taking up the thorny question of how to reach out to an increasingly assertive Muslim minority and integrate it into a largely secular society.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy argues his fellow citizens need to worry less about religious symbols and more about the help Muslims need to build a moderate religious structure grounded in French traditions. He says that will help stem extremism's inroads into a community whose members often feel discriminated against and ignored.
3) In "The Republic, Religions and Hope," being published Friday, Sarkozy displays a thoughtful side that political observers said is part of a strategy to add gravitas to his reputation as a can-do man of action.
4) As finance minister since April, he has held a tight grip on France's budgetary purse and demanded often uncomfortable cutbacks. For two years before that, he led an aggressive crackdown on suspected terror groups and spearheaded the creation of the French Council of the Muslim Faith.
5) But many French also want their leaders to display an intellectual side.
6) "The book corresponds to a desire to not only come across as a man of action, but of reflection," said Nicolas Domenach, a journalist who has written a biography of Sarkozy. "Now, he's moving into a new phase _ to depict himself as presidential, someone who has the virtue of compiling his ideas and expressing them more strongly."
7) Publication comes just weeks before Sarkozy is expected to leave the government and take the helm of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party. Sarkozy, who ranks high in opinion polls, is seen as the top contender to succeed Chirac in 2007 and newspapers and magazines have widely published excerpts of his book.
8) The divide between religion and state has dominated debate in France, notably in the debate over a new law that bans conspicuous religious symbols like Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from schools.
9) Sarkozy opposed the measure, and he argues in the book that banning head scarves is tantamount to "secular extremism," although he says he accepts the law.
10) Sarkozy urges his compatriots to accept that Islam is now a permanent presence in France, with Muslims accounting for almost a tenth of its 60 million people.
11) But, he says, unlike Jewish and Christian groups with a long history here, Islam is relatively new and needs a helping hand _ mainly with building a religious infrastructure.
12) His proposal to modify a 1905 law banning state subsidies for religious groups is sure to spark more heated debate among the French, most of whom cherish the country's secular underpinnings.
13) While stopping short of calling for state funding for building mosques, Sarkozy urges government support for the construction of parking lots, cultural centers and annexes to the Muslim prayer halls as a way to encourage the building of more mosques.
14) The idea is to stem "foreign influences" within the Muslim community and draw its members into the mainstream and stem Islamic extremism, he says. "What is dangerous is not minarets, but cellars and garages that keep clandestine religious groups hidden."
15) As a boy, Sarkozy was influenced by his maternal grandfather, a Hungarian Jew, and never quite fit in with the wealthier elements of France's Roman Catholic majority as he attended church schools. He felt a kindred spirit with the Muslim minority, Domenach said.
16) Religion is a subject mostly avoided by politicians, but Sarkozy has long gone against the grain in French politics. He favors free market principles, is pro-American, and has called for a French version of affirmative action to better include minorities.
17) Young, energetic and tough, he embodies a new breed of French politician. In a country where many major politicians come out of ENA, the elite school of public administration, Sarkozy, a lawyer, did not.
18) But the French still expect their politicians to be fonts of ideas. Many former presidents arose from the intelligentsia and were published authors.
19) "The ticket to success for a presidential hopeful is to make people dream," said Jean-Francois Tetu, head of media studies at the Political Science Institute in the southeastern city of Lyon. "There is the need to speak to the imagination _ and Sarkozy knows it."


France's Sarkozy 'undecided' on presidential bid
(APW_ENG_20041124.0217)
1) French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he hasn't yet decided whether to run for president in 2007, in remarks published Wednesday as he prepares to leave government to lead the ruling party.
2) In an interview with the daily Le Parisien, the outspoken minister also spoke candidly on his rivalry with President Jacques Chirac.
3) Sarkozy was elected in a single round of voting last week to lead Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, government officials say, although the result will not be formally announced until Sunday.
4) Some see Sarkozy's move as a prelude to a likely presidential bid. His popularity ratings have consistently topped those of Chirac and his Cabinet colleagues since he joined the government in 2002 as interior minister.
5) But the UMP leader-elect insisted he has not yet decided on whether to run in 2007.
6) "I give you my word of honor: I don't know," he said in the interview. "Perhaps in two years I will be out of fashion and it will be somebody else's turn."
7) Sarkozy attended his last weekly Cabinet meeting Wednesday. Chirac used the occasion to express his "appreciation" for Sarkozy's work at the Interior and Finance Ministries, said government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.
8) But Chirac also praised unpopular Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin for his visit to Mexico last week, calling it "an example of what the government should do to defend and advance our economic interests."
9) Sarkozy was once a protege of Chirac, even dating his daughter and remaining a friend and ally until he backed a losing candidate against Chirac in the 1995 presidential election.
10) "I think that between us, on both sides, there is a certain attachment," Sarkozy confided in his Parisien interview.
11) "Our relationship is a lot more complex than people say, certainly less black-and-white. That's to be expected, it's a long story."
12) He conceded that his inability to toe Chirac's line in government sometimes "provokes irritation," but added: "Within a family there's often that kind of irritation. Does that mean you don't like each other?"


Ambitious finance minister and Chirac rival takes helm of president's party
(APW_ENG_20041128.0177)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, one of France's most ambitious and visible politicians _ and an in-house rival of President Jacques Chirac _ moved to the helm of the president's party Sunday, a perfect podium for him to bid for the presidency in 2007.
2) In a multimillion-dollar, American-style political show, Sarkozy was named president of the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, kicking off a new era for Chirac's right.
3) Sarkozy replaced former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, among Chirac's most faithful allies. Juppe was banned from holding office in a January conviction in a party financing scandal dating to the days when he worked at Paris City Hall under Mayor Chirac.
4) The move could prove fatal to the president if he should want to bid for a third term. Chirac turns 72 on Monday, while Sarkozy, who steps down Monday as finance minister, is 49.
5) At least 15,000 UMP members packed the hall of Le Bourget airport northeast of Paris for the party's changing of the guard. Thousands of others followed the proceedings on screens from adjoining areas. The press compared the spectacle, featuring show-biz stars, to the crowning of a king.
6) In an address to the crowd, Sarkozy, elected for a three-year term, said he will work so that UMP is the source of a rebirth for the "essential values" of France _ respect, work and country.
7) UMP, created in 2002 in an alliance of Chirac's conservatives and some centrists, has been losing elections ever since. It replaced the traditional conservative Rally for the Republic, a neo-Gaullist party created by Chirac.
8) Sarkozy made clear that, in giving the party new momentum, he wants to do away with the status quo, which he called "our adversary."
9) "I want to remain a free man," Sarkozy said. "Things are going to change," he added later. "We will not disappoint."
10) However, Chirac sent a warning in a message to the party, insisting that the "union" between conservatives and centrists upon which UMP was founded must be preserved.
11) "Today, you are the vigilant guardians," Chirac said in the message read out quickly by Sarkozy. "Nothing, ever, must put this (union) into question."
12) Chirac said he counted on the "vitality, efficiency, commitment of Nicolas Sarkozy" in his new job.
13) Sarkozy, once part of Chirac's inner circle, betrayed the president by backing Edouard Balladur for president in 1995 rather than winner Chirac. He retreated for seven years from the political scene to be brought back in 2002 as interior minister.
14) Energetic, quick-witted and frank, Sarkozy is said to have wanted the prime minister's job, but he quickly moved to center-stage with a law-and-order program against delinquents and bold moves to bring France's huge Muslim population into the mainstream.
15) Sarkozy took a deep jab at the 35-hour workweek put in place by the former Socialist government, saying he wants a "profound reform" of the law. Work must be "rehabilitated" and "the France of work" must be "at the heart of all politics," he said.
16) "We must invent and symbolize a French model of success inspired by no other model but (able) to inspire others," he said. Neither skin color nor social origins should stand in the way of success, he added.
17) Sarkozy outlined a project to make UMP a truly popular party, saying he will spend three days a month in various French regions, meeting farmers, factory workers and civil servants and encouraging the party's youth movement to connect with high schools.
18) "Together, we will develop the great popular movement you have dreamed of," Sarkozy said. "A new horizon is before us."
19) Speaking like a statesman, Sarkozy also addressed international concerns, lauding former communist-era leaders of eastern Europe like Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel for making "liberty triumph" _ and getting a heavy applause for also praising Pope John Paul II.
20) As expected, Sarkozy won the Nov. 15-21 election for UMP president by a wide margin. He took 85.1 percent of the vote, the head of the election commission Robert Pandraud announced Sunday, when results were made public.
21) Sarkozy has never said he seeks the presidency and, to much applause, promised his "loyal and full support" in 2007 to "whoever it is" that can best rally together the French.


Ambitious Sarkozy, head of Chirac's party, distances himself from president
(APW_ENG_20050113.1165)
1) The head of President Jacques Chirac's party came out Thursday in favor of immigration quotas, a bold proposal that puts Nicolas Sarkozy on a collision course with the French leader.
2) The ambitious Sarkozy, who previously served as both interior and finance minister, used his New Year's greetings to reporters to further distance himself from Chirac on issues such as immigration and Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
3) Sarkozy, 49, head of the Union for a Popular Movement party, is widely considered to be priming himself for an eventual candidacy in the 2007 presidential election. The 72-year-old Chirac recently hinted that he may be interested in seeking a third term.
4) Clearly basking in his return to the media spotlight after a several-week hiatus, Sarkozy called on the party to "rethink" its immigration policy, saying he supports a system of entry quotas based on the country of origin and profession of candidates.
5) Chirac has said he is "hostile" to a quota system.
6) Sarkozy also said the party, known as the UMP, would take a new vote on March 6 on whether Turkey should be admitted to the EU. The party already voted last May against Turkish membership and instead called for making Turkey a "favored partner."
7) Chirac has said he wants the EU to include Turkey once it carries out a "considerable reform effort," but promised that the French would have the "last word" through a referendum.
8) EU leaders have agreed to start membership talks with Turkey, but imposed tough conditions, including taking steps toward recognizing a divided Cyprus before the talks open.
9) Jean-Louis Debre, the president of the lower house of parliament and an ally of Chirac, lashed out at the remarks by Sarkozy, saying the party leader had engaged in a "logic of confrontation."
10) Sarkozy insisted that he wanted to "bring together" the party.


Sarkozy, rising star in French politics, acknowledges marital difficulties
(APW_ENG_20050526.0978)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, a former government minister and one of France's most popular politicians, said Thursday his marriage was in difficulty.
2) Sarkozy, a rival of President Jacques Chirac who is seen as a top contender to succeed him in 2007, spoke on prime-time TV shortly before Chirac addressed the nation to campaign for a "Yes" vote in Sunday's national referendum on the EU constitution.
3) Sarkozy was asked on France-3 television to respond to persistent rumors of a breakup with his wife, Cecilia, who is also his chief of staff.
4) "The truth is very simple: like millions of families, mine has experienced some difficulties," he said. "We are in the process of overcoming them. Do I need to say more? I don't think so."
5) Sarkozy said his wife had been pursued by photographers on motorcycles.
6) "I simply ask that my family be respected," he said.
7) Sarkozy played down speculation that Chirac might name him as the successor to unpopular prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin after Sunday's vote.
8) "The question that we'll have to ask on the day after the referendum is: 'What are we going to do with the remaining 22 months of Jacques Chirac's mandate?'" Sarkozy said. "Whichever man or woman it is, what does it matter?"
9) Sarkozy sounded optimistic that the French could still vote in favor of the EU charter in Sunday's vote despite repeated polls that indicate a narrow majority for the "no" camp.
10) "I still think the 'yes' can win," Sarkozy said. "We the French _ who want the Olympic Games, who want to host the world's athletes _ we're not going to begin by saying 'no' to the Europeans."


Head of Chirac's party calls defeat of EU constitution a major political event
(APW_ENG_20050529.0693)
1) The head of President Jacques Chirac's party called Sunday's defeat of the European Union constitution in a bitterly contested referendum a major political event, but urged the French to look to the future with hope.
2) "Today the French have made their voices heard and they have said 'no.' We must listen to what the French have expressed," said Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement and a leading campaigner for the "yes" camp.
3) Looking ahead to France's next general elections in 2007, Sarkozy _ who has been mentioned recently as a possible prime minister candidate if Chirac fires unpopular premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin _ urged his countrymen "to build new hope" in the future of the country.
4) "We must decide on an innovative, courageous and ambitious plan of action," Sarkozy said.


Lawmaker says top Chirac rival named France's interior minister
(APW_ENG_20050531.0399)
1) The chief of France's governing party, Nicolas Sarkozy, was being brought back into the government as interior minister in a shake up announced Tuesday, according to a lawmaker close to Sarkozy.
2) Lawmaker Yves Jego told France-Info radio that Sarkozy was taking over the ministry vacated by Dominique de Villepin, who was named prime minister. Sarkozy could head the ministry and remain party leader at the same time, Jego said.
3) The full government was not likely to be named before Wednesday.
4) The ambitious Sarkozy, with his eye on the presidency in 2007, made his mark as a no-nonsense interior minister, a post he held for two years until April 2004.
5) A top rival of President Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy was considered a leading candidate for the prime minister's job but was also viewed as a risky choice that could lead to power politics between the two men.
6) When Sarkozy was named finance minister in 2004, he was forced to choose between the post and the presidency of the Union for a Popular Movement, Chirac's party.
7) The 50-year-old Sarkozy covets his job as chief of the party, seen as a springboard to the presidency.
8) This time, he "is and will remain president of the UMP," Jego said.


Sarkozy: The strong man of France's new government and a paradox
(APW_ENG_20050602.0010)
1) Political star Nicolas Sarkozy is something of a paradox: Polls consistently show he is one of France's more popular politicians, yet he advocates shock therapies that many French have no stomach for.
2) It seems that with the man expected to be named France's new interior minister some are prepared to be selective. They admire his bold, energetic and results-minded approach that sets him apart in a country where mainstream politics appears stuck in a rut, lacking answers for chronic unemployment.
3) Yet they shut out, or perhaps haven't been paying close attention to, Sarkozy's warnings that the French system _ with its generous welfare and labor protections _ needs major surgery.
4) People "don't look at what he says," said Stephane Rozes, opinion director at the CSA polling agency. "They look at him saying, 'This is possible.'"
5) If Sarkozy can maintain that balance, he may stand a good chance of capturing the presidential palace at the next elections in 2007 _ an ambition he makes no secret of.
6) As head of the center-right UMP party, Sarkozy already had the electoral machine for a presidential run. And, as of Tuesday, he also has a place back in government _ as No. 2 to new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
7) President Jacques Chirac, reeling from a referendum defeat at the weekend on the EU constitution that was seen as a repudiation of his 10-year presidency, tapped the two men in an effort to restore his credibility in the last two years of his second term. Villepin gained fame internationally for his impassioned opposition to the Iraq war during his term as foreign minister.
8) Sarkozy has already served once as France's top cop, from 2002-2004. Expect him to lose no time trying to prove his effectiveness by fighting crime, illegal immigration, or road deaths _ undoubtedly with TV cameras in tow. Police trade unions welcomed news of his return.
9) When asked by pollsters which politician they would most like to see in power, people regularly put Sarkozy at the top of the list on the right.
10) Sarkozy, 50, and Chirac, 72, have a long, tense history _ not least because of the younger man's ambitions. Last year, Chirac sought to bring Sarkozy down a peg, saying in his traditional Bastille Day television interview: "I make the decisions and he carries them out."
11) Chirac also removed Sarkozy from the Finance Ministry by decreeing that he could not lead the UMP and hold down a government job at the same time.
12) But with his presidency in crisis following Sunday's humiliating referendum defeat, the tables have turned. Chirac, in a highly unusual move for a president who just hours earlier had appointed a new prime minister, announced in a television address to the nation Tuesday night that he was bringing Sarkozy back "in a spirit of rallying together."
13) "It's a big opportunity for France and its people," Christian Estrosi, a UMP lawmaker close to Sarkozy, said Wednesday. "The lesson that we learned on Sunday, on both sides of the political spectrum, is that French people want a change of political behavior, that there's not a second to lose."
14) Chirac says that combatting unemployment _ running 10.2 percent, rising to 23.3 percent among the under-25s _ will be the government's top priority.
15) If confirmed as interior minister, it won't be Sarkozy's job to handle the economy or getting people back to work.
16) But he makes clear his belief that major reforms are needed and that the French system does not work _ to the point where he's sometimes asked whether he models himself on Britain's Tony Blair. In France, where workers are heavily protected, that is shorthand for accepting longer working hours, more flexible labor markets and freeing up companies to lay off employees.
17) "If being Blairite is wanting full employment for one's country, then I have no problem with that label," Sarkozy said in a newspaper interview last month.
18) For powerful French unions, any suggestion that the government aims to dilute social and labor protections is fighting talk. In almost the same breath that he announced Sarkozy's appointment, Chirac quickly drew a line against his new minister's economic liberalism.
19) Creating jobs, said Chirac, will be done "with resolute respect for our French model. This is not an Anglo-Saxon-style model."


France's governing party to announce its presidential candidate in January 2007
(APW_ENG_20050611.0286)
1) France's center-right governing party, UMP, will announce its presidential candidate in January 2007, party leader Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday.
2) Sarkozy, who is also France's new interior minister, used a meeting for high-level UMP members to plot out the run-up to the presidential election in spring 2007. The party will host debates in late 2006 before electing a candidate at a conference in January 2007, he said.
3) "We will support the candidate who can best bring us together and make us win," said Sarkozy, who has his eye on the presidency and is considered a rival of President Jacques Chirac.
4) Chirac has not yet announced his intentions for 2007. At age 72, he is already serving his second term, and he suffered a major setback May 29 when French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution.
5) The referendum defeat forced Chirac to reshuffle the government, bringing popular Sarkozy into the important Interior Ministry post, though the two men have long had tense relations.


Love him or hate him, Sarkozy is back in political spotlight
(APW_ENG_20050624.0918)
1) Foes of French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy warn that he's a dangerous conservative hard-liner.
2) Now, even Sarkozy's political allies are questioning whether he crossed the line with his latest controversial comment: that a judge must "pay" for freeing a criminal who allegedly went on to kill again.
3) French President Jacques Chirac felt the need to remind Sarkozy of the independence of the judiciary.
4) Love him or hate him, the interior minister widely known here as "Sarko" has muscled his way back into France's political spotlight.
5) After only three weeks in his new Cabinet position, Sarkozy has returned to front pages amid considerable speculation about why he said what he said. Was it part of the right's strategy to court far-right voters? Does he believe a democratic government can punish a judge? Has he got a screw loose?
6) "Has Sarko Lost It?" asked the banner headline of France-Soir on Friday.
7) "People say that I'm questioning the independence of the judiciary _ that's a joke," said Sarkozy, striking back in a prime-time TV interview.
8) He said French courts were facing a "catastrophe," citing a ruling in one pedophilia case in which seven people had been wrongly accused and spent three years behind bars awaiting trial.
9) "... And I'd like to ask a question to the French who are watching: Isn't it the role of politicians to start this debate?" Sarkozy said on France-2 television.
10) Ambitious, strong-willed and popular, Sarkozy was called back into the Cabinet after France's rejection of the EU constitution forced Chirac to reshuffle his government.
11) During Sarkozy's first stint as interior minister, from 2002-2004, he cracked down on crime, drunk driving, speeding and was repeatedly voted France's most popular politician. He served briefly as finance minister before resigning last year to head Chirac's conservative UMP party _ widely seen as a stepping stone to a presidential bid.
12) Law-and-order was at the heart of two headline-grabbing comments made this week by Sarkozy regarding a pair of unrelated murder cases.
13) The first came Tuesday, after the death of an 11-year-old boy caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs in the crime-ridden Paris suburb of La Courneuve. Sarkozy vowed to "totally clean" the area of drugs and thugs.
14) But the real uproar came a day later over a comment about a judge who had released from prison a man who is now the prime suspect in the recent murder of a 39-year-old woman.
15) "The judge must pay for his mistake," Sarkozy said, prompting outrage in some corners that he was overstepping his role as interior minister.
16) "This is serious. It's dangerous and, moreover, it's unacceptable," said Socialist lawmaker Andre Vallini, one of many in his party to call the comments a clear attempt to woo far-right voters by summoning the populist tone of extreme-right leader Jean Marie Le Pen.
17) Vallini called it a risky strategy: "He's legitimizing the discourse of Le Pen. This can only feed the National Front."
18) France's judges union fired off a letter to the Superior Council of Magistrates, the body that oversees the independence of the judiciary.
19) "Nicolas Sarkozy _ a member of the executive branch, the head of the majority party and a declared candidate for the presidential election _ has manifestly abused his functions," said the letter, adding that Sarkozy blatantly "ignored" the separation of powers and Chirac should remind him how a democracy works.
20) The president replied with a letter of his own Friday in which he asserted "the constitutional principle of the separation of powers" and France's "respect of the independence of the judiciary."
21) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin _ seen as a potential rival of Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election _ offered some damage control.
22) "We live in France, in a democracy, and in our democracy there is a fundamental principle: the independence of the judiciary," Villepin told France-Inter radio.
23) Sarkozy, meanwhile, has kept on full steam ahead, asserting that the way to voters' hearts is to drop the well-honed "langue de bois" _ "wooden tongue" or bureaucrat-speak _ of most French politicians.
24) Sarkozy defended himself Thursday in Parliament and lashed out at the Socialists, the leading opposition party, saying they were stuck in the past and it's no wonder they lost power.
25) "It's because you forgot about the people. You don't talk like them," Sarkozy said.
26) On Friday, Sarkozy said his get-tough approach was for the good of democracy.
27) "Our democracy cannot live when there are French who cannot conduct their daily lives without fear," he told a graduating class of new police officers, adding: "I chose my side: It's that of the victims."


Sarkozy sues Swiss newspaper for publishing details of marital problems
(APW_ENG_20050713.0455)
1) France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is suing the Swiss daily Le Matin for publishing a series of articles about his marriage, the newspaper said Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy, a top French political figure, is asking for symbolic damages of euro1 (US$1.22) from Edipresse S.A., the Swiss-based firm that publishes Le Matin.
3) Sarkozy claims that his privacy was invaded by the decision to run stories on his private life in five successive editions of the French-language newspaper and for four days on the Internet.
4) The case will be heard in the French town of Thonon-les-Bains, on the opposite shore of Lake Geneva from the Swiss city of Lausanne, where Le Matin is published.
5) The newspaper said it has only 500 readers in France, along the southern side of the lake close to French-speaking Switzerland.
6) Sarkozy's office confirmed that it had turned to the courts, but declined to comment on the case.
7) A member of President Jacques Chirac's governing party, Sarkozy is known to have presidential ambitions of his own.


Britain denies French minister's comment on bomber suspect arrest
(APW_ENG_20050713.1004)
1) Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke strongly denied claims Wednesday that he'd told his French counterpart that British police had previously arrested suspected terrorists involved in last week's London bombings.
2) At an earlier news conference, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said: "It seems that part of this group was arrested, I would say, around the spring of 2004."
3) Reports said Sarkozy attributed that information to Clarke, who later told a news conference: "Mr. Sarkozy was inaccurate, shall I put it gently, in suggesting there had been a discussion of this kind, because there was not."
4) The Anglo-French spat clouded a Brussels meeting where the European Union's 25 justice and interior ministers agreed to step up counterterrorism cooperation in the wake of last week's London attacks.
5) Later Wednesday, Sarkozy's office issued a statement making it clear that Clarke had not made any such comments to him about the suspected bombers, and that Sarkozy did not specify the source of his information. A Home Office spokesman in London confirmed receiving the clarification.
6) Three Britons of Pakistani descent are suspected of carrying out the suicide bombings that killed at least 52 and injured 700. Another suspected suicide bomber is unidentified and police are investigating if others were involved.
7) Clarke said he had no knowledge that suspects linked to the bombing had been previously detained.
8) "I'm not aware of this allegation that Mr. Sarkozy has made," he said. "I have not had any conversation with Mr. Sarkozy about it and I simply do not know where he could have got that from."
9) Asked by if he had sought a retraction from Sarkozy, Clarke said he had not had the opportunity because the French minister had left early.
10) "He left the council halfway through," Clarke said. "He didn't feel it appropriate to stay to the end of the discussion, perhaps it's his style, but he's a great leader of France and I wish him all the best."
11) One of France's highest profile politicians, Sarkozy is tipped to be a favorite in the 2007 French presidential elections.


French interior minister vows to expel radical Muslim leaders who preach hatred
(APW_ENG_20050719.0546)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed that France would have "zero tolerance" for radical Muslim imams, and would take a systematic approach to expelling prayer leaders who preached hatred, according to an interview published Tuesday.
2) In response to London's deadly bomb attacks, France plans to be more severe with Muslim preachers "who don't respect our values and who are not French," Sarkozy told Liberation newspaper.
3) "We must be much more severe with those who enlist young suicide bombers," Sarkozy reportedly said, without elaborating.
4) "I will step up procedures to forfeit the nationality of French imams who make violent and fundamentalist speeches," Sarkozy was quoted as saying. "It will be zero tolerance!"
5) Legislation passed last year in France allows non-citizens to be deported for inciting "discrimination, hatred or violence" against any group. At least five Islamic clerics have been expelled.
6) Sarkozy also reiterated calls for better surveillance of mosques known to draw Islamic extremists, and said France needed to do a better job of integrating the country's 5-million strong Muslim population, according to the newspaper.


France's Sarkozy outlines program as president's illness fuels rivalry
(APW_ENG_20050907.0966)
1) France must pursue vigorous tax and labor market reforms if it is to return to strong economic growth and low unemployment, interior minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday.
2) The French economy needs a major change of direction, Sarkozy said, predicting that the country could halve its 9.9 percent unemployment rate within a decade if it undertakes serious reforms.
3) "Some 85 percent of jobs created in the past 25 years have been in the public sector _ in other words financed by taxes," Sarkozy said.
4) The ambitious minister, who has made no secret of his desire to become France's next president, was addressing an economic conference organized by the governing conservative Union for a Popular Movement, which he also leads.
5) The UMP party gathering went ahead as its founding father, President Jacques Chirac, spent a fifth day in a hospital being treated for what his doctors describe as a hematoma, or a buildup of blood resulting from a blood vessel problem, which has impaired his vision.
6) The president's condition has revived the simmering rivalry between Sarkozy and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a staunch Chirac loyalist. Presidential elections are not due until 2007, providing Chirac serves out his second term.
7) Addressing an audience that included Finance Minister Thierry Breton, Sarkozy said the government should launch serious labor reform to make it easier for companies to employ staff, as well as widening the gap between starting wages and state benefits to encourage jobseekers back to work.
8) "France must not be the only country to have a high level of welfare protection and few obligations incumbent on those who receive benefits," Sarkozy said, also calling for the maximum income tax rate to be cut to 50 percent in order to boost wealth creation.
9) The tone of his speech suggests that Sarkozy, who cultivates a reputation as a political risk-taker and plain speaker, is ready to take on rivals from a reformist platform _ even amid growing union anger at reforms already introduced, such as a recent move to make it easier for smaller firms to lay off some employees.
10) "The France that gets up early to go to work in the morning" expects jobless benefit recipients to seek work actively, Sarkozy said.
11) He also went further on tax than his potential presidential rival, Prime Minister Villepin _ who last week announced modest income tax reforms but stopped short of calling for a reduction in the top rate.
12) French taxes are six percentage points higher than the average of European countries and "too high overall," Sarkozy said.
13) "We should set ourselves the task of bringing down our tax burden to the European average within five years," he said. "No one in France should be paying more than 50 percent of their wages in income tax."


Villepin, Sarkozy rally France's conservative lawmakers
(APW_ENG_20050920.0676)
1) Unity was the message but the 2007 presidential election was clearly the subtext as France's top two political stars took the stage at a convention Tuesday to rally the ruling conservative party.
2) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the ambitious interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, addressed lawmakers from the Union for a Popular Movement at the close of a two-day gathering in this Alpine spa town.
3) The blunt-talking Sarkozy called for "profound and structural changes" in France, while Villepin took a characteristically softer approach in saying the party needed to devote itself to modernizing France's social model.
4) Both men noted that only 19 months remain until France elects its next president, a countdown that many predict will pit the two against each other to become the governing right's presidential candidate.
5) Villepin has not formally announced whether he intends to run, while Sarkozy has made no secret of his desire to succeed President Jacques Chirac.
6) Chirac, 72, has not said whether he will seek a third term, but a recent, weeklong hospitalization for a blood vessel problem has raised doubts about his political future. The sickness squarely pitted Sarkozy against Villepin, Chirac's longtime protege.
7) "We need to be the grand political force capable of pushing profound and structural change, which France needs and which others across the world have started before us _ and better than us," said Sarkozy, who is also the party leader.
8) The French are waiting for a "political vision," said Sarkozy, who casts himself as the man capable of reshaping France. Lawmakers applauded his speech with a standing ovation.
9) Polls show that Sarkozy is one of the most popular politicians in France, with Villepin lagging slightly behind. Villepin appealed to the party to stay strong by working together.
10) "These elections, we have to win them for ourselves, for our political party, for our values and for our ideas," he said, adding, "It's up to you. I am counting on you. I know that I can count on you."
11) Should Villepin pursue the presidency, he would need more than just public support. He would also need to win over the ruling party, which strongly backs Sarkozy. A career diplomat, Villepin would need to gain the favor of lawmakers, who are wary because he has never held an elected office.


France's Sarkozy calls for EU's biggest members to lead the bloc
(APW_ENG_20050926.0743)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that the six biggest EU nations should serve as the bloc's motor to lift the continent out of its crisis.
2) Sarkozy, head of the ruling conservative party and a top contender for the French presidency in 2007, said that France and Germany had been pushing the bloc along alone for too long.
3) Speaking to a gathering of his Union for a Popular Movement party over the weekend, Sarkozy called for the creation of a so-called Group of Six that would come up with ideas and make proposals to leaders of the 25-nation EU.
4) "We must open the French-German couple to four other big European countries, which together represent 75 percent of the European population," Sarkozy said, referring to Britain, Italy, Spain and Poland.
5) "The Group of Six must be the motor for the new Europe," Sarkozy said Saturday. "If we are able to develop this method, we would answer _ without institutional reform _ two major defects of today's Europe: Europe would act and it would act under the impulse of responsible politicians, not anonymous bureaucrats."
6) The EU was plunged into a "serious crisis" when French and Dutch voters rejected the continent's first constitutional treaty, Sarkozy said. The crisis was intensified when leaders failed to reach agreement on the bloc's budget at a summit in June.
7) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said last week it would probably take at least two years before an EU constitution could win over voters. Barroso complained that too little thought has been given since this summer's crisis to where the EU should be headed.
8) Sarkozy pitched his plan as a way to make the EU run more effectively and give "a new vision to Europe."


France's interior minister details planned anti-terrorism measures
(APW_ENG_20050926.1022)
1) France's interior minister detailed a raft of planned anti-terrorism measures, including increased video surveillance, in a television interview broadcast Monday.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy said the terrorist risk for Paris is "very high." Following the London bombings, the French government is "considerably" boosting intelligence-gathering resources "to listen to everything and, if possible, know everything."
3) Sarkozy also said that about 10 French citizens "are in Iraq, ready to become kamikazes" and that others are in religious schools in Pakistan. He said France wants to increase surveillance of such trips overseas.
4) "It is not normal that an individual who lives in our neighborhoods leaves all of a sudden for four months in Afghanistan, three months in Syria," he said on France-3 television. "We want to know who is going where, for how long and when they come back."
5) Investigators are probing networks suspected of sending French militants to Iraq. Among the militants who have left France is one just 14 years old, Sarkozy said.
6) Sarkozy said that the July 7 attacks in London, which killed 52 commuters and four bombers, showed French officials that "we were not up to standard in video surveillance."
7) An anti-terrorism bill that will go before the French Cabinet next month will increase video surveillance in railway stations, airports and other public places, the minister said. Synagogues and large shops should also be allowed to install video cameras and footage gathered should be kept for longer, he added.
8) Currently, footage is destroyed after a month unless it is being used in legal cases. Sarkozy brushed off privacy concerns, saying: "The number one freedom is being able to take the metro and the bus without fearing for one's life."
9) Sarkozy said the government also wants to make Internet cafes keep more detailed records, to stop terrorists from being able to use them anonymously. He said he also wants telephone operators to keep records for "at least a year" so investigators can see "who called who, when and where, because that allows real networks to be pieced together."
10) In a crackdown on hate speech, France has deported 34 extremist Islamic prayer leaders since October 2003, he said, and about another 10 will be expelled in the coming weeks.
11) "We will expel every person who makes comments against the values of the Republic," Sarkozy said, "for a simple reason: these violent, irresponsible comments can be heard in a certain number of neighborhoods by very young, extremely impressionable people."


French interior minister draws fire for suspected leak about counterterrorism raid
(APW_ENG_20050927.1058)
1) When hooded, heavily armed police burst into the homes of terror suspects arrested in France, television cameras were there to record every moment.
2) One day later, rivals and observers of ambitious French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy were wondering Tuesday whether he leaked advance word of the raids _ perhaps to press home the need for planned new anti-terrorism measures.
3) Police netted nine people in Monday's sweep against a suspected Islamic terror cell allegedly intent on carrying out attacks in France. An Islamic militant who spent eight years in prison on terrorism charges was among those detained. He had been under surveillance since his release from jail in 2003.
4) Authorities believe that the alleged cell's targets included the Paris subway, one of the French capital's airports and the headquarters of the police intelligence and counterterrorism agency known as the DST, a judicial official said on condition of anonymity.
5) The official, confirming newspaper reports Tuesday, said that authorities in another country informed the French of the possible threat based on testimony from an arrested suspect.
6) French media reported Tuesday evening that a militant Algerian Islamic movement had posted an Internet threat in mid-September against France, describing it as "enemy No. 1." France-Info radio said that officials judged the threat, by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, to be "credible." It did not name its sources, and the report could not be immediately confirmed.
7) A judicial official said Monday the nine were suspected of links to the GSPC, which has declared allegiance to al-Qaida, but a police official said any link to the Algerian group appeared tenuous.
8) Some observers believed Sarkozy was referring to the sweep when he mentioned arrests in a televised interview aired Monday night, after the nine were in custody. The comments caused disquiet Tuesday because the interview was recorded five days before the raids took place.
9) "As I speak, arrests have taken place," Sarkozy said.
10) The opposition Socialists hinted darkly that the conservative Sarkozy may have endangered national security and called for the creation of an oversight commission to prevent ministers from using their powers to mount "an opportunistically staged operation."
11) The party demanded a quick explanation from Sarkozy about the "conditions that caused him to express himself in anticipation of a counterterrorism operation during the taping of a TV interview."
12) Le Parisien, meanwhile, said Sarkozy "let the cat out of the bag." A commentator in the esteemed daily Le Monde suggested that Sarkozy was seeking to press his anti-terrorism legislative agenda.
13) But Sarkozy spokesman Franck Louvrier told The Associated Press that the minister was either misunderstood or the target of political mudslinging. Sarkozy is a top contender to represent the conservatives in 2007 presidential elections.
14) Louvrier said the minister was actually referring to the arrests of six other suspects in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris on Sept. 19. They were later released without charge.
15) Claims that Sarkozy was referring to impending raids were "false," the spokesman said, adding: "I think some people wanted to exploit this thing for political ends."
16) Sarkozy used the airtime to stump for his planned anti-terrorism bill, which the government ordered after the London bombings in July that killed 52 people and four suicide bombers.
17) Among its measures would be increased use of surveillance cameras. The government also wants telephone companies and Internet cafes to keep more detailed records and wants to keep better tabs on people traveling to countries that harbor militants.
18) Le Parisien reported that DST agents launched Monday's raids after receiving a confidential note from Algerian authorities summarizing the questioning of a suspect arrested Sept. 9 in the Algerian capital.
19) The suspect, identified by the newspaper only as "M.B.", was an alleged member of the group and indicated that attacks were being planned in France, the newspaper said. His wife was among the nine arrested.
20) Le Figaro reported that the suspected cell allegedly had al-Qaida contacts and some of its supposed members have knowledge of explosives.


French leaders make show of unity, but tensions still apparent
(APW_ENG_20051027.0799)
1) The top two ministers in France's government made a show of unity Thursday after a series of public disagreements highlighted their rivalry in the run-up to presidential and legislative elections in 2007.
2) "We are fully dedicated and devoted to what we consider the key issue, the future of our country and the service of our fellow citizens," said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy at his side.
3) But tensions were still apparent. Sarkozy looked visibly irritated when Villepin answered in his place to a journalist who asked whether Sarkozy was happy in government. When his turn came, Sarkozy's response was typically blunt.
4) "We are trying to find points of agreement because we do not always start from the same position. So what? He is prime minister, he arbitrates, he is head of the government, it is perfectly normal," said Sarkozy, who also heads the ruling conservative UMP party.
5) It was his first appearance at Villepin's monthly news conferences.
6) The two men have clashed over issues ranging from whether Turkey should join the European Union _ Sarkozy is against full membership _ to France's separation of church and state.
7) Villepin this week delivered an embarrassing rebuff to Sarkozy by speaking out against the interior minister's proposal that long-term foreign residents in France be allowed to vote in municipal elections.
8) "We are different, and we are united," Sarkozy said Thursday.
9) He makes no secret of his ambition to run for president in two years. Villepin has not said what his plans are. The race to 2007 gathered steam after President Jacques Chirac spent a week in a hospital in September for a blood vessel problem that impaired his vision. Chirac has not said whether he plans to seek a third term in 2007.


French interior minister says security to be stepped up in rough neighborhoods after riots
(APW_ENG_20051031.0873)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday promised stepped-up security in France's rough neighborhoods after four nights of rioting in a Paris suburb.
2) Sarkozy said riot police would ensure order and intelligence agents would search out troublemakers in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois, where rioting was triggered by the deaths Thursday of two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, accidentally electrocuted as they hid from police in a power substation.
3) The clashes between angry youths and police shone the spotlight back on Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful for elections in 2007 who used the attention to repeat his tough law-and-order message. Residents of troubled neighborhoods will get "the security they have a right to," he vowed Monday during a meeting with police and fire officers.
4) The unrest also highlighted the security problems in France's big city suburbs, still unresolved despite repeated government pledges over the years to tackle unemployment, delinquency, drug trafficking and other crimes. Troubled suburbs, often the home to immigrants with modest incomes, have proved fertile terrain for Muslim prayer leaders with a radical message for disenchanted youth.
5) The teens' families refused a meeting with Monday with the interior minister, whose tough anti-crime tactics have made him a divisive figure.
6) "In no circumstances will we see Sarkozy," said Siyakah Traore, the brother of one of the victims, Bouna Traore. He called Sarkozy "very, very incompetent" and asked instead to see Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
7) In the fourth consecutive night of unrest Sunday, six police officers were injured, 11 people were detained and cars and garbage bins were set on fire again.
8) Sarkozy confirmed reports that a tear gas grenade was thrown into a local mosque, but added that "this doesn't mean it was fired by a police officer." The minister, who planned a meeting with the mosque's imam, or prayer leader, said an investigation would clarify the matter. Rumors that police had attacked the mosque with tear gas fueled the fervor of rioters.
9) The deaths and rioting were the worst such incidents since the June 19 killing of an 11-year-old by a stray bullet, apparently caught in the crossfire of two rival groups, in the suburb of La Courneuve.
10) The issue of suburban violence topped President Jacques Chirac's re-election campaign in 2002. France's fight against unemployment, close to 10 percent nationally but far higher among young people, has since taken center stage. The prime minister, touted as another possible candidate for 2007, has made the issue his priority, allowing him to eclipse Sarkozy in recent weeks.
11) Sarkozy's tough talk _ he has referred to troublemakers as "scum" and said troubled neighborhoods must be cleaned out _ has also led to accusations that he is courting far-right voters and focusing more on repression than prevention.
12) "All of this creates a terrible atmosphere," said former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, a Socialist.
13) Sarkozy says that violence in the suburbs is a daily fact of life.
14) Since the start of the year, 9,000 police cars have been stoned and, each night, 20 to 40 cars are torched, Sarkozy said in an interview last week with the newspaper Le Monde, two days before the violence in Clichy-Sous-Bois.


Paris' riots put temporary stop to feuding between prospective future French presidents
(APW_ENG_20051104.0923)
1) As Paris' suburbs burn, two prospective future presidents of France _ Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy _ have had to put their public feuding on the backburner.
2) Both of their political futures could hinge on their ability to tame the rioting that entered a second week on Friday. Pressure is mounting for a solution to the long-simmering problems behind the violence _ poverty, crime, racial inequalities, and a lack of jobs and opportunities that are breeding a lost generation of suburban youths, many of them from immigrant families.
3) Shoehorned together into a government facing its biggest domestic crisis yet, Sarkozy and Villepin for the moment find their fates intertwined.
4) "Our duty, for both Dominique de Villepin and myself, is to work hand in hand, in total trust, in total coordination," Sarkozy said on television Thursday night. "There cannot and there will not be divisions between us because the problem is too serious."
5) But the truce is an uneasy one that could easily dissolve into recriminations once the unrest subsides, the post-mortems begin, and as presidential elections in 2007 loom ever nearer.
6) The new show of unity between the two main players followed rifts that were appearing within the Cabinet over Sarkozy's tough-guy approach to rough suburbs. He has been accused of inflaming passions by referring to neighborhood troublemakers as "scum."
7) Azouz Begag, the government's equal opportunities minister who comes from the suburbs himself, criticized Sarkozy's policing methods and "warlike" talk _ an attack some suspected might have been sanctioned by Villepin because he and Begag are close.
8) But that was Tuesday, in a newspaper interview. The next day in parliament, Villepin said Sarkozy had taken "the necessary measures." "I know that I can count on him," the prime minister said.
9) The political and personal differences between the plain-speaking Sarkozy, who wears his presidential ambitions on his sleeve, and Villepin, a debonair and intense man who has led a charmed career as foreign minister, published writer, and trusted adviser to President Jacques Chirac, are fundamental _ even though both belong to the ruling conservative camp.
10) Despite their conflicting personalities and visions for France's future, Chirac put them in office together to repackage and reinvigorate his government after a humiliating referendum defeat in May, when voters rejected his call to approve a proposed European Union constitution.
11) Sarkozy, whose father immigrated from Hungary and married a French woman, presents himself as the solution for a France laboring with nearly 10 percent unemployment and the straitjacket of inflexible labor laws and costly social protections. He says outright that the French system no longer is best and needs overhauling.
12) Villepin appears more for gradual reform than radical change and says he is "profoundly attached to the French model" _ resisting those who suggest that France should follow Britain's example of deregulating markets and make hiring-and-firing far easier.
13) Sarkozy also has questioned other hallowed pillars of France _ most notably a 1905 law separating church and state that forms the foundation of French secularism. He has suggested that the law be modified to allow for public financing of places of worship, specifically mosques, to better integrate largely catholic France's estimated 5 million Muslims. Villepin is against the idea.
14) The squabbling has at times distracted from the two men's stated priorities, creating jobs for Villepin, showing "zero-tolerance" for crime for Sarkozy.
15) Although law and order is Sarkozy's responsibility, voters are unlikely to make distinctions between different ministers if the violence is not brought to a halt. The blame will be collective.
16) Failure could hand ammunition to France's politically disruptive far right, already baying that the unrest shows the dangers of decades of immigration.


French presidential hopeful presses on amid receding riots, rising poll numbers
(APW_ENG_20051116.0020)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of being the next French president seemed to be going up in the smoke that rose over the burning French suburbs. He was accused of fanning the flames of violence with his "zero-tolerance" policing and combative talk.
2) But as the rioting subsides, Sarkozy is not only unbowed but ready to fight another day. One poll coming out this week suggests that his popularity has even increased.
3) Sarkozy, at the center of the crisis as interior minister, defended his stern approach to law-and-order on Tuesday as he urged parliament to extend a state of emergency for three months to ensure that the violence is stopped.
4) "The state of emergency has been, is and will be applied with discretion," Sarkozy said.
5) "The stakes are considerable," he added. "If republican order does not rule in these neighborhoods, gangs and extremists will."
6) Sarkozy appeared isolated in government when the crisis first erupted Oct. 27 with rioting in a Paris suburb. One of his own colleagues, Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag, even faulted Sarkozy for having referred to suburban troublemakers as "scum."
7) But the government closed ranks as the rioting worsened and spread across the country. Sarkozy, with his usual zeal and energy, became the pointman for shoring up the morale of increasingly tired riot officers, zipping from one police station to the next to praise their work and to urge them to interact respectfully with the public but firmly with criminals.
8) That high-profile, hands-on role appears to have won him support with some ordinary French shocked by the arson attacks, clashes with police and other violence.
9) Sarkozy's approval rating jumped 11 percentage points to 64 percent in November from a month earlier _ the highest score among top politicians _ according to a poll to be released Thursday in weekly news magazine Le Point. The telephone survey of 958 adults was conducted Nov. 12. No margin of error was given.
10) There is still a long way and many potential pitfalls before the presidential elections in 2007, and Sarkozy's rivalry with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin _ another possible presidential contender _ could flare up again as post-mortems into the rioting begin.
11) Sarkozy, who heads President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, paints himself as a reformer who would shake up France's staid political culture. He has repeatedly said that the French model of costly social protections and rigid labor laws that make hiring-and-firing difficult no longer works because it does not provide enough jobs to bring down the unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent.
12) He revisited that theme in parliament Tuesday, saying France needs to "reinvent" itself and "break with the lies that we too often told ourselves, and behind which conservatism and blockages prospered."
13) Since he first took over at the interior ministry in 2002, Sarkozy has emphasized arresting criminals instead of battling the causes of crime. In a sharp departure from that, he called Tuesday for "a policy of crime prevention" that relies mainly on mayors to help stabilize towns and cities.
14) But he also made clear that tough policing would continue. Using language sometimes employed by France's far-right, he described a culture of fear in crime-ridden suburbs.
15) "Fifteen minutes from the center of Paris, and sometimes in the heart of our large regional cities, French people lower their heads in the street; triple-lock their doors after they return home; live with fear in the belly," he said.


Interior Minister Sarkozy says suburban unrest shows France needs reform
(APW_ENG_20051119.0410)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that recent unrest in troubled suburbs shows how France's system is "out of breath" and needs to be revived with top-to-bottom reform.
2) "What is playing out in France, in our troubled neighborhoods, is absolutely decisive for our country," he told members of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, which Sarkozy also heads.
3) Many Arab and African immigrants and their French-born children said combative talk by Sarkozy _ like calling suburban troublemakers "scum" _ fanned the string of car burnings, arson and vandalism that began Oct. 27 in underprivileged suburbs and lasted three weeks.
4) Sarkozy, unrepentant and bolstered by polls showing his high popularity rating rising even more after the violence, said Saturday that "the word 'scum' is surely a bit weak."
5) "Someone who is capable of getting on a bus, setting fire to a disabled 56-year-old woman who begged to be spared because she could not get off the bus, is a murderer to me," he said, referring to one of the incidents that stunned France most during the riots.
6) Chirac has acknowledged discrimination as one of the causes behind discontent in poor suburban housing projects, where jobless rates are far higher than the rest of France.
7) Sarkozy set himself apart.
8) "The first cause of unemployment, despair and violence in the suburbs isn't economic crisis, failure in school or discrimination," he said. "The first cause of despair in these neighborhoods is drug trafficking, gang laws, a dictatorship of fear and the resignation of the Republic."
9) Sarkozy, widely seen as a top contender for the 2007 presidential elections, used a two-day Paris meeting of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement to call for change in France _ and set himself apart further from longtime rival Chirac.
10) "Our system is out of breath," Sarkozy said at the meeting, designed in part to steal some of the limelight from a congress of the opposition Socialist Party in western France over the weekend. "We must therefore rebuild it and propose an alternative."
11) "I don't want to destroy the French social model," he said. "It is in the process of crumbling on its own."
12) Sarkozy acknowledged the three-week bout of violence was "difficult on the political front" but said he drew encouragement by thinking about his supporters across the country.
13) "I felt the call of the country to say, 'that's enough, hold firm'" against the rioters, Sarkozy said. "Firmness is what France wants."


France's Sarkozy cancels Caribbean trip after calls for protests
(APW_ENG_20051207.0701)
1) France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy postponed a trip planned this week to two former French Caribbean colonies, his office said Wednesday, after calls to disrupt the trip with protests.
2) Sarkozy's office said the minister made the decision Tuesday evening to cancel his trip to Martinique and Guadeloupe. A new date was not immediately set.
3) Recent parliamentary support for a law viewed as glorifying France's colonial past and French authorities' response to rioting in its troubled suburbs has triggered a backlash in its former Caribbean colonies.
4) In Martinique, some 30 left-wing labor and political groups had called for demonstrations Thursday against Sarkozy's visit, asking people to honk their car horns when he passed.
5) Sarkozy was to visit Guadeloupe on Friday, where 13 groups had called for protests against him. Both former colonies became part of France in 1946.
6) Opposition stemmed in part from a recent vote by lawmakers from Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement party to uphold a law requiring textbooks to recognize France's "positive role" in its former colonies.
7) On the island where Africans were once enslaved by their French masters, people also objected to Sarkozy's hard-line reaction to three weeks of rioting last month in France. Most of the rioters were youths of immigrant descent, whom Sarkozy referred to as "scum."
8) Critics cheered news of the postponed trip, with the Socialist Party's branch on the island issuing a statement saying, "His presence was not wanted in Guadeloupe."


French interior minister defends handling of riots, stand on Islam
(APW_ENG_20051218.0752)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy defended his handling of his country's recent riots and said he was a supporter of the rights of Muslims in his country in an Arab satellite station interview Sunday.
2) Sarkozy, whose was accused of fueling rioters' anger by calling delinquents "scum," said national security was his prime concern.
3) "You say I adopted a firm method. Yes it's firm," Sarkozy told Qatari satellite station al-Jazeera in an interview in the Gulf state's capital, Doha.
4) "Democracy doesn't mean that we do nothing. The troublemakers acted like gangsters and rule of law had to prevail," the French presidential aspirant said in the prerecorded interview that was dubbed over into Arabic.
5) Sarkozy, who hopes to replace Chirac in 2007, is at the forefront of the debate over the causes of the rioting and the government's response to it. His "zero tolerance" approach to crime was seen by many as a major contributor to the three weeks of violence that erupted Oct. 27.
6) At least 3,200 suspects were arrested and more than 100 police officers were injured in the violence, France's worst civil unrest since the student-worker riots of 1968.
7) Sarkozy also called Islam a religion of peace that should not be confused with the deeds of "terrorists."
8) "Terrorists defame Islam and France's policy is to fight terrorism," Sarkozy said. "We reject mixing them because it hurts religion. We are against the clash between civilizations. Muslims are not killers or barbaric."
9) His comments followed the weekend move by French anti-terrorism magistrates who locked up nine suspected Islamic militants for allegedly financing terrorism. Two others were released under judicial watch.
10) The 11 were placed under investigation _ a step short of being charged _ overnight Friday to Saturday for alleged criminal association in relation to a terrorist enterprise, and financing of terrorism.
11) The suspects were among 25 people, North African and French, rounded up in a vast sweep by counterterrorism agents in the Paris area and in the northern Oise region on Monday, the officials said.
12) Sarkozy has said the group had ties to al-Qaida in Iraq, but judicial officials cautioned that such links tend to be more ideological than operational.
13) During his al-Jazeera interview, Sarkozy suggested Arab states had no right to question France on grounds of personal freedoms and religious tolerance
14) "France has its traditions and laws that have to be respected, religion is not above the law," he said. "I would like to see any other country the respect religion like we do."
15) "Is there any Arab country that respects human rights more than France?" he asked. "I say that France doesn't need to take lessons."
16) While in Doha, Sarkozy also meet top Qatari officials including the U.S.-allied Gulf state's ruler, Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and discussed bilateral cooperation, the state-run news agency said without elaborating. Sarkozy later left Qatar.


France's Sarkozy says small EU nations should not hold big ones back
(APW_ENG_20060112.0628)
1) French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, laying out his vision for Europe, said Thursday that small EU nations should not be able to hold back larger ones that want closer integration.
2) Challenging the notion of equality between European Union members, the French interior minister said France, Germany, Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland should play a "genuine role as the European Union's engine."
3) Sarkozy said he was not suggesting a "presidium" or "domination" by larger EU members over smaller ones.
4) "But it should not be the rule in Europe that we advance at the pace of those who want to move forward the slowest," he said.
5) Management of the economic and political union of 25 member states was thrown into question by French and Dutch referendum votes last year rejecting a proposed constitution designed to streamline EU decision-making.
6) Sarkozy said the EU should not accept more member states until its institutions are reformed. He said he was referring to Croatia, Ukraine and Macedonia, not Bulgaria and Romania, which aim to join in 2007.
7) "Europe needs frontiers," said Sarkozy, who also opposes mainly Muslim Turkey's aspirations to join.
8) Sarkozy said it was "an error" to regard the EU's smallest states as having the same importance as its largest ones.
9) "By saying that everything is equal, we finish up with a system that no longer looks like much," he said.
10) Small nations "should be able to associate themselves with all the initiatives taken by the big ones, but they should not be able to stop the others from taking initiatives," Sarkozy said.


France's would-be president lays out bold reform vision, marks radical break with Chirac
(APW_ENG_20060112.1056)
1) France got its clearest look yet at the man who would be its next president, as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called Thursday for sweeping changes in the way France _ and the European Union _ operates.
2) Stopping just short of announcing his candidacy for next year's presidential election, the ambitious interior minister said his aim was to "embody the future."
3) He marked a clear break with President Jacques Chirac's style of governance, asking whether the presidency had become "archaic." He held up a vision of a re-styled seat of power to narrow the credibility gap between old guard polticians and the people.
4) The 73-year-old Chirac, in his second term, has been the leading force on the conservative right for three decades, the official bearer of the Gaullist legacy. However, as president since 1995, Chirac has often confined his public role to affairs of state. Increasingly aloof, he took 11 days to respond to three weeks of rioting last year in France's depressed suburbs. Corruption scandals have weakened his authority and fed disenchantment with the political class.
5) "The future president can only be different from those who preceded him," said Sarkozy.
6) The suburban riots reflected "the extent of the failure of our public policies over 30 years," Sarkozy added _ referring to a period that coincides with Chirac's preponderant role on the political right.
7) Sarkozy proposed a maximum of two five-year terms for presidents. He added, in an apparent swipe at Chirac: "When one's energy goes to lasting, one no longer thinks of doing."
8) There is currently no limit, meaning Chirac could theoretically run for a third term in 2007.
9) Sarkozy, who turns 51 later this month, heads Chirac's UMP party, but has positioned himself as a political rival with the man who once was his mentor.
10) His feisty nature, straight-talk and policy proposals have set him apart from the mainstream left and right.
11) Sarkozy says the French economic model no longer works; he champions strong policing and tougher immigration controls; he opposes Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union; he says France must adjust its secular foundations to better integrate its 5 million Muslims.
12) As head of the UMP, Sarkozy has the electoral machine needed for a presidential run. He could face Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, widely regarded as Chirac's protege, in the party's January vote for a candidate.
13) Sarkozy's proposals Thursday for making the president more accountable and parliament more powerful were radical. The prime minister would be reduced to the role of coordinator.
14) Sarkozy argued for a "president-leader who is engaged" not only in the larger issues but also in the "daily life of the French."
15) Sarkozy said presidents should personally brief parliament on their policies. The constitution currently forbids a French head of state from setting foot in the legislature. His penned messages are simply read out.
16) Calling for vigorous political debate in the 16 months ahead of the 2007 presidential polls, he said: "The French are not suffering from too much debate, but not enough."
17) He also announced new proposals to better control immigration, vowed to bring crime down by 3 percent this year and announced a citizen's police with 1,000 unarmed volunteers by year's end to fight delinquency. He vowed to go after suburban gang leaders and hooligans in sports stadiums.
18) But Sarkozy ventured far beyond his portfolio as interior minister.
19) He said major European powers should have the lead role in European Union decision-making _ and not be held back by smaller countries. Aside from Bulgaria and Romania, which hope to join the 25-member EU in 2007, no more members should be admitted until institutions are reformed, he said. Long opposed to allowing Turkey to join the EU, he stressed that "Europe needs frontiers."
20) Sarkozy's proposals for top-down reform drew both mild support and scathing criticism from the opposition left.
21) Andre Vallini, a Socialist Party official who deals with institutions, said it would be "interesting" for presidents to explain themselves to parliament.
22) But Socialist lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg said Sarkozy's ideas showed him to be "authoritarian and dangerous."
23) Polls have shown growing disillusionment among the French with politics as usual. The credibility gap between the people and politicians was fullblown in the 2002 presidential vote, when Chirac was forced into a humiliating runoff against extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.


French interior minister seeks to ease tensions with former colony
(APW_ENG_20060311.0088)
1) Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy worked to turn the page on a tense debate over colonialism, meeting Friday with a Martinique poet and elder statesman who embodies the fight for black identity.
2) After much suspense, 92-year-old Aime Cesaire, agreed to meet with Sarkozy, whose Caribbean trip is designed to boost his image as a presidential candidate in next year's election.
3) "It's a great honor, a great responsibility, to be a man distinguished by Aime Cesaire," Sarkozy said, holding the former mayor of Fort-de-France's hand.
4) Presidential hopefuls passing through Martinique have met for decades with Cesaire, a major figure here in the fight for the dignity for his people.
5) Before retirement, Cesaire served as a deputy in the lower house of France's Parliament for almost 50 years. His 1950 "Discourse on Colonialism" has become a classic of French political literature and helped develop the concept of negritude, which urges blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage.
6) Sarkozy was on the final day of a two-day tour of Guadeloupe and Martinique, former colonies that are now French departments with budgets funded and laws set by Paris, and where islanders carry French passports and spend euros.
7) Because of mounting protests at universities in France over a controversial jobs plan, his entourage said Sarkozy was to leave early, traveling to Paris on Friday evening rather than Saturday afternoon.
8) Sarkozy made a string of promises in a campaign-like swing through the French Caribbean, announcing here stronger means to fight money laundering and promising a new police headquarters by 2008.
9) The No. 2 French government official met earlier with Martinique's top elected official, Regional Council President Alfred Marie-Jeanne, whose calls for protests were in part responsible for Sarkozy's cancellation of a Caribbean trip in December.
10) Marie-Jeanne and others were angry over a law passed last year that forced France's textbook publishers to put a positive spin on the country's colonial history.
11) The uproar embarrassed the conservative government, already shaken by three weeks of rioting this fall that was widely blamed on France's failure to integrate ethnic minorities. French President Jacques Chirac said in January that the law would be rewritten.
12) "I hope that the barriers of misunderstanding will fall," Marie-Jeanne said after meeting Sarkozy.
13) Marie-Jeanne offered Sarkozy a symbolic gift: a three-volume history of Martinique.
14) "We do have a history," he said.
15) Sarkozy, in turn, called Marie-Jeanne a "man of peace and conviction" and gave him a book called "Peace."
16) Many in the Caribbean equate the colonial period with slavery, which for France was concentrated in its Caribbean colonies, with Africans captured and brought across the Atlantic to toil on plantations. France abolished slavery twice. It was outlawed in 1794, and re-established in 1802. Definitive abolition came in 1848.
17) In a speech Thursday in Guadeloupe, Sarkozy said France could not separate colonialism and slavery.
18) "Slavery was an infamy," he said.
19) However, lingering hostility was evident.
20) Six traffic radar devices were torched on Martinique roads before Sarkozy's visit, police said.
21) A song mocking Sarkozy for canceling his December trip has also been making the rounds here. In response, Sarkozy said in Creole, "The fighting cock doesn't flee."


Interior minister wants six-month trial period for contested jobs law
(APW_ENG_20060322.0504)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy wants a six-month trial period for a contested employment law for youths that has spurred violent street protests and is breeding tensions within the French government, according to an interview made public Wednesday.
2) "The wise thing would be for all to agree to a six-month experiment," a trial period to pull the nation out of the current crisis, Sarkozy said in an interview with the magazine Paris-Match to be published Thursday.
3) Allies of Sarkozy _ whose is focused on next year's presidential election _ suggested Wednesday that the minister was ready to break ranks and express his opinion on the law, which could take effect in April.
4) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, also thought to be seeking the presidential nomination, has demanded government solidarity on the measure. Sarkozy's decision to break ranks and talk amounted to a crack in the government's unified stance.
5) Villepin has maintained a firm line and refused Tuesday to "withdraw," "suspend" or "distort" the First Job Contract, despite mounting pressure from students and unions to do away with it. He is seeking dialogue with unions to amend the law, but protesters want it withdrawn.
6) Villepin appears to be ready to stake his political career on the issue _ but not Sarkozy, whose own presidential chances could be compromised if the crisis balloons.
7) As interior minister, Sarkozy is responsible for security, and so is facing pressure over the protests and violence in the streets.
8) Protesters lobbed bottles at riot police Tuesday after the fourth student-led protest in eight days drew at least 5,000 people marching around the Left Bank, and ratcheting up pressure on the government.
9) A 39-year-old man injured in skirmishes in Paris after a huge march Saturday was in a coma.
10) Students have blockaded dozens of universities across France in a strike movement spreading to some high schools. A national strike day was set for March 28 to try to force the government to withdraw the law.
11) Some newspapers said that Sarkozy was laying the groundwork for his exit from the government.
12) "I didn't hear him (Sarkozy) talk about a departure" from government, said lawmaker Eric Woerth, who himself favors a suspension of the measure.
13) "He is standing beside the government," but also is asking himself questions and is concerned the protest movement will grow increasingly radical, Woerth said by telephone.
14) Another Sarkozy ally, lawmaker Yves Jego, was more direct about what was said during a meeting Tuesday of the executive committee of the UMP governing party, which Sarkozy heads.
15) "Nicolas Sarkozy said that, in the current political situation, strong political response was needed and that, as the UMP president, he would spell out his feelings," Jego told The AP.
16) Woerth suggested the interior minister could speak out on the issue by Monday.
17) The jobs law, passed by parliament this month, is aimed at reducing sky-high joblessness among youths by injecting flexibility into France's labor market. Critics fear it will hurt job security.
18) Expected to take effect next month, it allows employers to fire workers younger than 26 years old in the first two years of employment without giving a reason.
19) "We have to get out of this, and fast," said lawmaker Nadine Morano, a Sarkozy ally.
20) The daily Aujourd'hui en France quoted the interior minister as telling the UMP executive commission that he was "not going to be able to hold on forever."
21) Villepin told UMP lawmakers Tuesday that he was willing to make concessions on two particular aspects of the measure: on the length of the contract _ currently two years _ and on justification for firing _ currently none needed.
22) France's main student union, UNEF, called Villepin's small offers "ridiculous" given the vast outpouring of protest.
23) "The entire country has been plunged into a test of power, which can become very serious," Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Socialist leader in the National Assembly, told the lower house Tuesday.
24) Majority lawmakers dramatically quit the chamber after Ayrault said Villepin was "filled with egotism" and "imprisoning France in his personal destiny."


France's aspiring presidential candidate Sarkozy seeks social change
(APW_ENG_20060327.0976)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, sounding distinctly like a presidential candidate, attacked France's social model on Monday, calling it a "total failure" and making a veiled swipe at the government's handling of a growing crisis over a jobs law for youths.
2) In what sounded like a campaign speech for France's 2007 presidential election, Sarkozy appeared to don his candidate's hat for the first time, even though his governing conservative party has not yet named its candidate.
3) Sarkozy proposed changes to the social system to make France more competitive in a globalized world.
4) "I have come here tonight to tell you that it is necessary, urgent and above all possible to change our habits and conventions," he told a crowd in the northern town of Douai. "We have reached a moment of truth: the French must choose between paralysis and movement. It is the only choice that counts."
5) The ambitious Sarkozy _ who heads the party in power, the Union for a Popular Movement _ has made no secret of his wish to become the next president of France.
6) However, the party will not officially select its candidate until January. President Jacques Chirac is thought to want Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to succeed him.
7) Villepin is currently embroiled in a crisis over a new employment law for youths, giving added symbolic weight to Sarkozy's appearance in Douai.
8) Arguing for "a more just France," Sarkozy said a "spirit of compromise where each agrees to take a step toward the other" was needed. He called for a single jobs contract to replace the numerous types of employment contracts currently in effect.
9) He also said there should be no proposed legislation on social issues without full discussion beforehand, thinly-veiled criticism of the way Villepin has forced the jobs law through parliament without debate and refusing demands to withdraw the measure despite major protests and violence in the streets.
10) Compromise, Sarkozy said, "should be the rule of good faith and good government."
11) Nevertheless, he appeared to reiterate he was not prepared to leave the government.
12) "I think that one can have perfect solidarity with the government and loyally make his solutions heard" in order to resolve a crisis "which brings nothing good to France," the interior minister said.
13) Sarkozy was appearing as a "free and independent" man without sacrificing solidarity with the government, Sarkozy ally and minister of regions Brice Hortefoux said earlier.
14) "Nicolas Sarkozy can express himself as interior minister, as president of UMP. He can also choose to express himself beyond the frontiers of UMP. This is precisely the case," Hortefoux said.
15) Sarkozy's pivotal message at the public meeting was for "a more just France" that would protect the country from economic and social security.
16) He criticized the abuse of health care and social security systems and proposed a "professional" system of social security that provides for a single employment contract with guarantees that accrue with time. He also proposed revising indemnity rules for unemployment that incite the jobless to find work and continuous training.


Jobs law crisis clears presidential route for France's ambitious interior minister
(APW_ENG_20060403.0703)
1) France's would-be next president surveyed the riot officers massed before him and, in a Broadwayesque piece of theater, feigned shock that union heavies policing a Paris protest march had roughed up youths who had come to make trouble.
2) "A journalist asked me the question: 'Did you see? The unions' security services brutalized a few people,'" Nicolas Sarkozy said. Then, he broke into a sinister smile, held it for effect, and sarcastically added, to titters from the policemen: "We'll cry when we find the time."
3) Tough guy, it's a role the French interior minister plays well. And it seems to sell. Sarkozy, for the moment at least, is sailing unscathed _ perhaps even strengthened _ through France's current crisis over a new jobs law, even as poll numbers for others in the government are tanking.
4) No one has been hurt more than Sarkozy's rival, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. He championed the new type of contract that would give employers a freer hand to fire young workers, making him the No.1 bad guy for students and labor unions who have led furious protests and strikes against the measure.
5) Sarkozy has shown far defter footwork, playing good cop to his own bad cop. He's been tough against hooligans who have repeatedly marred the demonstrations _ he called them "savages" at the reception last week with riot officers at his ministry _ but has offered a sympathetic ear to student and labor leaders' concerns.
6) Result: Villepin's presidential hopes appear almost certainly dashed, leaving Sarkozy standing alone as the conservative camp's top contender with one year to go until the polls.
7) "Villepin was the last hope _ already lost _ of barring the way to Sarkozy," said analyst Jean-Luc Parodi, director of the French Revue of Political Sciences.
8) In a poll this weekend, 75 percent of respondents said the jobs law crisis has weakened Villepin, while 47 percent said Sarkozy had emerged stronger. The CSA telephone poll of 804 people for the daily Le Parisien and news channel i-TELE did not give a margin of error.
9) Another TNS-Sofres poll of 1,000 people last month again listed Sarkozy as the conservative camp's most popular politician, with 48 percent saying they hope that he will "play an important role in the months and years to come" _ up four points from the previous month. Only 29 percent, down seven points, said the same of Villepin.
10) The old adage remains true that a year is a long time in politics, and the path to the presidential Elysee Palace _ although just opposite the interior minister's Paris office _ is mined with potential pitfalls.
11) At the Interior Ministry, Sarkozy oversees the police and could be held responsible should there be a fatal accident at the demonstrations, which are set to continue Tuesday with marches planned nationwide.
12) His newly acquired central role in government efforts to quell the protests could also backfire should labor and student leaders reject his overtures and continue to insist that the job contract be withdrawn, not simply amended to make it less problematic.
13) Then again, many of those taking to French streets are left-wing and would never have voted next year for Sarkozy, no matter how well or badly he does in the days and weeks to come. His electorate lies on the right, even the far right. It is there, and from conservative lawmakers worried that the crisis could cost them their seats next year if it endures, that Sarkozy could pick up more support and put Villepin away for good.
14) "The race is never completely over between two candidates from the same political family," said Parodi. "But Sarkozy is far ahead."


France's interior minister launches debate over tough new immigration bill
(APW_ENG_20060502.0870)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy presented an immigration bill Tuesday that would shut the door to thousands of would-be immigrants, with critics accusing him of curbing human rights and playing politics before presidential elections next year.
2) Protesters gathered outside parliament after lawmakers started debate on France's second immigration bill in three years. The proposal would stiffen rules for residing and staying in France, and give authorities power to cherry-pick who is allowed in.
3) "The debate that is beginning will be decisive in shaping the face of France for the next 30 years," Sarkozy told parliament.
4) Sarkozy argues that the bill would allow France to better integrate its immigrants and avoid new crises in the poor, mostly immigrant suburbs like the three weeks of rioting that spread across France last year.
5) "The truth is that the 27 nights of rioting that we faced in October and November are directly the result of the breakdown of our system of integration" for immigrants, he said.
6) Politicians, he said, were out of touch with public concerns about immigration, and pointed to a poll published in December that showed most French believed there were too many immigrants in France.
7) Sarkozy said he was convinced that most French "are not racist or xenophobic," and his plan does not succumb to an idea among far-right groups that "some cultures are 'impossible to integrate.'"
8) The proposal comes at a delicate time for the French government, after massive protests and strikes forced the withdrawal of its contested youth jobs plan.
9) The new immigration bill would all but enshrine a sort of quota system _ without explicitly saying so _ and would create a three-year "competence and talent" residence card for foreigners whose skills would "constitute assets for the development and influence of France."
10) Many Christian and Muslim leaders _ whose institutions often provide support services for immigrants _ have joined human rights groups, labor leaders and the opposition left in expressing concerns about the bill.
11) Three unions on Tuesday called the proposed law a "dangerous escalation," saying it would feed xenophobia and discrimination in France.
12) A few hundred protesters chanted and played drums outside the National Assembly after the debate. A banner at the peaceful demonstration read "Foreigners' Rights are Human Rights."
13) With presidential elections a year away, critics alleged that would-be contender Sarkozy was hoping to co-opt an issue that often mobilizes the far-right.
14) "We can't help thinking that there may be some ulterior motives _ presidential ones _ in this rush," Le Monde newspaper wrote in its editorial published Tuesday.
15) Sarkozy countered that many other European countries and the United States have been grappling with the immigration issue. For example, he cited Spain for having changed its immigration law three times since 2000.
16) The bill would set up a system whereby the government would present parliament with a report every year on immigration policies, with quantifiable goals for delivering residence cards and visas.
17) "Like all the great democracies of the world, France must be able to choose the number of migrants that it welcomes _ based on corresponding goals and conditions," Sarkozy said.
18) Critics say such a policy goes against the humanitarian spirit that should be implicit in an immigration policy.
19) "Foreigners have rights, they also have responsibilities," Sarkozy said. "The first of these responsibilities is to love the country that welcomes them, and respect its values and its laws."
20) "If not, nothing requires them to stay!" he said.
21) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, after meeting with Catholic and Protestant leaders over the weekend, suggested that amendments were likely to relax some of the measures.
22) Sarkozy said the bill could be "enhanced" during the four-day debate at the National Assembly, parliament's lower house, which is controlled by President Jacques Chirac's conservative party.
23) More than 5,000 people marched against the bill on Saturday. Dalil Boubakeur, the head of the Paris mosque and leader of France's top Muslim umbrella group, said Sunday that he feared the proposal would only increase the number of illegal aliens in France.
24) In November 2003, during Sarkozy's first stint as interior minister, the conservative government adopted another immigration law that toughened rules in place at the time.


French Interior Minister Sarkozy says he will not resign from crisis-hit government
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1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that he will not resign from France's troubled government, even though friends have advised him to step down and concentrate on next year's presidential race.
2) The conservative Sarkozy, considered a leading contender for president, told party members that he would not let his career be affected by a snowballing political scandal that has deeply shaken the government. Judicial officials say Sarkozy has been the victim of a smear campaign.
3) "I have no intention of creating conditions for a political crisis that would only profit the left and extreme parties," Sarkozy said. "I will therefore continue my work in the government in the service of the French people's security."
4) The scandal centers on accusations that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and President Jacques Chirac ordered a trumped-up corruption investigation into rival Sarkozy and other prominent figures. Villepin and Chirac deny targeting Sarkozy, and investigators are trying to determine who was behind the charges.
5) The Socialist opposition has called a vote of confidence for Tuesday that could theoretically bring down the government. While it is unlikely to pass, it could shame Villepin if centrists, and some Sarkozy loyalists, join in.


Africans grumble ahead of visit by French politician strict on illegal immigration
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1) There'll likely be the traditional welcomes of drums and dancing. But the real message many Africans want to send France's interior minister when he visits this week is the same one he's been sending some of them: Go home.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy is due to arrive Wednesday for a two-day tour that takes him to Liberia and former French colonies Mali and Benin. Sarkozy's spokesman said he would be discussing immigration and development during his trip, which would include a major speech on France's Africa policy.
3) But for many ordinary poor Africans, Sarkozy is an intolerable figure who they feel has used Africans who entered France illegally as political props and they have a name for the government planes on which he orders Africans deported: "Charters of Shame."
4) Hamidou Aljoumagat has twice been refused a French visa and he wonders why an interior minister is making an oversees trip to Africa, anyway.
5) "If it's to speak to us about selective immigration and the closure of borders, he can stay at home," the young market vendor said.
6) Many deeply impoverished Africans pine to enter France and other European nations where jobs pay better _ or where there are jobs at all. But they're generally unable to obtain visas and many use sometimes deadly migration routes to sneak in illegally.
7) One main transit route runs through this sand-choked eastern Mali crossroads town. West Africans of many nationalities move through Gao on their way toward Mauritania, where they board open wooden fishing canoes for a perilous sea journey to Spain's Canary Islands.
8) Others try to cross into Morocco to gain entry into Spanish enclaves there. Many Africans believe that even if one is caught illegally in Europe, authorities will eventually relent and grant them long-term residence in those richer lands.
9) So summary deportations, which have been stepped up under Sarkozy, rankle. So does his sometimes harsh language. He has referred to troublemakers and criminals in heavily immigrant suburbs of French cities as "scum."
10) Sarkozy, himself the son of a Hungarian immigrant, makes no secret of his desire to pry French voters away from the anti-immigration far-right with his tough rhetoric and efforts to tighten immigration rules.
11) He championed a bill working its way through parliament that would make it harder for people with little education and few skills to make a new life in France. It would create a renewable, three-year work permit for highly skilled workers and scrap a measure that allows foreigners who have been in the country for ten years _ even those here illegally _ to get citizenship.
12) Sarkozy defends his measures by arguing that France needs to be able to choose immigrants, rather than be "subjected" to immigration.
13) France's government is embroiled in a scandal _ which some have nicknamed the "French Watergate" _ centering on claims that President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin ordered an unfounded corruption investigation of Sarkozy and other prominent figures in the lead-up to national elections. They were falsely accused of having secret bank accounts in Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream for bribes from a 1991 sale of frigates to Taiwan.
14) Many Africans view Sarkozy's policies as attempts to score political points before 2007 French presidential elections and they feel he ignores the contributions of French citizens descended from Africa.
15) "French sports gleam because of the children of immigration, like Zidane," said Zeinabou Wallet Ibrahim, speaking of the Real Madrid superstar, Zinedine Zidane.
16) "Today Sarkozy must understand this new gift: France is black, white and Arab," the radio announcer said.
17) Hamadou Maiga, in his 80s and a former fighter during Mali's civil war, said Mali should make Sarkozy wait in line at the embassy for entry papers.
18) "The whites are hypocrites," he said. "When they come to colonize us, they don't ask for a visa to come. Slavery aside, they've stolen our riches."
19) "It's not humane that today, despite our historical links, that France closes its doors to our children."
20) One student, Mohamed Moaouloud, said he'll stay in Mali.
21) "If Sarkozy doesn't want us, why bother overrunning him?" he asks. "Young people must understand that the salvation of our continent and its future isn't in Europe or France, but in our capacity to work."


French interior minister, in Mali, says 'nothing racist' about immigration reform bill
(APW_ENG_20060518.1039)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended a tough new immigration bill, insisting it was not xenophobic even as Malian street protesters branded him as racist at the start of a two-day African visit.
2) Speaking in Bamako, his first stop on the trip to West Africa, Sarkozy said there was "nothing racist, nothing xenophobic" about the legislation, which would clamp down on unskilled and uneducated immigrants from Africa and elsewhere. The bill passed its first legislative hurdle a day earlier in the National Assembly.
3) About 200 people, mainly Malians expelled from France, demonstrated outside the French consulate, shouting "Sarkozy, racist," as he passed. Some held banners telling him to go home, or reminding Sarkozy _ himself the son of a Hungarian immigrant _ of his immigrant origins.
4) "Anger in Bamako" read the headlines in the daily Le Republicain.
5) Speaking before a meeting with Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, Sarkozy said France could no longer absorb unskilled immigrants and must be able to pick which immigrants get in.
6) Authorities here suggested that they understood the anger, but added a diplomatic touch.
7) "Here, there is no chosen or selective hospitality," President Amadou Toumani Toure said in an interview with Radio France Internationale before lunching with Sarkozy.
8) Sarkozy brushed off suggestions that France and its former colony were not on the same track.
9) "Misunderstandings exist only among those who make a commerce of clandestine immigration, for money or for political reasons," he said. "Our combat is the same."
10) The bill would make it easier for French authorities to hand-pick foreign workers, while making it harder for poor, uneducated people to come to France.
11) Sarkozy warned against branding attempts to reform France's immigration law as racist, saying such a reaction would work in the favor of the country's far right parties. A presidential hopeful, Sarkozy has said that one of his goals is to try to draw votes away from France's anti-immigration extreme right.
12) The minister visited a nursery school and beauty salon set up by Malians who had returned home from France.
13) He said he wanted more rights for those in France legally and less for illegals, and promised to increase visas for Malians seeking to join families, study or work.
14) Sarkozy also proposed making some of the millions of euros (dollars) sent back home by Malian immigrants each year contribute to development with a special tax-free "savings-development" account.
15) On Friday, Sarkozy travels to Cotonou, Benin, for a meeting with President Boni Yayi and to deliver a major speech on France's Africa policy.
16) Usually, foreign affairs are the domain of France's president and diplomats.
17) But the independent-minded Sarkozy has used his government portfolios and his role as head of France's ruling UMP party to make overseas trips, too _ building his own contacts with decision-makers abroad as he prepares his presidential run next year.
18) Immigration policy is part of Sarkozy's portfolio as interior minister, also helping to explain his two-day trip to Africa, the main source of immigrants to France.


Presidential hopeful Sarkozy says France must shed paternalistic attitude toward Africa
(APW_ENG_20060519.0649)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pushed Friday for a less paternalistic, more transparent French policy toward Africa, seeking a break from the close personal ties cultivated by President Jacques Chirac _ his boss and the man he hopes to replace.
2) "We must build new relations, streamlined, free of complexes, balanced, free of the dross of the past," Sarkozy said during a speech to political leaders in Benin.
3) The outspoken Sarkozy was on a high-profile African tour widely seen as part of his bid for next year's presidential elections. His speech Friday appeared aimed both at voters back home and at calming African frustrations over a draft law clamping down on unskilled and uneducated immigrants. Protests over the law, which he championed, have soured his tour.
4) "It is up to us, the French, to renounce all paternalism, to exclude all condescension toward Africans," he said.
5) Relations between France and its former African colonies should be less based on personal ties and more on "frank and objective dialogue," he said. "We must get rid of our relations of networks of another time."
6) The comments were a veiled jab at Chirac, who has built up and maintained close ties with leaders of France's former African colonies, including some with unsavory reputations. Chirac's departure next year could spell the end of the era of such close French links to the continent.
7) Sarkozy shrugged off French complaints about encroaching competition by the United States, China and India for influence on the continent.
8) He remained loyal to the French military presence in Africa, however, saying that France was among the few states ready to help African countries during political crises.
9) Earlier Friday, students angry over the immigration law hurled insults at Sarkozy, shouting "Go Home!" and brandishing placards in front of the Interior Ministry in Cotonou, where Sarkozy met with his Benin counterpart Edgard Alia. Some called Sarkozy racist while others reminded Sarkozy of his own origins, as the son of a Hungarian immigrant.
10) Sarkozy defended the bill Thursday, insisting it was not xenophobic. The bill passed the lower house of parliament on Wednesday.
11) Sarkozy's role overseeing immigration policy helped explain the journey abroad, a voyage that would normally fall to the president or the French foreign minister.
12) The independent-minded Sarkozy has used his government portfolios and his role as head of France's ruling UMP party to build his own contacts with decision-makers abroad as he prepares his presidential run.
13) The countries Sarkozy chose to visit, Mali and Benin, are among the continent's most democratic, and he insisted that democratic values, human rights and good governance "do not stop at the doors to your continent."
14) Sarkozy called Benin "a lesson to all those who do not stop repeating that democracy is not made for Africans."
15) Last month, Benin celebrated a peaceful, democratic transfer of power as economist Yayi Boni was sworn in as president. He replaced Mathieu Kerekou, 73, who had ruled this impoverished country for nearly three decades.
16) In Mali, President Amadou Toumani Toure seized power in a 1991 coup from a 23-year dictator and then ceded power to a civilian president in 1992, ushering in an era of multiparty politics.
17) Sarkozy will also make an unscheduled stopover in Morocco on Friday night on his way home from Benin, aides said, for talks with his Moroccan counterpart Chakib Benmoussa and possibly with King Mohammed VI.


French interior minister discusses terrorism, illegal migrants with Moroccan police
(APW_ENG_20060520.0509)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and his Moroccan counterpart pledged Saturday to boost cooperation in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
2) Sarkozy met Moroccan police officials during an impromptu stop in Morocco, wrapping up a high-profile African tour widely seen as part of his bid for next year's presidential elections.
3) Moroccan Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said he and Sarkozy discussed the dismantling of several terrorist cells in the region, according to Morocco's official MAP news agency. He did not elaborate.
4) Sarkozy told reporters, "We decided to reinforce the battle against drug trafficking and terrorism," according to MAP.
5) Sarkozy's Africa trip was marred by protests in Benin and Mali over a draft law he sponsored clamping down on unskilled and uneducated immigrants. Africa is the largest source of immigrants to France.
6) Sarkozy and Benmoussa agreed to speed up efforts to stem the flood of migrants trying to enter Europe through North Africa, according to a French Interior Ministry statement.
7) The two called for "returning immigration to its initial role, as a factor bringing peoples together and as an essential canal for dialogue between civilizations," the ministry statement said.


French interior minister, eyeing presidency, trumpets drop in crime
(APW_ENG_20060608.0706)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, eyeing a run for the presidency, trumpeted a drop in France's crime rate and called Thursday for new measures to create a civilian force to help police and to put dangerous pet dogs to sleep.
2) Sarkozy laid out his record as France's top cop over much of the past four years in a broad speech, and sought to quell speculation that he would soon quit the Cabinet to focus on the 2007 presidential race.
3) "I have a job to do _ I'll do it," Sarkozy told reporters at the ministry, saying the question of his departure would come up in January when the ruling conservative party he leads chooses its candidate.
4) Reported crime has dropped 8.8 percent since 2002, when he first took office as interior minister, Sarkozy said. He credited structural reforms, a boom in police recruiting and improved computer systems for the force.
5) However, he said arbitrary violence _ as opposed to premeditated attacks _ was on the rise, with the country facing a rising phenomenon of violence among family members and acquaintances.
6) Sarkozy warned that terrorism remained a threat in France, but said French authorities had arrested more than 1,160 people in counterterrorism operations since May 2002 _ more than one-third of whom have faced varying degrees of legal action, including prison sentences.
7) France will also toughen measures against cases of "happy slapping" _ a fad in which violence is filmed on cell phone cameras and distributed electronically for others to see.
8) "This practice is growing," Sarkozy said. French police have said cases are rare, but fear a growing trend. "It's intolerable, because it adds humiliation to violence," the minister added.
9) He also said France was "the champion of Europe in drug consumption among minors," and said the government has plans to stiffen penalties on drug use and set up new anti-drug education programs.
10) Sarkozy laid out an eight-point crime-fighting effort that would include a crackdown on owners of dangerous dogs involved in attacks on people, calling the pets "veritable weapons." It would also include the creation of a civilian assistance force for police officers.
11) Sarkozy repeatedly sought to highlight his differences with Segolene Royal, the top would-be candidate from the Socialist Party, who released some surprisingly hard-line proposals last week for fighting crime. Recent polls show the two would be neck-and-neck if they faced off in next spring's election.
12) Sarkozy also highlighted differences with President Jacques Chirac, saying that if elected president, he would scrap a policy that allows the head of state to grant pardons and order amnesties.
13) Last week, Chirac pardoned Guy Drut, a former sports minister and Olympic champion, who was handed a 15-month suspended sentence and fine of euro50,000 (US$64,000) over a corruption and party-financing trial. The order opened the way for Drut to return to the International Olympic Committee, following a provisional suspension over the case.
14) Sarkozy said presidential pardons and amnesties "call into question the separation of powers" between the executive and judicial branches.


Interior minister promises to spell out number of illegal immigrants to be expelled
(APW_ENG_20060717.1069)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, accused of planning a mass expulsion of illegal immigrants with children in school, promised in an interview to be published Tuesday to give the "exact number" of those expelled and those given papers to stay.
2) Critics of Sarkozy's get-tough immigration policy have raised the specter of a "hunt for children" who attend school in France but are here illegally. They claim that a mass expulsion is in the works.
3) "We will give papers to all those who arrived here young and don't have links to their countries of origin," Sarkozy told the daily Le Parisien.
4) He said that those who arrived after the age of 15, after the start of the school year or who are trying to profit from the current situation will be returned home. In addition, anyone who has applied for political asylum in another country will be returned to that country, he said.
5) Sarkozy's July 24 numbers were not likely to be complete. He issued orders in June for families who consider that they have strong ties to France to apply to stay. They have until Aug. 13 to do so.
6) All children, illegal or not, have a right to attend school in France. However, Sarkozy's critics say school children should not be pulled from their studies and expelled.
7) The issue has grown so divisive that Sarkozy was obliged to appoint a mediator, high-profile attorney Arno Klarsfeld.
8) On Monday, a group lobbying on behalf of families who risk expulsion, the Education Without Borders Network, filed a complaint with the government-run High Authority for the Fight Against Discrimination and for Equality, HALDE, saying that confusion reins in the administration, deluged by families trying to stay, and that applicants were not receiving equal treatment.
9) Just weeks ago, the French parliament adopted a law that makes it harder for foreigners to remain in France or bring their families here, but easier for those with special talents.


Nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants apply for French residency, interior minister says
(APW_ENG_20060815.0842)
1) Nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants with school-age children applied for residency under a special government offer, and about 6,000 will get it, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday.
2) The Interior Ministry received "a bit fewer than 30,000" requests for residency during a two-month period that ended Monday, Sarkozy said on France-2 television. That was higher than the 24,000 that the ministry had estimated Monday.
3) But the number of applications authorities expected to approve remained unchanged at about 6,000, Sarkozy said.
4) Sarkozy has pushed for a crackdown on illegal immigration, which polls say is a big concern of French voters before next year's presidential election. Sarkozy is a top contender.
5) He championed a new immigration law that makes it harder for foreigners to bring their families here, but easier for those with special talents. And the government is offering payments to illegal immigrants who agree to return home.
6) Bowing to public protest, Sarkozy agreed late last year to give families with school-age children until the end of the academic year to get their papers in order. As the school year wrapped up, Sarkozy agreed to grant residency to those who could prove a strong link to France, giving them until Monday to apply.
7) It may take months to decide many cases, and immigrants' rights activists vow to renew efforts to protect children from deportation once the new school year gets under way.
8) All children have a right to attend school in France. Immigrants' rights groups estimate 40,000 to 50,000 families without residency rights send their children to French schools.


Turnabout for French presidential hopeful Sarkozy seize on his crime as weak spot
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1) Have opponents found Nicolas Sarkozy's weak spot? The ambitious interior minister's smooth campaign for the French presidency has hit a bump over the very issue on which he has sought to make a mark: crime.
2) With seven months to go before the presidential election, a new report showed an increase of violent crime in the last year. On top of that, Sarkozy drew fire for an apparent effort to pin blame on judges, saying they were soft on young delinquents.
3) President Jacques Chirac, in a potential embarrassment to Sarkozy, on Friday ordered law enforcement and police officials to meet next week to discuss how to combat rising crime in one of France's most troubled areas.
4) Center-right Sarkozy has long ridden his reputation as a tough-as-nails crime-fighter and results-minded administrator, hoping to parlay it into his ticket to the Elysee Palace in next year's elections. He took office in 2002 when safety was a top concern for the French.
5) But the Interior Ministry's National Crime Observatory reported this week that, while overall crime dropped 8.8 percent from May 2002 to April 2006, violent attacks rose 6.7 percent over the last year.
6) Former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, speaking on France-2 television Thursday, faulted Sarkozy for his often-defiant language toward youths and his antipathy toward neighborhood police programs that are favored by social workers and parties of the left.
7) "Mr. Sarkozy has made serious errors in this area ... by denying the complexity of the problem" of crime, said Jospin, who is considering a run for his party's nomination. "His error, in fact, was to make people believe it was easy ... that it only required showing will to solve problems. We realize that's not the case."
8) Potentially most damaging is a new report showing a sharp increase in crime this year in the Seine-Saint-Denis region -- a troubled area north of Paris where a three-week wave of vandalism, car burnings and clashes between youths and police began in October.
9) A copy of a letter sent to Sarkozy from the regional administrator and obtained by Le Monde newspaper pointed to a 7.6 percent rise in crime this year in the area -- the highest there in years.
10) Sarkozy, in an interview Friday on RTL radio, acknowledged the report showed "violence has never been greater in Seine-Saint-Denis" -- but also said lockups of criminals had dropped 15 percent.
11) "How can I ensure the long-term security of the French -- and notably those in Seine-Saint-Denis -- if I'm facing a court system where police always arrest the same people, and the penal response isn't on par with the police response?" he said.
12) With Chirac still not ruling out a run for a third term, the crime issue has become the latest sign that Sarkozy's hot-and-cold relationship with his former mentor is chilling again.
13) During a trip to the United States last week, the pro-American Sarkozy took aim at France's "grandiloquence" during the debate over the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq invasion, though he said he agreed with Chirac's anti-war stance.
14) The president, hoping to make the most of what may be his last year in power, has urged his Cabinet ministers to focus on their work, not on the presidential campaign -- a jab at Sarkozy.
15) And Chirac all but called Sarkozy to order Friday over his critical comments about French judges, whom the minister claimed have been too lax in prosecuting young criminals and repeat offenders.
16) Sarkozy said Wednesday that weak sentences handed down by the judges in Seine-Saint-Denis "demonstrated a kind of resignation in the face of delinquents who are more violent each day."
17) A firestorm erupted among rival politicians and magistrates, who said Sarkozy was treading on separation of powers in the French constitution.
18) Sarkozy, unrepentant, said he felt French people would understand.
19) "It's perhaps time that the Republican elites wake up to the rising disconnect between what we say and what the people think," he said.


France ' s Sarkozy to visit Senegal to sign immigration agreement
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1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy plans a trip to Senegal on Saturday to sign a joint agreement on immigration.
2) Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful in spring elections, has toughened France's crackdown on illegal immigration. He said he had been invited to Dakar by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
3) "We will sign France and Senegal's first joint agreement on immigration policy," Sarkozy told TV5-Monde television before departing for the brief visit.
4) Sarkozy was also expected to visit the tomb of the West African nation's first president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and to meet with Senegal's interior minister before dining with Wade. He was to leave Sunday morning.
5) The visit was announced at the last minute, and it prompted speculation that Sarkozy was trying to upstage another presidential hopeful, lawmaker Segolene Royal. Center-right Sarkozy and Socialist Royal lead the polls.
6) Royal, who was born in Dakar to a French military family, plans to fly to Senegal on Monday for a two-day visit focused on co-development. Like Sarkozy, she is also expected to meet Wade and pay homage at Senghor's grave.


French interior minister promises US$3.2 million to help Senegal fight illegal migration
(APW_ENG_20060923.0985)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy signed an agreement Saturday promising euro2.5 million (US$3.2 million) to help Senegal create opportunities for its youth to prevent them from risking their lives by migrating to Europe illegally.
2) "Neither Europe nor France can receive everyone who dreams of an Eldorado," Sarkozy said in the capital of the West African nation after signing the accord. "A young Senegalese risking his life to win Europe is making a grave error that might have heavy consequences."
3) This year has seen a sharp increase in the number of migrants trying to reach Europe in wooden boats from West Africa, with more than 23,000 making the voyage and many dying in ocean storms or from days at sea without enough water.
4) The French presidential hopeful said his country would aid Senegal in its push to provide alternatives for its youth, including agriculture, fishing and education programs.
5) Senegal Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom said the agreement also includes provision to improve the situation of Senegalese workers and families living in France.
6) Sarkozy noted that France receives 170,000 immigrants each year, about two-thirds of which come from Africa.
7) The countries also committed to working together to stop the current wave of illegal migration.
8) "The criminals and smugglers will find on their route, the cooperation between the French and Senegalese police forces," Sarkozy said.
9) Sarkozy's one-day visit comes days before a planned trip by another potential French presidential candidate, lawmaker Segolene Royal, who was born in Dakar to a French military family.
10) The last-minute announcement of Sarkozy's trip prompted speculation in France that he was trying to upstage Royal.


French interior minister to propose common European immigration policy
(APW_ENG_20060928.1637)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy plans to propose a common European Union immigration policy so that newcomers in each country will be held to the same standards of admission.
2) Sarkozy said Thursday that he would present a "European immigration pact" Friday at a meeting in Madrid of eight interior ministers from southern EU countries. The EU currently has no common immigration policy, and the issue is handled individually by the 25 member states' governments.
3) The conservative interior minister, a hopeful in France's spring presidential elections, said he wanted to prevent countries from granting residency permits en masse to immigrants. He also believes immigrants should be granted permits strictly on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons.
4) "In Madrid I will try to defend an idea that is close to my heart after my trip to Africa: We can only solve the problems of immigration through perfect coordination with our European partners," said Sarkozy, who recently returned from a trip to Senegal.
5) The meeting in Madrid comes soon after Sarkozy openly criticized Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's handling of the tide of Africans trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands. Sarkozy has also taken aim at Spain for granting residence permits to several hundred thousand illegal immigrants last year.
6) On the issue of asylum, Sarkozy asked: "Is it really useful that all the countries of the European Union have their own specific proceedings for determining if someone is a political refugee or not?"
7) "We can't all continue to have our own immigration policies, as we can clearly see that we are confronted by the same problems," he told reporters in Paris.
8) Sarkozy also said that a key part of his plan would be a "strong and trustworthy" border at the outskirts at the EU, and he pressed for the idea of a European border patrol force.


French interior minister visits Paris ' main mosque
(APW_ENG_20060928.1757)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met with Muslim leaders Thursday at Paris' main mosque for iftar, the dinner with which Muslims break their daylight fasting during the Ramadan holy month.
2) Sarkozy said the dinner was a "symbol of the peaceful relations between the Republic and the Muslims of our country."
3) Law-and-order minister Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful in spring elections, ate with Dalil Boubakeur, the director of the mosque, and other leaders of an umbrella group of French Muslims that serves as a link to the government.
4) Sarkozy and other French leaders have sought to promote an "Islam of France" compatible with French values and Muslim beliefs. With an estimated 5 million adherents -- almost a tenth of the population -- Islam is France's second largest religion.
5) In 2004, looking to uphold its secular foundations and discourage Islamic fundamentalism, France banned Muslim head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols from public schools. During the mosque visit, Sarkozy pledged to keep up the French push for secularism in its institutions.
6) "My visit here is not one of protocol," he said. "It is the visit of a friend."


French presidential hopeful Sarkozy urges revision of France ' s defense strategy
(APW_ENG_20061005.1396)
1) French Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy urged a revision of the country's defense strategy, though he said in an interview published Thursday that France must keep its nuclear deterrent.
2) Sarkozy, who heads France's governing conservative party and openly covets the presidency, said France needs to adapt its defense strategy to respond to the new terrorist threat.
3) "Today, the adversary is no longer the Soviet Empire which no longer exists but terrorism and proliferation," Sarkozy told the French review, The Best of the Worlds.
4) "Are we adapted to this new fight? Is our strategy the right one?" he asked, adding it is "a debate which deserves to be had."
5) Sarkozy said France's nuclear strategy would need to be examined within the framework of the larger revision of the country's defense strategy but insisted on the need to retain the nuclear deterrent.
6) France and Britain are Europe's sole nuclear powers.
7) Sarkozy criticized President Jacques Chirac, whom he aims to replace in next year's elections, saying the French leader's personal relationships with Chinese and Russian leaders undermined France's standing on the international stage.
8) "I cannot accept that with the pretext of having good relations with China or Russia we can abstain from saying what we think regarding the universal values that our country is known around the world for," he said.
9) He added that France sometimes "seems willing to exchange its principles in the name of realpolitik."


French presidential hopeful says affirmative action needed, but not on ethnic grounds
(APW_ENG_20061012.1704)
1) Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that affirmative action is needed -- but not on ethnic grounds -- to keep France's social fabric together.
2) "To those who think that the ideological purity of the republic will suffer, the republic will suffer far more by the persistence of intolerable injustice," said Sarkozy, interior minister and head of the conservative party governing France.
3) Addressing a crowd of nearly 5,000 in the southwestern city of Perigueux, Sarkozy, who has campaigned on a theme of "rupture" with the France of President Jacques Chirac, laid out a project for a "new Republic" that addresses all sectors of society. It also included burning issues like the discrimination laid bare by three weeks of riots in poor suburbs a year ago this month.
4) "It is the violence born of the feeling of injustice that we must avert," he said.
5) Sarkozy, the governing party's likely candidate for spring presidential elections, has shocked some with his proposal to institute affirmative action -- a practice that runs counter to the French principle of not singling out any one ethnic group.
6) He short-circuited the problem Thursday by refusing affirmative action based on ethnic criteria which, he said, would be "the negation of the Republic."
7) "I want equal opportunity for all."
8) Sarkozy heads Chirac's party, the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP. Chirac himself has yet to say whether he will bid for a third term.
9) In a departure from Sarkozy's usual hard-drive approach, he evoked values reminiscent of Charles de Gaulle, considered the father of today's conservative right. Chirac has traditionally carried the mantel of de Gaulle. Sarkozy has gained an image as an American-style, market-oriented liberal, which he was clearly trying to tone down.
10) The 35-hour workweek must be reworked, stock options should be available to all employees and experience should be considered as much as diplomas in hiring and promotions, he said.


French minister announces fast-tracking of European visa requests for Algerians
(APW_ENG_20061113.1346)
1) French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy announced Monday that 15 European nations have agreed to speed up visa processing for Algerians traveling to Europe.
2) Sarkozy, in a meeting with his Algerian counterpart, Yazid Zerhouni, said the so-called Schengen zone nations of Europe will no longer consult one another before granting visa requests from Algerians. The measure is expected to trim the waiting time for Algerians seeking visas from about 15 days to just one to three days.
3) "I confirmed to him that France has, regarding visas, lifted the prior consultation, along with other Schengen countries," Sarkozy said after his meeting with Zerhouni. Sarkozy called the measure, which does not apply to visa applicants from neighboring Tunisia and Morocco, "perfectly useless."
4) As part of security measures enacted in 1995, at the height of a bloody Islamic insurgency in Algeria, Schengen member states agreed to grant visas to Algerians only with prior consultation with the other member states. The Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
5) French officials said Sarkozy led efforts with European partners to lift the visa restrictions largely because France is responsible for processing 80 percent of Algerian applications for visas to the Schengen zone. In 2005, some 250,000 Algerians requested visas to France, according to Sarkozy's office. About 60 percent of the applications were approved.
6) The French interior minister reached agreements with Spain and Germany, the last holdouts among the Schengen countries, in the last few months. He also won major concessions from Algeria, French officials said.
7) Michel Gaudin, France's National Police Chief, said Algerian officials had agreed to hand over a list with the names of detainees who were released from prison in a recent amnesty deal offered by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika -- an attempt to turn the page on the country's 13-year-long Islamic insurgency.
8) "They agreed ... to provide identification of those who have been freed," Gaudin told The Associated Press at a reception for Sarkozy's delegation at the French embassy in Algiers. He said 30 people on the list had already been expelled from France.
9) Sarkozy was in the Algerian capital for talks on terrorism and illegal immigration, but calls for Paris to acknowledge its colonial-era crimes were expected to top the minister's agenda.
10) "We have a shared history. We have lots of work" to do, Sarkozy said at the start of his two-day visit, adding, however, that "we must speak ... as countries who respect each other."
11) The visit here by Sarkozy, considered the leading conservative candidate in France's 2007 presidential vote, followed previous trips to other former colonies in Africa that are also sources of immigration -- much of it illegal -- to France. The leading rival in the opposition Socialist camp, Segolene Royal, has also made visits to Africa.
12) Sarkozy was also to meet with Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem. France and Algeria are concerned about the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, an Algerian Islamic extremist movement that has aligned itself with al-Qaida. The GSPC is the only armed group that remains operational in the waning Algerian insurgency in which an estimated 150,000-200,000 people are believed to have died.
13) He also was to lay a wreath at a monument to those killed during Algeria's brutal eight-year independence war with France.
14) Sarkozy's trip to this North African nation could offer a chance to get bilateral ties back on track after months of tension between France and Algeria, once the jewel of France's colonial holdings in Africa.
15) Bouteflika has pressed France to apologize for what he says are colonial-era crimes, including during the independence war when, Algiers alleges, torture was so systematic it was simply another form of combat. Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, ending 132 years of colonial rule.
16) The friction has held up signing of a friendship treaty, seen as a means for Paris and Algiers to bury the past and put their ties on a new, more lucrative level.
17) Sarkozy has repeatedly called for a new direction for France in both domestic and international affairs -- a not-so-veiled criticism of President Jacques Chirac, whom analysts say built his Africa policy on personal ties with national leaders.
18) In an interview published last week in Jeune Afrique magazine, Sarkozy was blunt: "Things won't advance through familiarity between the French head of state and his counterpart on the continent," he said.
19) Sarkozy's trip could revive memories of a March 2003 visit by Chirac to Algeria, where he was greeted with a hero's welcome -- in part because of his vocal opposition to the U.S.-led Iraq war. That trip was the first by a French president to Algeria since it gained independence from France.
20) However relations were once again strained last year when the French Parliament passed a law requiring textbooks to show the "positive role" that France played in its former colonies. Chirac, embarrassed, later ordered the clause deleted but that was not enough to keep the friendship treaty on track.


France ' s Sarkozy faces new dissent in his fight for presidency
(APW_ENG_20061120.0821)
1) Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy is facing surprising challenges from within his own conservative party, as critics bristle at his hardline crime-fighting policies and his proposals to free up France's economy -- and especially, his highly developed sense of entitlement.
2) The rumblings in the party of Jacques Chirac -- who is believed unlikely to run for a third term in 2007 -- come days after the once-divided Socialists rallied around Segolene Royal, who offers a touch of glamour and a fresh political style in her drive to become France's first female president.
3) "Sarkozy is incapable of admitting a view different from his own," Francois Goulard, a government minister from the UMP party, said in an interview published Monday.
4) On Sunday night, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin questioned Sarkozy's assumption that he's the party's automatic presidential candidate. And Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie took Sarkozy to task for tough comments about youth from troubled suburbs.
5) Both Villepin and Alliot-Marie entertain presidential ambitions.
6) The criticism from members of the UMP-dominated French government suggests Sarkozy's race for the presidency may be bumpier than he had hoped.
7) The determined Sarkozy, France's interior minister, still looks like a shoo-in for the UMP nomination for April presidential elections. Polls show him and Royal neck-and-neck, and no one else in the UMP comes close to his popularity rating.
8) But Sarkozy is a divisive figure whose fixed ideas on the economy, immigration and crime have alienated some in his party and prompted accusations that he is trying to court the far right.
9) Goulard, minister of universities and research, praised the Socialists for overcoming their differences to support Royal after an unprecedented campaign of public debates.
10) Royal won 60 percent of the vote in a widely watched internal election Thursday. The UMP, or Union for a French Movement, is to name its candidate Jan. 14.
11) "In contrast, we seem incapable of organizing a debate," Goulard told Le Parisien daily. "We don't stop stigmatizing those who express diverging opinions."
12) He blamed Sarkozy for chasing away dissent in the UMP, saying it weakened the party.
13) Last Thursday, Alliot-Marie was booed at a party congress when she criticized Sarkozy's support for affirmative action and his comments about troublemakers from impoverished suburbs where riots raged a year ago and where tensions still simmer.
14) "Too often we insinuated the pernicious idea that a young person is a potential criminal," she said.
15) She also accused Sarkozy of relying on polls -- not his convictions -- in forming his policies.
16) Sarkozy shot back when he took the podium, saying drily, "The fight is against our adversaries, outside our political family."
17) Alliot-Marie walked out of the hall after his speech.
18) Goulard said on RTL radio Monday that Sarkozy committed "a flagrant error" in dismissing Alliot-Marie so crudely, saying Sarkozy "should have listened calmly to this woman of stature."
19) "They are trying to convince us that because Nicolas Sarkozy has very good poll ratings, he is the only possible candidate," Goulard said.
20) Villepin said Sunday that the "game has not been played out," and suggested that serious candidates could still emerge.
21) "We are not yet at the end of the political debate concerning our family," Villepin said in a television interview, referring to the UMP. "We must advance step by step."
22) Villepin had been considered a potential rival for the candidacy before a series of government crises all but ruled that out.
23) UMP spokesman Luc Chatel called Monday for unity. "We cannot let those who cannot win make us lose," he told journalists Monday.
24) "Our followers ... need unity and the prospect of hope," he said.
25) A divided governing party with several candidates -- or a divided left -- risks opening the way to extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned the nation and Europe in 2002 by making it into a runoff with Chirac.


French presidential contender Sarkozy urges rivals to seek party candidacy
(APW_ENG_20061123.1394)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, widely seen as the leading presidential contender for France's governing conservatives, invited party rivals on Thursday to put forth their bids for candidacy.
2) Sarkozy held off officially announcing his own candidacy on his party's opening day for filing, but urged critics Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to file their own bids before the Dec. 31 party deadline.
3) Villepin was once seen as a prime Sarkozy rival for the party candidacy and Alliot-Marie still hints she may want to run in the spring 2007 presidential race.
4) In an interview on TF1 television station, Sarkozy said he would wait until next week to announce his own candidacy.
5) The presidential ambitions of the brash Sarkozy have been known for years. In 2003, he said he was thinking of the presidential elections "and not just when shaving."
6) The governing Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, which Sarkozy heads, decided Wednesday to extend the filing deadline until the end of December, instead of Dec. 5, in a bow to critics complaining that the party candidacy was already locked up.
7) "I want the debate. I don't want division," Sarkozy said.
8) "All those who think they have something to say, a project to propose to the French, an energy to put in the service of France, become candidates," he said.


Sarkozy formally announces he is running for French presidency
(APW_ENG_20061129.1790)
1) It's official: Nicolas Sarkozy, France's frank-talking interior minister, is running for president, on pledges to recharge his sluggish nation by breaking with coveted job protections and better integrating disillusioned minorities.
2) The conservative Sarkozy's widely expected presidential campaign started with a fizzle: The left-leaning daily Liberation leaked an interview Wednesday in which he announced his candidacy a day before its scheduled release.
3) The misstep is unlikely to hurt his chances in the race for presidential elections in April and May. Polls show Sarkozy neck and neck with his rival on the left, Socialist Segolene Royal, nominated two weeks ago in her bid to become France's first female president.
4) Sarkozy, leader of President Jacques Chirac's ruling UMP party, has garnered popularity -- and enemies -- for his tough stance on immigration and youth crime. The charismatic 51-year-old, son of a Hungarian immigrant, has been eyeing the presidency for most of his career.
5) Asked in the interview released Wednesday if he would be a candidate, Sarkozy said, "My answer is yes." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the interview from Sarkozy's staff.
6) Sarkozy said that the word "rupture" centers his platform because "I want to break with the idea that you can work less and gain more, that in welcoming everyone you can integrate satisfactorily, that we democratize teaching by lowering the level of diplomas."
7) His are deeply divisive ideas.
8) The Socialists have vowed to expand France's worker protections like the 35-hour workweek. Royal has distanced herself from some Socialist ideas, but has offered no new recipes for boosting growth in a country whose economic clout is sinking.
9) The Socialists "have chosen immobility," Sarkozy said. "I want to embody movement."
10) Sarkozy's support for a form of affirmative action that would help minorities get jobs contradicts France's traditions of equality that bristle at differentiating citizens by race.
11) And while he has reached out to minorities, critics say his harsh comments about young troublemakers helped fuel last year's nationwide riots in housing projects, home to many Muslim immigrant families.
12) Sarkozy said he wants to "make France a country where everything can be possible."
13) Once everyone feels that anything is possible, from better schooling to equal salaries for men and women, "the French will again have the (desire) to live together. And the French nation will once again be an example for the world."
14) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin -- once seen as a potential rival to Sarkozy -- called Wednesday's announcement "a serious personal act."
15) An aide to Royal, Gilles Savary, called it "a spectacular nonevent."
16) Sarkozy has not hidden his presidential ambitions. Asked last year if he thought about running, Sarkozy replied: "Oh yes, and not just when I am shaving."
17) Fans praise "Sarko" as a new breed of energetic politician who wants to shake up France from top to bottom. Critics call him authoritarian and a threat to the country's social safety net.
18) As interior minister, he has enforced tougher laws, created thousands of new police jobs and reduced everything from traffic fatalities and prostitution to illegal immigration.
19) As finance minister, he pushed free-market reforms but also vigorously defended French companies from foreign takeover.
20) On foreign policy, he's vocally pro-American and an opponent of mostly-Muslim Turkey's campaign to join the European Union.
21) He has often clashed with Chirac, who once mentored Sarkozy but later fell out with his outspoken protege. Chirac -- who turned 74 on Wednesday -- is not expected to run for a third term, though he has left the option open.
22) Sarkozy granted an interview to French regional newspapers that was to be published Thursday, but Liberation -- which is quite critical of Sarkozy -- obtained a copy and released it on its Web site Wednesday night.
23) The UMP party must formally nominate Sarkozy at a party congress Jan. 14, but is certain to do so.
24) A new poll released Wednesday shows 68 percent of voters would "not exclude" voting for Royal, while 58 percent would consider voting for Sarkozy. The poll by the BVA-Orange Electoral Observer questioned 958 adults on Monday and Tuesday. No margin of error was given.


Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy hangs tough on youth violence
(APW_ENG_20061130.2037)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that special consideration for juvenile delinquents who commit serious crimes is a crime in itself and vowed to ensure harsh punishment in such cases if he becomes the next president of France.
2) A day after offically announcing his bid for the presidency, Sarkozy portrayed himself as a tough, decisive man of action with a sympathetic ear for the downtrodden not given a proper chance.
3) In a lengthy interview on France-2 television, the 51-year-old Sarkozy laid out his presidential program -- although he has not been officially nominated by his party, the governing Union for a Popular Mouvement of President Jacques Chirac. The choice is set for Jan. 14, but no one doubts that it will be Sarkozy.
4) He was contending with a high-profile tour through the Middle East by the candidate who would be his top rival, the Socialist Party's Segolene Royal. The former family and environment minister, who left Thursday for Lebanon, was looking to convince voters of her diplomatic skills in her bid to become France's first woman president.
5) Sarkozy took a jab at Royal for her "passive listening," a reference to her notion of "participative democracy" which includes listening to citizens.
6) "Do you think the president of the Republic can content himself with saying to the French: I'm listening to you,'" Sarkozy said.
7) However, he was hammered with questions about his treatment of troubled youths, violence in housing projects and other social issues.
8) The interior minister has taken relentless criticism for calling some youths in poor French housing projects "racaille," which means scum or riff-raff -- a term he defended Thursday on the grounds that it is widely used by the young.
9) "I think the word is even generous" regarding some young delinquents, he said, while contending that his use of it had been unfairly interpreted.
10) Sarkozy maintained his law-and-order profile concerning young delinquents who are serious or repeat offenders.
11) "I ask that for a repeat-offender minor between 16 and 18 the excuse of of being a minor be automatically done away with," Sarkozy said.
12) "Not to sanction a minor when he commits a grave act under the pretext that he is a minor amounts to non-assistance to a person in danger because we encourage him to take part in the strongest kind of delinquency," Sarkozy said.
13) Non-assistance to a person in danger is a crime in France.
14) Handing down sufficient punishment for repeat offenders and minors who commit serious crimes "will be two measures that I will apply right away, the two," Sarkozy said.
15) Referring to the estimated 5 million Muslims in France -- the largest grouping in western Europe -- Sarkozy reiterated his stance for an "Islam of France" that reflects French values -- not an "Islam in France." He insisted that imams, or Muslim prayer leaders, be able to speak French. Currently, many do not speak the language.
16) "I respect all cultures," Sarkozy said. However, he stressed the need for equality between men and women and denounced abuses such as forcing dress and other constraints on women or outright violence.
17) Those who act thusly should "go to a country other than France," he said.
18) Sarkozy pressed on with his backing for "positive discrimination," the French term for using quotas to ensure that minorities are not left behind.
19) "Like all new ideas, it is contested," Sarkozy said of the highly unpopular notion which runs counter to France's concept of integration.


Ambitious Sarkozy ' s race to French presidency may prove bumpy
(APW_ENG_20061201.0075)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy has reached the final sprint of a career-long run toward the French presidency. Now, rivals within his own conservative party seem intent on tripping him up.
2) The popular interior minister has won praise for a tough tack against crime and immigration. He now promises to reverse France's malaise by reaching out to disillusioned youths and eliminating state fetters on the economy.
3) Hurdles are increasingly springing up to his unbridled ambition to ascend to the presidency in the April 2007 election -- and not only from his charismatic leftist rival, Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.
4) Just after Sarkozy formally announced his long-anticipated candidacy, the daily Le Figaro reported Thursday that Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie will challenge him for the nomination of the ruling UMP party that Sarkozy heads.
5) And President Jacques Chirac, his longtime mentor-turned-rival, is keeping suspiciously quiet. Although it is unlikely, Chirac could seek a third term.
6) However, Sarkozy has focused on a likely face-off with Royal, who would be France's first woman president. Polls show Royal, a 53-year-old lawmaker and regional government head, and Sarkozy, 51, are the main contenders to win the presidential election.
7) Royal, a former environment and family minister, skipped town as buzz grew about Sarkozy's looming announcement -- leaving early Thursday on a hastily arranged and high-profile trip to the Middle East.
8) In a lengthy, televised forum Thursday night, Sarkozy worked to take the hard edge of his image to better counter rival Royal.
9) "I profoundly feel the desire for change among the French," Sarkozy said. "One can be passionately moderate, as I am, and propose a strong alternative."
10) But the left has its daggers out. Sarkozy had promised a "surprise" in the way he announced his candidacy -- in interviews published Thursday in regional newspapers -- but the left-leaning daily Liberation torpedoed the media-savvy minister's plan by posting the comments on its Web site a day early.
11) The challenge from Alliot-Marie could be window-dressing: Le Figaro said Alliot-Marie, a Chirac ally who headed the UMP's predecessor party, had struck a closed-door deal with Sarkozy last week to hold a "loyal debate" -- indicating she would be more a sparring partner than a serious candidate.
12) Officials close to Alliot-Marie insisted she has not made a final decision. Like many French candidates, she set up a web site last month aimed, it says, to allow her to "take part in a real debate of ideas."
13) Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppe, a former prime minister close to Chirac, told i-Tele television that an Alliot-Marie bid would be "a very good thing" to help "pit viewpoints against one another."
14) Meanwhile, speculation has been rife that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin could jump into the UMP nomination race alongside Alliot-Marie. Party contenders have until the year's end to announce their bids, before the nominee is chosen Jan. 14.
15) Chirac, 74, has said he won't decide whether to run for a third term until early next year -- as sitting president he would be able to run outside the party framework. That uncertainty, plus possible back-room maneuvers by Chirac, an accomplished political manipulator, loom over Sarkozy's bid.
16) The two men met in 1975, when Sarkozy wooed then-Prime Minister Chirac with a speech praising the conservative Gaullist movement. They fell out 20 years later, when Sarkozy backed Chirac's rival for the presidential race that year, which Chirac won. Bad blood has simmered ever since.
17) In 2002, Sarkozy rejoined national politics when Chirac handed him the Interior Ministry. Sarkozy transformed the post into a bully pulpit, crisscrossing France to show support for police at a time when insecurity over crime was the biggest concern among the French. His poll numbers soared -- and have largely held ever since.
18) Most recently, Sarkozy has irked the Chirac camp by promising "rupture" from the past -- a not-so-veiled disavowal of Chirac's largely stagnant 11-year rule, and a bit of a tough sell for a man who has been a high-ranking Cabinet member for much of the last four years.
19) Fans praise "Sarko" as a new breed of energetic politician who wants to snap France out of its malaise. Critics call him authoritarian and a threat to the country's social safety net.
20) Sarkozy, like Royal, defies easy categorization. He is an avowed supporter of the free market, but openly defended French company Alstom from a takeover from German rival Alstom in 2004.
21) He has called for a French version of affirmative action, the policy in the United States to help minorities get jobs, but many North African and black immigrants and their children despise him for tough language and policies against troublemakers in their neighborhoods.
22) On foreign policy, he's vocally pro-American and an opponent of predominantly Muslim Turkey's campaign to join the European Union -- an ambition supported by the United States.
23) "Europe is made for European states," he said Thursday.


French prime minister questioned in probe into political scandal
(APW_ENG_20061222.0221)
1) The French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, wrapped up Friday a grueling 17-hour-long grilling by judges investigating a suspected smear campaign against presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) The so-called Clearstream affair centered on damaging, but false, allegations that Sarkozy had secret bank accounts.
3) The matter helped poison relations between Sarkozy and Villepin, unsettling the center-right government in which they form an uneasy pairing, and has played into the race for the French presidency in 2007.
4) Key questions are what Villepin knew, and when, and whether he kept an investigation into the allegations going long after it became clear that Sarkozy, France's interior minister, had been unjustly accused.
5) The questioning, which began Thursday at 9 a.m. local time, wrapped up Friday morning at 3 a.m.
6) "For my part, I was very pleased to be able to testify on this matter, of which I have for many months been a victim of slander and lies," Villepin told waiting reporters following what he called his "marathon testimony."
7) Judges questioned Villepin only as a witness. Other prominent center-right UMP party politicians have been questioned as witnesses in the case, including Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
8) Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former vice president of European defense giant EADS, and ex-EADS executive, Imad Lahoud, have been charged together with journalist Denis Robert, author of a book that implicates Villepin in the smear campaign.
9) Suspicions that Villepin was involved in the accusations -- combined with his shelving of proposed labor reforms, which provoked violent protests last spring -- appear to have dashed his hopes of running for president. Without saying so outright, he has recently hinted that he does not expect to be a candidate in the April and May elections.
10) Sarkozy, on the other hand, widely seen as a victim of the affair, has emerged from it strengthened, leaving him the overwhelming favorite to win the presidential nomination for the center-right UMP party, which he heads. Endorsements Thursday by two leading UMP politicians -- Raffarin and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy -- reinforced the Sarkozy campaign.
11) Sarkozy's supporters have called for punishment if the investigation establishes that the apparent smear campaign was aimed at unsettling the Sarkozy's presidential run.
12) "When low blows are used to sideline a political adversary, there must be sanctions," Francois Fillon, Sarkozy's political adviser, said in a radio interview. He said he believed that "people manipulated this affair" but added "I have no proof."


Presidential hopeful Sarkozy consolidates grip on the French right
(APW_ENG_20061222.0955)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy's quickening campaign to be elected as France's next president picked up endorsements on Friday from 140 center-right ministers, former ministers and lawmakers.
2) Sarkozy's designation as the ruling UMP party's candidate on Jan. 14 now seems beyond doubt. No other party heavyweights have said they will challenge the reformist, tough-on-crime interior minister, who has long been the UMP's frontrunner.
3) The party's swing behind Sarkozy has gathered speed since the main opposition Socialists picked Segolene Royal to be their candidate in November. Polls suggest that voters are evenly divided between Sarkozy and Royal before the two-round presidential election next April and May.
4) UMP heavyweights who have rallied to Sarkozy's side in recent weeks include several ministers and former ministers close to President Jacques Chirac or who were believed to favor a run by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
5) Friday's 140 endorsements for Sarkozy were announced by Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was Chirac's prime minister before Villepin.
6) "It is time for unity," Raffarin said.
7) "This is an important moment for me," Sarkozy added. "I know that I need everyone."
8) Despite hints that she might challenge Sarkozy, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has yet to declare and seems to have at best lukewarm support. She drew boos when speaking at recent UMP meetings.
9) Villepin's ambitions were hurt by street protests last spring that forced him to withdraw contested labor reforms and by suspicions that he may have had a hand in an apparent smear campaign targeting Sarkozy.
10) Villepin was questioned for 17 hours on Thursday and early Friday by judges investigating that affair, centered on damaging, but false, claims that Sarkozy and other French personalities had secret bank accounts.
11) Villepin hinted this week that he does not expect to run for the presidency.


Lawmakers from ruling UMP party heckle French premier
(APW_ENG_20070109.1499)
1) Lawmakers from France's governing party booed Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin during a raucous meeting Tuesday -- two days after the premier publicly rebuffed leading presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) Villepin announced Sunday he would not cast a ballot in the conservative Union for a Popular Movement party, or UMP, internal primary. The move was seen as a snub of Sarkozy, France's interior minister, who is the sole contender for the UMP's presidential candidacy.
3) Speaking on Canal Plus television, Villepin explained he would abstain from the vote because his mentor, President Jacques Chirac, has not indicated if he would seek a third term.
4) At a closed-doors meeting Tuesday of UMP lawmakers, Sarkozy's supporters retaliated by heckling Villepin. Parliamentarian Jean-Luc Reitzer said voters were sick of division, which he warned could cost the party the two-round presidential election in April and May.
5) Sarkozy -- who has the support of virtually all the party's heavy-hitters besides Villepin and Chirac -- struck a conciliatory note, saying "I need everyone."
6) Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy repeated Sarkozy's calls for unity, which he said was the key to victory.
7) "We all need to get behind Nicolas Sarkozy, who is in the best position to win and, most importantly, to make our political platform win," he said Tuesday in an interview with Canal Plus television. Douste-Blazy endorsed Sarkozy last month.
8) Meanwhile, another Chirac ally, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, publicly declared his support for Sarkozy.
9) Chirac has been coy about his intentions, and has urged his Cabinet to avoid being distracted by the presidential campaign.
10) Most political observers do not expect Chirac to run again, and polls show that most French would prefer to see him stay out of the race. The 74-year-old president has been in office since 1995.
11) The opposition Socialist Party has chosen lawmaker and former minister Segolene Royal as its candidate. Opinion polls show Royal running neck-and-neck with Sarkozy.
12) A poll released Tuesday gave Chirac a 44 percent approval rating, up 1 point from last month. Villepin's rating plummeted 5 points in January, to 38 percent. The IFOP agency conducted the poll Jan. 4-5 by telephone among 1,010 respondents. No margin of error was given.


Discordant French right struggles to unite around Sarkozy ' s presidential nomination
(APW_ENG_20070110.1383)
1) This was meant to be Nicolas Sarkozy's moment of glory. But instead, the runup to his anointment this weekend as presidential candidate for France's ruling conservative party has been marred by arguments and rivalry within his own camp.
2) The squabbling says as much about rifts on the French right as it does about the candidate himself. A divisive figure, Sarkozy's driving ambition and calls for a clean break with past policies appeal to those hungry for change but scare others who defend the status quo.
3) Within his ruling UMP party, the clash between those visions has come to a head before Sarkozy's nomination on Sunday -- which is not in doubt because he is the only candidate.
4) Roughly, the battle lines divide Sarkozy's supporters from those of Jacques Chirac, the 74-year-old president who is not expected to seek a third term but seems determined to ensure that his voice is heard in the election campaign. He and Sarkozy have had frosty relations for years.
5) Sarkozy and prominent members of his Union for a Popular Movement pleaded Wednesday for unity, a day after a venomous meeting that saw his followers heckle longtime Sarkozy opponent Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who is close to Chirac.
6) "We must all be together. Now is the time for coming together, and everyone will have a place," Sarkozy said as he cast a ballot for himself Wednesday for the UMP nomination.
7) The task ahead for Sarkozy is sizable: His main opponent on the left, Segolene Royal, wrapped up the Socialist Party nomination in November, giving her a jump in what is expected to be a close race. Polls show support evenly divided between the two.
8) Registered UMP members have been voting since last week, both online and in party offices, and the results will be formalized Sunday. Though Sarkozy is the only candidate, the nomination is a key step in the race to the April-May elections and in his career-long dream of becoming president.
9) Sarkozy supporters dominate the UMP, but face vocal opposition from Chirac loyalists led by Villepin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. Villepin was once considered a potential rival for the party's nod, but a series of crises last year buried those chances.
10) The prime minister said Sunday he wouldn't take part in the UMP vote because Chirac has not indicated if he would seek a third term -- a clear snub to Sarkozy.
11) At Tuesday's closed-door party meeting, an UMP lawmaker said voters were tired of divisions within the party that could threaten its chances for the presidency.
12) Villepin snapped, "I disagree," and warned Sarkozy against trying to line up party members "like little peas in a pod" behind him. "Diversity is an opportunity, not a handicap," Villepin said.
13) Angry party members jumped up and shouted Villepin down. Lawmaker Patrick Ollier said, "It was like an exploding pot."
14) "There were reactions that were not acceptable. That doesn't provide a good image of the majority party," he said Wednesday on LCI television.
15) Two former prime ministers joined in calls for party unity Wednesday.
16) Alain Juppe urged UMP members "to stop this spectacle that is destroying us."
17) Edouard Balladur called on fellow conservatives to "imitate the Socialists" and rally behind a single candidate.
18) "They don't necessarily adore each other but in the end, they play the game," he said on RTL radio.
19) Royal also faced fierce criticism within the Socialist Party before her nomination, but since then the long-divided Socialists have rallied behind her. The Socialists also released a 90-page document on the Internet on Wednesday accusing Sarkozy of idolizing U.S. President George W. Bush and seeking to make France a "branch" of the "Bush company."


France ' s Sarkozy wisecracks about Russian detained over suspected prostitution ring
(APW_ENG_20070111.1296)
1) Leading presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy had a surprising reaction Thursday to news that a Russian tycoon was arrested in a prostitution probe in the French Alps, quipping: "There's a man who wants to please."
2) Sarkozy made the offhand comment at a news conference detailing his record as interior minister, after a police official explained that the oligarch had "proposed young Russian women" to guests whom he hosted in the luxury ski station Courchevel.
3) "There's a man who wants to please -- that's curious," Sarkozy said, shrugging and smiling as he commented on the information from Martine Monteil, the head of France's judicial police.
4) A French prosecutor identified the suspect as billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, chief executive of Russian mining giant OAO Norilsk Nickel, saying he was taken into custody Tuesday. Prokhorov and 14 others are being held for questioning, officials said.
5) Sarkozy, who heads the mainstream right Union for a Popular Movement, is to be anointed as its presidential nominee on Sunday at a party convention. Polls show that he and Segolene Royal, a Socialist who would be France's first woman president, are currently the two front-runners in the two-round election in April and May.
6) Sarkozy spent most of the news conference hoping to convert a drop in crime since he became France's top cop into an advantage in his presidential bid.
7) "I am proud of the results achieved by the police in our country," he said, pointing to a 9.4 percent drop in crime since he took office in 2002. "Security is up, fear is down."
8) Speculation has been widespread that conservative Sarkozy will step down in coming weeks to focus on the election. He said he would resign before the election, but he did not specify when.
9) Sarkozy sought to put into perspective a seeming stain on his record -- a 14 percent rise in violent crime since 2002 -- saying the same figure had climbed more than 40 percent under the Socialist-led government from 1997 to 2002.
10) He said more than 1,422 people had been arrested in France in anti-terrorism cases since 2002, including 317 in 2006.
11) Sarkozy appealed to police to target a 2-percent drop in crime in 2007.


Sarkozy marks milestone in lifelong drive to become president of France
(APW_ENG_20070112.1588)
1) What would be more unthinkable: a French president who does not drink wine, one who proudly considers himself pro-American, or one who thinks France has been too arrogant in world affairs?
2) In Nicolas Sarkozy, all of the above would apply.
3) His anointment on Sunday as presidential candidate for the mainstream French right will mark a milestone in an almost lifelong quest by the son of a Hungarian immigrant to become France's head of state.
4) It will also herald a changing of the guard from the era of President Jacques Chirac and sound the starting whistle for a close election race expected to provide new direction for a nation deeply worried about its future in Europe and the world, the economic challenge from China, and how to reach out to its unemployment-stricken blacks, Arabs and Muslims.
5) Sarkozy is as divisive a figure as they come in France, and he scares many with his courtship of far-right voters and promise to cut coveted workplace protections. Many black and Arab immigrants and their French-born children despise the tough police tactics he has instituted in hard-scrabble housing projects as interior minister, his uncompromising language and his sometimes roughly executed drive to dispatch illegal immigrants back to Africa and elsewhere.
6) His bald ambition has alienated some old-guard conservatives and supporters of Chirac, who is not expected to seek a third term. Biographers suggest that Sarkozy's unhappy childhood in a broken home and his battle, as an immigrant's son with a foreign sounding name, to win respectability in a political system dominated by France's elite have fueled the determination that now could put him in the presidential Elysee Palace.
7) "The feeling of not being like the others surely weighed on him," said Elise Karlin, co-author of "The Sarkozys, a French family," told AP Television News this week. "He wanted to show he could succeed."
8) Sarkozy's main challenger is Socialist Segolene Royal. Compared to her more maternal style, he sometimes comes across as a cocksure Alpha male. But both their platforms center on promises of change, and polls show them running neck-to-neck.
9) Sarkozy's ruling UMP party is pulling out all the stops for his nomination with a big-budget, American-style convention aimed at giving him momentum before the two-round election in April and May. He is the party's only candidate, after other hopefuls were either tarnished by corruption scandals, crises in government, or proved unable to mount a credible challenge to Sarkozy's steamroller-like takeover of the party.
10) Most Chirac loyalists and ministers have in recent months declared their support for Sarkozy.
11) On Friday, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie joined them, announcing her decision to forego her own candidacy outside the party to back Sarkozy.
12) "When it is finally the conditions of France's future that are at stake, you must forget your own wishes (and) serve the general interest," she said on French TV.
13) Sarkozy says he wants to snap France out of what he calls its outdated ways: The French are overtaxed, overburdened by government fees that crimp innovation, too enamored with French -- he wants them to speak better English -- and ill-prepared for globalization.
14) In foreign policy, he wants a more humble France and closer U.S. ties. He has embraced the moniker "Sarko l'Americain," affixed by his critics. In a published interview in November, he said: "Everybody who has traveled a bit knows that arrogance is too often a French defect."
15) Sarkozy defies easy categorization in economic policy. He is a self-proclaimed supporter of the euro, but criticizes the European Central Bank as too independent and suggests that the European Union must better protect its jobs and markets from the challenge posed by developing powers like China.
16) While finance minister from 2004-2005, Sarkozy championed free market principles and tax cuts, but defended French engineering company Alstom from a takeover by Germany's Siemens -- angering Berlin. He bills himself as an economic reformer, but suggests that he would spend heavily on trying to fix social ills. He has said that, if elected, he would eradicate homelessness in two years.
17) The contrasts don't stop there. Often portrayed as calculating by rivals, the 51-year-old father of three admitted he was gutted when his wife, Cecilia, left for New York with another man. Sarkozy later won her back.
18) While many French politicians speak in measured, flowered phrases, Sarkozy talks straight, sometimes brutally so. He shocked many by saying he would use a high-pressure hose to clean out hoodlums from troubled neighborhoods, and by referring to them as "scum."
19) Such language has kept Sarkozy in the public eye. He prides himself as being media-savvy.
20) "If I were Minister for Stuffed Cabbage, you'd hear a lot about stuffed cabbage," he once quipped.
21) Nicolas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa says that a career in politics has been his only desire since before he was 15. He wasted no time, making an instant splash at a 1975 political meeting after an introduction by then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.
22) "That you, Sarkozy? You have five minutes," Chirac snapped. Sarkozy went on for 20, the premier was smitten -- and a three-decade political relationship of both intimate ties and fierce rivalry was born.
23) Sarkozy infuriated Chirac by backing his rival, Edouard Balladur, in 1995 presidential elections that Chirac went on win. Years in the wilderness followed for Sarkozy.
24) Re-elected in 2002, Chirac offered a reprieve, naming Sarkozy interior minister to make good on campaign promises to reduce crime. Sarkozy threw himself at the task, revamping the police and toughening laws -- and his popularity soared.
25) By 2004, Chirac tried to rein in the ebullient Sarkozy by ordering him to choose between a role in government or leading the UMP, which Sarkozy has since turned into his presidential campaign machine.
26) But less than a year later, after French voters had embarrassed him by rejecting a proposed European constitution, Chirac was forced reverse course: He brought Sarkozy back into government as interior minister, and let him stay on as the party boss.


French conservatives consecrate Sarkozy as presidential candidate
(APW_ENG_20070114.0767)
1) As Nicolas Sarkozy's longtime quest to become French president heads into its final stretch, the combative interior minister faces the treacherous task of uniting fractious conservatives in a country desperate for change and anxious about competition from rising powers like China.
2) Sarkozy was consecrated Sunday as the ruling party's presidential nominee, pitching him into a close battle against fellow front-runner Segolene Royal, a charismatic Socialist who would be France's first woman president. She too faces a test in uniting her camp for the two-round election in April and May.
3) Sarkozy's nomination was no surprise: He was the only person on the ballot for the UMP party's vote. But the formal anointment further sidelines President Jacques Chirac, the party's founder and one-time Sarkozy mentor.
4) The French are eager for new direction, and their next president will herald a new era after 12 years under Chirac, unpopular and unlikely to seek a third term. France is discouraged, worried about the rise of economic challenges from China and uncertain about how to reach out to unemployment-stricken blacks, Arabs and Muslims.
5) "I want to be the president of a reunited France," Sarkozy said in his acceptance speech before an estimated 70,000 people at the nomination convention. "Globalization requires us to reinvent everything -- to think of ourselves as compared to others."
6) His speech struck a conciliatory tone unusual for a man known for straight talk and, critics say, obstinacy.
7) "I'll need -- and France will need -- everybody here," Sarkozy said, standing among enormous screens and crowds of banner-waving fans as the euro3.5 million (US$4.5 million), U.S.-style political convention began.
8) Sarkozy, unlike Royal, has firm policy positions on nearly every subject. He has earned both kudos and vitriol for vowing to cut cherished workplace protections, championing tough police tactics in hardscrabble housing projects and dispatching illegal immigrants back to Africa and elsewhere.
9) "We have no purchasing power because we don't work enough," Sarkozy said on state-run TF1 television later Sunday. "The French economy lacks fuel."
10) In his earlier speech, he touched on education policy -- often seen as a Royal strength -- with a call for a monthly stipend for students to get jobs training. He called the U.S.-led Iraq war "a mistake," though he has also been the most vocally pro-American of France's modern politicians.
11) Sarkozy, 51, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, muscled out potential rivals for the party nomination or won them over in recent months.
12) More than 98 percent of registered party members who cast ballots, primarily via Internet, voted for Sarkozy. The only real question was turnout, which came in at 70 percent of the party's 330,000 members -- impressive for a ballot with only one name.
13) Chirac remains a wild card for Sarkozy. The 74-year-old president has not said whether he will run again, though few expect him to. He was notably absent from Sunday's congress for his Union for a Popular Movement party.
14) Chirac's main ally -- Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin -- has remained cool toward Sarkozy and refused to take part in the UMP vote. Villepin was once considered a possible presidential contender but has been sidelined by scandals.
15) A few cries of "Dominique!" rang out as Villepin arrived at the convention -- only to be drowned out with shouts of "Nicolas, president!"
16) The nomination caps a revival for Sarkozy, who was cast into the political wilderness in 1995 after he supported Prime Minister Edouard Balladur for the presidency -- which Chirac won. Sarkozy's comeback began after he was named interior minister in 2002, gaining popularity for cracking down on crime.
17) The lineup of speakers Sunday testified to how much Sarkozy has wrested the conservative movement from Chirac's grasp.
18) Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally and former prime minister, took the podium last before Sarkozy's acceptance speech.
19) "Nicolas Sarkozy can count on me!" said Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, another Chirac ally, who had held out until Friday before announcing that she would not challenge Sarkozy for the nomination.
20) UMP lawmaker Nicolas Dupont-Aignan dealt a blow on the eve of Sarkozy's consecration, announcing Saturday that he would quit the party because his voice was not being taken into consideration.
21) That highlights the challenge Sarkozy will face in the months to come. Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen -- who came in a shock second place in 2002 presidential elections behind Chirac -- is a real threat to Sarkozy's right flank.
22) Polls show Sarkozy and Royal almost exactly even, though many voters remain undecided.
23) Royal, 53, a former environment and family minister, has capitalized on an "Anyone But Sarkozy" movement on the left, but she is a divisive figure even in her own camp.
24) She contradicted the Socialist leader's proposal last week to raise taxes, and has angered many with unorthodox proposals such as military training for wayward youth.
25) She sidestepped the Socialist Party structure and rose to prominence quickly last year through a grassroots, Internet-based campaign -- raising questions about how much she would adhere to party dogma on issues like the 35-hour workweek law cherished by many Socialists.
26) Royal kept her distance on Sunday, declining to comment on the conservatives' big bash while unveiling an oil press at a farm in her home region of Poitou-Charentes.


Poll shows French voters not enthusiastic about Sarkozy-Royal choice in presidential election
(APW_ENG_20070115.0679)
1) French voters are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a presidential run-off between the mainstream right's newly anointed candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his Socialist rival Segolene Royal, a poll indicated Monday.
2) The April-May two-round presidential election interests 61 percent of the French, but only 34 percent of those polled said they were satisfied with the likely prospect of a Royal-Sarkozy final round, according to the poll of 1,003 people by the LH2 Institute.
3) That pairing is widely considered the most likely outcome once all but two candidates are eliminated in the first round. Dozens of would-be candidates have declared, but many may struggle to meet the qualification requirements.
4) A full 20 percent of the people questioned would like a final round choice other than Royal and Sarkozy, according to the poll in the left-leaning daily Liberation.
5) "As of today, the French are waiting for scenarios other than Royal-Sarkozy," Liberation quoted LH2 political analyst Francois Miquet-Marty as saying.
6) Sarkozy, 51, France's law-and-order interior minister, was officially nominated Sunday as candidate for the Union for a Popular Movement -- the only candidate in the running for the party which he heads. President Jacques Chirac, who has been in office since 1995 and has frosty relations with Sarkozy, has not said whether he would seek a third mandate, outside his party, but is not expected to do so.
7) In another surprise, the poll suggested that Sarkozy has more credibility with the working class than does Royal. Asked which candidate best takes working class concerns into account, 19 percent picked Sarkozy, compared with 15 percent for Royal.
8) Working class voters would seem to be natural allies of the Socialists and their candidate Royal, 53, a former family and environment minister, not of conservatives like Sarkozy.
9) Even Arlette Laguiller, a Trotskyist candidate who is a regular in presidential elections, drew only 9 percent of the confidence of the working class, the poll showed -- ahead of Communist Party candidate Marie-George Buffet, who scored 6 percent in the poll.
10) No margin of error was provided, but in a poll of that size it would be plus or minus three percentage points.


Sarkozy-Royal: A fresh generation of candidates in a new era for France
(APW_ENG_20070115.1049)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy vs. Segolene Royal. The big matchup in France's presidential election is finally official, with the two mainstream candidates brandishing their visions for reviving a nation down on itself and worried about globalization.
2) The two contenders, who are running neck-and-neck in polls, are a study in contrast. But both Sarkozy, the 51-year-old conservative interior minister appointed the governing party's candidate Sunday, and Royal, the 53-year-old Socialist former family and environment minister, have shaken up politics as usual.
3) Whoever wins, France will have its first president born after World War II.
4) Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, and Royal, the first female presidential candidate of a mainstream party, have rallied their respective old guard behind them for the April-May two-round vote. Yet they also have a penchant for striking out on new territory that does not always respect party lines.
5) A day after his appointment as candidate for the center-right Union for a Popular Movement, Sarkozy visited his party's campaign headquarters in Paris before dashing off to campaign in western France. He is playing catch-up: Royal was named the Socialist Party's candidate in mid-November.
6) Sarkozy has sought to soften his tough guy image as he adapts to facing a female rival celebrated for her dazzling smile.
7) "I have changed," Sarkozy told 80,000 party loyalists during his lavish anointment rally Sunday. He called himself a "little French man of mixed blood" and took up themes dear to Royal like the value of work.
8) Answering critics who call him a pro-American economic liberal, he said his goal is to "moralize capitalism." Addressing demands to end the corruption that has been a decades-long companion of party politics in France, he said he wants to "return morals to the heart of politics" and embody an "irreproachable democracy."
9) Royal, in turn, says she wants to hear what French voters want, not impose solutions on them -- a formula she calls "participative democracy."
10) Both candidates are appealing to a yearning by the French for new direction -- and fresh faces to deal with old problems like joblessness, as well as newer concerns like globalization and the rise of China.
11) Sarkozy is running on the slogan "Together, everything is possible" while Royal talks of "desires for the future."
12) Their shared strength is that both offer a break with the era of President Jacques Chirac, who at age 74 and after 12 years at the helm is thought unlikely to run again -- even if he hasn't confirmed that.
13) Sarkozy, unlike Royal, has firm policy positions on nearly every subject. He has earned both kudos and vitriol for vowing to cut cherished workplace protections, championing tough police tactics in hardscrabble housing projects and deporting illegal immigrants.
14) He defies easy categorization in economic policy. He is a self-proclaimed supporter of the euro, but criticizes the European Central Bank as too independent and suggests that the European Union must better protect its jobs and markets from the challenge posed by developing powers like China.
15) He has championed free market principles and tax cuts, but also suggests that he would spend heavily on trying to fix social ills. If elected, he promises to eradicate homelessness in two years.
16) Royal has strayed from her party's traditional positions. She caused a stir last week by contradicting the stance of Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande -- who is incidentally the father of their four children -- on tax increases and has angered many on the left with unorthodox proposals such as military training for wayward youth.
17) She also has raised questions about how much she would adhere to party dogma on issues like the 35-hour work week law cherished by many Socialists.


2 polls indicate France ' s presidential election would be too close to call
(APW_ENG_20070118.1459)
1) France's presidential election would be too close to call if held today, according to two polls released Thursday.
2) One of them gave a slight edge to conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, the governing UMP party's candidate, and the other showing his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, in the lead.
3) For weeks, polls have shown the two front-runners enjoying equal support among voters ahead of the April and May presidential vote, seen as key for a nation discouraged and hungry for new leadership.
4) A poll by CSA published Thursday in the daily Parisien shows Sarkozy gaining a slight advantage: 30 percent of respondents said they would vote for him in the first round of voting and 29 percent named Royal.
5) Far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen -- who surprised pollsters and shocked France and Europe by coming in second place behind President Jacques Chirac in the last election in 2002 -- would earn 15 percent of the vote, the poll said.
6) In a runoff, Sarkozy's lead would grow, the poll suggested, with 52 percent of respondents saying Sarkozy was the candidate they would most likely vote for in a second round, compared to Royal's 48 percent.
7) The leading contenders are still quite close, however, taking into account a likely 3 percentage point margin of error for a poll of that size.
8) The poll was conducted Wednesday by telephone of 845 people nationwide.
9) Thursday's other poll, which was conducted last week by the TNS-Sofres agency for Le Figaro Magazine and France 5 television, gave Royal the edge in both rounds: 34 percent of respondents said they would cast their first-round ballot for Royal compared to 29 percent for Sarkozy.
10) In the second round, Royal would take 52 percent of the vote, while Sarkozy would garner 48 percent, the poll suggested. It was conducted from Jan. 10-12, through face-to-face interviews with 1,000 people nationwide. The poll would also likely have a 3 percentage point margin of error.
11) The polls were published days after Sarkozy was anointed by his conservative UMP party on Sunday. The tough-talking interior minister, who has pledged to free up France's economy, was the only candidate for the nomination and has long been considered a top presidential contender. But Sunday's big-budget nomination bash gave new impetus to his campaign.
12) Meanwhile, Royal has hit bumps in her bid to become France's first woman president.
13) Royal, who got a head start on Sarkozy with her nomination two months ago, clashed last week with the Socialist Party boss -- father of her four children -- over his proposals for a tax hike, and both have come under fire for revelations about their wealth. Many leftists fear the fiercely independent Royal is straying too far from party lines and could threaten France's social protections.


French presidential race takes an odd turn with spying allegations
(APW_ENG_20070125.0694)
1) France's Socialists are demanding an investigation into a report that the team of presidential candidate and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy ordered a spy probe into a member of the rival camp.
2) Le Canard Enchaine newspaper reported Wednesday that Sarkozy's Cabinet asked a police intelligence unit to dig up dirt on Bruno Rebelle, a member of the campaign team of Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.
3) Sarkozy called the allegations "utterly ridiculous" and said the Socialists should "keep cool." Sarkozy's Cabinet released a statement saying it did not order any probe into Rebelle, who is the former director of Greenpeace France and who advises Royal on the environment.
4) Sarkozy and Royal, a former environment minister, are the two leading candidates in France's April-May presidential race, and they are neck-and-neck in the polls.
5) Royal told RMC-Info radio Thursday that an investigation must clear up what happened. She added that it was up to the current president, Jacques Chirac, to make sure the presidential campaign is clean.
6) The article caused a stir among the Socialists, with spokesman Julien Dray accusing Sarkozy's team of using "unacceptable tactics." The party's leader, Francois Hollande -- who is also Royal's romantic partner and the father of her four children -- said the fact that Sarkozy remains interior minister during his candidacy is causing suspicions.
7) "If confirmed, this would be extremely worrisome, because it would mean that the Interior Ministry is working for Mr. Sarkozy the candidate," Hollande said.


French presidential race takes a strange turn with spying allegations
(APW_ENG_20070125.1529)
1) Did French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy order spies to dig up dirt about his Socialist rival's team?
2) That allegation, published in a newspaper Wednesday, left the Socialists complaining of a political low-blow to their candidate, Segolene Royal, and clamoring for an investigation. They even asked conservative President Jacques Chirac to step in.
3) Sarkozy, for his part, dismissed the claim as "utterly ridiculous" and threw a few barbs back at the Socialists.
4) In the volatile world of French politics, the affair might flare up or quickly fizzle out. In either case, the spying claims -- and the venomous back-and-forths they sparked -- set the tone for what appears to be an increasingly nasty campaign ahead of the April-May vote.
5) Sarkozy, the interior minister, and Royal, a former environment minister, have been neck-and-neck in the polls for months, and their teams are trying everything possible to make the numbers budge.
6) The spying allegations were published in Le Canard Enchaine, a satirical newspaper also known for its investigations. The weekly paper, citing unnamed officials, reported that Sarkozy's office asked an intelligence agency to probe Bruno Rebelle, who is the former director of Greenpeace France and Royal's environment adviser.
7) Rebelle filed a complaint on Thursday for invasion of privacy based on the suspicions raised by the newspaper report, his lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard, said.
8) Sarkozy poked fun at the Socialists for their reaction to the report. "It's utterly ridiculous. They need to get a grip and stay calm," he said. Sarkozy's office also issued a statement denying the newspaper's claims.
9) The growing tensions spilled into the normally sedate Senate. Socialist Sen. Jean-Luc Melenchon angrily left his seat and grabbed the arm of Sarkozy ally Brice Hortefeux, a deputy minister who accused the senator of "personally" feeding rumors to the press.
10) Royal, meanwhile, said it was up to the president of France to make sure the campaign stays clean.
11) "I don't want to go into the subject too much because certain people want to see me dragged down," she said. "I don't want that."
12) Royal has worked hard to promote the idea that she is above France's nasty, partisan sniping. But her backers ripped into Sarkozy.
13) Patrick Mennucci, a politician who supports Royal, complained of "dirty police tricks." Socialist leader Francois Hollande demanded an inquiry and said that, if the claims were true, it would show that Sarkozy was using intelligence agents to do his campaign work.
14) Hollande has been in an uncomfortable position for months. He is not only the Socialist Party leader, he is also Royal's romantic partner and the father of her four children. Sarkozy took that into account to come up with a biting comeback.
15) "I think Mr. Hollande should let Ms. Royal wage her own campaign," Sarkozy said. "Mr. Hollande is a male chauvinist. It is not Mr. Hollande who is the candidate."


Poll: Conservative Sarkozy ' s presidential campaign better-run; Socialist rival closer to voters
(APW_ENG_20070128.0449)
1) An opinion poll released Sunday says conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is running a better campaign for the French presidency, though his opposition Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, is closer to voters' worries.
2) Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the poll, published in Le Parisien daily, said governing UMP party candidate Sarkozy is running a more solid campaign than Royal, who garnered 25 percent. Sarkozy is also seen as the more innovative candidate, with 39 percent of respondents saying he has brought the most ideas to the table; Royal was backed by 33 percent.
3) Still, the poll showed that Royal, a regional lawmaker who is bidding to become France's first woman president, is seen better understanding voters' worries than Sarkozy, France's Interior Minister. Forty percent of respondents said she was closer to their worries, compared with 38 percent for Sarkozy.
4) The poll of 1,004 people was conducted by telephone on Jan. 24 by the CSA polling agency. No margin of error was given, but in a poll of that size it would normally be around three percentage points.
5) French voters head to the polls in April and May for the two-round presidential elections.


France ' s Sarkozy takes lessons from Britain ' s unemployment policy during visit to London
(APW_ENG_20070130.1513)
1) French Presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Britain's policy of cutting financial support for those unwilling to work offered a lesson for French jobseekers.
2) Unemployment is shaping up to be a critical issue in the spring French presidential elections, and Sarkozy holds a narrow lead in French polls over his Socialist rival Segolene Royal.
3) "(The British) want to help people, which is fine, but in return for the help given, they demand a minimum of effort so that the person who receives from the state makes a minimum of effort to find -- and keep -- a job," he said during a visit to a job center in central London.
4) Unemployed Britons can apply for benefits, which vary depending on the age, family or financial status of the applicant. If they are unwilling to look for or accept a job, they can have their benefits cut or removed altogether. While France has a similar system, it is generally considered more lax in the enforcement of its rules.
5) Sarkozy arrived in London by train, spending about an hour at British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office before leaving for the job center in London's Marylebone district.
6) Blair and Sarkozy held talks on Europe, the Middle East, climate change, as well as Downing Street's new system of accepting public petitions, Blair's official spokesman said, but Sarkozy's presidential campaign was not discussed and the meeting did not constitute an offer of support.
7) Blair "has met many politicians who are in the process of elections," his spokesman said. "If Segolene Royal wants to come to London to meet the Prime Minister, I'm sure he would be happy to meet her as well."
8) At the job center, Sarkozy spent 20 minutes being shown around by John Hutton, Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary. Sarkozy told reporters the British system of refusing aid to recalcitrant jobseekers was a good one.
9) "The result is that there is a 4.5 percent unemployment rate in Great Britain, or half the French rate," he said. "A system which believes that you cannot help a person who refuses to help themselves -- that's a sound reasoning."
10) Associated Press Writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report.


Critics cry foul in case of scooter-theft involving French candidate ' s son
(APW_ENG_20070130.1615)
1) When thieves made off with a scooter belonging to a son of French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, police got cracking: with help from fingerprints and DNA tests, they caught three suspects within two weeks.
2) That police were so efficient in a country where more than 85,000 motorcycles and scooters were stolen last year has revived complaints that Sarkozy is either too powerful or has an unfair campaign edge thanks to his day job -- as France's top cop -- and that the lines between his roles as candidate and interior minister are too blurred.
3) Police say there's nothing particularly surprising about the scooter case, and that they conduct thousands of DNA and fingerprint tests every year. But that didn't stop Sarkozy's rivals from asking questions.
4) "This is a double-standard," centrist candidate Francois Bayrou said Tuesday on RTL radio. "This kind of small affair demonstrates how with the courts -- or the police at least -- the justice system isn't exactly the same for the poor and the powerful."
5) As interior minister, Sarkozy has access to reams of police intelligence, reports by regional administrators and vast amounts of information about daily goings-on in France. Opponents complain that he seems to want to hold on to that lever of power until the last possible minute before balloting starts in late April.
6) In recent weeks, the opposition Socialists have jumped on news reports alleging that Sarkozy's office asked a police intelligence agency to probe an environment adviser to Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.
7) The Socialist leader in the National Assembly, Jean-Marc Ayrault, demanded Tuesday that France's constitutional court and parliament each open an investigation into Sarkozy's use of his ministry.
8) "He must not continue to be interior minister," Ayrault said, adding that he fears Sarkozy could use the ministry to spy on Royal. Sarkozy and Royal are leading the polls ahead of the April-May two-round election vote.
9) Sarkozy said the complaints relating to his son's scooter were "stupid, nasty attacks."
10) "Police are doing their work," he said during a visit to London. "I ask you to leave my children out of all this."
11) Police said the scooter case was overblown. National police spokesman Patrick Hamon, confirming reports Tuesday in French media, said that officers received a report that a scooter of Sarkozy's son from his first marriage had been outside the family home in Neuilly, a posh Paris suburb, on Jan. 7.
12) Just 10 days later, police on a routine patrol turned up the scooter in an apartment building's basement in the northern suburb of Bobigny, Hamon said. Police only used a DNA test to distinguish between suspects seen by a witness, he said.
13) Police officials said three suspects were detained, but only two were charged on allegations of group theft.
14) Sarkozy's office declined to comment.
15) Sarkozy has said that he'll leave his ministry before election day, but he has been coy about the exact date of departure. He has cited examples of other politicians who were candidates and political office-holders at the same time -- including Socialist former Prime Minister Jospin in the 2002 race.
16) Sarkozy met Tuesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. Blair's office said he hosted Sarkozy as interior minister, but Sarkozy spokesman Franck Louvrier said the visit was part of his political campaign.


France ' s Sarkozy denies police ordered to investigate presidential rival
(APW_ENG_20070131.1651)
1) Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy denied as "slander and lies" a newspaper report Wednesday that police intelligence agents had been ordered to investigate the real estate assets of his Socialist rival for the French presidency and her partner.
2) The report in satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine follows the newspaper's report last week saying that Sarkozy's office had asked the Renseignements Generaux, or RG, police agency to investigate an environmental adviser to Socialist candidate Segolene Royal.
3) The latest report raised to a new level accusations of dirty political maneuvers in the campaign for the two-round election in April and May. Sarkozy and Royal lead the opinion polls, with Sarkozy at a slight advantage.
4) In a radio interview, Sarkozy rejected the new allegation that the RG had been ordered in November to investigate the real estate holdings of Royal and the father of her children, Socialist party boss Francois Hollande.
5) "It's not true, it's slander and lies. I formally deny it, just as police officials have," Sarkozy told Europe-1. He said such claims were intended to create a "smoke screen" to overshadow foreign policy gaffes by Royal.
6) The RG said Tuesday that it had called for an internal investigation of press leaks of its file on Bruno Rebelle, a Royal environment adviser and former head of Greenpeace France.
7) Another report Wednesday, on the Web site of Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, claimed that French intelligence officers kept files on people who lived near Sarkozy's campaign headquarters in Paris.
8) Paris' police headquarters denied the report, though it said the RG had officially contacted some nearby residents to notify them about Sarkozy's new office there and ask them to keep a watch out for any suspicious activity.
9) Socialist leaders have stepped up demands in recent days that Sarkozy resign. He said he and President Jacques Chirac would decide his departure date -- without bending to pressure -- but that he would be out of office by late March.
10) Sarkozy has repeatedly noted that many other French presidential candidates including Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin had held government posts while running for the presidency.


France ' s Sarkozy proposes ' Mediterranean Union ' -- partner of EU
(APW_ENG_20070207.1560)
1) French presidential contender Nicolas Sarkozy called Wednesday for the creation of a "Mediterranean Union," a partner with -- not an alternative to -- the 27-nation European Union.
2) Speaking at a campaign rally in the Mediterranean port city of Toulon, Sarkozy did not specify which countries would be members of the group, but said it would have "common institutions" with the EU.
3) "I propose that we build a Mediterranean Union -- like we created the European Union over a half-century ago," he said, referring to the European Coal and Steel Community, the EU's precursor, created in 1951.
4) Sarkozy said the group could organize around a periodic meeting of heads of state or government and work through a "Mediterranean Council" -- likewise modeled on the Council of Europe.
5) Such a union would help the European Union manage its relations with Israel and the Palestinians, and Turkey, which is seeking entry to the EU. Sarkozy opposes Turkey's bid, favoring a partnership instead.
6) Opinion polls show Sarkozy and Socialist candidate Segolene Royal are the leading contenders in the two-round presidential elections in April and May.
7) Sarkozy bemoaned what he called the relative lack of effectiveness of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which was begun in 1995 to bring together EU members and north African states.
8) The partnership's troubles were "foreseeable once Europe's priorities were in the east," he said, referring to new EU member states from eastern Europe added in the past few years. "Our big error was having too long turned our back on the Mediterranean."


Promises, promises -- but how will French presidential hopefuls pay for them?
(APW_ENG_20070213.1080)
1) She'd boost unemployment benefits, the minimum wage and youth jobs programs. He'd cut taxes and state-mandated fees.
2) For all their differences, the campaign platforms of France's leading presidential candidates -- Socialist Segolene Royal and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy -- have at least two things in common: They would cost the government tens of billions of euros (dollars) and are decidedly short on explanations about how France would pay for them.
3) Estimates were flying in French media on Tuesday, two days after Royal ended her long silence on her platform and announced a 100-point program, allowing for comparison with Sarkozy's plans.
4) The independent Institut de l'Entreprise, cautioning that its forecasts are still early, said Tuesday the two new reform packages appear to cost about euro50 billion (US$65 billion) each.
5) It's not just French voters scrutinizing the two. In an increasingly tight-knit European Union, France's 26 partners are watching to see if President Jacques Chirac's successor can jumpstart the sluggish French economy.
6) "As long as France's internal issues aren't resolved, European countries run the risk of having a difficult partner in France," said Aurore Wanlin, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. The French rejection of the EU Constitution in 2005 has hobbled the union's efforts at closer political ties ever since.
7) Germany, the EU's largest economy, likely grew 2.7 percent last year -- and surpassed France's growth for the first time in years, according to projections. French growth is likely to come in around 2 percent. Final figures are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
8) Brussels limits France's room for maneuver. France only recently nudged under the EU's 3 percent target for state budget deficits as a percentage of gross domestic product, and its debt remains higher than the EU bar of 60 percent of GDP.
9) The common Eurozone monetary policy also blocks Paris from manipulating currency and interest rates to shore up public finances.
10) In explaining the costly platforms, experts point to the longtime tradition in French politics for presidential contenders to juice up their campaigns by making generous promises -- only to deliver less once in office.
11) Polls show Sarkozy, the interior minister and head of the ruling conservative party, and Royal, the former schools and environment minister, are the two front-runners -- with Sarkozy in a narrow lead in a head-to-head face-off.
12) Sarkozy wants to put more money back in people's pockets by lowering inheritance taxes and slashing payroll fees that help pay for state programs like universal health care. He wants to save government money by cutting back on replacements of state workers who retire.
13) Royal pledged Sunday to raise the monthly minimum wage by some 20 percent, and said the jobless should continue to receive 90 percent of their salaries for their first year of unemployment -- but offered no ideas for paying for such programs.
14) "We will roll back the tax breaks for the most well-off parts of the population which were granted by the government of the right," said Socialist lawmaker Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said at a news conference Tuesday organized by Royal's campaign. He said such tax hikes would pay for a third of her program.
15) Associates of both Sarkozy and Royal traded accusations Tuesday about which program was more fiscally responsible. The candidates were each expected to elaborate on the costs in coming days, advisers said.
16) Sarkozy drew up his platform on the expectation that economic growth will be around 2.25 percent this year, and Royal targets 2.5 percent -- both rosy numbers, say some economists.
17) "Ambitious programs but limp growth," read Le Monde newspaper's front page Tuesday, over a cartoon of Sarkozy and Royal throwing money out the window.


French presidential candidate Sarkozy says he would not support a military attack on Iran
(APW_ENG_20070226.0552)
1) French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that he would not join up with the United States if it decides to carry out a military action against Iran.
2) Sarkozy, the French interior minister and leading conservative candidate in the April-May elections, is seen as the most pro-American of France's presidential hopefuls.
3) He said he approved U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program "and has seen that they are working."
4) "The municipal elections were a failure for the Iranian president," Sarkozy told RMC radio. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered a setback in December's municipal elections.
5) U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the United States has no intention of attacking Iran. But Vice President Dick Cheney has warned that "all options" are on the table if Iran continues to defy U.N.-led efforts to keep Tehran from making nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is only seeking nuclear energy, not arms.
6) Asked if France would support military action in Iran if he is elected, Sarkozy responded, "No."
7) "When you see what's happening in Iraq ..." he said, trailing off. France was a leading opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sarkozy said U.S. hints that it had not ruled out military action in Iran were "useless posturing."
8) "In international relations, pragmatism is better than posturing," said Sarkozy.
9) Sarkozy's main likely competitor in the presidential election is Socialist lawmaker Segolene Royal. Both candidates to replace President Jacques Chirac have said that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. But they differ in their tactics.
10) Royal has said that Tehran should not even have access to civilian nuclear power. That stance has elicited criticism since under the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is allowed to have a civilian nuclear program.
11) Sarkozy agreed that, under the treaty, "Iran and all other countries" have a right to nuclear power. But he said he was "absolutely, totally and completely opposed to nuclear weapons" for Iran.


Royal takes French presidential campaign to suburb at heart of 2005 riots
(APW_ENG_20070227.0654)
1) Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal Tuesday visited the troubled neighborhood outside Paris where three weeks of rioting erupted in 2005, a highly symbolic campaign stop in a very tight race.
2) Royal and her main competitor, conservative Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, are reaching out to poor, minority neighborhoods not historically courted by French politicians. The 2005 riots -- a nationwide explosion of frustration and despair largely over racism and joblessness -- forced France's politicians to address long-simmering problems.
3) In Clichy-sous-Bois, Royal was expected to meet with the association AC-Le Feu, which collected a list of 20,000 grievances from troubled neighborhoods all over France after the riots. She was also to stop at a monument honoring the two youths whose deaths sparked the rioting.
4) Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, were killed as they hid from police in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. Their Oct. 27, 2005, electrocutions triggered riots that raged through housing projects in neighborhoods with large Arab and black populations.
5) France's suburbs remain plagued by poverty, discrimination, tensions between youth and police and a sense of alienation from mainstream French society.
6) Royal says she is convinced that things can change.
7) "I believe that the suburbs are our new frontier," Royal said a day before setting out for Clichy-sous-Bois, adding that the talent and potential of youths there is sometimes "crushed" by alienation and discrimination. The suburbs, she said, "should no longer be a problem for us, but a part of the solution to our problems."
8) The French election's first round is set for April 22, and Royal and Sarkozy are the likely candidates for the May 6 runoff. They are now are neck-in-neck in the polls. A survey released Monday by the LH2 agency suggested that Royal has rebounded from a recent slump, and that she and Sarkozy would each take 50 percent of the final-round vote.
9) Addressing the suburbs' problems, Royal suggests that juvenile delinquents should be ordered to do humanitarian work under military supervision. She also wants to set up small urban boarding schools for drop-outs. In response to critics who call these ideas too hard-line, Royal insists she wants to make France a "republic of respect."
10) Sarkozy is a proponent of positive discrimination, a policy akin to affirmative action -- and one that has raised hackles in a nation where identifying people by race is considered counter to ideals of equality.
11) A spokeswoman for Sarkozy, Rachida Dati, is a woman of mixed Moroccan-Algerian origin who grew up in a poor neighborhood. Sarkozy says he chose for her "intrinsic qualities, of course, but also to send a message to youths."
12) As interior minister, he has championed tough police tactics in poor housing projects and deported illegal immigrants -- policies that have brought him many enemies in the suburbs.
13) Sarkozy recently canceled a planned trip to a housing project in a last-minute switch of plans, leaving Dati to meet with the puzzled association members and journalists who showed up to see him. Sarkozy's team denied that the visit was ever scheduled. But the incident signaled that his team may be worried about his reception there.
14) Sarkozy's campaign director, Claude Gueant, told Europe-1 radio Tuesday that Sarkozy has often visited the suburbs in the past and would do so again, though he did not give a date.


French media report alleges presidential candidate Sarkozy got price break on apartment
(APW_ENG_20070227.1469)
1) A report released Tuesday alleged that leading presidential candidate and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy got a substantial price break on a luxury apartment -- a charge that could taint his presidential campaign.
2) Sarkozy categorically denied the report, released Tuesday by Le Canard Enchaine newspaper.
3) The report alleged that Sarkozy, the mayor of the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly, and his wife Cecilia bought a 6-bedroom duplex apartment in the city for significantly under the market price. The couple paid about euro876,000 (US$1,160,000) for the apartment -- between 12 percent and 35 percent less than the per-meter (yard) price of other apartments bought in the same building during the same period, the report said.
4) The newspaper, a satirical weekly which is known for its investigations, also alleged that the building's property developer did free renovations on the apartment. The Lasserre Group, was one of the main developers in Neuilly at the time, the report said.
5) In total, the couple saved at least euro300,000 (US$397,000) on the apartment, according to the report.
6) Sarkozy, who is still mayor of Neuilly, but is to resign as interior minister in late March -- about one month before the first round of France's April-May elections -- sold the apartment late last year for nearly euro2,000,000 (US$2,650,000), the report said.
7) He categorically denied the allegations.
8) "There was no business deal. I can prove it and demonstrate it," Sarkozy told reporters in Madrid, where he met Tuesday with Spanish authorities and held a campaign rally with members of the country's French community.
9) "I deny this information," he said, adding that the allegations were politically motivated. "The presidential campaign deserves better than this."
10) Opinion polls give conservative Sarkozy, the governing UMP party's candidate, a narrow edge over rival Socialist lawmaker Segolene Royal in the race to succeed Jacques Chirac as president.


French presidential candidate Sarkozy takes campaign to Madrid
(APW_ENG_20070227.1532)
1) French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy took his campaign to the Spanish capital on Tuesday, wooing expat voters here and calling on them to join him in his project to revitalize France.
2) Sarkozy, France's interior minister and leading conservative candidate in the April-May elections, met with Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and opposition leaders.
3) He also met with some 2,000 members of Spain's 150,000-strong French community in a packed campaign rally at the Madrid trade fair center.
4) At the rally, Sarkozy said he understood the plight of those French men and women who leave their country in search of jobs and opportunities abroad. He pledged, if elected, to revitalize the country and bring those opportunities back to France and appealed to his supporters to return, too.
5) "Return home, because together we will make France into a great nation where anything is possible," he told the charged crowd. "Come home and you will see that with a bit of heart, courage and will our old country can still accomplish great things."
6) The French consulate in Madrid said that roughly half of Spain's French residents were eligible to cast their ballots in the French elections. Sarkozy used similar terms to court expat voters during trips to London and Berlin in recent weeks. His office said Sarkozy also plans to visit Rome.
7) Supporter Jacques Arribere, a retired banker who has lived in Spain for some 40 years, said the law-and-order interior minister's direct way of speaking appealed to him.
8) "I like his rigor. He gets right to the point," Arribere said.
9) Other attendees of the rally were to include conservative Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, and other opposition Popular Party members.
10) Earlier, Sarkozy and Rajoy visited a memorial for the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, laying a wreath at the site.
11) Sarkozy also met with his Spanish counterpart Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba with whom he discussed continuing cooperation to combat the militant Basque group ETA. Sarkozy is to give up his post as minister at the end of March, about a month before round one of the elections.
12) Opinion polls give the conservative candidate a narrow edge over rival Socialist lawmaker Segolene Royal in the race to succeed Jacques Chirac as president.
13) But Sarkozy said he wasn't resting on his laurels.
14) "I have sufficient experience to know that polls show tendencies not results," he told Spanish daily El Mundo in an interview. "I'm not the favorite, but rather the 'challenger.'
15) "I'm the one proposing profound changes for our country. That's why I'm perfectly aware that it's easier to get elected with this program than to propose that everything should stay the same and soothe people's ear by telling them what they want to hear," he added.


Presidential hopeful Sarkozy calls France nuclear arsenal ' imperative '
(APW_ENG_20070228.0980)
1) Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that France's nuclear arsenal is an "absolute imperative" for the nation's security and called French-American friendship a "necessity."
2) "The nuclear deterrent is an absolute imperative. It is our life assurance," he told a news conference about his ideas about France's role in the world if he is elected president in April and May.
3) Sarkozy, who has set himself apart from fellow conservative President Jacques Chirac by calling for closer ties with the United States, said, "The friendship between the United States and France is a necessity for the balance of the world."
4) Polls show Sarkozy leading a very tight race against Socialist Segolene Royal for the presidency. Chirac is not likely to run again.


Risk of French election-related terrorism constant, Sarkozy says
(APW_ENG_20070228.1214)
1) French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday the risk of a terror attack in France was "constant," less than two months before the nation's presidential elections.
2) Sarkozy, the interior minister and the governing conservative party's candidate in the two-round April-May elections, called the risk of an attack "constant and very present in France."
3) "Vigilance is in effect," he said at news conference on his foreign policy proposals.
4) "What happened in New York, London, Madrid, what appears to have happened in Saudi Arabia ... could happen in Paris," Sarkozy said Wednesday, referring to terror attacks. On Monday, four Frenchmen were killed in an attack in the desert outside of the Muslim holy city of Medina, in Saudi Arabia. No one has yet claimed responsibility.
5) In a meeting Tuesday with Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, Sarkozy discussed the current trial in Madrid of suspects in the 2004 attacks on the Spanish capital, in which commuter trains were targeted days before elections.
6) An Algerian group that recently renamed itself Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has threatened to target France. Paris suffered a string of bombings in the Metro and elsewhere by Algerian extremists in the 1990s that put it on alert for terrorism, but France has not seen a major attack in recent years.
7) Sarkozy, running closely in polls with opposition Socialist rival Segolene Royal, pledged to continue the fight against terror if elected president.
8) "I will advocate for solidarity between democracies because terrorism is the enemy of democracies," said Sarkozy, who, as interior minister, has helped formulate France's anti-terror strategy.
9) "I know but one strategy: complete and total firmness," he said.


Presidential hopeful Sarkozy warns against nuclear Iran
(APW_ENG_20070228.1385)
1) French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that he would not rule out any options to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, in remarks close to U.S. policy towards Tehran.
2) Sarkozy, speaking at a news conference to outline his foreign policy plans, offered a glimpse of the direction he would take France after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac -- who has strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
3) Sarkozy, a vocally pro-American interior minister, has largely built his campaign on calls for a break from the past -- widely seen as a dig against Chirac -- but his international agenda did not stray far.
4) Socialist Segolene Royal, whom polls suggest is likely to face Sarkozy in the presidential runoff in May, is also expected to hold a foreign policy news conference soon.
5) Sarkozy called Iran's nuclear program one of the world's key challenges. On Monday, Sarkozy said that under him, France would not join the United States if it decided to carry out military action in Iran, and said U.S. hints it had not ruled out military action were "useless posturing."
6) At the news conference, Sarkozy said he wanted to go "as far as possible" to extend U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran for defying Security Council demands to halt uranium enrichment.
7) "I did not say we should rule out other options," he said, without elaborating. However, he also cautioned against repeating "what happened in Iraq."
8) The United States has deployed two aircraft carriers in the Gulf as a show of strength to Iran, and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said last week that "all options are on the table" to deter Tehran.
9) World powers are discussing stronger sanctions against Iran for continuing to defy demands to stop enriching uranium. Iran insists it is only seeking nuclear energy but the international community fears it wants to build nuclear weapons.
10) "The prospect of an Iran with nuclear missiles is not acceptable," Sarkozy said. It is a "constant threat for the existence of Israel and southeast Europe," he said.
11) Sarkozy has set himself apart from Chirac by calling for closer ties with the United States, expressing strong support for Israel and criticizing what he calls an "arrogant France" when it comes to foreign affairs.
12) At the news conference, he also questioned France's military presence in Africa, where more than 6,000 troops are deployed in nine missions -- more than half of them in war-divided Ivory Coast.
13) Sarkozy said France should confine its military operations in Africa to a "strict minimum," saying that young Africans are growing more wary of the French presence.
14) He said resolving Europe's institutional crisis will be the first priority of French foreign policy. He reiterated his suggestions for a simplified treaty to "free up" Europe's institutions that would replace the EU Constitution that French and Dutch voters rejected in 2005.
15) While pro-American, Sarkozy said he opposes U.S. President George W. Bush's call for the European Union to offer membership to Turkey and criticized U.S. government subsidies to American farmers.
16) Sarkozy defended France's own nuclear deterrent as "an absolute imperative. It is our life insurance," he said.
17) Royal, a former families and schools minister, has been criticized for foreign policy gaffes. Sarkozy too has been trying to brush up his international credentials in recent weeks with trips to Berlin, London, and Madrid, among other capitals.
18) "The only thing we really know about all of the candidates is that whoever is elected is going to be a rookie" in foreign affairs, said Francois Heisbourg of the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. "That in itself is a big novelty."


French presidential candidate ' s plan for immigration ministry sparks uproar among critics
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1) Conservative French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to create a ministry for immigration and national identity has provoked an outcry from critics who say he is borrowing rhetoric from the far-right.
2) Sarkozy has made a tough stance on immigration a key part of his presidential campaign. As interior minister, he has backed two laws to tighten immigration regulations, and he hopes to push through another as president.
3) In a television appearance Thursday, Sarkozy said he wants a new ministry to oversee questions of immigration and national identity. Critics pounced on him for drawing a connection between the two issues.
4) Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou said Sarkozy had "crossed a line." Socialist Segolene Royal, Sarkozy's main rival in the April 22-May 6 two-round race, said she found Sarkozy's proposal "rather vile."
5) "Never have immigrant workers threatened French identity," she said Saturday. "On the contrary, legal immigrants -- who are requested by companies, who often come to France to do the work that the French don't want to do -- contribute to economic growth."
6) Sarkozy's proposal to institutionalize "national identity" was especially sensitive -- often, the phrase is used by far-right politicians such as Jean-Marie Le Pen to complain that immigrants are diluting France's national character. Sarkozy often faces criticism from leftist politicians who say he is shamelessly courting far-right voters.
7) Some critics even compared Sarkozy's new idea to the laws of the Nazi's puppet government, the Vichy regime, which had an agency for questions relating to Jews.
8) "Associating immigration and national identity is a throwback to the darkest periods of our history," Communist candidate Marie-George Buffet said. The MRAP anti-racism group also said Sarkozy was drawing on "the darkest hours" of France's past.
9) Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, says France should choose its immigrants more carefully. He defended his proposal, saying, "Identity is not a dirty word."
10) "France is an open country, but people who come must take into account our values" -- such as a division between church and state, equality between men and women and democracy, Sarkozy said Friday.
11) President Jacques Chirac is likely to announce Sunday that he will not run for a third term. Polls indicate a tight three-way contest, with Sarkozy in a narrow lead, followed by Royal and Bayrou.


French premier Villepin backs rival Sarkozy for presidential race
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1) French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Monday endorsed the presidential bid of fellow conservative but longtime rival Nicolas Sarkozy, a day after Jacques Chirac formally bowed out of the running.
2) Villepin, a Chirac loyalist and once considered a possible presidential contender himself, had held off on backing a candidate until the president formally advised the nation on Sunday night that he would not seek a third term.
3) Sarkozy is now awaiting Chirac's endorsement, which was widely expected, after Villepin -- once seen as Chirac's choice to succeed him -- formally backed Sarkozy for the elections, with the first round of voting to be held April 22. Both Chirac and Sarkozy are from the same party, though they fell out years ago.
4) "Action" and "experience" have "molded" Sarkozy, who is interior minister, and "today place him in a position allowing him to assume the presidency," Villepin said of the man who has long been considered the leading candidate in the two-round April and May elections.
5) "I will be at his side ...," Villepin said on Europe-1 radio. "We were together in government, we will be together in this battle."
6) Chirac said in his address Sunday that he would let the nation know within days whom he might back.
7) Despite their rivalry, Chirac's blessing is important for Sarkozy as the margins narrow between him and Socialist rival Segolene Royal and, now, a surprise third candidate, the centrist leader Francois Bayrou.
8) A poll published Monday by the TNS-Sofres firm showed the three within a few points of each other. Sarkozy held the lead, credited with 27 percent of those intending to vote for him in the first round, Royal had 25.5 percent and Bayrou had 23 percent. No margin of error was provided for the poll of 1,000 people. However, it would be plus or minus 3 percentage points in a poll of that side. Pollsters also warn that nearly half the electorate remains undecided.
9) Sarkozy said Monday, meanwhile, that he was moved by Chirac's speech, but refused to present himself as Chirac's heir or successor.
10) "We share many things," he said, but stressed that "France is the republic. There are no heirs."


French presidential frontrunner appeals for
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1) Presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy appealed for brotherhood in multicultural France while keeping alive his proposal for a ministry to guard the national identity -- and conceding he was fishing for far-rght votes.
2) Less than two weeks after proposing to create a ministry of immigration and national identity, Sarkozy, a conservative, sought to win over youth. Evoking U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech in an address Sunday to a crowd of some 8,000 young people from his governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, he asked them to dream of "fraternity" in France.
3) "I dream that one day all the children whose families have been French for generations ... all the children of immigrants, all the grandchildren of Italians, Portuguese and Spanish Republicans, all Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim children can sit together at the table of French fraternity," Sarkozy said.
4) The word "fraternity" is part of the French national motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," born out of the French Revolution.
5) However, Sarkozy, France's tough interior minister, has waded into sensitive questions around immigration, a theme usually dominated by Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme-right National Front, and has brought them into the presidential debate. Ten days ago, he proposed creating a ministry of immigration and national identity.
6) Denouncing the proposal has become a rare point of agreement among other candidates of all political stripes.
7) Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, Sarkozy's main rival, on Saturday said it was "intolerable that one can think that normal immigration is a risk for the national identity."
8) The current No. 3 candidate, Francois Bayrou, who occupies the political middle ground, has also denounced the proposal.
9) But in a rare show of frankness, Sarkozy conceded Sunday night on France 3 television that "bringing back to the camp of the republic voters who have gone to the National Front is also my job."
10) In each presidential election, mainstream candidates make efforts to seduce extreme-right voters. However, the stunning performance of Le Pen in the 2002 presidential vote, when he reached the runoff to face incumbent President Jacques Chirac, has made the subject particularly sensitive in the current election. Le Pen, who blames immigration for all French ills, suffered a massive defeat in a rare show of left-right unity in the second round.
11) At least 11 candidates will vie in the April 22 first round of the election. The number who have met the qualification criteria is to be made official Monday. The runoff will be held May 6.
12) "I'm not afraid to defend the identity of France, of the Republic, of the nation," Sarkozy said Sunday.
13) The interior minister, expected to resign from his government post by the end of March, lags some 12 points behind Royal among youths aged 18 to 21, according to a study by Cevipof, a think tank of the Institute for Political Science.
14) Sarkozy's image is tattered in the housing projects of France after calling some delinquent youths "scum," a remark that many contend fanned 2005 riots in the poor, suburban neighborhoods, mainly home to immigrants and French of immigrant origin.
15) The proposal for a ministry of national identity distanced Sarkozy from some within his own political family, including Equal Rights Minister Azouz Begag, of Algerian descent, and, notably, the respected former Health Minister Simone Veil. She had recently decided to support Sarkozy's presidential bid, but publicly regretted that the candidate had mixed immigration issues with national identity.
16) However, Sarkozy held firm Sunday.
17) "If we don't talk about France how can we be surprised that what separates us ends up being bigger than what unites us," he said, "that those who join us cannot manage to integrate into a country that no longer takes the time to talk to them."
18) Youth at the rally defended Sarkozy's ideas.
19) "We're here to support him," said 16-year-old Timothee Mali. "He dares to say things that others only think."
20) Meanwhile, Royal, the Socialist candidate, ended a rally of party faithful Sunday to the tune of the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise" -- a first for her.


France formalizes list of 12 presidential candidates
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1) France's Constitutional Council on Monday released the official list of presidential candidates for next month's elections -- a dozen hopefuls from Trotskyists to a militant farmer already jockeying in a heated and still-open race.
2) The president of the Constitutional Council, Jean-Louis Debre, read the list of twelve candidates, which included anti-globalization farmer Jose Bove. Bove had said he was unsure if he had the 500 official endorsements needed to run.
3) The names of the candidates are to be published in the government's official journal on Tuesday, at which point all television and radio outlets will be required to grant equal air time to each candidate before the first round of voting on April 22.
4) Conservative frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy and his chief rivals, who have dominated coverage, will now have to share the media spotlight with smaller candidates under the regulations.
5) In what could be among his last television appearances before the new rules take effect, Sarkozy, France's interior minister, said Monday he will leave the ministry by the end of the month. Speaking on France-2 television, Sarkozy said President Jacques Chirac will announce the exact date of his last day at the ministry.
6) All the candidates are chasing the many undecided voters. Polls show that the race is wide open after 12 years under Chirac. A poll by TNS-Sofres released Monday showed 39 percent of voters still undecided before the first round, with pollsters saying the release of the list could mark a key shift in the campaign.
7) The top contenders -- Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal and lawmaker Francois Bayrou, occupying the middle ground -- are seeking to broaden their electoral base.
8) Sarkozy, known for tough immigration and anti-crime policies, plans for a ministry to protect the national identity and acknowledges he wants to win over extreme right voters, too.
9) Royal, meanwhile, proposes creating a Sixth Republic to replace the current political system put in place by Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
10) The idea borrows from Bayrou, who has long called for an overhaul of the way the French do politics. Bayrou's following has ballooned in recent weeks amid high voter disillusionment with the traditional left-right divide and the Sarkozy-Royal duet.
11) The TNS-Sofres poll showed Sarkozy lengthening his lead. Sarkozy, who heads Chirac's ruling UMP party, would win 31 percent of the vote in the first round, Royal would win 24 percent and Bayrou 22 percent, the poll suggests.
12) An Ipsos poll released Monday showed Sarkozy with 29.5 percent, Royal with 25 percent and Bayrou with 21 percent. The margins of error for both polls were 3-4 percent.
13) Both polls, conducted last week, showed far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen -- who came in a surprise second place in 2002 -- with 12 percent, and showed very low support for minor candidates. Pollsters predict support for them will grow with equal broadcast time.
14) Under electoral rules, presidential hopefuls had until last Friday to file 500 endorsements from mayors or other elected officials.
15) A run-off between the top two candidates in the first round of voting will be May 6.


Chirac endorses his rival to succeed him as France ' s president
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1) After holding out for months, President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday endorsed fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy's bid to succeed him as France's president, despite long and sharp personal and political differences between the two men.
2) Chirac also announced that Sarkozy would quit as interior minister next Monday, to devote himself fully to the close presidential race in which he is narrowly the front-runner.
3) Chirac's declaration of support and Sarkozy's departure from government had long been expected. Even so, the president kept praise for his former protege who later became his rival to a minimum in a terse two-minute televised declaration. The endorsement spoke more of reason than of warmth.
4) "With regard to my personal choices, things are simple," said Chirac. He cited Sarkozy's "qualities" -- without elaborating -- and added: "Therefore, I naturally will give him my vote and my support."
5) Sarkozy, who has held a small lead in polls for months, has made breaking with the Chirac era a theme of his presidential campaign.
6) He said he was "very touched" by Chirac's support. "It is important for me politically and also personally," the candidate said in a statement.
7) Leaving the Interior Ministry promises to deflate vociferous criticism from Sarkozy's presidential competitors that he was unfairly using his powerful and high-profile government post to campaign.
8) Because the ministry organizes French elections, critics also claimed a conflict of interest in Sarkozy's case and argued that he blurred the lines between his candidacy and his ministerial duties. Sarkozy faced accusations of using his powers to spy on the camp of Socialist rival Segolene Royal, which he denied.
9) But the ministry, which oversees the police and domestic intelligence agencies, also provided Sarkozy with an enviable platform to prove his effectiveness on issues central to his campaign, particularly immigration and security. His tough stance on those questions drew much criticism during his tenure, but boosted his support on the right.
10) In his declaration, Chirac hailed Sarkozy's "work, his commitment and his results" at the ministry.
11) Sarkozy has sought not to come across as the president's heir, to avoid being associated with Chirac's policy failures and often dismal approval ratings in his 12 years at the presidential Elysee Palace.
12) But Chirac still carries weight and a refusal by him to endorse Sarkozy would have been a blow for his candidacy.
13) Sarkozy said Chirac's support was of "primary political significance" because he "knows better than anybody the demands of the job" as president.
14) France votes on April 22, with a run-off on May 6 between the top two vote-getters. Chirac, 74, only announced this month that he would not seek re-election.
15) Both men come from the same political party, the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP. But they have had tense relations since Sarkozy infuriated Chirac by backing his rival, Edouard Balladur, in 1995 presidential elections that Chirac went on to win.
16) Years in the political wilderness followed for Sarkozy before Chirac brought him into the government in 2002.
17) They have disagreed over specific policies, too, including Sarkozy's calls for "positive discrimination" -- or French-style affirmative action -- to fight racial inequalities.
18) Chirac attacked that idea in a book, "My Combat For France," being published on Friday.
19) "In our republic, no discrimination is tolerable, even when presented as 'positive,'" wrote Chirac, according to extracts of the book published Wednesday by newspaper Le Monde.
20) Francois Baroin, currently minister for France's overseas territories, is tipped as a likely successor to Sarkozy at the Interior Ministry, but would only serve until the new president takes office in May.


French presidential campaign goes global to court long-ignored overseas vote
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy, narrowly leading the race for France's presidency, flies off to the Caribbean a month before the election? He isn't after sea or sunshine. He's after votes.
2) In this volatile contest in which a third of voters are still undecided, every ballot counts -- including those cast in French lands from the Indian Ocean to the Americas, and by French expatriates beyond. Domestic politics has gone global in a campaign where France's shrinking role in the world economy is among voters' greatest concerns.
3) Pro-market Sarkozy stumped this week in Guadeloupe and Martinique, part of a network of overseas lands -- once colonies, today called territories and departments -- that form an integral part of today's France. Shoppers use euros, politicians serve in the European Parliament and schoolchildren study the same textbooks as their Parisian counterparts.
4) Yet their 1.4 million voters, and their soaring unemployment and struggling local economies, are routinely ignored.
5) "My way of loving you is not to come to your territories as one comes to the tropics to see exoticism, it is to resolve your concrete problems," Sarkozy promised voters Thursday in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe.
6) His visit comes at a critical stage in the campaign, as smaller candidates are cranking up their drive for votes and many voters are honing in on their choices. The election's first round is April 22, and a runoff is expected May 6.
7) Meanwhile, nearly a million French expatriates are registered to vote, and are signing up with unprecedented enthusiasm. The candidates have tuned in: Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal have courted the French diaspora from New York to Berlin to Dakar, Senegal.
8) How will these overseas French vote? Pollsters cannot say, since they do not question voters beyond the mainland.
9) In the 2002 presidential election, Socialist Lionel Jospin missed the runoff by just 194,000 votes -- losing out to extreme right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in a shock result that mobilized voters to re-elect Jacques Chirac.
10) Vincent Tiberj, an expert at Paris' Institute of Political Sciences, noted that while candidates in past elections paid symbolic trips to the overseas territories, the stakes were higher this time because of the tight race and a simmering debate about France's "national identity."
11) "The overseas territories are fertile ground" because their neglected voters are flattered to get high-profile attention from any quarter, he said.
12) French expats are believed to favor Sarkozy. Many work for multinational companies or in trade or tourism, and welcome his pledges to loosen up France's labor market to help it compete with developing economies.
13) Those in the overseas territories, however, tend to vote left. They depend much more heavily on state subsidies and handouts than counterparts in mainland France.
14) Sarkozy pledged to reverse that. "I did not come to talk about aid. I came here to talk about education, work, jobs, economic independence," he said Thursday.
15) Sarkozy is a contentious figure in the Caribbean, where many accuse him of racism because of his tough immigration policies and harsh comments about youth troublemakers in French suburbs -- many of whom are black or Arab.
16) Meanwhile, bitterness lingers over a 2005 law citing the positive role of colonialism, devised by a government that included Sarkozy. The phrase was later removed, but reinforced the sense among the heirs of the colonized that they are still only second-class citizens.
17) Center-right candidate Francois Bayrou is also trying to boost his recognition beyond the mainland, heading Friday to the French Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mayotte. He goes to the Caribbean next week.
18) The trips were cobbled together quickly after his poll numbers skyrocketed him to a solid third place. If he makes the runoff, surveys suggest he would beat Sarkozy or Royal.
19) Bayrou's campaign team hopes the trips will portray this lawmaker with rural roots as a globe-trotter ready to take over a nation with nuclear arms and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
20) Royal, seeking to become France's first woman president, has tried to bolster her foreign policy credentials with several trips abroad. Royal, who spent part of her childhood in the Caribbean island territory of Martinique, enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome in the French Antilles in January.
21) Two polls Friday showed the race was still close. One had Royal and Sarkozy tied for the first round at 26 percent and Bayrou at 21 percent; another showed Sarkozy lengthening his lead at 31.5 percent to Royal's 25 percent. The margins of error would be about plus or minus 3 percentage points for polls of their size.
22) Part of the candidates' challenge will be getting overseas voters to cast ballots at all. Turnout traditionally is much lower off the mainland.
23) Meanwhile, Martinique's top elected official, Alfred Marie-Jeanne, has refused to endorse any candidate, favoring independence for his island instead.


French presidential candidate Sarkozy says emphasis on national identity reinforced his lead
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1) French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy credited his emphasis on the issues of immigration and national identity with helping solidify his lead in opinion polls.
2) Speaking Friday at the end of his two-day campaign swing through the French Caribbean, conservative Sarkozy lashed out at his main adversaries, Socialist Segolene Royal and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou, who he said have poached his proposals.
3) Sarkozy, who has made a tough stance on immigration a key part of his campaign, said earlier this month that if elected, he would create a ministry to protect the national identity.
4) The proposal triggered a debate, with critics accusing Sarkozy of borrowing language from the far right, which often uses the term "national identity" to complain that immigrants are diluting France's national character.
5) Royal, who is bidding to become France's first woman president, called the proposed measure "quite vile." But in recent days, she has added patriotic symbols like the flag and the anthem to her campaign, and taken up the theme of national identity, insisting they must not be the exclusive domain of the right.
6) "After having pronounced the word 'vile' a week ago, she's making entire speeches about national identity," said Sarkozy Friday during a meeting with students in Schoelcher, in Martinique. "I don't hold it against her, I think it's important she understand."
7) Sarkozy, who heads outgoing President Jacques Chirac's governing UMP party, said his emphasis of the issue helped him reinforce his lead in opinion polls, with less than a month to go before the first round of voting on April 22.
8) "Since I did that, I've gone up six points in the polls," he told journalists.
9) A sounding released Saturday by "Le Point" newsweekly, suggested Sarkozy would come in first in round one voting, with 31 percent, compared with 25 percent for Royal and 18.5 percent for Bayrou. In the May 6 runoff, Sarkozy would take 53 percent and Royal, 47 percent.
10) Pollsters for the Ipsos polling agency conducted telephone interviews with 1,143 people age 18 and above from March 21-23. No margin of error was provided, but for polls of this size it usually falls in the 3 percent range.
11) Sarkozy said the people of Martinique "are the first to understand" the importance of the debate over national identity, saying illegal immigration to the island has "weakened" its social fabric.
12) "I will continue to speak about our national identity because I think for any people, its identity is its life," he said.


Sarkozy resigns as French interior minister to focus on presidential bid
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy resigned Monday as French interior minister to focus on his presidential bid, recalling his successes but also challenges, including violence by poor young minorities.
2) Sarkozy, the tough-talking candidate for the ruling conservative party, was replaced in the post by Francois Baroin, who was previously minister for overseas territories, the office of President Jacques Chirac said.
3) Most polls show Sarkozy with a narrow lead over Socialist Segolene Royal and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. Twelve candidates are running.
4) In his departure speech, Sarkozy sought to reach out to young minorities in France's troubled suburban housing projects by evoking his own background as the son of a Jewish Hungarian immigrant.
5) "Myself, French of mixed blood, I do not feel foreign to these youth of the projects of mixed origin," he said. "I respect these youths and that is why we must tell them the truth, that which we hid from them for too long. There is no future for them if they do not decide to commit themselves to build this future."
6) Sarkozy recalled the riots that raged through neglected suburbs nationwide in 2005, an explosion of anger largely by Arab and black youths -- many of them children of immigrants from France's former colonies -- over discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream society.
7) Many accused Sarkozy of fueling anger in the suburbs with harsh comments about young troublemakers, but his ministry won praise from some quarters for handling the riots with no major bloodshed.
8) In a shake-up related to Sarkozy's departure, former Families Minister Philippe Bas was appointed Monday as health minister to replace Xavier Bertrand, who will focus on his role as a spokesman for Sarkozy's campaign.


French presidential candidate Sarkozy says Chirac should be treated ' with dignity '
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1) Outgoing French President Jacques Chirac -- who could soon face investigators' questions about past political scandals -- should be treated with "respect and dignity," conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said, according to an interview.
2) "The law should be applied to everyone, but it should not hound anyone," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in the L'Express magazine interview, which was released Tuesday. "A former president of the republic should be treated with respect and dignity."
3) Chirac is immune from prosecution until he leaves office in May, after which he could face investigators' questions over scandals that have simmered in the background during his 12-year term.
4) The most threatening one is a fake jobs affair at his former political party. Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally, was convicted in that case and was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence and a yearlong ban from politics.
5) Sarkozy, who head's Chirac's governing UMP party, has pledged not get to involved with any possible Chirac probes if he is elected.
6) "That is what is asked of a president of the Republic -- not to get involved in matters of the law," Sarkozy said earlier this month.
7) Chirac recently endorsed Sarkozy's bid to succeed him, although the two men have had a tense relationship since a political falling out more than a decade ago.
8) Meanwhile Tuesday, France's popular Minister of Social Cohesion, Jean-Louis Borloo, officially endorsed Sarkozy.
9) Borloo was one of the last remaining ministers not to have lent his support to the conservative candidate. He had reportedly been holding out in hopes that Sarkozy would modify his platform on issues of employment, training and housing.
10) Most polls say that Sarkozy has the lead against Socialist Segolene Royal and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. Twelve candidates are running.


Paris subway rioters may boost law-and-order candidate Sarkozy ' s presidential bid
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1) Rioting French youths who hurled insults about presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy may, ironically, help him win.
2) Polls Friday suggested that the outburst of violence at a Paris train station this week boosted support for the conservative who cultivated a law-and-order image as interior minister -- and for far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
3) The rampage Tuesday propelled security and France's frustrated young minorities into the spotlight of this tight and unpredictable race, highlighting the social tensions the next president will inherit. Some said the violence could mark a turning point in the campaign, less than a month before the first round of voting April 22.
4) Many of the young people brawling at the Gare du Nord train station were Arab or black, like many of the youth who led riots across neglected suburban housing projects nationwide in 2005, releasing pent-up anger over discrimination, unemployment and economic inequality.
5) After this week's clashes, Sarkozy concentrated on voters' fears with crackdown-on-criminals rhetoric.
6) "A delinquent is a delinquent, a rapist is a rapist, whatever his age or the color of his skin," he said Thursday.
7) His chief rival, Socialist Segolene Royal, focused on frustration with Sarkozy's policing policies and France's failure to solve the troubles of its ghettoized youth.
8) An association representing low-income neighborhoods nationwide issued an appeal Thursday urging voters to back Royal. On Friday, she proposed that the government pay the salaries of unskilled high school graduates who are hired by small businesses for a year, in a bid to boost employment.
9) Le Pen, who has long blamed immigrants for the country's woes, said this week's violence "proved our analyses and predictions right." Le Pen shocked France and Europe by making it to second place in the 2002 elections.
10) The right's tactics may be working. One poll released Friday by CSA showed Le Pen gaining 2 points since the Tuesday incident, Sarkozy maintaining his lead -- and Royal dropping.
11) Another, by OpinionWay, showed that voters have more faith in Sarkozy than in the other candidates to reduce violence.
12) Still, the figures revealed persistent voter insecurity: Only 39 percent predicted that violence would drop under a President Sarkozy, with the rest expecting a rise or no change.
13) Sarkozy won praise for handling the 2005 riots with no major bloodshed, and his popularity ratings rose 11 percent during the three-week spree of car torchings, according to one measure. But many French blame him for fueling the violence by calling youth troublemakers "scum."
14) Sporadic clashes with police have continued in the troubled suburbs, and Tuesday they reached the heart of Paris.
15) After a 32-year-old Congolese man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine check, dozens gathered to defend him. The group swelled to 300, and youths wielding metal bars smashed windows and looted stores. Eight train agents and a police officer were injured.
16) Police arrested 13 people, including five minors. Two young men were convicted Thursday and sentenced to four months in prison, while two others were to face court Friday. The man who sparked the riots is to remain in custody until his trial May 2.
17) Some of the youths shouted slogans against Sarkozy. But instead of rallying voters to their cause, the rioters frightened and alienated many, said security expert Sebastian Roche of the state-funded National Center for Scientific Research.
18) Tuesday's clashes haven't sparked more widespread violence -- at least so far.
19) "You cannot exclude an explosion in the housing projects" in the coming weeks, especially if Sarkozy wins, said Kamel Chibli, who helped organize the youth appeal to vote for Royal.


Sarkozy faces questions over his ' impulsive ' character
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1) Tough-talking French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy insists he's becoming a changed man: More understanding, more human and -- as he says in a new book -- no longer waging "war" in politics.
2) But his main rival for the presidency, Socialist Segolene Royal, isn't buying it. Royal, ignoring her previous pledges that she would not make personality a theme of the campaign, says Sarkozy is too impulsive and aggressive to run a country as important as nuclear-armed France.
3) Just 20 days before voters go to the polls, the presidential race is getting nastier.
4) Europe will be watching the election to see whether France can overcome its economic troubles, revive its diplomatic clout, and integrate its ethnic minorities that feel alienated after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac.
5) Polls show Sarkozy and Royal atop the list of 12 candidates for the first round of the election on April 22, followed by center-right candidate Francois Bayrou in third and ultra-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in fourth. If the numbers hold up, Sarkozy and Royal would qualify for the decisive second round on May 6.
6) Sarkozy, 52, has long been considered a bulldog of French politics, who set his sights on the presidency as a teenager and hasn't been afraid to make enemies on the way there. In his new book -- entitled "Ensemble," or "Together" -- he seeks to dispel that image, with references to new social spending and his hopes to bridge political divides.
7) Royal, meanwhile, insisted early in her campaign that she would govern differently -- setting herself apart as a woman in France's male-dominated political world, and playing up an image as a listener and a fresh face.
8) For weeks, Royal has been on the defensive with the debate centering on issues like public security and national identity -- strong points for Sarkozy and the right, according to polls.
9) Now, she is hitting back. She went on the offensive after Sarkozy claimed that the political left appeared to side with troublemakers like those who trashed storefronts and clashed with police at a Paris train station last week, calling such remarks an "insult" and saying he should "keep his nerve."
10) She even suggested Sarkozy couldn't be trusted to run France's diplomacy.
11) "What does it mean?" she asked on Canal Plus television Sunday. "It means that if tomorrow Monsieur Sarkozy is elected -- heaven forbid -- he would start insulting other heads of state and government who don't think like he does?"
12) "The violence of his words bodes ill ... about his personality," said Royal. On another program, she called him "impulsive," adding: "To hold the highest office of state, you have to know how to control yourself."
13) Foreign policy has hardly been Royal's strong suit, though. In January, she said in Beijing that the French justice system could learn lessons from China -- a country criticized for human rights abuses and its frequent use of the death penalty. Then she earned a rebuke from Canada's prime minister after she spoke out in favor of "sovereignty and liberty" for French-speaking Quebec.
14) For Sarkozy, perhaps his greatest weakness is the fear he inspires. As interior minister, he drew scorn from many Arabs and blacks in poor suburban neighborhoods in 2005 when he called troublemakers "scum" and vowed to clean up the areas "with a power sprayer." Weeks later, riots broke out and spread across rundown housing projects around the nation.
15) A poll released in January, when Sarkozy was anointed as the nominee for Chirac's governing conservative party, showed that while more than six in ten respondents credited Sarkozy for bringing in new ideas, 51 percent also said he worried them.
16) At a news conference Monday to present his book and lay out his program, Sarkozy insisted "politics isn't war, the person who contradicts isn't the enemy, the facing (opposition) party isn't the one that must be destroyed."
17) In the book -- which plumbs little new ground -- Sarkozy reiterates his praise of celebrated leaders of the French left, cites the depth of emotion he felt on a visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, and called for unity.
18) "Was there a time when I waged war? Yes, when I was younger," he said at the news conference. He said he was trying "to improve with age."
19) Almost mockingly, Sarkozy continued to suggest that Royal was on the side of the troublemakers last week, saying he found it "strange" that a presidential candidate would "make excuses for rioters."
20) He insisted the campaign was clean.
21) "I don't share Madame Royal's opinion. This campaign is dignified enough," Sarkozy said. "I think it's at the level it should be in the debate of ideas, and frankly I don't think it's as hard as I imagined it would be."


French anti-terror agents investigating threats against candidate Sarkozy
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1) French anti-terrorism agents were investigating threats of an attack Thursday against conservative presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy, judicial officials said.
2) The Paris prosecutor's office called for the investigation based on anonymous e-mail messages sent to the France-5 television station and an official with the opposition Socialist Party, a judicial official said.
3) The outspoken Sarkozy cracked down on crime and immigration as President Jacques Chirac's interior minister, and has made many enemies in his career-long race to France's top job.
4) The threats read: "Attack, Sarkozy, Lyon, April 5, 2007." Sarkozy traveled to Lyon in southeastern France on Thursday for a campaign stop.
5) He unexpectedly canceled part of the visit, a tour of a historic district, after dozens of protesters gathered with placards reading "You are not welcome" and "Get out, Sarkozy." His aides said the cancellation was linked to an airplane delay and that he still planned to attend a rally in Lyon on Thursday evening.
6) Sarkozy has topped polls for months in the volatile and still-close race for the presidency, with Socialist candidate Segolene Royal his chief rival. The election will be held over two rounds April 22 and May 6.
7) Agents from the French anti-terrorism agency were trying to identify the computers from which the e-mails were sent, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because under French law information about investigations is secret.
8) France-5 officials said the threatening e-mail was received Monday afternoon by a person who works at the channel's customer service department. France-5 said it immediately notified police.
9) Officials at Sarkozy's campaign headquarters would not comment on the threats or whether security measures were tightened for the Lyon visit.
10) Tension was palpable as some 20 police officers arrived at the protest in the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon, and were heckled and booed by the crowd. A lawmaker with Sarkozy's UMP party at the site, Emmanuel Hamelin, phoned Sarkozy to describe the situation, and 15 minutes later UMP officials announced the candidate would not come.
11) Security experts said threats against candidates were common, but rarely were reported.
12) "It could be a renewed threat, or a fake threat," said Eric Denece, director of the French Center for Intelligence Research.
13) Sarkozy's tough language about France's troubled suburbs and strict stance on immigration have angered many. But Denece suggested the threat could also boost Sarkozy's support by calling attention to security concerns and his law-and-order platform.
14) Roland Jacquard, who heads the Paris-based International Terrorism Observatory, said Sarkozy was threatened several times when he was interior minister -- including by groups close to the GSPC, an Algerian extremist group that recently renamed itself Al-Qaida in North Africa.
15) "The passion that accompanies an election campaign, and the fact that there is high media attention, always attracts groups that want to call attention to themselves," he said.
16) He predicted that threatening letters alone would have little impact on the election campaign, but added, "it is certain that if you have an attack attempt against a candidate, victimization could play in his favor."


Report: Presidential candidate Sarkozy to cut French company tax by 5 points if elected
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1) Conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy plans to slash company taxes by at least 5 percentage points if he is elected, his spokesman said in an interview published Friday.
2) Xavier Bertrand told La Tribune business daily that Sarkozy wants to bring France's company tax to the same level as the country's European partners -- around 25 percent. He did not give a timeframe for the tax cut.
3) Bertrand also said Sarkozy will introduce a so-called social VAT in next year's budget to fight outsourcing to countries where labor is cheaper and to help finance France's welfare state. The value-added tax would make imported goods more expensive.
4) Sarkozy, the governing UMP party's candidate, leads opinion polls 16 days ahead of first-round voting on April 22. He has proposed reducing and streamlining France's taxes and loosening up labor laws to stimulate the stagnant economy.


France ' s Sarkozy defends himself, had said pedophiles predestined from birth
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1) French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy defended himself Tuesday after saying he believes pedophiles are predestined from birth.
2) The comments, which Sarkozy made in an interview with Philosophie Magazine, were attacked by other candidates. Philosophers and the Roman Catholic church have also criticized him for suggesting people cannot change.
3) Sarkozy said he raised the question for discussion, and that he did not have answers.
4) "What percentage of it is innate and acquired? At least let's debate it, let's not close the door to all debate," Sarkozy said on France-2 television Tuesday.
5) In the interview, Sarkozy was quoted as saying, "I'm inclined, personally, to think that you are born pedophile, and it's a problem that we don't know how to treat this pathology.
6) "There are 1,200 to 1,300 youths who kill themselves in France each year, and it's not because their parents took care of them badly. It's because, genetically, they had an underlying fragility and pain ... Circumstances aren't everything, the share of the innate is immense."
7) Opinion polls indicate that Sarkozy is the front-runner for the April 22 vote, followed by Socialist Segolene Royal.
8) Sarkozy's comments must mean he believes there are some people not worth helping, Royal spokeswoman Najat Vallaud Belkacem said.
9) Under Sarkozy's belief system, "it will always be the same people who make it, and the same people who will be abandoned to what he believes is their destiny as losers," she said.
10) Francois Bayrou, a candidate pledging to bridge France's traditional left-right divide, has said he completely disagrees with Sarkozy, and that his ideas are out of place in a democratic society at the start of the 21st century. Philippe de Villiers, a far-right candidate, complained that Sarkozy's comments were "a throwback to another era."
11) Monsignor Andre Vingt-Trois, the archbishop of Paris, also criticized Sarkozy, saying, "What seems most serious to me is the idea that you can't change the course of destiny."


French presidential candidate Sarkozy makes good on pledges to visit immigrant-heavy suburbs
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1) Conservative presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy made good Wednesday on promises to visit the troubled suburbs that were wracked by rioting more than a year ago, attending a naturalization ceremony east of Paris.
2) Sarkozy has avoided campaigning in suburbs since he famously called local troublemakers "scum" in October 2005. The remark outraged many and helped fuel the riots that erupted days later and spread through the poor, immigrant-heavy housing projects that ring cities throughout France.
3) Sarkozy, a former interior minister who is leading opinion polls ahead of the April 22 vote, spent less than an hour in Villepinte, northeast of Paris.
4) Speaking before some 30 people who recently received French citizenship, Sarkozy -- the son of a Hungarian immigrant -- emphasized his foreign roots. He called himself a "Frenchman of mixed blood."
5) France, he said, a "big family" that is "open to all the different colors and religions."
6) "Every time a new face appears, the face of France changes," said Sarkozy, who has made the fight against illegal immigration the cornerstone of his campaign.
7) As interior minister, Sarkozy backed two laws to tighten immigration regulations, and has said he hopes to push through another if elected. He has also said he wants a new ministry to oversee questions of immigration and national identity.
8) Sarkozy called on attendees at Wednesday's ceremony to "love France," riffing on his controversial slogan, "Love France or leave it." Extreme-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen has often used a similar slogan.
9) Sarkozy was the only major candidate not to have made a campaign swing through the suburbs. Last week, he abruptly canceled a trip to a neighborhood in Lyon, in southeast France, as dozens of protesters held up signs reading, "You are not welcome" and "Get out, Sarkozy."
10) His Socialist rival Segolene Royal and Francois Bayrou, who has promised to bridge the traditional right-left divide, have both made several visits.
11) Even Le Pen, who opposes immigration and has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism, paid a quick, surprise visit to a Paris suburb last week.
12) Opinion polls show Royal in second place and Bayrou in third behind front-runner Sarkozy.


Socialist former PM calls for united front to keep Sarkozy out of French presidency
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1) Is Nicolas Sarkozy really a shoo-in for the French presidency?
2) A Socialist former prime minister fears as much, and is urging Sarkozy's major rivals to unite in a nearly unthinkable alliance to keep the front-running conservative party candidate out of the Elysee Palace.
3) Whoever wins, the two-round vote on April 22 and May 6 will lead to change in France, after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac marked by lackluster economic progress and troubles integrating Arab and black youths. Chirac is not running this time.
4) Sarkozy, a hard-charging and divisive former interior minister who has called for a break with the past, has led polls since he was named candidate for Chirac's party in January. Surveys suggest that he would face Socialist Segolene Royal in the runoff -- and would beat her.
5) But there's a wild card: centrist Francois Bayrou, who has risen in polls in recent weeks and is now snapping at Royal's heels. If Bayrou makes the runoff, polls indicate he would beat Sarkozy.
6) Based on that electoral calculus, Socialist former Prime Minister Michel Rocard said he wants Bayrou and Royal to join forces to keep Sarkozy out of the presidency.
7) "I therefore call on Francois Bayrou and Segolene Royal to, before the first round, tell the French people that they set themselves on the way toward this alliance," Rocard wrote in Le Monde.
8) "This is the chance for France," he added.
9) The suggestion highlights how tense and tight this race has been. With just nine days before the first round, many voters remain undecided.
10) The comments from Rocard, a European parliament lawmaker who was French prime minister from 1988 to 1991, amounted to an admission that Royal cannot win on her own against Sarkozy.
11) On a campaign stop in eastern France, Royal brushed off Rocard's recommendation, saying she was focusing on "the real questions" in this campaign. Her campaign director declined to comment.
12) A jubilant Bayrou hailed the proposal as "very important news."
13) Rocard was apparently seeking to tap into a "tout sauf Sarkozy" ("anything but Sarkozy") movement that has exposed deep divisions in French society. Sarkozy has made many enemies in his lifelong drive for the presidency, and his often brazen attitude and tough measures on immigration and youth crime have made him adored on the right and reviled on the left.
14) Bayrou, meanwhile, bills himself as a centrist but has traditionally voted with the right. He was education minister in a conservative-led government from 1993 to 1995, when Sarkozy was budget minister.
15) Rocard, in seeking to link Bayrou to the left, seemed to be putting persona over politics.
16) Speaking Friday on RTL radio, Rocard said that "for any Socialist, any contribution to the election of Nicolas Sarkozy will require him or her to answer before history."
17) Parties of the left -- Communists, Greens and Trotskyists -- have been polling at historically low levels ahead of the election, raising questions about where Royal would get the extra votes she would need for the second round to beat Sarkozy.
18) Bayrou, by contrast, could harvest his center-right supporters plus most voters on the left, determined to defeat Sarkozy. Bayrou has said he wants to draw the best ideas and advisers from both left and right.
19) Sarkozy has courted supporters of far-right contender Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose stunning qualification for the runoff in the last presidential race in 2002 has played in many minds in this campaign.
20) The vitriol continued to flow Friday, with Royal accusing Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party of "secretly negotiating" with Le Pen's camp.
21) In public, at least, Le Pen has lashed out at Sarkozy, criticizing him last week as "the candidate of immigrant background. I am the candidate of French soil." Sarkozy's father was a Hungarian immigrant, while his maternal grandfather was of Jewish-Greek background.
22) Most polls show Le Pen fourth this year -- behind Sarkozy, Royal and Bayrou.
23) Surveys show most voters are worried about jobs and the economy -- spawned by concern that France isn't keeping up with rising powers like China and India and is losing its influence in the world.


Conservative Sarkozy holds onto lead as France ' s presidential race enters its final week
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1) France's volatile and close presidential race sped into its last week Sunday, with conservative Nicolas Sarkozy still the front-runner, while his closest rival Segolene Royal insisted that France was ready to make her its first woman president.
2) Though opinion polls have shown Sarkozy -- a tough-talking, pro-American former interior minister -- leading by several percentage points since the beginning of the year, Royal remained confident.
3) "Women's time has come," Royal, a lawmaker, is quoted as saying in an interview in Sunday's Journal de Dimanche. "I think I'm going to win."
4) Royal rose fast and early, easily beating out her rivals to capture her party's nomination on promises of boosting unemployment benefits and the minimum wage. But her campaign has proven rocky -- marked by missteps, treachery and questions about whether she has the mettle to lead a nuclear-armed nation.
5) Sarkozy has led a solid campaign that has focused mostly on immigration and national identity -- staple issues of France's far-right. As interior minister, Sarkozy forged his reputation as a staunch defender of law and order and championed a tough crime reform bill.
6) He entered the final stretch of the campaign with a renewed promised to crack down on criminals.
7) "If the French people show their confidence in me, I will defend victims and speak in their name as president of the Republic," Sarkozy said Sunday.
8) He was speaking in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence following a meeting with the mother of 23-year-old murder victim Ghofrane Haddaoui. On Friday, a court there sentenced two youths to 20- and 23-year prison sentences for stoning Haddaoui to death in 2004.
9) Sarkozy said Haddaoui's mother asked him to spearhead legislation cracking down on multiple repeat offenders, if he is elected.
10) An opinion poll released Sunday shows Sarkozy remains on top.
11) According to the sounding by the Ipsos agency for Le Point newsweekly, Sarkozy would garner 29.5 percent of the April 22 first-round vote, followed by Royal with 25 percent and Francois Bayrou -- whose promises to bridge France's traditional right-left divide have catapulted him into third place -- with 17.5 percent. Extreme-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen had 13.5 percent.
12) The poll suggested Sarkozy would take 53 percent compared with 47 for Royal in the second round. Sarkozy would lose in a round-two matchup with Bayrou, however, taking 46.5 percent compared with Bayrou's 53.5 percent.
13) Still, the sounding showed many French voters are still on the fence. Nearly one out of five of those who said they were sure to cast a ballot next Sunday did not give their candidate of choice.
14) The race's 12 official candidates are expected to spend the final week crisscrossing France in a final attempt to energize supporters and convince undecided voters. Friday is the last day of campaigning, with Saturday designated as a day of voter reflection.
15) The telephone poll of 1,355 people was conducted on April 12-14. No margin of error was provided, but for polls of this size it usually falls within the 3 percent range.


Frontrunner sees Africa as first overseas trip if he wins
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1) The frontrunner in French presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Monday that if elected his first trip outside Europe would be to Africa, the source of massive immigration to France.
2) The conservative candidate has made fighting immigration a top theme of his candidacy, along with national identity -- and conceded he hopes to win hearts from the camp of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who opposes immigration, before Sunday's first-round vote.
3) "I want us to be able to talk about immigration without being treated like a racist," Sarkozy said on the TF1 TV channel.
4) He said he was addressing an "exasperated France" with proposals to toughen long-standing policies, such as the right for family regrouping, which allows legal immigrants to bring family members to France.
5) It is a right, Sarkozy said, "but to bring your family when you don't have lodging, when you don't have income from a job ... that shouldn't be possible."
6) Le Pen, whom polls place No. 4 going into the Sunday first-round vote, has chided Sarkozy for poaching on his territory. He is not alone. On Monday, Francois Bayrou, No. 3 in polls, criticized Sarkozy's tactic.
7) "It is very good to reduce the voters of Jean-Marie Le Pen if at the same time you reduce the ideas of Jean-Marie Le Pen," Bayrou said on France-2 television.
8) Le Pen placed second in the first-round vote in the 2002 election and faced of incumbent Jacques Chirac in the runoff, losing when left and right voters joined forces against him.
9) The top two candidates in this Sunday's vote will face each other off on May 6.


French presidential hopeful Sarkozy promises defense of Israel, wants Palestinian state
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1) Leading French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he favors the creation of a Palestinian state and if elected, "will guarantee" Israel's security.
2) Sarkozy, after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday, said he would ensure "continuity" in French policy toward the Middle East after President Jacques Chirac leaves office next month.
3) Mubarak did not speak to reporters Tuesday. After meeting with Chirac on Monday, Mubarak said he expected that French policy toward the Middle East would not change -- whoever is elected in the April 22-May 6 vote.
4) Sarkozy has been leading the polls this year, closely followed by Socialist nominee Segolene Royal. Center-right candidate Francois Bayrou trails in third, while far-right hopeful Jean-Marie Le Pen is a distant fourth.
5) "I will guarantee Israel's security and I want a homeland -- a state -- for the Palestinians," Sarkozy said. "I want independence for Lebanon and I want to have a relationship of confidence with the various Arab governments." He did not elaborate about how he would guarantee Israel's security.
6) Mubarak did not meet with any other French presidential hopefuls during this trip to Paris.


New polls say Sarkozy is stumbling, but French ready for surprise in presidential vote
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1) Is front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy's race for the French presidency slowing in sight of the finish? Two new polls Tuesday five days away from the vote suggested as much.
2) But voters are ready for anything after a roller-coaster campaign and a history of election-day surprises.
3) The conservative Sarkozy still looks near-certain to advance after Sunday's voting to a runoff May 6 between the top two candidates. The No. 1 question is who will join him, and whether Sarkozy's challenger can beat him in the second round.
4) Tuesday's polls showed an ever-tighter race but disagreed over which of Sarkozy's rivals is gaining at his expense. High voter volatility reflects France's search for direction after 12 years of economic stagnation under Jacques Chirac that have left the French feeling adrift.
5) Sarkozy's main challenger, Socialist Segolene Royal, has seen her once-robust campaign to become France's first female president suffer in recent months -- but a poll published Tuesday by CSA put the two at 50-50 if they both make the runoff. That is the closest they have been in several weeks.
6) In the first round, the poll gave Sarkozy 27 percent to Royal's 25 percent. That is so close that it is statistically meaningless, since the margin of error is 3 percent.
7) Another poll, by Ipsos, said Sarkozy would win a runoff 52 percent to Royal's 48 percent. In a first round, Sarkozy would win 28.5 percent to Royal's 25 percent. That also had a 3 percent margin of error.
8) The Ipsos poll suggested Royal's support was unchanged -- but third-place candidate Francois Bayrou is picking up speed. Bayrou, a former education minister and farmer's son navigating a middle course between traditional left and right, polled at 19 percent.
9) The wild card remains far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who regularly ranks fourth but came up from behind to surprise France and Europe -- and pollsters -- by making it into the 2002 runoff against Chirac. Voters then overwhelmingly elected Chirac over the nationalist who has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism.
10) French voters also surprised observers in 2005 by rejecting the European constitution. The vote, and the Dutch rejection days later, have left the continent's future in limbo.
11) This year, the French are ready for another election day jolt. When the large number of undecided voters and the pollsters' error margins are taken into account, observers say any of the four main candidates could make it into the runoff.
12) Bayrou said Tuesday that this time, "I think I could be the surprise."
13) Speaking on Europe-1 radio, he spelled out why: "I'm the only one who could beat Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round."
14) Analysts have attributed Bayrou's sudden rise in the polls in recent weeks to an "Anything But Sarkozy" push by opponents of the front-runner, whose aggressive attitude and tough policies on youth crime and immigration have made him widely reviled. As Royal's campaign stumbled, anti-Sarkozy voters latched on to Bayrou instead.
15) Sarkozy's aides have brushed off opinion soundings, even though they put him ahead.
16) "We don't believe the polls," his party spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said Monday. "Nothing is won."
17) Le Pen, too, has scoffed at polls -- but suggested Tuesday that he was preparing for defeat.
18) "I will accept the verdict of the ballot boxes," he said on France Inter radio. He said that if he does not make the runoff, he will announce which candidate he is endorsing at a party rally May 1.
19) Royal, meanwhile, hit a strong leftist chord Tuesday in pledging to slash lavish spending by the presidential palace by half if she wins. She did not name Chirac, but the criticism was implicit: accusations that Chirac and members of his family lived large off the backs of French taxpayers -- especially when he was previously Paris' mayor -- dogged his presidency.
20) The CSA poll questioned 1,006 people Friday and Sunday by telephone nationwide. The Ipsos poll questioned 1,357 people Friday, Saturday and Monday.


In final stretch, French presidential candidates try to win over undecided
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1) France's presidential candidates are getting nervous. With just four days to go until the election, the race is too close to call. So they're saying anything that might win over undecided voters.
2) The candidates are trying to be all things to all people. Take poll leader Nicolas Sarkozy. Suddenly, the free-market conservative is quoting a Marxist philosopher.
3) Socialist Segolene Royal, No. 2 in the polls, proclaimed herself the candidate of "audacity" in an interview Wednesday with Metro newspaper. Then, perhaps wondering whether that might alienate some voters, she added, "I promise a secure audacity" -- a comment as puzzling in French as in the English translation.
4) Though Sarkozy has led the polls for months, there are big unknowns: opinion polls suggest as many as two in five voters have not yet chosen their candidate for Sunday's balloting.
5) Sarkozy looks almost certain to advance to the runoff May 6, pollsters say. He received a boost Wednesday with backing from former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who once led the centrist party that one rival candidate, Francois Bayrou, now heads. Giscard said Sarkozy gets his vote in part because of his "capacity to move forward."
6) Sarkozy's opponent in the runoff could be Royal, or Bayrou, who tries to bridge the left-right divide, or even -- in a long shot -- far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen.
7) After 12 years of stagnation under 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, this election was supposed to rejuvenate French politics, getting voters excited about a new generation of political leaders. The three leading contenders are all in their 50s.
8) But much of the enthusiasm has worn off, partly because voters are confused and dissatisfied with the choice on offer. Many complain the campaign has been hijacked by politicians' opportunistic attempts to boost poll numbers any way they can.
9) Candidates have neglected no niche audience, however small. The three main candidates all gave interviews to a magazine dedicated to wood houses. Bayrou spoke to Funerarium, a magazine for funeral parlors. Royal talked to Rottweiler News.
10) "The campaign is starting to look like a big show, like some kind of Hollywood production," said Gery Vergot, a 44-year-old engineer who plans to vote Sarkozy despite reservations. "We can see that what really interests them is power, it's not France."
11) Politicians have watered down ideas that alienated some voters, constantly readjusting their message. Sarkozy at first campaigned for a "break" with Chirac's legacy, then toned that down to a "tranquil break."
12) They also have jumped back and forth across the left-right political divide. Socialist Royal supports many traditional values usually claimed by the right, such as patriotism -- she wants all French to keep a tricolor flag in their home.
13) Sarkozy's pro-market credentials suffered when he suggested a state bailout of troubled planemaker Airbus.
14) He has repeatedly reached out to leftist voters, and he spoke admiringly of Italian communist Antonio Gramsci -- a Marxist thinker -- in an interview published Wednesday. Sarkozy told Le Figaro he agreed with Gramsci's concept that power is won through ideas.
15) Bayrou, who came from behind to become the race's third force, has capitalized on his career as a middle-of-the-road politician. Though he spent decades slightly right-of-center, he said Wednesday he would name a center-left prime minister if elected -- "for balance."
16) An Ipsos-Dell poll Wednesday suggested that Sarkozy would take 29.5 percent in Sunday's first round, Royal 24.5 percent, and Bayrou 18.5 percent. Le Pen was credited with 13.5 percent.
17) In the runoff May 6, according to the April 16-17 poll of 1,007 people, Sarkozy would take 53 percent, with Royal at 47 percent. But all polls show that if Bayrou were to make the runoff, he would beat Sarkozy.
18) Le Pen is a wild card. He came from behind to surprise France by making it into the 2002 runoff against Chirac. Voters then overwhelmingly elected Chirac to shut out the nationalist firebrand.
19) Off all the main candidates, Le Pen has stayed truest to form in this race, his fifth presidential run.
20) Le Pen told RMC radio that he would abolish laws that penalize people for making racist or anti-Semitic comments -- charges he has personally been convicted of. In another interview with France-2, he suggested Sarkozy -- the son of a Hungarian immigrant -- was not French enough to be president.


Some of the questions in the French election
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1) The French have had it rough of late.
2) They're worried about globalization, global warming and the Chinese economic juggernaut. And their aspirations of being a leader of Europe -- and of creating a counterweight to the United States -- took a beating when voters opted against greater EU integration in 2005.
3) All this forms a weighty backdrop for France's first presidential elections in five years.
4) Here is a look at the issues, personalities and possible outcomes.
5) Q: Can France, Europe and the United States expect anything new from this vote?
6) A: Yes. For starters, incumbent Jacques Chirac decided after 12 years in power not to run, so a new era is starting. With British Prime Minister Tony Blair retiring this year, too, Europe will get new management in two of its biggest economic, military and diplomatic powers.
7) Chirac's departure should help clear the air with the United States. He and U.S. President George W. Bush were at loggerheads over Iraq, climate change, the Middle East and other issues.
8) But France's love-hate relationship with the United States means tensions across the Atlantic are unlikely to fade completely.
9) Q: Who will the next French president be?
10) A: Right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy seems favorite for the job he's been eyeing for years. The Hungarian immigrant's son and former interior, finance and budget minister has been leading polls since the start of the year. Socialist Segolene Royal, who would be France's first woman president, is polling second, with farmer's son and horse breeder Francois Bayrou third.
11) But French voters like to spring surprises. They bucked the European trend by voting against the EU's proposed constitution in 2005. And they scared themselves and Europe by propelling a far-right nationalist, Jean-Marie Le Pen, into a runoff against Chirac in the last election in 2002. To keep Le Pen out of power, voters rallied around Chirac in the second vote; he scored a record 82 percent. Le Pen, 78, is running again this year but polls place him fourth.
12) Q: What's wrong with France?
13) A: Plenty. The country had three weeks of riots in 2005 by young blacks and Arabs infuriated by discrimination and hopeless futures in their tough housing projects where many French and even police fear to tread.
14) China, India and other more dynamic economies have sucked away industrial jobs. And the French fear their cherished but expensive social, health and public services may be sacrificed to keep the nation competitive. The changing times alarm many in a still conservative country.
15) Q: If Sarkozy wins, will France change?
16) A: He hopes so. He has said that the French system needs fixing because it can't provide enough jobs. He wants the French to work more and says France's 35-hour workweek is untenable. That makes him stand out in a country where big business is distrusted -- three Trotskyists are on Sunday's ballot. But Sarkozy is no unbridled free marketeer. His biggest challenge will be convincing the reform-resistant French that changes are needed, even desirable.
17) Q: What would a Sarkozy presidency mean for the rest of the world?
18) A: Sarkozy, a teetotaler like Bush, is the most pro-American of the top candidates. He admires the "energy and fluidity" of Americans but says their "messianic side ... can be tiresome." Critics hounded him for meeting Bush last September -- former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius called Sarkozy Bush's "lapdog." That sort of unease with U.S. power means no French president can cozy up too much to Washington. In a poll last December, 75 percent of respondents said they want their next president to keep distance from U.S. foreign policy.
19) Sarkozy says he would not support any military action to force Iran to give up its nuclear program, and he wants "to go as far as possible with sanctions." He says Chirac was right not to join the war in Iraq and that the hanging of Saddam Hussein was a "mistake," even though he was "the worst of men." Sarkozy also does not want Turkey to join the European Union.


Top French presidential candidates in final push as polls suggest close weekend vote
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1) France's presidential race looked set for a close finish this weekend, as leading candidates promising change for the disillusioned country made a late push Thursday with their last flag-waving rallies, a publicity blitz and one big-name endorsement from neighboring Spain.
2) After 12 years under President Jacques Chirac, the French are eager for change. Turnout in Sunday's first round of voting is expected to be higher than in 2002, and polls show millions of voters still have not fully made up their minds.
3) Most of the 12 candidates were holding their last campaign rallies on Thursday before the weekend balloting to whittle down the field to two for the decisive runoff on May 6.
4) Barring an enormous surprise, polls suggest that only three candidates stand any chance of winning the election: Nicolas Sarkozy, a pro-American conservative; Socialist Segolene Royal, who would be France's first woman president; and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou, who bills himself as the unifier that France needs.
5) Sarkozy has been the front-runner in every poll this year, and confidently has posted countdown clocks on his Web site and party headquarters timed not for Sunday's balloting -- but May 6.
6) Beyond that, the biggest questions are whether Bayrou or Royal will face Sarkozy or if far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen can pull another upset. Le Pen stunned France and Europe by qualifying for the runoff against Chirac five years ago, but was trounced by the incumbent in the second round.
7) The vote will partly be one of personalities -- the top candidates have often strayed from party orthodoxies, plucking ideas from the political left and right to revive a lackluster economy and better integrate millions of black and Arab citizens from poor areas swept up by three weeks of rioting in 2005.
8) "The three candidates who can today hope to win are very popular people, and that's why there's also a keen interest," said Pierre Giacometti, director of the Ipsos agency. "We cannot exclude the possibility that next Sunday we will have a very high participation rate -- around 80 percent."
9) Royal, whose gaffes on trips abroad during the campaign cost her candidacy some momentum, sought to inject some gravitas into her bid Thursday by bringing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to speak at a rally in southern Toulouse. Spain's Socialist premier is the first major international leader to publicly take sides in the French election this year.
10) Sarkozy's team targeted undecided voters with a new promotional blitz, in which more than 20,000 supporters were handing out fliers and other freebies. It was hosting a ski race in the Alps, and games of petanque -- French bowling -- in Paris.
11) Bookmakers have been cashing in on the uncertainty.
12) "There's been incredible interest in the election," spokeswoman Sharon McHugh of Irish bookmaker Paddy Power said by phone. "People from all over the world are betting on this election. The Americans, English, French and even the Irish are taking a big interest."
13) "It's a wide-open race," she said. Odds have varied, though Sarkozy remains the favorite -- in part mirroring the latest in the barrage of polls this year.
14) On the streets of Paris, many were either undecided or said they planned to vote more "against" than "for."
15) "They're all bad. This isn't about who you vote for, but who you vote against," said Gregory Mancuso, a 20-year-old Paris restaurant worker who supports Sarkozy for his stature and experience as a former interior minister. "I don't like the man himself -- he's too arrogant and too nervous -- but there's nobody else."
16) University student Thomas Gregoire said he would vote for Royal, "because I think we must stop Sarkozy."
17) In surveys released Thursday, Sarkozy garnered 28 and 30 percent, Royal tallied 23-25 percent, Bayrou had 18-19 percent and Le Pen fetched 13-14 percent. The two polls of 1,000-1,200 registered voters by the TNS-Sofres and Ipsos agencies were conducted between Monday and Wednesday. The margin of error for polls of that size is roughly plus or minus three percentage points.
18) Most polls show that Bayrou is the only candidate who could defeat Sarkozy if he makes it to the runoff.
19) But French voters' intentions are notoriously tough to predict, and polls show that as many as two in five voters say they have not yet made up their minds.
20) Candidates are required to stop campaigning by midnight Friday. Voting begins Saturday in French overseas territories in and near the Caribbean and in the Pacific Ocean.


Surprises could await French presidential race as campaigning ends
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1) France's volatile presidential campaign wound down Friday with conservative Nicolas Sarkozy still favorite to advance to a winner-takes-all runoff. The big question was who he would face -- Socialist Segolene Royal, striving to become France's first woman president, seemed his likeliest rival.
2) But the French have confounded pollsters before, and polls show millions of voters have not fully made up their minds for Sunday's first round -- so surprises could await as to who reaches the May 6 runoff.
3) All 12 candidates were required to halt campaigning by midnight. Early voting gets under way Saturday in some French overseas territories, with mainland France casting ballots Sunday.
4) Europe's most-watched election this year will determine who takes the helm of a nuclear-armed nation with a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac.
5) Sarkozy, like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is often perceived as pro-American. Such a duo in charge of Paris and Berlin would signal change from the era of Chirac and former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder -- who had chilly relations with Washington, mainly over the Iraq war.
6) France is looking for new direction, down on its economic fortunes, adrift in its identity, and still coping with fallout from youth riots in poor, immigrant areas in 2005.
7) A poll released Friday by TNS Sofres Unilog said Sarkozy would garner 28 percent Sunday, followed by Royal at 24 percent and center-right hopeful Francois Bayrou at 19.5 percent. Ultra-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came in at 14 percent.
8) An Ipsos poll put Sarkozy at 30 percent, Royal at 23 percent, Bayrou at 18 percent and Le Pen at 13 percent. Both showed the rest of the field tallying low single-digit percentages.
9) In the runoff, TNS Sofres' poll said Sarkozy would win with 53 percent, compared with Royal's 47 percent; Ipsos had Sarkozy at 53.5 percent and Royal at 46.5 percent. Those agencies polled between 1,000 and 1,200 adults this week. Polls of such size usually have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
10) More than two in five were toggling between two or three candidates or entirely uncertain about who to vote for, TNS Sofres said. Ipsos did not calculate such data, but said that only 55 percent of supporters of Bayrou were firm about their choice of him -- the lowest tally among the four leading contenders to make the second round.
11) Frederic Daby, a director of the IFOP polling agency, said there were two main camps of undecided voters: one choosing between Sarkozy and Le Pen, the other between Royal and Bayrou.
12) "It's entirely possible that we have one or two big surprises, because we've rarely had such a high undecided rate," he said. "It's not undecided in the sense of 'I don't care about politics' or 'I'm not sure' -- there are just a lot of people hesitating."
13) Across the country, jobs are voters' No. 1 concern, polls show. Recognizing that, top candidates have reached out to Airbus workers facing massive job cuts, and railed against exorbitant executive pay.
14) But the campaign focus never stayed on jobs, instead switching to school choice, attacking the European Central Bank, then to cracking down on youth rampaging in a Paris train station. In recent weeks, the most enduring campaign theme was French identity, a favored issue of Le Pen -- and one that Sarkozy has sought to poach.
15) Some of the top contenders wanted to be everything for everybody, plucking ideas and tactics from rival camps and blurring the lines in France's traditional left-right divide.
16) Voter registration is up everywhere, especially in poor suburbs where largely Muslim and African immigrants and their French-born children live in forgotten housing projects -- and up to half the youth are jobless.
17) The second round was shaping up as a referendum on Sarkozy -- a figure of discord. His frankness, energy and free-market values are adored on the right, but his tough talk against suburban troublemakers has gone down badly with many immigrants' children.
18) The left fears that his years as a tough interior minister -- France's top cop -- make him ill-suited for the job as its top diplomat, and the wrong answer for millions of people worried about job security.
19) "Sarkozy represents a danger to our nation in terms of political, economic and social issues," said rapper Khalifa Belouzaa, 33. "In this time of trouble, in this time of misery and unemployment, this man just works for the rich to be richer and the poor to be poorer."
20) Overall, Sarkozy -- who has long ogled the presidency and has reportedly acknowledged that he is his own worst enemy -- has avoided any major slip-ups. Recently, he has sought to portray himself more as a unifier and has talked less about national identity. On Monday, he went to the revered Gen. Charles de Gaulle's tomb.
21) "I want a tolerant society in which everybody listens to one another," Sarkozy told RTL radio Friday.
22) In a final flurry of personal sniping, Royal took aim at Sarkozy again: "I'm stunned to see how much Nicolas Sarkozy talks incessantly about himself," she told France-Inter radio.


Change is on France ' s presidential menu, but which kind will voters choose?
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1) Two voters stared at a sloppy collage of campaign posters plugging presidential candidates and their vision for France. Both looked perplexed, even tense, as they weighed the decision facing their troubled nation in Sunday's ballot.
2) Should they choose Nicolas Sarkozy, blunt, reformist and results-oriented but frightening to many French? Or Segolene Royal, the smiling, feminist mother-figure with a more cautious plan for France? Or will dark-horse centrist Francois Bayrou pull a surprise?
3) The picturesque Paris landscape will look and smell the same Monday morning, with tour buses rumbling down the Champs-Elysees and the buttery aromas from croissants wafting from the boulangerie.
4) But France itself will have taken a crucial step toward shaping its future.
5) Voters this weekend are paring down a field of 12 candidates to two favorites who they feel have the clearest vision of where the nation should -- or shouldn't -- be going.
6) Voting started Saturday across the Atlantic, on two French islands off the northeast Canadian coast, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and to the south in French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique, in the Caribbean. Mainland France votes Sunday.
7) The top two winners have two weeks to draw voters to their camp before the May 6 final round.
8) The successor to Jacques Chirac, who is stepping down after 12 years as president, must steer a nuclear power in an insecure world, revive a large and listless economy, invigorate a downbeat work force, incorporate alienated young Muslims.
9) It's a daunting job, and restless French voters don't seem to know themselves who is best-suited for it, with about one-third of the electorate undecided before the vote. The crux of the matter is the result guarantees change -- something the French both crave and fear.
10) Conservative Sarkozy served in Chirac's government but talks of a "rupture" with the past, including painful reforms of worker-friendly labor laws to make France more competitive.
11) Socialist Royal says her France would be different because she would be its first woman president. She has tilted away from some of her party's policies, but her economic plan would lean left and reverse even some of the timid reforms of the Chirac era.
12) Sarkozy and Royal are both in their 50s, aiming to be the first French president born after World War II. They're in tune with youth trends, carrying iPods and appealing to young voters in glitzy Internet campaigns. Both infiltrated the political system from the outside -- Royal as a woman, Sarkozy as the son of a Hungarian immigrant.
13) Their dynamism could win back voters who sat out the last presidential vote in 2002 or those who cast protest votes for extreme candidates on the left and right. While Sarkozy and Royal lead in polls, those same surveys show that half the French don't want either as president.
14) Royal might not even make it into the May 6 runoff, if voters stage the "silent revolution" sought by farmer's son Bayrou, who has tapped voter frustration with the left-right divide.
15) Hovering on the far right is Jean-Marie Le Pen, eager to repeat his shock upset of 2002, when he reached the runoff with Chirac and beat out Socialist Lionel Jospin.
16) "It's an important choice. I feel like all the things that used to be important don't carry weight," said Jean-Louis Margaux, standing before the wall of campaign posters in central Paris.
17) Margaux, a retired teacher, feels betrayed by the left he long supported, as France's political spectrum has gradually shifted right.
18) The six candidates on the far left are likely to get less support than in 2002, and their anti-globalization rallying cry has lost its force as they've proven powerless to stop the juggernaut of borderless free markets.
19) French multinationals reap benefits from global business. Both Sarkozy and, to a lesser extent, Royal see globalization's upside, though they want to make it less painful for workers by making companies pay for moving jobs abroad.
20) More broadly, voters are concerned about France's relations with a world in which the French accent is getting harder to hear. French entreaties against the Iraq war ultimately went ignored, and France's rejection of greater EU integration sidelined a country that once helped propel the union.
21) France is a medium-sized state with medium-sized influence, and that hurts for those clinging to past French grandeur. Sarkozy seems ready to build a new pro-American French foreign policy, and proudly shook U.S. President George W. Bush's hand last year. Royal said she would never shake Bush's hand without letting him know what she thought of his policies first.
22) France's economy is still the second-largest in the euro zone, and the health of the European currency depends to a degree on whether the next president can stimulate growth, which lagged under Chirac.
23) Sarkozy offers the bolder plan for growth, by getting the French to work more and cutting taxes. Royal would raise the minimum wage and subsidize youth jobs.
24) New jobs are the only solution for the rundown housing projects scattered beyond France's cities, plagued by discrimination, poverty, illiteracy and dependence on state handouts. The landscape remains little changed since riots in 2005 forced France and its leaders to acknowledge the problems.
25) Sarkozy has made a career out of striving for the presidency. If he loses, it will be at the hands of a powerful "Anything But Sarkozy" push by those on the left who say his "rupture" suggests violent, enforced change.
26) Compact, tenacious and unafraid to ruffle feathers, Sarkozy is the most polished of the candidates. He sought to soften his image by discussing his marital troubles on national TV.
27) Royal, meanwhile, floated the idea of a presidential bid just 16 months ago and skyrocketed to popularity as the fractured left's best bet to beat Sarkozy.
28) She struck a chord with voters tired of politics by paternalistic men from elite schools, and through a months-long "listening campaign" across the country gathering voter wishes.
29) If Royal makes the runoff, she will have scored a victory for a Socialist Party at odds with itself since it was shut out of the 2002 runoff by Le Pen and since it split in 2005 over European integration.
30) If she fails, the party's future may be in doubt after decades as a central player in French politics.
31) Bayrou in the runoff at Royal's expense could realign the French political spectrum. Polls suggest Bayrou -- from a minor party with few allies -- would win a faceoff with Sarkozy.
32) Whoever wins May 6 will face legislative elections in June that determine whether the new president gets a parliamentary majority to implement change.
33) Until then, voters are mulling how, and how much, they want the next president to renovate France.
34) Rodney Geres, a 35-year-old who works in finance, was undecided days before the vote.
35) "I think the French people really want change," he said. "And I don't think any of the candidates' platforms really give any clear sense of change or direction."


In France ' s troubled suburbs, voters motivated by chance to stop unpopular Sarkozy
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1) France's housing projects have suffered riots, joblessness and a presidential campaigner who called troublemakers from their neighborhoods "scum." Sunday was their turn to fight back -- through the ballot box.
2) Many blacks and Muslims from troubled neighborhoods voted for the first time Sunday, saying they were motivated by one desire: to stop law-and-order, tough-on-immigrants Nicolas Sarkozy from getting into power.
3) Conservative Sarkozy is the front-runner, but he is deeply unpopular in housing projects populated largely by second- and third-generation immigrants, many of them Muslims from former colonies in North Africa, who live mired in poverty and joblessness.
4) His campaign has been haunted by the word "scum," the term he used to describe young delinquents days before massive riots broke out in 2005 in suburban neighborhoods. Some youths took Sarkozy's comment as a declaration of war.
5) "If Sarkozy wins there will certainly be riots here in Clichy and all over France," said Moroccan-born first-time voter Mohammed Saidi. The 43-year-old electrician and father of four voted in Clichy-sous-Bois, the Paris suburb where the 2005 violence broke out.
6) Another first-time voter, 20-year-old Fatma Celik, said that if Sarkozy was elected, she was sure "people are going to go crazy here."
7) Sarkozy, a divisive figure, has reached out to minorities by promoting "positive discrimination," a policy akin to affirmative action. But many in France -- in housing projects and beyond -- despise the tough police tactics he instituted as interior minister, his uncompromising language, and his sometimes roughly executed drive to send illegal immigrants home.
8) The favorite in poor neighborhoods appeared to be Socialist Segolene Royal, who casts herself as a maternal figure -- a sharp comparison to Sarkozy's law enforcer image. The top two of 12 candidates in Sunday's vote will face each other in a May 6 runoff to succeed President Jacques Chirac.
9) Voter registration was up throughout France to 44.5 million people, adding 3.3 million voters to the pool this time around. But few areas experienced as dramatic a rise as the poor suburbs.
10) In Seine-Saint-Denis, the rough region where Clichy-Sous-Bois is located, voter registration was up by 8.5 percent -- more than twice the average nationwide increase of 4.2 percent, the Interior Ministry has said. After the riots, suburban neighborhoods were targeted by a massive voter registration campaign, one way of addressing the disenfranchisement of young minorities who feel France has never accepted them.
11) The riots were sparked in October 2005 by the accidental electrocution of youths who hid from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, and they spread to suburbs throughout France, taking in frustrations over high unemployment and racial discrimination.
12) The 2002 election was also a wakeup call for voters. That year, anti-immigration nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified for the runoff against incumbent President Jacques Chirac. Horrified voters from across the political spectrum united behind the conservative Chirac, handing him a crushing victory.
13) Le Pen is back in the race again this year, and opinion polls put him fourth behind Francois Bayrou, a centrist lawmaker trying to bridge the traditional right-left divide.
14) In Venissieux, a poor suburb of central Lyon, three young members of the same family -- Naim, Gulbahar and Erkan Yesil -- voted together, all for the first time, all for Royal.
15) "We could have voted for Sarkozy, because he could be a good president, but the problem is that he wants to throw out all the foreigners," said Naim, 18. All three said they feared new riots if Sarkozy is elected.
16) Sarkozy "is scary," said 20-year-old first-time voter Samia Allami in the southern port city of Marseille. "If there are problems, I hope Marseille will be spared."
17) When voters say Sarkozy frightens them, they are often talking about his unabashed wooing of far-right voters. Sarkozy has often said that people who don't love France don't have to stay, echoing a longtime slogan of Le Pen's National Front: "France, love it or leave it."
18) Sarkozy has also refused to back down from his "scum" comment.
19) "I intend to continue to call a hoodlum a hoodlum and scum, scum," he said last week. "It's not a word that's insulting, it's the behavior of hoodlums that's insulting."
20) One activist, a Togo-born rapper who goes by the name of Rost, said a few words would suffice to mend Sarkozy's relations with disaffected youths. Sarkozy must "show he respects us," Rost said, adding: "All he has to do is go on television and say 'I'm sorry.'"


Sarkozy reaches cusp of lifelong drive to become French president
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy has bitten, scratched and clawed his way to get where he is now -- one final hurdle away from becoming France's president.
2) On the way, the Hungarian immigrant's son has struck fear and anger into the hearts of many, especially in black and Arab neighborhoods where his invective against troublemakers has gone down like a slap in the face.
3) Sarkozy's tough talk fueled by emotion has raised questions about how he would lead a country proud of its skill at cool-headed diplomacy. He is the candidate of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, but is notably more pro-American.
4) In a traditional left-right clash, Sarkozy will face Socialist Segolene Royal in the decisive May 6 runoff.
5) Sarkozy, 52, grew up in Paris, and has acknowledged an unhappy childhood in a broken home. He was an unremarkable student, but drew motivation from his feeling as an outsider with a foreign-sounding name.
6) He dreamt of the presidency as a long-haired youth, and became a lawyer.
7) A skilled orator and media-savvy political operator, Sarkozy preaches a by-the-bootstraps optimism that has resonated for millions who want to pull France out of its economic gloom.
8) Sarkozy wants to cut taxes and payroll fees, and make it easier for companies to hire and fire. He would all but scrap France's 35-hour work week law, saying people should be freer to work as hard as they want to.
9) Yet he's no ruthless reformer. He has already eased back from his tax-cut timetable, and isn't afraid of intervening in the economy. As finance minister, he defended French engineering company Alstom from takeover by Germany's Siemens, and he has criticized the European Central Bank.
10) Yet detractors on the left say Sarkozy is too free-market at a time of widespread fear about job security and unemployment, and the wrong answer for a France still coping with fallout of rioting across poor suburban areas in the fall of 2005.
11) Sarkozy, who was interior minister at the time, became enemy No. 1 for many blacks and Arabs after calling young delinquents in those neighborhoods "scum" -- a term that continues to dog him politically.
12) In the campaign, Sarkozy sought to poach supporters from ultra-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen, such as by calling for the creation of a new Ministry of Immigration and National Identity. As minister, Sarkozy deported thousands of illegal immigrants and led anti-crime and counterterrorism bills through parliament.
13) Sarkozy has also been one of the few political heavyweights to reach out to minorities. He created a nationwide council of Muslim leaders and proposed a kind of affirmative action and state funding for mosques, ideas that may resurface if he's elected.
14) Sarkozy has embraced the nickname "Sarko the American" affixed by critics, saying France and the United States share democratic kinship that transcends disagreements like the one over the Iraq war. But he says France is "nobody's vassal," and he opposes Turkey's bid to join the European Union -- which Washington supports.


Sego or Sarko? In jittery France, presidency still up for grabs
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1) Socialist Segolene Royal and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy have two weeks to sell voters on two vastly different visions for France -- at a time when its people are nervous about retaining their prosperity and carving out a viable identity in a rapidly changing world.
2) Either would be the first French president not to have lived through World War II, a significant generational shift -- but the similarities end there.
3) Royal would bring a breezy elegance to the Elysee. She has openly appealed to women voters and says her election as the first French woman president would have no less than "planetary" consequences. On campaign posters the feminine "e" has optimistically been added so as to read "presidente."
4) Sarkozy cuts a perhaps less graceful figure, turning off some with naked ambition and sometimes ungainly campaigning. That could cost him in the race for the job once held by Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand, bestowing on its holder the status of standard-bearer and symbol of all that may be right or wrong with France.
5) The campaign to date has veered off in directions dictated by the personality politics and tactical calculations of the first round. The run-off may offer a clearer debate on the economic reforms that many see as the key to France's future.
6) Although Royal is from the opposition Socialists, it is Sarkozy, the candidate of Jacques Chirac's party -- who more strongly champions a break with the past, summing up his views with a word that means the same in French as in other languages: "rupture."
7) Sarkozy wants to free up labor markets and appears willing to scrap some of the social protections that the French have prized. He calls France's 35-hour work week "an absurdity," wants to make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more, and proposes loosening labor laws to encourage hiring. Work creates wealth that creates jobs, he says.
8) He generally betrays none of Chirac's disdain for "Anglo-American liberalism," code for a cut-throat capitalism that the French would like to avoid even as they strive to become more globally competitive. But he's no unbridled free-marketer and also has shown a protectionist streak.
9) Sarkozy seems disinterested in Chirac's view of France as a philosophical and political counterweight to the global hegemony of the United States. He is comfortable with America in a way that Royal has not to date tried to match, and probably could not.
10) Royal, by comparison, would scrap a relatively timid job reform that made hiring and firing easier for small firms. She argues that public spending on job programs and raising the minimum wage will breathe life into the laggard economy. But she's a pragmatic rather than a dogmatic Socialist, and says the 35-hour work week has had both benefits and drawbacks that she wants to work out.
11) Business leaders and others who believe that France must reform to avoid economic decline relative to Asia and America both will prefer Sarkozy. People worried about their jobs and many minority voters rattled by Sarkozy's tough views on immigration and crime may opt for Royal.
12) The crowded field in the first round rendered polls difficult to read. Sarkozy has generally been seen as the front-runner, but the race now is clearly for the center -- the political space that Francois Bayrou tapped well enough to briefly turn the election into a three-way race.
13) Millions were seduced by Bayrou's anti-establishment message that the only way to revive France was to unite left and right, blaming the divisions for driving the country into decline. Expect Sarkozy and Royal to battle fiercely now to win back his voters, who could swing the May 6 result.
14) To get past the first round, Sarkozy had veered hard right, with promises to protect France's "national identity." He was looking to sap support from extreme-right anti-immigration zealot Jean-Marie Le Pen.
15) With Le Pen gone, Sarkozy will likely tack back toward the center. Even if he does, many Le Pen supporters should still line up behind Sarkozy on May 6, not least because they cannot stomach the more immigrant-friendly Royal.
16) In the end, May 6 could be an unpopularity contest. Both "Sego" and "Sarko" leave sections of the electorate cold -- Royal because she's seen by some to be too inexperienced and gaffe-prone to run a nuclear nation; Sarkozy because he's regarded as a bully who might trample on civil liberties. Both will try to dispel those notions in the days ahead.


Royal, Sarkozy face presidential runoff after tense French vote
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal advanced to a runoff for France's presidency, presenting voters with a fundamental left-right choice between a conservative who could push his anxious nation toward painful change and a socialist who would be the country's first female leader.
2) After Sunday's first round election, Royal was the first woman to get so close to the helm of this major European economic, military and diplomatic power. The campaign was marked by suspense, surprise and unusually dynamic candidates who lured voters to the ballot box in near record numbers.
3) Sarkozy has the advantage heading into the May 6 runoff. Results from the Interior Ministry early Monday, based on all polling stations except those French voting in embassies overseas, had Sarkozy at No. 1 with 31.1 percent, followed by Royal with 25.8 percent. Turnout was huge at 84.6 percent.
4) Either way, France will get its first president with no memory of World War II to replace the 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, who is stepping down after 12 years to usher in a new generation of candidates.
5) Sunday's first round shut out 10 other hopefuls, from Trotskyists to far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Le Pen had hoped to repeat his shockingly strong showing of 2002 but instead finished a weak fourth, with 10.5 percent of the vote.
6) Both Sarkozy, a Hungarian immigrant's son, and Royal, a military officer's daughter who beat Socialist heavyweights to win her party's nomination, are in their 50s and have traveled long, arduous roads to get to this point.
7) The winner's task will be tough: France is a troubled nation, still haunted by the riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighborhoods in 2005.
8) Decades of stubbornly high unemployment, increasing competition from economies like China's, and a sense that France is losing influence in the world made this a passionate campaign. Both Royal and Sarkozy have promised to get France back on its feet -- but offer starkly different recipes for doing so.
9) Sarkozy would loosen labor laws and cut taxes to invigorate the sluggish economy, while Royal would hike government spending and preserve the country's generous worker protections.
10) Royal, too, champions change but says it must not be brutal.
11) "I extend my hand to all those women and men who think, as I do, that it is not only possible but urgent to abandon a system that no longer works," she said.
12) The runoff offers "a clear choice between two very different paths," she said.
13) Outside Socialist Party headquarters in Paris, supporters reacted to the result with joy, chanting, "We're going to win!"
14) Sarkozy told cheering supporters Sunday night that by choosing him and Royal, voters "clearly marked their wish to go to the very end of the debate between two ideas of the nation, two programs for society, two value systems, two concepts of politics."
15) Despite Sarkozy's lead, he faces a powerful "Anything But Sarkozy" push by those who call him too arrogant and explosive to run a nuclear-armed nation. He once called young delinquents "scum," a remark that outraged the residents of poor neighborhoods and has dogged him politically.
16) "It won't be a walk in the park" for Sarkozy even though he is in a strong position heading into the runoff, said Bruno Cautres, researcher at the prestigious Institute for Political Sciences.
17) Royal, a lawmaker and feminist who says she makes political decisions based on what she would do for her children, shot to popularity by promising to run France differently.
18) But she has stumbled on foreign policy. In one gaffe, she praised the Chinese during a trip to Beijing for their swift justice system.
19) Some of France's 44.5 million voters question whether she is "presidential" enough.
20) With results for the nearly 1 million French voters registered abroad still trickling in early Monday, turnout didn't quite reach the record of 84.8 percent for a first round, set in 1965. That year modern France held its first direct presidential election, with World War II Gen. Charles de Gaulle and Socialist Francois Mitterrand reaching the runoff that de Gaulle went on to win.
21) For Royal and Sarkozy, a scramble is now on for voters in the middle ground and others who deserted the left and right in favor of farmer's son and lawmaker Francois Bayrou, one of the big surprises of the campaign.
22) He placed third on Sunday, with 18 percent.
23) In the runoff, Sarkozy should be able to count on votes from the far right, whose champion Le Pen suffered his second-worst showing in five presidential elections.
24) Royal's score was the highest for a Socialist since Mitterrand in 1988. But she could struggle to make up the gap with Sarkozy in round two. Candidates to her left together scored about 11 percent. They immediately swung behind her after their elimination, but their votes alone will not be enough to put Royal in power.
25) Many voters were determined to avoid a repeat of the shame that they felt in 2002, when a record low turnout helped Le Pen, an extreme-right nationalist with repeat convictions for anti-Semitic and racist comments, slip through into the runoff. Even voters on the left rallied around the conservative Chirac to keep Le Pen from power in that vote, and he was trounced.
26) "If the French people didn't learn the lesson from last time, then we really are jerks," said Corinne Keuter, a 46-year-old secretary who lined up for a half-hour to cast her ballot for Royal in northwest Paris.
27) Whatever the outcome, "I think this election is going to change things for the better," she said. "In 2002, people didn't seem to care."
28) A visibly dejected Le Pen, who accuses both the left and right of leading France to the edge of ruin, reacted to the result with sarcasm.
29) "I thought the French were rather unhappy. ... I was mistaken," he said. "The French are very content. The proof is that they have just re-elected the parties that were in power and that are responsible for the situation of France."


Royal, Sarkozy look to seduce centrists, key to battle for presidency
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1) Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal scrambled Monday to claim the sizable centrist vote that went to lawmaker and farmer's son Francois Bayrou, whose strong third-place showing in France's weekend first-round presidential elections made him a potential kingmaker in the May 6 runoff.
2) With a five-point first-round advantage after Sunday's balloting and a chance to pick up even more of the significant far-right vote he has courted, Sarkozy -- a Hungarian immigrant's son who campaigns on national pride and economic reforms -- appeared to be in command.
3) Already two polls suggested that Sarkozy, with his straight talk and tough-love approach to politics, could triumph in two weeks and take the keys to the presidential Elysee Palace, held for 12 years by President Jacques Chirac, 74.
4) "I want to take charge of suffering," Sarkozy said on a visit Monday to a shelter for women, including illegal immigrants -- a clear bid to soften his image after overtly tapping far-right voters.
5) "A country, for me, is like a family," he said, evoking nurturing themes that are the stock of rival Royal.
6) Royal, who would be France's first woman president, and Sarkozy, surged ahead of 10 other candidates in Sunday's race, marked by a voter turnout of 83.77 percent -- about a point short of 1965's 84.8 percent first-round record.
7) Definitive results showed Sarkozy with 31.18 percent of Sunday's vote and Royal with 25.87 percent.
8) Sunday's first-round vote also was marked by a rejection of extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen who, with 10.44 percent of the vote, received his second-worst score in five tries at the presidency. That was far from his performance in 2002 when voters, in a shock to France, propelled him into the runoff against incumbent Chirac.
9) But Le Pen's poor score also was a sign of Sarkozy's successful appeal to the extreme-right.
10) This time, it was centrist candidate Bayrou who surged ahead, gaining 18.57 percent of the vote with his appeal to refound a political system that has pitted left against right since the French Revolution and which Royal and Sarkozy embody.
11) Just 24 hours after their first-round victories, Royal and Sarkozy planned rallies Monday night with an eye on voters who backed Bayrou, centrist party leader who has used his farm background to put a grass-roots veneer on politics.
12) "Bayrou has the keys in his hands, we'll have to see what he'll do," said Jean Chiche, an analyst with IFOP, the polling firm.
13) Royal said she could still win. She said that promised backing from small leftist candidates eliminated in the first round has created a "dynamic," and that their votes together added up to 10-plus percent -- a boost that did not eliminate the need for centrists.
14) "I think it's doable," Royal said.
15) Both Sarkozy and Royal, a military officer's daughter, are in their 50s and offer France a new generation of politics with no memory of World War II. They also offer voters a clear choice between two ideas of France, a choice that Bayrou opposes in favor of a third way which would see left and right joining in a historic compromise.
16) The two finalists are to spar in a televised debate, a tradition between rounds -- skipped in 2002 when Chirac refused a debate with Le Pen. The proposed May 2 date for this year's faceoff remained unconfirmed. Monday, Chirac laid aside long-standing enmity with Sarkozy to offer him his support.
17) Bayrou, looking to assure a political future for his newfound popularity -- and make it translate into legislative power in June parliamentary elections -- planned a news conference Wednesday.
18) French politics "will never again be the same," he said Sunday night.
19) Both Sarkozy and Royal scoffed at Bayrou throughout the months of campaigning, saying he would be incapable of forming a government with ministers drawn from left and right, or gaining a parliamentary majority.
20) Bayrou's centrist Union for French Democracy has traditionally voted with the right in parliament and has often had ministers in rightist governments. But Bayrou the candidate drew leftist sympathizers to his camp, as well as rightists, and both Sarkozy and Royal need those votes back.
21) "The door is naturally open," Sarkozy's top lieutenant, Brice Hortefeux, said Monday on France-Inter radio, adding that he felt Sarkozy best embodies the values of the center. But he said that Sarkozy and his governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, would appeal directly to voters.
22) Royal's spokesman, Arnaud Montebourg, appealing to Bayrou's voters, argued that the Socialists "exactly" reflect "this project of sustainable political compromise to relaunch France."
23) The new president faces tough challenges: France is still haunted by 2005 riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighborhoods. Decades of stubbornly high unemployment, increasing competition from economies like China's and a sense of diminishing world influence made this a passionate campaign. Royal and Sarkozy have written different recipes to get France back on its feet.
24) Sarkozy would loosen labor laws and cut taxes to invigorate the sluggish economy. Royal would increase government spending and preserve generous worker protections.
25) The poor score of Le Pen reflected in part Sarkozy's success in wooing anti-immigrant far-right voters to his camp, a blatant bid made by dangling proposals like creation of a ministry of immigration and national identity.
26) Two soundings made after Sunday's vote gave the advantage in the runoff to Sarkozy. The CSA poll of 1,005 people gave the conservative candidate 53.5 percent and Royal 46.5 percent. An IFOP poll credited Sarkozy with 54 percent and Royal with 46 percent. In each case, the margin of error, not provided, would be plus or minus three percentage points.


Royal and Sarkozy court center in fight for French presidency
(APW_ENG_20070423.1199)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy on the right and Segolene Royal on the left lay chase Monday for the electorate that could decide which of them reaches the French presidency: voters who deserted them for the political middle, championed by outsider Francois Bayrou.
2) He didn't make the runoff but his strong third-place showing in Sunday's first round means he could be the kingmaker if he throws his support behind tough-talking conservative Sarkozy or Royal, seeking to be France's first woman president.
3) Royal, who had dismissed calls for an alliance with Bayrou before Sunday's first round of voting, reached out to him Monday, saying she was "available" for an open, public dialogue with him. She said she had left a message on Bayrou's cell phone about it.
4) "It is my responsibility to make this overture," she told supporters at a rally in the southeastern city of Valence. "I'm awaiting a response."
5) Sarkozy, who courted the far right during his campaign and is widely criticized for his abrasive language, sought to soften his image Monday to appeal to voters in the middle, casting himself as "the candidate of openness."
6) "Openness of spirit is being able to take into consideration the positions of others, the ability to think that others might be right," he told voters at a rally Monday in eastern Dijon.
7) Sarkozy, a Hungarian immigrant's son whose tough stance on immigration has enraged many, said he aimed to create a "fraternal Republic where everyone would find his place."
8) Sarkozy headed into the runoff with a strong five-point advantage and a large pool of votes on the far right that should back him in the runoff.
9) But a combative Royal insisted Monday that it's not over yet. "It's doable," she said.
10) The two are dynamic and divisive, and revived the French appetite for democracy that 12 unimpressive years under Jacques Chirac had dulled. The remarkable 84 percent turnout in Sunday's vote tops the usual European range from 50 to 80 percent -- and was well above the 60 percent turnout when U.S. President George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004.
11) A feeling that Chirac's departure offered an opportunity for change for a country grappling with unrest in poor neighborhoods and a stagnant economy drove many to the ballot boxes. So, too, did a desire to avoid a repeat of the shame many felt when far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the runoff in 2002 on a record-low turnout of 72 percent.
12) Le Pen lost, but the experience reminded voters that their ballots count. This year, voters handed Le Pen a weak fourth place, his second-worst score in five tries at the presidency.
13) Definitive results Monday showed Sarkozy with 31.18 percent of Sunday's vote and Royal with 25.87 percent. Bayrou had 18.57 percent and Le Pen 10.44 percent.
14) Already two polls suggested that Sarkozy would win the next round.
15) That means Bayrou's votes are crucial for Royal. Bayrou's appeal to transform a political system that has pitted left against right since the French Revolution struck a chord with many voters, who blame the traditional parties for France's woes.
16) "Bayrou has the keys in his hands," said Jean Chiche, an analyst with IFOP, the polling firm.
17) "There are very few 'extra troops' so to speak for Segolene Royal," said political analyst Dominique Moisi. "The only thing she can dream for is to turn this election into a referendum against the personality of Nicolas Sarkozy."
18) Sarkozy appeared to move in on Royal's territory, evoking the nurturing themes that are her stock during a visit Monday to a women's shelter.
19) "I want to take charge of suffering," he said. "A country, for me, is like a family."
20) Sarkozy got a boost from Royal's former economics adviser, Eric Besson, who quit his job saying the candidate was unfit to govern. Besson threw his weight behind Sarkozy, formally endorsing him Sunday.
21) Both Sarkozy and Royal, a military officer's daughter, are in their 50s and offer France a new generation of politics with no memory of World War II.
22) They drew tens of thousands of young new militants to their parties. They've used the Internet as an integral part of their campaign. They've courted rock stars and celebrities.
23) To secure the Socialist nomination, Royal skirted the party apparatus and the heavyweights -- all men -- who have dominated it by reaching out directly to supporters. She opened a Web site and encouraged people to come forth with ideas and complaints to be incorporated and addressed in her manifesto.
24) The two finalists are to spar in a televised debate, a tradition between rounds -- but skipped by Chirac in 2002, who refused a debate with Le Pen. The proposed May 2 date for the debate remained unconfirmed.
25) The new president inherits a France still haunted by 2005 riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighborhoods, decades of stubbornly high unemployment, increasing competition from economies like China's and a sense of diminishing world influence.
26) Two soundings made after Sunday's vote gave the advantage in the runoff to Sarkozy. The CSA poll of 1,005 people gave the conservative candidate 53.5 percent and Royal 46.5 percent. An IFOP poll credited Sarkozy with 54 percent and Royal with 46 percent. In each case, the margin of error, not provided, would be plus or minus three percentage points.


Love lives of France ' s would-be presidents prove that traditional marriage is out of style
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1) Presidential candidate Segolene Royal is not married, and if she wins, her romantic partner plans to scorn the trappings of life as France's "first gentleman;" he swears he will not even live in the official Elysee Palace.
2) Conservative contender Nicolas Sarkozy's marriage has been tabloid fodder. It was love at first sight when he fell for his second wife -- at her wedding to someone else. During Sarkozy's run for the presidency, she left him for a while, and paparazzi photographed her hand-in-hand with another man.
3) No matter who wins the May 6 runoff, these are times of change for the dusty institutions of the French presidency. The election will shift power from 74-year-old Jacques Chirac to one of two people born after World War II.
4) The French seem no longer to want a father figure in the Elysee: Gallant, hand-kissing Chirac now seems old-fashioned. Royal and Sarkozy both carry iPods and won endorsements from rappers. Sarkozy, 52, jogs. Royal, 53, was photographed at the beach in a turquoise bikini.
5) In an image-conscious race, both have modern relationships that many voters can relate to. Cecilia Sarkozy and Royal's partner, Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande, have made clear they will not give up their dreams and happiness for the presidency, said Christine Clerc, author of a book about presidential couples, "Tigres et tigresses" (Tigers and Tigresses).
6) "Sacrifice is no longer in style," Clerc says.
7) Royal could be France's first woman president and its first unmarried leader. Already, she and Hollande are the most powerful couple in politics -- raising questions about how they would juggle their roles.
8) Royal has said she does not consider herself bound by Hollande's policy proposals, and they publicly quarreled about a tax increase. He says he is not sure he would accept a post in her government -- if she offered one.
9) Any presidential ambitions Hollande may have had were thwarted when polls made it clear Royal was more popular. People poke fun by calling him "Monsieur Royal," but he has kept his sense of humor.
10) Asked in November if he wanted the title "first gentleman," Hollande said being the Socialist leader was enough for him. He also said he would not live in the presidential palace, whether or not Royal decides to. It is unclear what their four children, born from 1984 to 1992, would decide.
11) In a country where the standard greeting is kisses on the cheek, Hollande and Royal were photographed shaking hands in March -- a snapshot that raised eyebrows. Royal denied rumors of separation in a book of interviews released last month. "Yes, we are still together, and yes, we still live together," she said in "Maintenant" ("Now").
12) Royal says they did not need marriage to prove their love -- a common sentiment in today's France, where nearly half of babies are born out of wedlock.
13) Sarkozy's relationship with his wife got off to an inauspicious start. He fell for Cecilia Ciganer Albeniz when, as the mayor of a Paris suburb, he officiated at her 1984 wedding to Jacques Martin, a TV personality, according to Catherine Nay's Sarkozy biography, "Un Pouvoir nomme desir" (A Power Named Desire).
14) Sarkozy was married to his first wife, Marie, at the time; the bride was pregnant with her new husband's baby. Sarkozy, smitten anyway, made sure the couples became friends.
15) But the friendship dissolved during a ski trip four years later, as Nay recounts. Nicolas Sarkozy's first wife, looking for her husband, purportedly found his telltale footprints in the snow -- below Cecilia's window.
16) Nicolas and Cecilia divorced their respective spouses and married each other, having a son together in addition to children from other marriages. For several years she worked in her husband's ministries and helped organize his party rallies, a job that put her in contact with French events organizer Richard Attias.
17) The story of the Sarkozys' rocky marriage broke in 2005, when glamorous Mrs. Sarkozy appeared on the cover of Paris Match magazine in photos showing her strolling with Attias in Manhattan. The press chronicled the Sarkozys' separation in detail -- including Mr. Sarkozy's association with a political journalist while his wife was away.
18) In his book, "Temoignage" (Testimony), Sarkozy said the separation was the hardest trial of his life. The saga was a sign of politicians' growing frankness about their personal lives -- and voters' curiosity about them -- in a country where the existence of late President Francois Mitterrand's mistress and illegitimate daughter was a secret throughout his presidency.
19) Since Cecilia Sarkozy's unexplained return, she has stayed behind the scenes, while rumors have swirled on the Internet about another separation. Many wondered if Nicolas Sarkozy would enter the Elysee as a single man.
20) Then, during Sunday's first-round presidential balloting, Cecilia put an end to the gossip -- at least for now -- by turning up at her husband's side.


Bayrou plots how best to use kingmaker potential in French politics
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1) Centrist leader Francois Bayrou, knocked out of the first round of presidential elections but still a key player, was plotting Tuesday how best to use his kingmaker potential to put a new face on French politics.
2) He faced a tricky exercise in keeping his diverse electorate behind him, however, as lawmakers deserted his centrist party to back conservative election front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy.
3) Bayrou, a one-time farmer, shot to a strong third place behind Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal in Sunday's first-round after campaigning on a mission to reconcile the left-right divide that dates to the French Revolution.
4) He held a closed-door meeting Tuesday with lawmakers from his Union for French Democracy, or UDF, about what to tell his supporters Wednesday, when he said he would announce his future plans.
5) Both Sarkozy and Royal are courting the nearly 7 million voters who backed Bayrou in the first round, though Bayrou has said his electorate was not for sale.
6) Following the meeting, UDF lawmaker Maurice Leroy hinted that overtures by Royal -- who had dismissed calls for an alliance with Bayrou before Sunday's first round of voting -- might prove too little, too late.
7) "In matters of love, the best things are demonstrations of love," Leroy said. "We haven't had many of those" from Royal's camp, he said.
8) On Wednesday, Bayrou could help seal the remaining two candidates' fates by telling his supporters to vote for either the left or right in the May 6 runoff. That kingmaker role has in the past gone to extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who on Sunday finished a poor fourth.
9) More likely, however, Bayrou will announce the formation of a new party of social democrats for voters who have become frustrated with France's mainstream left and right and who would back a third way in June legislative elections.
10) Sarkozy and Royal have starkly different plans for reviving the economy and boosting France's global profile, after 12 lackluster years under President Jacques Chirac.
11) Bayrou's backers may not listen to his advice, though, as many voted for him Sunday out of protest against the mainstream candidates.
12) Education Minister Gilles de Robien, a centrist who supports Sarkozy, said Tuesday that "more than a dozen" of the 29 lawmakers from Bayrou's UDF party in the 577-seat National Assembly had said they would ally with Sarkozy, who placed first in Sunday's first-round vote.
13) "They're coming every day," de Robien said on France-Inter.
14) UDF has long allied with the mainstream right in parliament and joined conservative governments. However, Bayrou leaned left during this campaign and polls have shown that his voters are divided between Royal and Sarkozy.
15) Royal, in particular, needs Bayrou's backers. She got 25.9 percent of the vote Sunday while Sarkozy took nearly 31.2 percent. She can count on support in the final round from some backers of some extreme-left candidates but that would not be enough to clinch the presidency.
16) "I call on all those who share my values, whatever their leaning, to come together," she told some 9,000 supporters at a rally in the southern city of Montpellier.
17) Asked whether she would consider appointing UDF politicians to ministerial posts if elected, she responded, "of course."
18) Sarkozy met Tuesday with the man who coordinated Bayrou's platform, lawmaker Pierre Albertini.
19) The meeting "demonstrates that voters of Francois Bayrou are closer to Nicolas Sarkozy and his project than that of Segolene Royal," Sarkozy spokeswoman Rachida Dati said.
20) Sarkozy insisted he would not enter into a pact that "goes against my convictions."
21) "I will respect everyone, but don't ask me to change," Sarkozy told about 7,000 voters in the northern town of Le Grand-Quevilly.
22) He criticized Royal for chasing centrist votes as even she reaches out to the far-left. Royal "is negotiating with the extreme left, with Trotskyists, with Communists, with the Greens. She dreams of negotiating with the center," he said. "In the end, she is going to make everyone angry."
23) Sarkozy and Royal also are looking to assure a parliamentary majority in the June parliamentary elections.
24) Bayrou has talked about forming a "party of democrats" but, if Sarkozy bleeds him of lawmakers, he could find himself empty-handed, with hopes of a new political landscape dashed.
25) UMP lawmaker Pierre Lellouche suggested that UMP would seek revenge during legislative elections over UDF lawmakers who remain faithful to Bayrou.
26) "Those who set themselves up against Nicolas Sarkozy will take the consequences," he said.
27) Sarkozy and Royal will face off in a televised debate May 2.


Report: French presidential hopeful Sarkozy calls EU constitution ' dead '
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1) The European Union constitution is "dead," and the 27-country bloc needs a president to work better, French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy says in an interview published Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy told Le Monde daily that, after French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in 2005 referendums, Europe should adopt new, stronger rules that allow it to "function better" -- such as setting up the post of EU president.
3) "The Constitution prepared in an excellent way by (former French President) Valery Giscard d'Estaing is dead because the French said 'no' and the Dutch did too," the conservative Sarkozy was quoted as saying.
4) France's rejection of the EU constitution deeply shamed President Jacques Chirac, who had championed it, and effectively buried the document and stalled further European integration.
5) Segolene Royal, the Socialist who is Sarkozy's rival in the May 6 presidential vote, wants to negotiate a new EU treaty and subject it to a referendum. The French remain deeply divided over the EU's future.
6) Sarkozy said it would be "madness" to hold a new French referendum. He wants Europe to postpone the most controversial issues and adopt a new, simpler constitution through national parliaments by 2009.
7) Sarkozy said in the interview that he favored instituting a "modified unanimity" policy that would let member states defend their national interests, but not slow down decision-making by others.
8) Pierre Lellouche, a lawmaker in Sarkozy's conservative party who advises him on international affairs, told The Associated Press in an interview that Sarkozy's proposal was "the only reasonable and quick way out of the institutional crisis we are in" at the EU.
9) "He had the courage to say -- 'Let's take the points we agree on, get them ratified through parliaments, so that Europe can move forward again,'" Lellouche said.
10) Sarkozy has a slight advantage over Royal in polls.


Potential kingmaker Bayrou refuses to endorse candidate for French presidential runoff
(APW_ENG_20070425.1559)
1) Third-place candidate Francois Bayrou refused on Wednesday to endorse either of the two remaining contenders for the French presidency, abandoning his chance to be the kingmaker in the tense race, but preserving his independence.
2) Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal are fighting over the 7 million voters who supported Bayrou in the first phase of the elections, and who will likely determine who wins the May 6 runoff.
3) But Bayrou, a lawmaker who navigates between left and right and finished a strong third in Sunday's first round, said Wednesday, "I will not give any guidance about how to vote," adding that he did not know himself whom he would choose.
4) "Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal, in the eternal faceoff of the eternal right and the eternal left, will not repair but threaten to worsen" the country's economic, social and political woes, he told a much-awaited news conference.
5) Sarkozy slightly leads polls before the runoff, when voters choose between two starkly different plans for reviving the economy and France's global profile after 12 lackluster years under Jacques Chirac.
6) Bayrou, who has sought to put a new face on French politics by tapping voter frustration with the status quo, lashed out Wednesday at both Sarkozy -- for "intimidating" the populace and threatening France's democracy -- and Royal -- for her plans to hike government spending, which he said would stifle the economic growth France needs.
7) He described his country as "fragile" and "hurting," saying its three chief problems are "a sick democracy, a torn social fabric ... and a country that lacks growth."
8) Bayrou's centrist UDF party has traditionally voted with conservatives in parliament, but Bayrou courted leftists during the campaign, and polls show his voters divided fairly evenly in three: those who support Royal, those who back Sarkozy, and those who will abstain in the runoff.
9) He said both Royal and Sarkozy had phoned him on Monday after the first round but he refused to speak with either, ridiculing them for having ignored him before. He said he was open to "dialogue" with each but remained combative as he savored the spotlight Wednesday.
10) After his announcement, Royal repeated previous calls to hold a public debate with Bayrou, saying the two could square off during an already-scheduled meeting on Friday with members of the French press corps. But Bayrou rebuffed the offer, insisting he wanted their exchange to be televised.
11) Bayrou announced Wednesday that he was forming a new "democratic party," with an eye to legislative elections in June -- and, many predict, to the next presidential election in 2012.
12) Bayrou faced a tricky exercise in keeping his diverse electorate behind him, however, as some UDF lawmakers deserted him Tuesday to back Sarkozy.
13) Bayrou accused Sarkozy's UMP party of exerting pressure on lawmakers in his party, but minimized the defections.
14) "A certain number of them can make the choice to support Nicolas Sarkozy," he said. "It is not up to me to choose in the place of the 7 million voters who voted for me."
15) Bayrou's political future -- and his hopes for a new political landscape -- are at stake. If Sarkozy continues to bleed him of lawmakers, Bayrou could find himself empty-handed or shut out of parliament.
16) Royal, in particular, needs Bayrou's backers. She got 25.9 percent of the vote Sunday while Sarkozy took nearly 31.2 percent.
17) She brusquely dismissed calls for an alliance with Bayrou before Sunday's first round of voting, but said Tuesday night that she could appoint UDF politicians to ministerial posts if she wins the presidency.
18) Some centrists suggested Royal's overtures were too little, too late.
19) Asked if he would consider a role in a Sarkozy or Royal government, he responded, "It's absolutely impossible in the actual situation."
20) Meanwhile Wednesday, extreme-right politician Philippe de Villiers, endorsed Sarkozy. Villiers, who garnered a meager 2.23 percent in Sunday's vote, called on voters to block the left.
21) Two polls published Wednesday had Sarkozy in the lead, though by small margins. TNS-Sofres had Sarkozy at 51 percent and Royal at 49 percent after questioning 1,000 people Monday and Tuesday. Ipsos had Sarkozy with 53.5 percent and Royal with 46.5 percent, after surveying 1,208 people Monday and Tuesday. No margin of error was given.



(APW_ENG_20070425.1646)
1) If elected as France's next president, Nicolas Sarkozy will work with U.S. President George W. Bush but will not follow him blindly, one of the French front-runner's advisers on international affairs said Wednesday.
2) "A lot is going to depend on the ability of the United States to listen, and stop this unilateralism that has been quite counterproductive," Pierre Lellouche, a lawmaker from Sarkozy's conservative party, said in an interview.
3) "We will take the hand that the United States extends toward Nicolas Sarkozy ... on the condition that it is ready for real dialogue, and not only to hurl decisions that we are asked to follow -- because it won't work like that."
4) French-U.S. ties hit a low under outgoing President Jacques Chirac after he led international opposition to the Iraq war. Sarkozy has said he, too, would have kept France out of Iraq. But he is far more pro-American that his challenger, Socialist Segolene Royal, who would become the first woman president of France if elected May 6.
5) Royal on Wednesday reiterated pledges to maintain her distance from the United States.
6) "I don't think Europe should align itself with the United States.... Europe and France want to guarantee a multi-polar world," she said in an interview on France-2 television.
7) "I wouldn't ever tell Bush I was sorry about France's position refusing to send troops to Irak," she said.
8) Sarkozy met Bush in Washington last September, and with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, both in the race to replace Bush in 2008.
9) "If Nicolas is elected, he will have Bush before him for another 1- 1/2 years, so it'll be necessary to work with the president elected by the American people," said Lellouche, before adding: "Bush isn't America."
10) "Sarkozy won't lie down, he's a man who's free in his mind and will defend France's national interest," he said.
11) Sarkozy has not said who his foreign minister will be if he's elected. Lellouche, who accompanied Sarkozy on the trip to the United States, is a possibility. Other defense and diplomacy experts on Sarkozy's team are Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, European Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe and former Foreign Minister Michel Barnier -- all veterans of the Chirac era.
12) In an interview with Le Monde daily published Wednesday, Sarkozy promised "surprises" in his eventual Cabinet, clearly in line with his campaign-trail pledge to break with Chirac's policies and style.
13) Sarkozy has repeatedly taken policy ideas from the United States. As interior minister, he led a "zero tolerance" policy on crime like one by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the 1990s. He favors term limits in France and a French equivalent of the annual State of the Union address to Congress. He hails the American dream of economic opportunity and America's relatively harsher punishment for crimes -- at least compared with that of France.
14) He favors a French-style form of affirmative action to hoist marginalized blacks and Arabs into mainstream society, and supports U.S.-style programs to foster small business development. He recently touted the "French dream" and quoted Martin Luther King.
15) Sarkozy would likely line up with the United States in an array of areas. Generally seen as more pro-Israel than Chirac, he supports Israel's security and favors Palestinian statehood.
16) But Sarkozy opposes Bush's support of Turkey's effort to join the European Union -- in which France is a founding member -- and would likely be cautious about addressing the Iraq war and its fallout.
17) With polls showing that the French are most worried about jobs and the economy, foreign affairs have gotten a short shrift in this year's campaign. But under France's constitution, the president's main jobs are foreign and defense policy.


French pres. front-runner Sarkozy says he may withdraw French troops from Afghanistan
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1) French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy outlined Thursday his stance on key foreign policy issues, saying he may pull France's troops out of Afghanistan, denouncing the United States refusal to cap carbon emissions and proposing to tax imports from China because it too has refused to limit greenhouse gases.
2) Sarkozy also came out in support of Bronislaw Geremek, a Polish European Union lawmaker embroiled in a dispute with Polish authorities over his refusal to declare he did not cooperate with communist-era secret police.
3) Sarkozy, the governing conservatives' candidate, said he supported outgoing President Jacques Chirac's decision to pull 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year. He said he would continue that policy, if elected in the May 6 runoff.
4) "The long-term presence of French troops in that part of the world does not look definitive to me," he said in an interview with France-2 television. Some 1,100 French soldiers are currently part of the 38,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan.
5) Sarkozy, who is known for his pro-American stance, stressed the importance of good relations with the United States, but said he could "not understand" the U.S. government's unwillingness to sign the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse emissions.
6) "The fact the U.S. hasn't signed Kyoto is unacceptable," he said. "Global warming should worry Americans as much as all other countries on earth."
7) He pledged push for an EU-wide tax on goods from countries -- including China -- that have not agreed to mandatory caps on the greenhouse emissions.
8) "Chinese countries have less responsibility to respect the environment that French companies," he said, adding that a tax on Chinese imports would help "level the playing field" between the two countries.
9) He also stated his support for Polish lawmaker Geremek and lashed out at the country's conservative government. Geremek, 75, a former dissident and foreign minister, faces losing his mandate after refusing to comply with a new Polish law requiring him to provide the declaration, saying it is undemocratic.
10) "What's happening today in Poland is very worrisome," Sarkozy said.
11) After having reached out to the extreme-right earlier in the campaign, Sarkozy cast himself as a moderate who would protect France and its workers.
12) Sarkozy and his rival, Socialist Segolene Royal, were both reaching out to voters in the center of France's political spectrum, following a strong third-place showing of centrist Francois Bayrou in last week's first round.
13) Royal, who is bidding to become France's first woman president, agreed Thursday to a televised debate with Bayrou. However, the debate, scheduled for Saturday, appeared to fall through when the television channel pulled out, citing organizational difficulties.
14) Sarkozy, who finished ahead of Royal in the first round and needs fewer of Bayrou's voters than she does, was scornful of the Royal-Bayrou matchup, calling it "a rather ridiculous tragicomedy."
15) Sarkozy and Royal are to face off in their own May 2 televised debate. Sarkozy has said he would not debate with Bayrou -- because he did not qualify for the runoff.


Poll says Sarkozy still has comfortable 6-point lead over Royal
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1) A poll published Friday gave conservative Nicolas Sarkozy a comfortable six-point lead over Socialist Segolene Royal as they headed into the final weekend of campaigning for the French presidency.
2) Sarkozy polled 53 percent compared to 47 percent for Royal in the Ipsos/Dell survey of 1,219 people interviewed Tuesday through Thursday. The margin of error for polls of that size is generally about plus or minus three percentage points.
3) Sarkozy finished well ahead of Royal in the first round vote on Sunday that qualified them for the May 6 runoff. Sarkozy took nearly 31.2 percent of Sunday's vote to 25.9 percent for her.
4) Under French election rules, campaigning must stop next Friday night.


Sarkozy ' s rivals paint him as dangerous, claim he led media crackdown
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1) In his long march toward the French presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy has used fair means and foul to get what he wants. A former ministerial colleague says the tough-talking conservative once even threatened to beat him up during a disagreement.
2) Ten days from France's decisive and pivotal presidential vote, Sarkozy's rival -- Socialist Segolene Royal -- is making his supposed bullying a major campaign issue. She has called him the "bogeyman," "dangerous" and "unstable," and on Friday accused him of clamping down on the media.
3) In sum, the May 6 election could be as much a referendum on Sarkozy's personality as on his platform of economic reform and toughened anti-crime measures. If Royal is to become the first woman president of France, she needs to quickly find some way to weaken Sarkozy: He finished five percentage points ahead of her in last Sunday's first phase of voting, and polls still make him the front-runner with only a week of campaigning left.
4) The result hinges on voters in the middle ground of France's traditional left-right divide, who made farmer's son Francois Bayrou the best-placed loser last Sunday, with nearly 7 million votes.
5) Royal and Sarkozy are both going after Bayrou's voters -- him by cultivating a softer, more humanistic image; she by seeking to organize a televised debate with Bayrou, which Royal hopes might demonstrate to his voters that they are not diametrically opposed politically.
6) But instead of being a simple matter, the Bayrou-Royal debate blew up into a political melodrama when TV station Canal Plus backed out of holding it. Immediately, Sarkozy -- who has powerful friends in the French media and business worlds -- got the blame.
7) Socialist former minister Jack Lang accused Sarkozy's UMP party of "intimidation and blackmail" against Canal Plus.
8) Sarkozy's camp "is trying to control everything through very powerful links to finance and the media," Royal herself said.
9) Canal Plus denied that it bowed to pressure from Sarkozy, and he denied having any role.
10) "It's rather insulting to journalists to think that they could obey orders," Sarkozy said.
11) It was not the first time that Sarkozy has faced accusation of leaning on the press.
12) After Paris Match magazine published photos of Sarkozy's wife in the company of another man in 2005, executive editor Alain Genestar was forced out. Genestar said Sarkozy was behind his dismissal, a charge Sarkozy denied.
13) Another case also involved Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia. Author Valerie Domain's biography was pulled shortly before publication. Mrs. Sarkozy acknowledged in an interview at the time that she asked her husband to intervene to stop its publication, even though she had given Domain an interview.
14) Polls have named Sarkozy as front-runner since the start of the year, but he is a deeply divisive figure. Voters often use the word "scary" to describe him. Part of that is because of his tough language -- famously, he once called young delinquents "scum."
15) The former minister for equal opportunities, Azouz Begag, says in a book published this month that Sarkozy showered him with expletives and shouted, "I'll smash your face!" during a disagreement over a law to limit immigration.
16) Sarkozy accused Begag of lying. "Frankly, he's trying very hard to make himself seem interesting," Sarkozy said.


French presidential election heads into final week with Sarkozy leading in polls
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1) Conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy and his Socialist rival Segolene Royal turned their attention Sunday to this week's face-to-face debate, shaping up as the key showdown in France's presidential race.
2) With a week to go before the May 6 vote and Royal continuing to trail Sarkozy in the polls, the two candidates acknowledged Wednesday's debate is important: Sarkozy likened it to riding up the Alps in the Tour de France.
3) "It's difficult, because I think there have been 200 polls saying that Nicolas Sarkozy is going to win," Royal told Canal Plus television on Sunday. "But voters are free."
4) She said she had been preparing by examining past debates.
5) As the campaign grows more heated, with both sides accusing the other of unfair personal attacks, Royal said the debate will offer "a much clearer confrontation." She tipped her hand about what her debate strategy may be: Calling on Sarkozy to account for his past five years in the Cabinet.
6) "I've taken many blows, I've withstood the shock, and I think he'll have to accept the debate and especially account for his past action ... in the outgoing government," Royal said. Sarkozy served as interior minister and earlier as finance minister.
7) Sarkozy, speaking separately on the same program, rejected persistent recent speculation that debating the first woman with a clear shot at the French presidency could be perilous for him.
8) "This idea amounts to saying that you don't debate with a woman the same way you would a man -- I think it's rather macho," said Sarkozy. "We all talk about how there needs to be equality between the sexes."
9) "When you debate a woman, do you have to speak more softly? Do you make arguments that are weaker?" he added. "For me, women are equally as intelligent, equally hardworking."
10) Sarkozy said Royal "shouldn't be reduced to her femininity," adding "she is a political figure."
11) Sarkozy said he was meeting Sunday with President Jacques Chirac before heading to his last major campaign rally in Paris. Earlier Sunday, Royal visited a medical emergency center south of the capital.
12) The French are eager for change and looking for improved economic fortunes after 12 years under Chirac. The 84-percent turnout for the first round was the highest of its kind in decades.
13) Sarkozy has been looking to regain the limelight after Royal's debate Saturday with centrist former candidate Francois Bayrou, who was a strong third in the April 22 first round. Bayrou didn't endorse her -- nor did she ask him to -- but they spoke cordially about their similarities and differences. The 6.8 million voters who cast ballots for Bayrou in the primary have become pivotal to Royal's hopes of beating Sarkozy.
14) Sarkozy has lashed out at Royal and Bayrou over the unprecedented debate between the No. 2 and No. 3 vote-getters in the first round, and in an interview published Sunday, said their face-off fostered "confusion."
15) "Let's return to Earth! Francois Bayrou didn't qualify for the second round," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in an interview published in Journal du Dimanche weekly.
16) Some far-left supporters of Royal criticized her for reaching across the political divide to meet with Bayrou, who served in a conservative-led Cabinet in the early 1990s, along with Sarkozy.
17) Several lawmakers from Bayrou's party have endorsed Sarkozy.
18) A poll released Sunday by the Ipsos agency put support for Sarkozy at 52.5 percent and Royal at 47.5 percent. The poll of 1,367 registered voters was conducted Thursday, Friday and Saturday. No margin of error was given.


Poll: Centrists favor Royal for French presidency, though Sarkozy still ahead
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1) The centrist voters who hold the key to this weekend's French presidential elections prefer Socialist Segolene Royal over conservative Nicolas Sarkozy -- but not enough to cut into Sarkozy's lead, according to a poll released Monday.
2) With just five days left in the emotionally charged campaign in a restless nation, both candidates have sought to woo the voters who handed centrist lawmaker Francois Bayrou nearly 7 million votes and a strong third place in the first round of voting April 22.
3) Royal, seeking to be France's first woman president, courted the middle-ground vote in a televised debate with Bayrou on Saturday aimed at stressing their similarities, and suggested in a Sunday TV interview that she could offer him the prime minister's job.
4) A poll by TNS-Sofres released Monday projected that 41 percent of Bayrou's voters would choose Royal in Sunday's runoff, compared with 32 percent for Sarkozy.
5) But the overall lead still went to Sarkozy, with 52 percent to Royal's 48 percent. The last TNS-Sofres poll had them at 51-49. Other polls show Royal gaining in recent days but Sarkozy consistently holding the lead, as he has done since January.
6) Royal needs a much larger shift of support from Bayrou's camp to overtake Sarkozy. Bayrou himself has refused to endorse Royal but has fiercely criticized Sarkozy.
7) Both Royal and Sarkozy have promised to get France back on its feet after 12 stagnant years under Jacques Chirac -- but offer starkly different ways of doing that. Sarkozy would loosen labor laws and cut taxes, while Royal would hike government spending and preserve France's generous worker protections.
8) Royal pledged Monday to stage a national conference on economic growth to "reconcile the economic performance and social progress: This is what a modern country is."
9) The poll also showed widespread interest in a Royal-Sarkozy debate Wednesday, with 37 percent of respondents saying it could play a large role in the outcome.
10) If it reflects the recent tone of the campaign, the debate could be a confrontation of personalities as much as politics.
11) Royal has sought to capitalize on an "Anything But Sarkozy" movement grounded in fear that he is too impulsive and emotional for the job as head of state. Sarkozy has played the victim, while his aides have sought to portray Royal as wishy-washy and inexperienced.
12) At Sarkozy's last big Paris rally Sunday, he cast himself as a unifier and pledged to look out for the interests of ordinary citizens and the downtrodden.
13) Royal said Sarkozy's speech held "great violence and great brutality." Speaking Monday on France-2 television, she said, "France needs to be reconciled, to be soothed, the French need to unite to be able to pick themselves up."
14) The poll was conducted Thursday and Friday among 2,000 people nationwide by telephone, so it did not take into account any possible shift in opinion following Royal's weekend overtures to Bayrou. The margin of error would be plus or minus 3 percentage points.


' Don ' t speak to me like that! ' -- TV debate promises sparks for France ' s presidential race
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1) She smiled, then blew her top. "Don't speak to me like that!" thundered Segolene Royal, silencing Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) That was 14 years ago -- the last time they debated face-to-face.
3) The two, now locked in battle for the presidency of France, have long been as incompatible as oil and water, his pugnacious, browbeating verbosity a trigger for Royal's temper and her steely refusal to be talked down to in the male-dominated world of French politics.
4) Their clashing styles, temperaments, politics and proposals for reviving France should guarantee sparks when they meet on Wednesday in their first and last televised debate of a presidential campaign that seems to be heading to a Sarkozy victory on Sunday -- unless the Socialist can turn things around quickly and dramatically.
5) With its expected huge audience, the prime-time evening faceoff offers Royal her best and possibly final chance to bring her conservative rival down a peg or two. It promises high drama for a campaign that has been filled with twists and surprises, energizing voters eager to steer France out of its doldrums.
6) When they debated in a TV studio in 1993 they were both political youngsters. The resulting "don't speak to me like that!" outburst from Royal can now be watched on the Internet. She compared him to a "steamroller" and said, "All the television viewers can see that what you are saying is completely off-base!"
7) But both are formidable talkers, equally combative and prone to override television interviewers who try to butt in. But it would likely require a complete loss of cool, major mistakes or a blatantly misogynistic attack by Sarkozy -- which all seem very unlikely from a now seasoned, media-savvy campaigner -- for Wednesday's debate to significantly boost Royal's chances of being elected the first woman president of France.
8) Polls have for months put Sarkozy ahead and still make him the frontrunner for Sunday. He finished five percentage points ahead of Royal in the first-round vote on April 22, which eliminated the 10 other initial candidates.
9) Polls also show that a large majority of voters are already sure of their choice for the runoff, which does not appear to leave Royal much room to make up lost ground. Even she has started to acknowledge that topping him will be tough. In short, the debate is more Sarkozy's to lose than hers to win.
10) But even if it does not significantly influence the final result, the face-to-face comparison of their platforms could help bring some clarity to issues where Sarkozy and Royal have flip-flopped or been vague as they sought to reach voters beyond their own left-right divide.
11) For Royal, those issues would include France's 35-hour work week, which she has both criticized and praised. Sarkozy, meanwhile, has walked a tightrope between free market ideas and pledges to shield workers from globalization's negative effects, the shifting of jobs to more dynamic and cheaper economies abroad, and "hoodlum bosses" who take off with bloated severance packages amid layoffs.
12) Both candidates are pragmatists, playing to voters who crave but also are worried by change and who are deeply attached to France's generous but expensive social protections. That can make both Royal and Sarkozy hard to pigeon-hole.
13) "This might play on personality, and according to the way each one presents their personality," Etienne Schweisguth, a research director at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, said of the debate.
14) The French did not get a televised runoff duel in the last election in 2002, because incumbent Jacques Chirac refused to debate with extreme-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned France by squeezing into the second round.
15) Of the debates before that, the most memorable was the withering dismantling of Chirac by incumbent Socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1988. Mitterrand essentially accused his rival of lying and put him down with biting sarcasm.
16) Aides of Royal and Sarkozy organized Wednesday's debate down to the smallest detail. The candidates will face off for two hours, seated at a wooden table and filmed by at least eight cameras. They drew lots to see who will sit where. Fittingly, chance put Royal on the left of the TV screen, and Sarkozy on the right.


Le Pen urges supporters not to vote in French presidential election
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1) Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen urged his supporters to abstain from voting in France's presidential runoff Sunday between conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal.
2) Le Pen, speaking at a traditional May Day rally on Tuesday, said he was focusing on next month's two-round parliamentary elections. He placed fourth and was ousted in the April 22 first-round presidential balloting, having received some 3.8 million votes.
3) "I invite voters who trusted me not to cast ballots for Madame Royal or Mr. Sarkozy," Le Pen told at least 5,000 supporters in front of Paris' gilded Opera. "I invite them expressly to abstain massively, reserving themselves for the first round of legislative elections on June 10 and June 17."
4) It was far from certain how Le Pen's announcement could reshape the outcome Sunday, which will determine who runs a country eager for change, sensing economic gloom and feeling adrift in its identity after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac.
5) Centrist leader Francois Bayrou, who was third in the first round and like Le Pen is looking to next month's legislative vote, has not advised his supporters how to vote Sunday -- but he didn't ask them to stay home. On Saturday, Bayrou held an amicable televised debate with Royal, in which they spoke of their differences and similarities.
6) Many marchers who accompanied Le Pen to the Opera house had made up their minds before he spoke, chanting "Neither Sarkozy, nor Royal!" and "Le Pen, president!"
7) Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist who stunned France and much of Europe in 2002 by qualifying for the runoff against incumbent Chirac, acknowledged that he received fewer votes this year largely because Sarkozy made an effort to siphon off his supporters.
8) "It would be illusory and dangerous to vote for the Socialist candidate to avenge Nicolas Sarkozy's hold-up of our program," Le Pen said. "But it also would be insane to hand our votes to a candidate who continues to consider us extremists ... ," he added, referring to Sarkozy.
9) Polls have suggested that Sarkozy, the front-runner, could reap most of the support from Le Pen's voters in the second round. It would have been a huge surprise if he had thrown his backing to Royal.
10) The march organized by Le Pen's National Front party was one of about 250 rallies and demonstrations across France on Tuesday -- most of them led by left-leaning labor unions for the traditional May Day holiday celebration.
11) Unions were expected to turn out in force largely because of concerns that Sarkozy, if elected, would make good on his campaign pledge to require minimum service by workers in public transport during strikes.
12) Sarkozy held to his stance Tuesday, saying he would require three hours of bus and subway service during the morning and evening rush hours. Unions fear such a requirement could deplete their bargaining power against management.
13) "Is it normal when commuters are held hostage by monopoly public services over strikes that don't affect them?" he said on France-2 television.
14) Royal, meanwhile, was preparing what was expected to be a massive campaign rally at a Paris stadium later Tuesday.
15) The latest poll, released Tuesday by the Ipsos agency, put support for Sarkozy at 53 percent, to 47 percent for Royal.
16) Among those who cast ballots for Le Pen in the first round, 61 percent said they would vote for Sarkozy, 15 percent supported Royal, while 24 percent planned to abstain or declined to say whom they would support. However, the poll was carried out before Le Pen issued his order to abstain.
17) The poll of 1,362 registered voters was conducted by telephone Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.


Presidential candidates clash over legacy of France ' s 1968 uprising
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1) Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy blames it for many of France's woes. Socialist Segolene Royal credits it with many of France's freedoms.
2) Both presidential candidates used the 1968 student and worker uprising -- the defining moment in post-war France -- in campaign rallies this week to illustrate the stark choice voters have between left and right in Sunday's runoff. The 1968 protests uprooted the way the French viewed authority, and themselves.
3) Front-runner Sarkozy brought "May '68" to the forefront of the campaign at a huge, high-budget American-style rally Sunday. He railed at length against the "leftist heirs of 1968." The law-and-order former interior minister blamed them and the unrest for a legacy of "cynicism" toward work and society and a sense of entitlement to the generous labor protections that he says are stifling French growth.
4) Royal, at an even bigger campaign concert Tuesday night, stressed what she called the benefits of the 1968 events, in a May Day speech stressing her commitment to those worker protections and the social safety net many French hold dear.
5) "At last ... salaries were raised, unions were recognized, university management was modernized, public liberties were enlarged and women received access to contraception and abortion," Royal said.
6) Royal, lagging in polls in her bid to become France's first female president, has made women's and family issues central to her campaign.
7) "I do not wish for France to reach such a state of blockage that it would provoke, as in May 1968, revolts that blocked everything simply because the powers in place refused to listen and refused to redistribute the riches," she said.
8) France is still grappling with the legacy of the would-be revolution of 1968. It started with protests at a university west of Paris demanding that women be allowed to visit men's dormitory rooms, and vice versa, and quickly intensified into an open revolt that took the stable and prosperous country by surprise.
9) Slogans included "It is forbidden to forbid," "If you meet a cop, smash his face," and "Never Work." Students burned cars, cut down trees with chainsaws and ripped up streets.
10) Trade unions joined in, and 10 million workers went on strike. The anxious government increased the minimum wage by 30 percent, and longtime labor issues were resolved overnight. President Charles de Gaulle announced political reforms.
11) Royal suggested that Sarkozy was out to provoke a repeat of such unrest as an excuse for a police crackdown.
12) "He wants another May 1968 to reimpose order," she said Tuesday.
13) Sarkozy earned enemies as interior minister with harsh language toward youth troublemakers, and Royal has sought to make their presidential race a referendum on Sarkozy's persona.
14) One of the performers at Royal's concert, Michel Delpech, performed a song widely associated with 1968 to widespread cheers from the tens of thousands of spectators -- many born long after that seminal year.
15) Sarkozy stuck to his criticism of '68 after Royal's comments Tuesday. His UMP party noted that Royal declined to end her speech with the national anthem, as she has in the past, calling the move a nod to "the libertarian heritage of May 1968."
16) Sarkozy was 13 years old in May 1968. Biographers have described how the eager young Gaullist had wanted to take part in a large counter-demonstration, but his mother kept him home because he was too young.
17) Royal, who was 14 at the time of the uprising, wondered aloud why Sarkozy was focusing so much on the past.
18) "What fly bit him? May '68 was 40 years ago," she said.


Bitter rivals for France ' s presidency face off in heated television debate
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1) For nigh on two hours, the man who this weekend stands a good chance of becoming France's new president prodded his female challenger -- a little sarcasm here, a comment about her partner there, all wrapped in a veneer of chivalry and always addressing her as "Madame."
2) Finally, in a highly anticipated televised duel on Wednesday night that did not disappoint for high drama, Segolene Royal's cool snapped. The first woman in a position to seriously contest for the presidency of France erupted in anger toward the end of the primetime debate, the first and last between Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy before one of them is elected on Sunday to reinvigorate a nation in the economic doldrums, unsure how to defend its place in the world.
3) On policy, the debate lasting two hours and 40 minutes -- with clocks that ensured that they got a roughly equal say -- produced no major surprises. They disagreed on how to get France's sluggish economy working again, on whether Turkey should get a place in the European Union, on how to safeguard French pensions, on whether taxes should be cut, and even whether China should face the threat of a possible Olympic Games boycott because of its support for the Sudanese government, accused of atrocities in Darfur.
4) But it was a surprise and potentially damaging for Royal that she, not Sarkozy, proved quick to anger. During their long and sometimes bitter election campaign that has energized voters hungry for new direction, Royal, a Socialist, has sought to portray her conservative opponent as too unstable, too brutal, to lead the nuclear-armed nation.
5) On Wednesday night, in front of millions of television viewers, Sarkozy turned the tables. She got furious when he started talking about handicapped children, saying he was "playing" with the issue. "I am very angry," said Royal.
6) "You become unhinged very easily, madame," said Sarkozy. "To be president of the Republic, one must be calm .... I don't know why Mrs. Royal, who's usually calm, has lost her calm."
7) There's long been little love lost between Royal and Sarkozy, both in their fifties and both first-time candidates, but very different in their characters, political outlooks and recipes for reviving France.
8) The televised debate was their first since another heated encounter in a studio during legislative elections 14 years ago. The medium and format highlighted the differences between the two, and sparks flew in the high-pressure, high-stakes situation.
9) Royal, who is behind in polls and needed to score points, came out swinging, criticizing Sarkozy's record as a minister in President Jacques Chirac's government before he became a candidate for the presidency.
10) Sarkozy, the frontrunner who needed most of all to get through the debate unscathed, was often scrupulously polite and resisted rising to Royal's baiting, even after she repeatedly interrupted him.
11) "Will you let me finish?" he asked at one point.
12) "No," said Royal.
13) "Ah," said Sarkozy.
14) She wore a dark jacket; he a suit and tie. But their differences were more than one of style. An immediate bone of contention was France's 35-hour work week -- a landmark reform for Socialists, but decried by business leaders as a crippling brake on companies.
15) Sarkozy wants to get around the 35-hour week by making overtime tax-free, to encourage people to work more. He described the measure, introduced by the Socialists in the 1990s, as a "monumental error," and noted that no other country in Europe has followed France's lead.
16) Royal defended the 35-hour work week as a form of social progress and asked why, if it was so opposed, the government in which Sarkozy served had not gotten rid of the legislation. Repeatedly, she accused Sarkozy -- who served as Chirac's interior and finance minister -- of having failed to improve France while he was in government.
17) "What did you do for five years? Because for five years, you had all the power. There's a credibility problem," she said.
18) He, in turn, suggested that her economic program was unworkable and lacked precision. And he dug at Royal by digging at her partner and the father of their four children, Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande.
19) "I know that Francois Hollande said he doesn't like the rich, which is a strange thing," said Sarkozy, adding Hollande "must not like himself."
20) Sarkozy, who built much of his campaign on a pledge to break with the Chirac era, promised in his concluding remarks not to disappoint, betray or lie to the French if they elect him. Royal urged voters to have the "daring" to elect a woman, citing the example of Angela Merkel in power in neighboring Germany.
21) "I know that for some ... it is not easy to tell oneself that a woman can shoulder the highest responsibilities," she said. "Others do it elsewhere in the world."
22) The live duel was expected to draw 20 million viewers or more, and voters have turned out in huge numbers to pick a new president after 12 lackluster years under Chirac.
23) Sarkozy and Royal were the last two candidates standing after the April 22 first round in which Sarkozy won 31.2 percent and Royal had 25.9 percent, with 10 rival candidates across the political spectrum knocked out of the race.
24) Royal's underdog bid had gathered some momentum recently.
25) She outdid Sarkozy on Tuesday with a larger rally in Paris than one he had over the weekend. Also Tuesday, far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who placed fourth with nearly 4 million votes, urged his supporters to abstain Sunday. Polls show his voters were more likely to back Sarkozy than Royal, and it could cut into Sarkozy's support if they stay home en masse.
26) The last head-to-head televised presidential debate, pitting Chirac against Socialist Lionel Jospin in 1995, drew 17 million viewers. Chirac won the first of his two terms that year. In 2002, he refused to debate Le Pen, who stunned much of France by ousting Jospin and other contenders in the first round.


After pivotal debate, Sarkozy maintains edge over Royal in French presidential race
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1) Presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy said months of campaigning have made him think of France as a person. Rival Segolene Royal called herself a free woman and said victory was within reach.
2) Both held their last big rallies Thursday ahead of Sunday's vote that will elect one of them as France's new leader, rallying voters in opposite ends of the country -- Royal in the north, Sarkozy in the south.
3) A day earlier, they passed their final big hurdle, their only prime time TV debate of the race. With Sarkozy, the conservative, more pro-market candidate, in a clear lead, the debate was Socialist Royal's last chance to convince undecided voters that her recipe for France's problems -- more state aid and social protections -- is the right course, and that she should become the first woman president of France.
4) She went on the offensive, criticizing Sarkozy's record as former interior minister, repeatedly interrupting him and revealing a rarely seen angry side of a candidate known for smiles and optimism.
5) Some voters admired that fighting spirit, while others felt she went too far.
6) A survey published Thursday by the Opinionway agency said 53 percent of those polled after the debate found Sarkozy the most convincing, while 31 percent preferred Royal. It suggested the debate only slightly affected voters' opinions.
7) But the survey was Internet-based and did not take into account the large segment of the population without Internet access. The Socialist Party said the poll was biased and that it would take the issue to the national polling commission.
8) The debate drew more than 20 million viewers, showing how impassioned France's 44.5 million registered voters are about this election.
9) In comparison, a 1995 debate between conservative Jacques Chirac and Socialist Lionel Jospin drew 17 million viewers. During the 2002 election, there was no debate because Chirac refused to sit down with his opponent in the runoff, far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen.
10) "I didn't like Segolene's fit of anger," said Caroline Leva, a 48-year-old Sarkozy supporter. "One doesn't do that, and Mr. Sarkozy didn't say anything at all to warrant this type of anger."
11) On Thursday night, both Sarkozy and Royal urged their supporters to make a final push before Sunday.
12) "The victory that we want so much, that we desire so much for France, that victory is at hand," Royal told some 25,000 supporters in Lille in the north. She urged voters to cast their ballot for a woman, calling it "the audacious choice."
13) "Women's time has come," she said. "Dare!"
14) At his rally in Montpellier, in the south, Sarkozy spoke of his love for France, saying he had come to think of France as a person: "I campaigned only for her." Supporters interrupted him with cries of "We will win!"
15) Earlier Thursday, Sarkozy complained that he found Royal too combative in the TV debate.
16) "I think she was trying to be pugnacious but at times she was too aggressive," he said in an interview on France-3 television. He said she had got her numbers wrong during a heated exchange about handicapped children.
17) Royal, a former environment minister, defended her tough style, telling France-Inter radio, "You can never go too much on the offensive when it comes to defending convictions and values."
18) Sarkozy was generally polite in the debate, referring to Royal as "Madame." But he did take a few sarcastic jabs.
19) "You become unhinged very easily, Madame," said Sarkozy. "To be president of the republic, one must be calm. ... I don't know why Mrs. Royal, who's usually calm, has lost her cool."
20) The Socialist has sought to portray her conservative rival as too unstable and too brutal to lead France. Sarkozy's camp, meanwhile, says Royal's ideas are fuzzy and that she does not have enough experience.
21) Centrist leader Francois Bayrou, who finished a strong third place in the first round of voting April 22 and whose nearly 7 million middle-ground voters are crucial to Sunday's outcome, said after the debate that he wouldn't vote for Sarkozy.
22) Bayrou did not say whether he would vote for Royal or abstain in the runoff, but he told Le Monde newspaper that Royal did "pretty well" in the debate. Bayrou's voters are split between the two candidates.
23) Bruno Mees, a 61-year-old who voted Bayrou last month, said he remained undecided between the remaining candidates.
24) "Sarkozy was a bit macho, and when he said 'you're losing your cool,' it wasn't very elegant," Mees said.
25) Royal, meanwhile, was "very much on the left yesterday, in her discourse and her formulas," Mees said. "I don't think she'll attract many centrist voters like that."
26) In the April 22 first round vote, Sarkozy won 31.2 percent and Royal had 25.9 percent, with 10 rival candidates across the political spectrum knocked out of the race.
27) An opinion poll released Thursday by Le Parisien daily and i-tele channel suggested Sarkozy would win Sunday's second round with 53 percent compared with 47 percent for Royal. Sarkozy was up by one percentage point from April, while Royal fell by the same amount, the CSA-Cisco polling agency said. The sounding was conducted by telephone interviews Thursday with 1,005 registered voters.


Many in poor French neighborhoods fear unrest if former top cop Sarkozy elected president
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1) French police are bracing for violence on Sunday evening in poor suburbs where youths rioted with police for three weeks in 2005 if tough-talking conservative Nicolas Sarkozy is elected as the country's new president.
2) Polls show Sarkozy leading Socialist Segolene Royal and on Friday she joined the array of voices expressing concern that his victory could inflame the country. Sarkozy's team criticized such claims as fear-mongering.
3) Once France's top cop, Sarkozy is loathed by many black and Arab youths for calling troublemakers in immigrant-dominated neighborhoods "scum" and vowing to clean them up with a power sprayer in 2005. A three-week wave of rioting, car burnings and clashes between youths and police erupted later that year.
4) The Interior Ministry, which Sarkozy headed until late March, is on watch for a possible replay of violence if he wins, officials said.
5) "The ministry is expecting something. Its breadth is immeasurable -- no one wants to fall into the rumor trap -- but there certainly will be something," said a police official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
6) Authorities in the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris -- the epicenter of the 2005 rioting -- are refusing officers' requests for days off on Sunday: It's all-hands-on-desk, an official said. Another said riot police reinforcements were being readied for the Paris area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
7) Paris police and the national police declined comment about their preparations or whether they had information about a possible outbreak of violence.
8) Many French praise Sarkozy's crackdown against crime after becoming interior minister in 2002. But many immigrants and their French-born children in housing projects complain it also engendered frequent identity-card checks by police -- even of honest citizens -- and fostered a sense of discrimination.
9) Christophe Soullez, a criminologist at the regional office of the Interior Ministry's National Crime Office, said many troublemakers fear Sarkozy, as president, could continue to crack down on drug dealers, and will not reinstate neighborhood police programs sought by his critics on the left.
10) "There could be sporadic incidents in some neighborhoods," said Soullez. "I don't expect an explosion -- it's not in the interest of the people who live there because it will curse them, and stigmatize them."
11) AC-Le-Feu, a non-violent community group created after the riots in the town of Clichy-sous-Bois, where the violence first broke out, said they were on guard, too.
12) "If Mr. Sarkozy is president ... naturally there's a risk of tensions," association member Mamadou Kanoute told AP Television News. "It's not easy to live through when everything is burning."
13) Royal said Friday that she felt a "responsibility to raise the alert about the risks of this candidacy and the violence and brutality that will be set off in the country. Everyone knows it but no one says it. It is a kind of taboo."
14) Sarkozy's office countered that such talk was inappropriate.
15) "Madame Royal is not going to convince the French people to vote for her by trying to scare them or by firing off personal invective," Sarkozy's office said in a statement.


France ' s Royal warns of violence if rival Sarkozy elected president
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1) Socialist Segolene Royal warned of violence if her tough-talking rival Nicolas Sarkozy wins the French presidency, in a last-ditch bid to save her flagging campaign before Sunday's runoff.
2) With final polls saying Sarkozy has increased his lead, Royal has sought to portray him as too unstable and too brutal to lead France. She noted his harsh comments about delinquents shortly before 2005 suburban riots, when he was interior minister, and his crackdowns on criminals and immigrants.
3) "The choice of Nicolas Sarkozy is a dangerous choice, I do not want France to be oriented toward a system of brutality," Royal said on RTL radio Friday.
4) Royal, trying to become the country's first female president, said she felt a "responsibility to launch an alert about the risks of this candidacy and the violence and brutality that will be set off in the country. Everyone knows it but no one says it. It is a kind of taboo."
5) Sarkozy's camp, meanwhile, says Royal's ideas are fuzzy and that she does not have enough experience.
6) Three polls published Friday suggested that Sarkozy strengthened the lead he has commanded for months, giving him a winning margin of between 6 and 9 percentage points. The solid figures for Sarkozy suggested that he emerged the victor from the candidates' much-watched televised debate Wednesday, their only face-to-face encounter in the campaign.
7) Sarkozy and Royal offer voters starkly different solutions for France's lethargic economy, declining voice in world affairs and tensions in neglected housing projects that erupted in riots by largely minority youth in 2005. Both candidates are in their fifties, meaning France on Sunday is guaranteed to get its first president with no memory of World War II.
8) If elected, Sarkozy says he would loosen labor laws to make the stagnant economy more competitive worldwide -- a formula that risks street protests by a populace deeply attached to its generous social protections. He promises to cut taxes, but also assert the state's interest in industrial giants.
9) Sarkozy would be the first child of an immigrant in the Elysee Palace -- his father fled Hungary's communists after World War II -- but would close France's doors to many new immigrants.
10) He would also crack down on teen criminals and repeat offenders.
11) Police are quietly keeping watch for possible unrest Sunday night in France's poor, predominantly immigrant neighborhoods if Sarkozy is elected. Community associations say they fear an outbreak of anti-Sarkozy unrest, such as the burning of cars that marked the riots, on election night.
12) Earlier this week, Royal even suggested the country was risking civil war.
13) "There are so many things to do so that France does not revolt, doesn't take off in a civil war, so that the French do not rebel one against the other," she said.
14) On Friday, Royal shrugged off her low poll numbers, noting that some voters were still undecided.
15) "There is still hope," Royal said during a final campaign tour in Lorient in western France. "When I hear the right say that the goose is cooked, I find that indecent."
16) "It's up to you to decide, not the polls," she said in a final appeal to voters.
17) At midnight Friday, the candidates and polling agencies must fall silent, to give voters a day of reflection before election stations open Sunday morning.
18) In an interview with the daily Le Parisien published Friday, Royal said Sarkozy has "the same neo-conservative ideology" as U.S. President George W. Bush. "He mimics the American president's technique of compassionate conservatism," which she described as pretending to care but failing to act when people are suffering.
19) Sarkozy has openly praised many things about the United States. Still, Sarkozy calls the Iraq war "a historic error" and suggests import taxes on countries, such as the United States, that don't respect the Kyoto accords on global warming.
20) Sarkozy gently mocked Royal for being glum Friday and called her Bush comments "extreme."
21) "She is not in a good mood this morning, it must be the polls," he said on Europe-1 radio. "Since she feels the ground giving way beneath her feet, it's a classic phenomenon: She tenses up, she stiffens, she shows her true nature."
22) Clearly confident, Sarkozy did not predict Sunday's outcome but said, "I am waiting serenely for the French people's choice."
23) The candidates held low-key events Friday after their last big rallies Thursday night and their fiery, combative debate Wednesday.
24) A poll taken Thursday by CSA-Cisco said Sarkozy had 53 percent to Royal's 47 percent. Two others had Sarkozy strengthening his lead slightly: TNS-Sofres had Sarkozy at 54.5 percent and Royal at 45.5 percent after a survey Thursday. Another sounding, by Ipsos on Wednesday and Thursday, showed Sarkozy at 54 percent and Royal at 46 percent.
25) All three polls were conducted by telephone among pools of 1,000 to 1,400 people. The margin of error for all three would be about 3 percentage points.


French runoff pits pugnacious conservative Sarkozy vs. steely Socialist Royal
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1) A look at the two rivals fighting for France's presidency in Sunday's runoff election:
2) NICOLAS SARKOZY
3) Sarkozy says he is destined to become France's president. His many enemies deeply fear that fate.
4) The conservative front-runner's rigorous language, pledge of "rupture" with the past and pro-American posture have captivated fans hungry for decisiveness and change. But his invective against delinquents and uncompromising attitude have incensed opponents.
5) Sarkozy's rise marks the first time a child of an immigrant has made it this close to the French presidency -- his father fled Hungary's encroaching communists after World War II -- yet some of Sarkozy's fiercest critics are minorities of immigrant background.
6) The 52-year-old ex-interior minister is despised by many black and Arab youth in dreary housing projects that exploded in riots in 2005, and that he has pledged to clean up with a power hose. The anger over discrimination, joblessness and alienation that drove those riots will be a key challenge for the next president.
7) Critics question how the often hotheaded Sarkozy would lead a country proud of its cool-headed diplomacy. Dubbed "Sarko the American" by critics, he says France and the United States share democratic kinship -- but insists his nuclear nation is "nobody's vassal."
8) Sarkozy has acknowledged an unhappy childhood in a broken home, and drew motivation from feeling like an outsider with a foreign-sounding name. From an early age, he dreamed of the presidency. He once told a biographer, "I don't want to be president. I must be president."
9) A skilled orator and media-savvy political operator, Sarkozy preaches a by-the-bootstraps optimism that has resonated for millions who want to pull France out of its economic gloom.
10) "The French don't work enough," he says, repeatedly. He would make it easier for companies to hire and fire, and cut taxes and payroll fees.
11) Detractors on the left say Sarkozy is too cozy with top French executives at a time of widespread fear about job security. But he's no ruthless free-market reformer, and as finance minister, he proved unafraid to intervene in the economy.
12) Sarkozy has reached out to minorities and supports a kind of affirmative action, but during the campaign he leaned far right with calls for a new Ministry of Immigration and National Identity. As France's top cop, Sarkozy deported thousands of illegal immigrants and led anti-crime and counterterrorism bills through parliament.


French presidential race offers a clear left-right choice
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1) France's presidential election Sunday is a ground-breaker -- a choice between an immigrant's son and an army officer's daughter, each offering a radically different vision of how to put a dispirited nation back on track.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal are both mavericks who changed the rules of French politics and energized an electorate hungry for change. Their rise marks a generational shift, because whoever wins will be the nation's first president born after World War II.
3) Of three final polls, taken Wednesday and Thursday, two gave Sarkozy the lead and one put them neck and neck.
4) Sarkozy, a conservative, wants to free up labor markets, make the French work longer hours and whip them into shape for the global marketplace, but also protect them from globalization's worst excesses. Royal is the Socialist Party candidate who would save France's generous welfare system from the lash of Sarkozy's "neoconservative ideology."
5) Both have ideas for restoring national self-confidence, which lately has been battered by economic decline, unrest in France's immigrant slums, and shrinking clout in the new, united Europe which France once sought to lead.
6) Sarkozy does not hide his admiration for the United States, and Royal uses this to paint him as the yes man of American capitalism. Sarkozy calls the Iraq invasion a mistake. Royal calls it a catastrophe.
7) But France's perennial frictions with Washington never came up in the candidates' only debate, on Wednesday. Domestic affairs dominated the often peppery exchanges.
8) On Saturday, voters were casting ballots in France's overseas territories, from the wind-swept islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Canada's northeastern coast, to Martinique in the Caribbean, to French Polynesia in the Pacific. No results were to be released until polls close Sunday in mainland France.
9) Whoever is elected will face tough problems: Unemployment is stuck above 8 percent, and the economy has stagnated at around 1.5 percent annual growth in the last five years. Youths in housing projects burned cars for three weeks in 2005, awakening France to the problem of a deeply discontented immigrant underclass.
10) Street protests flared in March last year, this time against an effort to loosen hiring-and-firing rules in the labor market.
11) During President Jacques Chirac's 12 years in office, little reform was accomplished. What happens in the post-Chirac era matters deeply to the public, judging by voter engagement.
12) Turnout in the April 22 first-round vote was an unusually high 84 percent. And the two candidates, nicknamed Sarko and Sego, exemplify the feeling that a turning point has been reached.
13) Both are rebels who broke their parties' molds. Both are self-made. Sarkozy says his foreign roots -- his father is Hungarian -- hindered his ascent. Royal, an unmarried mother of four, says her gender hindered hers.
14) The resemblance stops there.
15) Sarkozy calls France's 35-hour work week "an absurdity," and he wants to make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Aged 52, he is the law-and-order candidate who, as interior minister, cracked down on drunk driving, crime and illegal immigration, and who promises tougher sentencing for repeat offenders.
16) He is intense, ambitious and blunt. In a nation that treasures wine with its meals, he is a nondrinker. He is outspoken. Visiting a crime-ridden housing project in 2005, he called young delinquents "scum" and refused to apologize. He wants to create a "Ministry of Immigration and National Identity," an idea that French liberals find sinister.
17) Royal, 53, is already "Madame la Presidente" of the western French region she governs. A former environment minister, she often wears white. On the campaign trail she often talked about her four children, and appealed to women to vote for her because she is female. She wants to raise the minimum wage, create 500,000 state-funded starter jobs for youths and build 120,000 subsidized housing units a year. But she has had trouble convincing economists that France can afford it.
18) Where Sarkozy has talked of France needing a "rupture" with its welfarist ways, Royal believes the system is basically sound but needs fine-tuning.
19) Royal's camp says Sarkozy is too brutal to be president; Sarkozy's camp says her platform is fuzzy and her grasp of foreign affairs is too weak to lead a nuclear-armed nation.
20) In a fascinating race, full of twists and surprises, Wednesday's 2 1/2 hour debate was a high point.
21) Royal came out fighting in her last big chance to win over undecided voters, interrupting Sarkozy and attacking his record. Sarkozy tried to stay polite. When he demanded that Royal calm down and stop pointing her finger at him, she retorted: "No, I will not calm down! I will not calm down!"
22) On Friday, the last day campaigning was allowed, Royal pulled out all the stops, warning that riots could break out again if Sarkozy is elected. Sarkozy retorted: "She is not in a good mood this morning, it must be the polls."


Voters on tiny islands off northeast Canada kick off French presidential voting
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1) Voters on two small wind-swept islands off northeast Canada were the first to vote Saturday in France's presidential election, choosing between conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal a day before voters in mainland France.
2) Just under 5,000 people on Saint Pierre and Miquelon -- cold, misty fishing islands settled by the French in the 1600s -- are eligible to cast ballots. Voters in France's other overseas holdings, from French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean to French Polynesia in the Pacific, were also voting Saturday.
3) Polls published Friday gave Sarkozy the lead over Royal in the race to succeed conservative Jacques Chirac. No electoral results will be published until after polls close Sunday in France at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT.)
4) If elected, Sarkozy, 52, says he would loosen labor laws to make the stagnant economy more competitive worldwide. Royal, 53, would be France's first woman leader if she wins. She wants to maintain generous welfare programs and raise minimum wage by 20 percent.
5) Sarkozy and Royal stayed out of the public eye Saturday. By French law, campaigning stopped Friday at midnight to give France's 44.5 million voters time for reflection.
6) No polls or interviews can be published Saturday, and Le Parisien newspaper was forced to pull an interview with Sarkozy from its Saturday print edition. Instead, the paper ran a huge ad urging people to read the interview on its Web site, where it was posted late Friday.
7) In it, Sarkozy fired back at Royal, who had warned a day earlier that violence could break out if he wins. Sarkozy's tough language toward delinquents when he was interior minister angered black and Arab youth in the down-and-out housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005.
8) Sarkozy called Royal's attack "warlike" and said it was undemocratic.
9) "I think, in the history of the Republic, that we have never heard such violent, threatening comments," he told Le Parisien. The end of the campaign was marked by increasingly tough attacks by Royal -- a last-ditch effort to turn the tables in the race.
10) Voters already went to the polls two weeks ago for an April 22 first round that whittled down the choice from 12 candidates to two.
11) This year marks the first time voters in France's overseas territories have cast their ballots before those on the mainland.
12) Previously, overseas voters voted the same day as people in the mainland. But because of the time differences, results from the election were already public before overseas voting had finished.
13) Both Sarkozy and Royal made campaign stops in the French Caribbean, part of a network of overseas lands -- once colonies, today called territories and departments -- that form an integral part of today's France.
14) Yet their 1.4 million voters, and soaring unemployment and struggling local economies are routinely ignored.
15) "Neither one of the candidates inspire me," said voter Paulette Bouton in Martinque. "Even if they came to Martinique, I think they don't know enough about our worries."


Sego or Sarko? French voters cast ballots in election that offers clear left-right choice
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1) French voters turned out in force Sunday in a presidential election offering divergent choices for the future, with conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy urging the French to work more and Socialist Segolene Royal pledging to safeguard welfare protections.
2) Surveys suggest Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, has a strong edge over Royal, who would become France's first female president if she wins. The most recent, taken by Ipsos/Dell on Friday, said he was leading 55 percent to her 45 percent.
3) As of 5 p.m., turnout was 75 percent in mainland France -- the highest rate for a second round in four decades, the Interior Ministry said. Results will be announced after the polls close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).
4) Both Sarkozy, who says he had to fight harder because of his foreign roots, and Royal, a mother of four who says she had to overcome sexism, are originals in French politics and have energized an electorate craving new direction.
5) Whoever wins, the race marks a generational shift, because a 50-something will replace 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, in office for 12 years. But Sarkozy and Royal, nicknamed Sarko and Sego, have radically different formulas for how to revive France's sluggish economy, reverse its declining clout in world affairs and improve the lives of the impoverished residents of housing projects where largely minority youth rioted in 2005.
6) Sarkozy, 52, says France's 35-hour work week is absurd and proposes relaxing labor laws to encourage hiring. A former interior minister, Sarkozy cracked down on drunk driving, crime and illegal immigration.
7) He is an admirer of the United States who has borrowed from some American policy ideas. Tough-talking and blunt, he alienated many in France's housing projects when he called young delinquents "scum."
8) Police were quietly keeping watch for possible unrest Sunday night in France's poor, predominantly immigrant neighborhoods if Sarkozy is elected. Authorities in the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris -- the epicenter of the 2005 rioting -- refused officers' requests for days off Sunday, one official said.
9) At a polling station near Paris' Champs-Elysees, Anne Combemale said she voted for Sarkozy because of his market-oriented economic platform.
10) "He has the willpower to change France," said Combemale, 43, who is unemployed.
11) To push through change, the winner will need a majority in French legislative elections in June. Sarkozy has drawn up a whirlwind program for his first 100 days in office and plans to put big reforms before parliament at a special session in July: One bill would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more, and another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders.
12) Royal, 53, is a former environment minister who believes France must keep its welfare protections strong. She wants to raise the minimum wage, create 500,000 state-funded starter jobs for youths and build 120,000 subsidized housing units a year. But she's also pragmatic and acknowledges that the 35-hour work week has had both benefits and drawbacks that she wants to smooth out.
13) Bechir Chakroun, a 26-year-old who works in marketing, said he liked Royal's commitment to helping the poor.
14) "She represents change, I want to see what a woman can do," he said.
15) Royal is strong on the environment and schools but has made a series of foreign policy gaffes -- suggesting, for instance, that the Canadian province of Quebec deserved independence. During the campaign, Sarkozy's camp portrayed Royal as a lightweight with unclear ideas, while hers painted him as brutal and a bully -- once Royal even called Sarkozy the "bogeyman."
16) If Royal loses, it will mark the Socialists' third straight defeat in presidential elections. The party managed to glue itself back together after splitting in two over the 2005 referendum on the proposed European constitution, when many of its leaders broke from the party line to urge the French to vote it down.
17) The rise of centrist candidate Francois Bayrou -- who had a strong third-place showing in the first-round vote on April 22, though he was eliminated -- suggests the Socialists will need soul-searching about whether to move toward the center like other leftist parties around Europe, or stick to their traditional alliances with the far-left.
18) This week, as poll numbers suggested Royal's chances were slim, she made a last-ditch effort to rip into Sarkozy, warning that there may be new riots if he is elected and calling him "a dangerous choice" for France.
19) Sarkozy retorted in an interview published in Le Parisien newspaper's Web site: "I think that in the history of the Republic, we have never heard such violent or threatening comments."
20) Royal voted Sunday in her parliamentary constituency of Melle in western France, where supporters shouted "Segolene, president!" Sarkozy cast his ballot and shook hands at a polling station in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he was once mayor.
21) On Saturday, voters in France's overseas territories cast ballots, from Martinique in the Caribbean to French Polynesia in the Pacific.
22) The Ipsos/Dell poll released Friday, which suggested that Sarkozy had consolidated his lead to 55 percent, surveyed 992 registered voters. The margin of error for a poll of that size is about 3 percentage points. Other polls also suggested Sarkozy was ahead.


Sarkozy triumphed by confronting France ' s fears -- but can he turn the country around?
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy defeated Socialist Segolene Royal by bluntly telling the French some of the things they fear most: that they need to work longer hours and enjoy fewer job protections -- but also promising to shield them from globalization's most cut-throat distortions.
2) By successfully selling a formula for change, the 52-year-old son of a Hungarian immigrant who admires the United States now has the best opportunity in a decade to undertake serious reform in a country that is fast falling behind fellow European powers Germany and Britain.
3) Easily winning two bruising rounds of voting spread out over two weeks gives him a degree of legitimacy that Angela Merkel in Germany and Romano Prodi in Italy have struggled to attain after slim election victories, and which also has largely eluded U.S. President George W. Bush.
4) Yet Sarkozy -- France's first president to be born after World War II -- will find it difficult to turn France around. Despite his message of political renewal, he has been an integral part of the very political machine that has been blamed for France's current malaise. And as finance minister under outgoing President Jacques Chirac, he showed a protectionist streak, advocating for national champions of industry and blocking foreign takeovers.
5) The public, too, may balk if he rushes into political program that promises to take on some of France's most sacred cows: the 35-hour work week, powerful unions that stage paralyzing strikes at the first whiff of reform, a social safety net that has eroded French competitiveness. His pledge to pursue closer ties with the United States could also cost him support early in his tenure.
6) For Sarkozy's campaign slogan, "together, everything becomes possible," to stand a chance of approaching reality, he must convince the French that he is indeed a uniter and not a divider -- not easy for a politician criticized for an abrasive style and naked ambition.
7) Delivering his victory speech, Sarkozy reached out to his opponents, saying he would be "the president of all of the French."
8) At a more practical level, the French right he leads must retain its majority in parliament in nationwide elections in June, and it's not impossible that a contrarian French electorate finely balanced between its yearning for change and fear of it could tilt toward the Left.
9) In all legislative elections since 1981, voters have invariably ousted the governing majority, left or right. Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement needs to buck that trend if France is to avoid the crippling scenario of a conservative president cohabiting with a lefist parliament.
10) Sarkozy needs to subdue France's unions, too. France is littered with the ruined careers of politicians who pushed too far, too fast, against workers deeply attached to France's generous social protections and labor laws that make firing difficult.
11) Even though just 8 percent of France's work force is unionized -- compared with 13 percent in the U.S. -- unions are powerful in public services, transport and other areas that make the Euro-zone's second largest economy tick. Strikes may be inevitable.
12) International issues -- Sarkozy will attend his first Group of Eight summit and first European summit in June -- will also quickly compete with France's pressing problems for his attention. The learning curve promises to be steep.
13) Iran will be a foremost challenge. Within days of Sarkozy's inauguration, which must take place before May 17, the international community could ratchet up sanctions against the regime in Tehran if it continues to refuse to suspend its nuclear program. Sarkozy can be expected to go along; he has described Iranian leaders as "extremely dangerous."
14) As a former minister for the interior and, in 2004, for finance, Sarkozy has experience of working with governments in Europe and Africa to combat illegal immigration and terrorism. He represented France at the International Monetary Fund and irritated Berlin by protecting French engineering giant Alstom SA from the advances of Germany rival Siemens AG.
15) But how Sarkozy would cope in a major international crisis is unknown. Foreign affairs are a major part of the French president's job, but got scant attention in the campaign.
16) "He's never done any serious, hands-on broad spectrum diplomacy," noted Francois Heisbourg, a leading French foreign and strategic affairs expert.
17) Sarkozy's election could improve chances of unblocking the paralysis that has gripped the European Union since 2005, when French and Dutch voters blocked greater integration by rejecting a proposed EU constitution.
18) Sarkozy says Germany's Merkel, the British and Spanish prime ministers, Tony Blair and Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have all given thumbs-up to his proposal that the 27-nation bloc adopt a new treaty to unblock EU decision-making and give it an elected president.
19) Sarkozy wants a Europe that is a veritable player on the world stage, with coherent policies to guarantee its energy supplies, to regulate immigration from Africa, and create buffers against globalization while harnessing its energies. He also is vehemently against allowing Turkey into the European Union and promises to be a tough customer in global trade talks.
20) Ultimately, Sarkozy could make his greatest impact abroad, or at least in Europe, by setting France on its feet again. Only Poland and Slovakia have worse unemployment rates than France. Its economic growth rate is one of Europe's slowest -- only Italy and Portugal did worse last year than France's 2.1 percent.
21) Reforming France and solving such problems, notes Heisbourg, "will have a lot more influence than any amount of foreign policy gesturing."


Son of Hungarian immigrant accomplishes uncommon dream to become French president
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy's ascent to the French presidency exemplifies the France that he envisions: A land of opportunity for those -- even immigrants' children like himself -- who work hard and abide by the rules.
2) Critics call Sarkozy, 52, a dangerous neo-con. He heaps praise on America, vows to be tough on crime and terrorism, and often sees society in terms of black and white, right and wrong.
3) Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, got to the presidential Elysee Palace through grit, huge ambition, opportunism and by promising a fresh start for France after 12 lackluster years under his predecessor and former mentor, Jacques Chirac.
4) Although Chirac and Sarkozy are both political conservatives, they were often rivals, not allies. For all his guile and experience, even Chirac could not thwart Sarkozy's rise to the top -- even though he is thought to have had other successors in mind.
5) Sarkozy has made no secret of his lust for power.
6) "I don't want to be president, I must be president," he told biographer Catherine Nay.
7) Sarkozy has upset many. He fanned anger in poor neighborhoods where many blacks and Arabs live by calling delinquents there "scum." The neighborhoods were swept up by a three-week wave of rioting in late 2005, and he became their Enemy No. 1.
8) He has refused to apologize. "I certainly have the intention of continuing to call a hoodlum a hoodlum, (and) scum, scum," he said last month.
9) For many, this election was a referendum on Sarkozy: many voters backed his challenger, Segolene Royal, in hopes of keeping him out.
10) As president, his main responsibilities will be defense and foreign policy. But the French head of state holds tremendous influence beyond official duties, and Sarkozy's main goal is to spark an economic renaissance that will restore France's belief in itself as a great nation.
11) On the world stage, his bluntness could clash with France's reputation for cool-headed diplomacy.
12) A fervent supporter of Israel and its security, he also supports a Palestinian state. He says his first big overseas trip will be to Africa, a longtime French sphere of influence that has been a growing source of illegal immigrants to Europe.
13) Sarkozy has repeatedly plucked policy ideas from the United States. As interior minister, he led a "zero tolerance" policy on crime like one by former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He favors a form of affirmative action -- to hoist marginalized blacks and Arabs into mainstream society.
14) Although portrayed by critics as a dangerous free marketeer, Sarkozy intervened to protect French companies as Chirac's finance minister. In the campaign, he assailed the European Central Bank and "rogue bosses" who collect bloated payoffs amid layoffs.
15) He is a fierce critic of France's 35-hour work week, a Socialist reform of the 1990s, and promises to get around it by encouraging more overtime with tax breaks.
16) Nicolas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa grew up in a middle class Paris home, the second of three sons of a French mother and an aristocratic Hungarian emigre father who fled Communism after World War II by joining the French Foreign Legion.
17) Their divorce, when Nicolas was three, was a sore point for him at the Catholic school he attended -- and biographers say he shunned his father for three years as a youth. His mother raised the boys with their grandfather, a Jewish-Greek doctor who adored Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
18) Sarkozy grew up in Paris, and has acknowledged an unhappy childhood. Politics was an early passion.
19) Sarkozy attended Paris' prestigious Institute of Political Sciences, and trained as a lawyer. He did not go on to the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the finishing school for political elites that Chirac and many others in power attended.
20) His ambition knows few bounds. In 1983, at age 28, he pushed aside his political mentor -- who was also best man at his wedding -- to become mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, France's richest town per capita.
21) Five years later he was elected to the National Assembly, and became budget minister and government spokesman in the early- to mid-1990s, under then-Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.
22) He has taken falls. The biggest came when he endorsed Balladur instead of Chirac in the 1995 presidential election. Chirac won, and Sarkozy was cast into the political wilderness.
23) His opening came when conservatives regained control of parliament in 2002, and Chirac appointed him interior minister. Sarkozy led a crackdown on crime, and his popularity soared.
24) In 1984, he fell for a 27-year-old brunette with a Jackie Kennedy air named Cecilia Albeniz -- while officiating as mayor of Neuilly at her wedding to a TV star, Nay wrote. By the late '80s, Sarkozy had left his first wife, and he and Cecilia were married in 1996. They have a son together. He has two sons from his first marriage.
25) Sarkozy doesn't drink alcohol but has a passion for chocolate and orange juice. He jogs, collects stamps and suffers migraine headaches.
26) His biggest flaw: He's "in a hurry," he recently said.


World leaders rush to congratulate Sarkozy after winning French presidential vote
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1) World leaders rushed to congratulate France's President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday, hoping he would help boost international efforts to address issues from climate change and Middle East peace to salvaging the EU's beleaguered constitution.
2) The French election results were widely anticipated in Europe, where France was playing a "central role" in EU decision-making, especially on how the bloc should be run in years ahead, and whether it should allow Turkey in as a member, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
3) "This election was very important for Europe, and its result was very much awaited," Barroso told reporters at EU headquarters in Brussels.
4) He joined a long list of leaders -- including U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who phoned Sarkozy to offer their congratulations for his win in Sunday's election.
5) Bush spoke by telephone and congratulated Sarkozy, a staunch Washington ally who promised in a victory speech that the U.S. can "count on our friendship.
6) "The United States and France are historic allies and partners. President Bush looks forward to working with President-elect Sarkozy as we continue our strong alliance," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Washington.
7) Blair's office said in London that the British leader also spoke to Sarkozy to offer his congratulations.
8) With 75 percent of the vote counted, the conservative Sarkozy had 53.35 percent compared to 46.65 percent for Socialist Segolene Royal, according to the Interior Ministry. Turnout was a strong 85 percent.
9) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, congratulated Sarkozy on his "convincing election victory" and wished him "much luck and success," her spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin.
10) She said Sarkozy's ascent to the presidency came at a key time as Europe struggles with economic reforms and decisions on how it should be run in the future "In what is one of the crucial phases for Europe, it is important to continue the close, trusting and intensive cooperation between Germany and France," Merkel said, according to Steg.
11) A Sarkozy presidency had been favored at EU headquarters in Brussels, notably over his support for more radical economic reform and on pushing ahead quickly with efforts to salvage the EU constitution -- meant to streamline the way the bloc makes decisions.
12) Sarkozy has advocated adopting a "mini-treaty" -- rather than full constitution -- to prevent bureaucratic gridlock within the bloc, which has ballooned to 27 members and may eventually absorb half a dozen more.
13) "I have all confidence in Nicolas Sarkozy ... that he acts as a motor in the resolution of institutional questions" of the EU constitution, Barroso said, adding that Sarkozy would make EU headquarters one of his first visits abroad after taking office later this month.
14) Barroso also appealed to Sarkozy not to block ongoing entry talks with Turkey, which started in 2005, but are expected to last at least a decade. Sarkozy, unlike his presidential predecessor Jacques Chirac, vehemently opposes Turkey's bid to join the EU and has vowed to veto it.
15) In Jerusalem, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres called Sarkozy a "friend of Israel," and welcomed Sarkozy's fresh appeal for peace in the Middle East during his victory speech.
16) During his speech Sunday, Sarkozy appealed for all warring parties in the Middle East to "overcome hate," and called for the creation of a "Mediterranean Union" modeled after the EU peace-project started 50 years ago from the ashes of World War II.
17) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that Israeli-French relations would improve. "I am sure that cooperation between us will be fruitful, and together we can push forward diplomacy and peace in our region," Olmert said.
18) In Lebanon, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri -- son of slain leader Rafik Hariri -- sent a congratulatory message to Sarkozy saying he was "confident that the historic relations between Lebanon and France will continue developing on the political, economic and cultural levels during your presidency."
19) The late Rafik Hariri had been a friend of Chirac, who has been leading efforts to support the Lebanese government and create an international tribunal to try the former prime minister's killers.
20) Political leaders in Europe were split along party lines on what effect his win would have in Europe and the world, reflecting the stark left-right choice French voters had during the election.
21) Socialists said they feared Sarkozy would push the EU's agenda further to the right on economic reforms and on its immigration policies.
22) "Social Europe has receded a bit today," said Belgian Senate chairwoman Anne-Marie Lizin. "We see a map of Europe which is very much a conservative Europe, wanting to get rid of social protections."
23) Conservative political leaders in Austria also hailed Sarkozy's win. "With his clear victory, Sarkozy has a basis for accomplishing the big tasks he faces as France's future president," said Wilhelm Molterer, Austria's finance minister and vice chancellor.
24) Leaders also expressed hope that Sarkozy would help heal relations with Washington, bruised over the Iraq war and how to combat climate change.
25) In Washington, before Royal conceded defeat, U.S. Republican Sen. Dick Lugar and Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer both cited their preference for Sarkozy.
26) "It would be nice to have someone who is head of France who doesn't almost have a knee-jerk reaction against the United States," Schumer said.


Cheers of victory mix with tears of disappointment as new president elected
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1) "Nicolas!" tens of thousands chanted, kissing and waving French flags and blue balloons to ring in victory for conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, elected president of France after a hotly contested campaign.
2) "I ask you to extend your hand. I ask you to give the image of a country united," Sarkozy told a crowd estimated at 30,000 at the famed Place de la Concorde at the foot of the Champs-Elysees avenue.
3) "I will be the president of all French .... I won't disappoint you," he said Sunday.
4) The throngs then intoned the French national anthem.
5) Sarkozy's supporters raised their voices in a first victory cheer as voting results were announced at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) Sunday.
6) Hours earlier, thousands more holding blue balloons -- in the color of Sarkozy's campaign -- thronged the street outside his conservative party headquarters, near the presidential Elysee Palace. Horns honked and some Metro stations reverberated with cheers.
7) Beer kegs and a long table festooned with flowers showed Sarkozy's team had meticulously prepared for a victory, as they had prepared the campaign.
8) Excited supporters jumped so hard at the nearby Gaveau recital hall, where Sarkozy addressed party faithful, that balconies appeared to tremble and officials told the crowd to stop.
9) "This is a euphoric moment for us," said Guillaume Guastalla, a 27-year-old optometrist.
10) The scene across the Seine River, however, was tearful. Crestfallen supporters of Socialist candidate Segolene Royal packed the famed Left Bank Saint-Germain boulevard where she had based her campaign.
11) Royal was gracious in accepting defeat, beaming a smile at the crowd.
12) "I thank from the bottom of my heart the nearly 17 million voters ... who placed their trust in me, and I can gauge their disappointment," she said.
13) "I hope that the next president of the Republic will accomplish his mission at the service of all the French people."
14) Sarkozy's victory culminates a hard-fought campaign that pitted two dramatically different candidates and campaign platforms against one another.
15) Sarkozy's supporters thronged into the Place de la Concorde for a music concert and an appearance by the president-elect.
16) "France is finally going to move, raise itself up," said Marie Laurence, a 25-year-old urban planner, outside UMP headquarters.
17) "I think now that there is a future for France," said Xavier Tassin, a 42-year-old doctor.
18) Security was increased around Paris and its suburbs, where housing projects are located, to hold off risks of trouble.
19) Sarkozy is blamed for inflaming riots in late 2005 by referring to project youths, most of them of immigrant origin, as scum.
20) There were no reports of major problems in the projects after Sarkozy's win. However, police lobbed tear gas and used water cannon to try to chase angry leftists throwing bottles and stones out of the Place de la Bastille. A similar confrontation was reported in the southeast city of Lyon.
21) "I don't know how this is going to be received by the youth, but I hope that in no way will it be violent in the same way that things were in 2005," said Samir Mihi, spokesman for AClefeu, a neighborhood group created after the rioting in Clichy-Sous-Bois, where the violence that year began.
22) "The strength of Nicolas Sarkozy is to have understood that France hasn't adapted to the world today, and that has cost us," student Francois Bardoul, 22, said outside the UMP headquarters. "If France doesn't change, we will have grave problems," he said.
23) Another student, Nicolas Cadot, among the cheering crowd at the Concorde, praised Sarkozy for "renewing our confidence in politics."
24) But, he added, "He is going to be under enormous pressure because he absolutely must do what he said."


Sarkozy wins French presidency and mandate for market reforms
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy, the reform-minded son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected French president Sunday, winning a clear mandate to reinvigorate a sluggish France by overhauling a restrictive economic system many believe can no longer thrive in an age of globalization.
2) Sarkozy's convincing victory over Socialist Segolene Royal -- by 53.06 percent to 46.94 percent, according to final results released early Monday -- promised to chart a new course for France: Sarkozy is friendly toward the United States, has staked out a tough stance against crime and on immigration, and seems more sincere in his quest for free markets than any leader France has had in generations.
3) "The people of France have chosen change," Sarkozy said in a victory speech before hundreds of cheering supporters that sketched out a stronger French role in solving the world's problems.
4) Aware of the fears his words and plans inspire in many voters, Sarkozy pledged to be president "of all the French, without exception."
5) Sarkozy, 52, inherits a nation that appears to be losing faith in itself, paralyzed by worries over globalization, bitterness at American dominance and its own diminished impact on world events, and saddled with tensions in impoverished, immigrant-heavy suburbs that exploded in riots in 2005.
6) Many fear those suburbs will again grow restive after the election of a man who called troublemakers in the housing projects "scum." Such abrasive style has raised questions about whether Sarkozy could truly unite a nation that is increasingly polarized and diverse.
7) Scattered election-night violence was reported around France.
8) Late Sunday, small bands of youths hurled stones and other objects at police at the Place de la Bastille in Paris. Some bared their backsides at riot officers behind their shields, and police fired volleys of tear gas. Two police unions said firebombs targeted schools and recreation centers in several towns in the Essonne region just south of Paris.
9) At the same time, the intense interest in the election -- turnout was 84 percent -- underscored the significant role that a re-energized France may yet play.
10) Voters turned out in massive numbers in rejecting Royal's gentler vision of France that would have preserved more of the welfare protections the French hold dear but that many say cannot survive in a globalized age, including a much-debated 35-hour work week that Sarkozy has branded "absurd."
11) Her program seemed more in line with the policies pursued under the outgoing Jacques Chirac -- who is from Sarkozy's own party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Chirac held the presidency for 12 years but failed repeatedly to push through reforms in the euro zone's second-biggest economy after Germany.
12) Sarkozy, a former interior minister who is largely untested in foreign policy, reached out to the United States in his victory speech, an indication of his desire to break from the Chirac era during which trans-Atlantic ties were testy and at times seemed hostile. But he made it clear that France would remain an independent voice.
13) The United States, he declared, can "count on our friendship," but he added that "friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions." He urged the United States to take the lead on climate change and said the issue would be a priority for France.
14) In some European capitals, Sarkozy's victory inspired hope that he might lend a decisive hand to efforts to salvage the European Union's hopes of greater integration, largely on ice since French and Dutch voters rejected a proposed EU constitution in 2005.
15) For all his determination -- the presidency has been a near-lifelong quest -- and talk of change, Sarkozy is certain to face resistance to his plans to make the French work more and make it easier for companies to hire and fire. Like Margaret Thatcher in 1980s Britain, he will need to take on formidable unions to enact his reform plans.
16) Sarkozy voters were optimistic.
17) "Like Thatcher in Britain, like Reagan in the United States, Sarkozy will change things," said supporter Thierry Gauvert, 55.
18) Election day showed a renewed French passion for politics, with voter rolls swelled by record numbers. Turnout was boosted by the two candidates' dynamism and the high stakes for a nation losing clout to nations like China and India and even neighbors Britain and Germany.
19) The 74-year-old Chirac's handover of power ushers in a new generation, a president who has no memory of World War II. Sarkozy waged a high-octane Internet campaign the likes of which France had never seen.
20) Royal, too, offered voters something different -- an unmarried mother of four with unconventional ideas of how to be a Socialist. Her defeat could throw her party into disarray, with splits between those who say it must remain firm to its leftist traditions and others who want a shift to the political center like socialist parties elsewhere in Europe.
21) Conceding minutes after polls closed, Royal said her campaign had launched a "profound renewal of political life, of its methods and of the left... What we tried to do for France will bear fruit, I am sure."
22) While thousands of Sarkozy supporters cheered in jubilation as the president-elect spoke to them on the Place de la Concorde, despondent Royal voters shared tears of disappointment.
23) Cracks immediately started appearing in the Socialist Party, which now must try to regroup ahead of June legislative elections that Sarkozy's party must win to give him the majority he needs to reform.
24) Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist former finance minister, noted that it was his party's third consecutive defeat in presidential elections. "The left has never been so weak, because the French left has still not renewed itself."
25) The party managed to paper over its cracks after splitting in two over the 2005 referendum on the proposed European constitution, when many of its leaders broke from the party line to urge the French to vote it down.
26) Sarkozy will formally take over from Chirac on the very last day of his term, May 16. Sarkozy aide Francois Fillon, a favorite to be the prime minister, said that for a few days from Monday, Sarkozy plans "to withdraw to somewhere in France to decompress a little" and to prepare his government team.


White House welcomes election of pro-American French president
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1) The Bush administration on Monday welcomed the election of French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy, a pro-American conservative, as an opportunity to strengthen relations with France.
2) "We certainly look forward to cooperation with the French," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Monday. "And we know that there are going to be areas of disagreement. But on the other hand, there are certainly real opportunities to work together on a broad range of issues."
3) Sarkozy was elected president of France Sunday with a mandate to chart a new course for an economically sluggish nation struggling to incorporate immigrants. He reached out to the United States in his victory speech, a sign of his desire to break the tension of U.S.-French relations that took hold under the outgoing leader, Jacques Chirac, particularly over the war in Iraq.
4) Sarkozy plans to take over for Chirac on May 16.
5) Bush called Sarkozy over the weekend to congratulate him. Snow described it as a brief phone call, and said the two leaders would have a chance to start working together at next month's G8 summit in Germany.
6) Bush always hopes for close relations with France, despite some friction with Paris now and then, Snow said.
7) For his part, Sarkozy also made it clear in his victory speech that France would remain an independent voice. The United States, he declared, can "count on our friendship," but he added that "friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions."


Sarkozy wins plaudits; Turkey appeals for less opposition to EU bid
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1) Governments across the world congratulated French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy for his election victory, while Turkey bluntly asked that he stop voicing opposition to Ankara's bid to join the European Union.
2) His convincing win over Socialist Segolene Royal has given Sarkozy a strong mandate to carry out economic reforms.
3) But many observers were speculating Monday on what impact his leadership would have on international relations. In the recent past, France -- a permanent U.N. Security Council member -- has been at odds with the United States, particularly over the Iraq war, but Sarkozy has vowed to pursue a strong alliance with Washington.
4) Turkey, struggling in its decades-long bid to join the European Union, arguably has most at stake. Its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed hope Monday that "from now on we do not see the same statements that Sarkozy has made in election meetings" regarding Ankara's bid.
5) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also appealed Sunday to Sarkozy not to block entry talks with Turkey, which started in 2005 but are expected to last at least a decade.
6) EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Monday that membership talks with Turkey would continue, regardless of Sarkozy's comments, and warned EU member states not to take any definitive stand on Turkey's membership bid until the outcome of negotiations was known.
7) "The EU is negotiating with Turkey on the basis of a mandate given by member states unanimously," Rehn told a European Parliament committee in Brussels. "Any member states wishing to undo this mandate must do so in full knowledge of possible consequences ... The negotiations must proceed."
8) In the Middle East, leaders said they hoped Sarkozy would help advance efforts to establish peace and stability.
9) Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was confident French-Iraqi relations would be developed.
10) "Our friendship makes me comfortable that you will lead France toward boosting political, economic and cultural relations with Iraq," Talabani said in a statement. "And I'm convinced that your help for the Iraqi people in their struggle against terrorism will be increased."
11) In Lebanon, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri -- son of slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri -- sent a message saying he was confident the two countries' relations would continue to grow under Sarkozy.
12) The opposition Hezbollah said Monday, however, that it wanted Sarkozy to bring a "more balanced" approach to Lebanon's political crisis. Chirac has staunchly supported Lebanon's government against Syria and its allies in Lebanon, including Hezbollah. He also has led efforts to bring the late premier's killers to justice, and sent French peacekeepers to monitor a cease-fire last year between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon.
13) Hezbollah urged Sarkozy to make policy decisions that are "less biased."
14) Neighboring Syria -- also a former French-ruled territory at odds with Chirac over his Lebanon policy -- congratulated Sarkozy and expressed hope that ties would prosper.
15) In Europe, Germany's conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Sarkozy by telephone Monday for a "great election victory."
16) With Germany holding the rotating EU presidency, Merkel has pushed other members to act quickly to resolve the deadlock over the EU's constitution. Sarkozy himself is pushing for a "mini-treaty" -- rather than a full constitution -- in a bid to speed up the process.
17) Italy's center-left Premier Romano Prodi said the election results pointed to the "rigidity" of the French Socialist party.
18) He added that he was not concerned that Sarkozy might place greater emphasis on ties with the United States, saying that despite recent differences over the Iraq war, "U.S. policy and European policy are absolutely complementary, not alternative."
19) In China, the official Xinhua News Agency called Sarkozy "energetic and aggressive," and declared his economic policies the decisive factor in the race. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was also looking forward to "a new era of relations."
20) U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair both called Sarkozy shortly after Royal conceded defeat Sunday night.


Sarkozy says no to dictators, yes to a more globally activist France
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1) To the world, French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy sends this message: France is back.
2) Sarkozy said in his victory speech Sunday that his France will stand up against tyranny, dictators and fundamental Muslim oppression of women -- a global vision more in line with U.S. President George W. Bush than Jacques Chirac, who defied Washington over Iraq and has been criticized for cozy ties with authoritarian rulers.
3) By urging the United States to take the lead on fighting global warming, Sarkozy also signaled that an invigorated friendship with Washington would not mean subservience. His speech provided comfort to a populace worried that France's global voice is fading.
4) "The message was 'Don't take me for granted,'" said Francois Heisbourg, a leading expert on French strategic and foreign policy. "This was wise in terms of domestic policies but also in terms of the overall relationship. He was saying, 'I'm not going to be a poodle.'"
5) Sarkozy has won the label "Sarko the American" for openly admiring the get-up-and-go spirit in the United States, and indicated that he would toe a less accomodating line toward the Arab world than his predecessors -- whose close ties to the Middle East were rooted in France's past as a colonial power in the region.
6) Overall, though, his campaign gave short shrift to foreign policy and his limited international experience has left many wondering how he will steer France in global affairs.
7) Sarkozy sought to quell that uncertainty in a speech barely 30 minutes after his electoral triumph Sunday night.
8) France, he said, will stand alongside "all those persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships." He reached out to "all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy and humanism."
9) "France will not abandon women who are condemned to the burqa," the full head-and-body covering worn by women in Afghanistan and more pious Muslim women in Britain and elsewhere, he said, without elaborating on how that would translate into policy.
10) Sarkozy was a member of the government that instituted a law banning headscarves and other "ostentatious" religious apparel in classrooms.
11) In his speech Sunday, he appealed for all warring parties in the Middle East to "overcome hate."
12) "France will be at the side of the world's oppressed," he went on. "That is the message of France, that is the identity of France, that is the history of France."
13) While some of the language was reminiscent of Chirac -- a fellow conservative and onetime Sarkozy mentor -- the message itself was new.
14) "This is a new generation," Heisbourg said. "It is a clear change. It is values rather than interests. He talked about what the Americans would call 'democracy promotion.'"
15) Chirac, too, spoke often of tolerance -- but critics said that meant tolerating African dictators with whom France harbored longtime ties, and turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Russia and China. Though he cajoled the Western community into intervening in Bosnia in 1995, Chirac later spoke more of cultural understanding than exporting Western values.
16) Both Chirac and Sarkozy say the U.S.-led war in Iraq was a mistake, and the president-elect has called for a deadline for a U.S. pullout from Iraq. But Sarkozy has not let that dampen his enthusiasm for the trans-Atlantic relationship: He eagerly met with Bush last September, drawing criticism from a populace that has had a complex and sometimes bumpy relationship with the United States.
17) He has also indicated that he would oppose war against Iran, though analysts predict he will stake out a tough stance in the coming weeks in international efforts to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
18) The most obvious shift is likely to be felt in the Arab and broader Muslim worlds. Sarkozy has reached out to France's 5 million Muslims but has also been more open to Israel than Chirac; his support among French Jews was very strong.
19) "He has abandoned whatever remained of France's Arab policy," said Olivier Roy, a specialist on Islam at the National Center for Scientific Research. "It will mean less activism in the Arab world. He has chosen a position like the American neo-conservative position."
20) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that Israeli-French relations would improve after years of acrimony.
21) In Algeria, observers braced for possible tensions with Sarkozy. Algerian daily El Watan turned his speech on its head, saying Monday: "The strong image of a humanist and democratic France will suffer a terrible blow with Nicolas Sarkozy."
22) Roy said Sarkozy's burqa message was aimed as much at a domestic audience as a foreign one. "It was a statement against fundamentalism," he said. It also came, he noted, as France is negotiating for the release of a French aid worker held hostage by the Taliban.
23) Sarkozy's initial foreign policy focus, however, is likely to stay closer to home, in aiming to mend a frayed EU.


Britain ' s Blair uses YouTube to congratulate French president-elect Sarkozy
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1) British Prime Minister Tony Blair took to the Internet in English and French Monday to congratulate Nicolas Sarkozy on winning France's presidential election.
2) Blair posted a message on video-sharing site YouTube, praising Sarkozy as "a strong leader."
3) Blair said he was confident Sarkozy "will want to forge a good and close partnership between Britain and France for the good of our two countries, for Europe and the wider world."
4) Sarkozy, a conservative who has cited Blair's transformation of the Labour Party as a political inspiration, beat socialist challenger Segolene Royale Sunday in France's presidential election. Blair said he had spoken to Sarkozy after the result was announced to offer his congratulations.
5) Blair had a testy relationship with Sarkozy's predecessor, Jaques Chirac, with whom he often sparred over the future of the European Union. Blair opposed Chirac's federalist ambitions for the 27-nation bloc and battled with the French leader over its vast budget.
6) Blair, 54, said Sarkozy, 52, was one of "a whole new generation of leaders in Europe."
7) He said the relationship between Britain and France was "absolutely crucial one."
8) "Of course we don't always agree as you know, but when we do we can be a real force for good in Europe and across the world," he said. "And I think that with Nicolas Sarkozy as president there's a fantastic opportunity for Britain and France to work together in the years ahead."
9) Blair also made a 3- 1/2 minute French-language version of the message, telling viewers: "Hello everyone. I've decided to address you in French, which may be a very bad idea. Now you'll have to bear with me if I misuse your language."
10) Blair's office claims the British premier, who is due to leave office soon, is the first world leader to have his own channel on YouTube, offering messages from Blair and behind-the-scenes video of his Downing Street office.


Sarkozy plucks support from unlikely political corners in French presidential victory
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy won the women's vote and fared well among blue-collar workers, even though his rival for the French presidency was a woman and a Socialist.
2) It was one of the surprising subplots in Sarkozy's resounding election victory over Segolene Royal -- and shows that his vision of pro-market reforms and scaling back immigration appeals to a broad audience.
3) Sarkozy's ability to attract votes from a broad spectrum of the public is an early indication he may be able to overcome his image as a polarizing force and achieve crucial popular support for pushing through his ambitious program of overhauling France's welfare system.
4) Official figures showed Sarkozy won France's one-time industrial heartland in the north, which French media said had not voted for a rightist presidential candidate since Charles de Gaulle in 1965.
5) Sarkozy even tallied nearly 44 percent of the vote in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris, where a three-week wave of rioting erupted in late 2005 while he was interior minister and infuriated many there by calling troublemakers "scum."
6) Experts said he was able to steal working-class votes from the left by playing up his tough cop image and by relentlessly pounding away at the theme that he believes hard work should be rewarded.
7) "The main attraction among workers were the security-immigration duo, which works, and the values of hard work: He put the emphasis on increasing purchasing power," said Frederic Dabi, a pollster with Ifop.
8) Perhaps most striking was the 52 percent of the women's vote he captured against 48 percent for Royal, which indicated that the campaign transcended gender issues and became truly a choice between ideas -- the tough love message of Sarkozy against Royal's more nurturing vision.
9) "Royal didn't gain any advantage with her argument that she was a mother of four. It had no effect," said Pierre Giacometti, director of the Ipsos agency. "Neither feminism nor machismo had its place."
10) In the campaign, Sarkozy dared to attack the status quo with calls to do away with inheritance tax on small and medium estates and cut the number of public sector workers. He also evoked issues of national identity and immigration that were once the stomping ground of extreme-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen.
11) While Sarkozy appears to have found a formula to win an election, he faces a much steeper challenge implementing his vision of tax cuts and freer markets that promise to cut into the social protections many French hold so dear.
12) He is certain to face resistance from powerful unions to his plans to make the French work more and make it easier for companies to hire and fire. After his victory, groups of angry youths torched 730 cars and clashed with police in a string of French cities, police said.
13) On Monday night, several hundred people massed again at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, where they gathered in force election night, breaking windows in nearby shops and starting street fires, Associated Press Television News footage showed. Riot police dispersed them.
14) Authorities were on alert for signs of more unrest.
15) The election left little time for celebrating: Legislative elections are slated for June 10 and 17, and Sarkozy's conservative UMP party needs a majority to keep his mandate for reforms. A win by the left would bring "cohabitation" -- an awkward power-sharing with a leftist prime minister -- which would put a stop to his plans.
16) Sarkozy has drawn up a whirlwind agenda for his first 100 days in office and plans to put big reforms before parliament at an extraordinary session in July. One would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France.
17) Congratulations continued to pour in from around the world Monday, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair sending one -- in French -- via YouTube. The president-elect, meanwhile, left a Paris hotel wearing jeans Monday headed to an undisclosed retreat to reflect on his new job; French media said he was on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica -- until he turned up on a yacht off the coast of Malta, a Mediterranean archipelago.
18) Le Pen's voters largely betrayed him: Even though he urged them to stay home and abstain in the runoff, Ipsos estimated that 63 percent of those who cast ballots for him in the April 22 first round voted for Sarkozy on Sunday.
19) Sarkozy cruised in his traditional electoral base: 82 percent of small business owners, and 67 percent of farmers voted for him, according to Ipsos. Befitting a conservative, he won 61 percent of votes by those over age 61, and 68 percent among voters 70 or older.
20) Royal's best showing was among 18- to 24-year-olds, but Sarkozy tallied 57 percent among the 25- to 34-year-old tranche.
21) The Ipsos poll of 3,609 adults was conducted by telephone on May 6. The agency did not provide a margin of error, but it would be about plus or minus 1.6 percent for a survey of that size.


Anti-Sarkozy sentiment, scattered violence, linger after French election
(APW_ENG_20070508.1417)
1) The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed.
2) While the unrest has been small-scale, it sent a message to Nicolas Sarkozy: he may have won the presidency, but he has not won over the many French who consider him -- and his free-market reforms and tough line on crime and immigration -- frighteningly brutal.
3) Sarkozy, who beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff Sunday, is a divisive figure whose tough language and policies have angered many on the left -- and in the immigrant-dominated suburban housing projects that exploded into rioting in 2005.
4) Tuesday night, the third after the election, appeared calmer than the previous nights, with only a few reports of violence. Vandals set fire to a center belonging to Sarkozy's UMP party in the central town of Villeurbanne, causing minor damage, said local official Xavier de Furst.
5) A scuffle with riot police was reported in the Paris suburb of Grigny. Watchful police patrolled the Place de la Bastille in Paris, where incidents had broken out on previous nights, with troublemakers breaking windows in nearby shops and starting street fires.
6) Some 730 cars were burned nationwide Sunday night and 592 people were arrested. The following night, 373 vehicles were torched and 160 people were taken in for questioning across France, police said.
7) "To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior," Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Tuesday on RTL radio.
8) "We are in a republic, where universal suffrage is the only law we know. There can be disappointment, there can be anger, there can be frustration. But the only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons," he said.
9) Socialist candidate Royal had warned of renewed violence in case of a Sarkozy victory, and had sought to make the campaign a referendum on Sarkozy's polarizing persona.
10) But voters favored Sarkozy anyway, handing him a mandate for reforms that include tax cuts and new labor rules making it easier to hire and fire to revive the sluggish economy. He faces a steep challenge in carrying this out in a country that cherishes its generous social safety net.
11) Most of the troublemakers this week have been white, whereas the 2005 riots involved many black and Arab youth angry over discrimination and alienation from mainstream society. This week's protesters resembled some of the young people who helped bring down a minor labor reform last year through mass demonstrations.
12) Sarkozy's reforms promise to be tougher, and are certain to meet similar street protests.
13) Sarkozy himself was on a yacht in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, taking time to relax before he takes over from Jacques Chirac on May 16. His family spent the day boating from Delimara, in the south of the island of Malta, to Comino, a tiny isle. Sarkozy was seen swimming, and later in the afternoon, he took a jog, trailed by security officers. He was expected back in Paris late Wednesday.
14) Critics on the left assailed Sarkozy for his high-budget retreat -- the yacht belongs to prominent magnate Vincent Bollore and was outfitted with huge plasma TVs and a jacuzzi.
15) Hollande was more understanding, though he said he wanted to know who paid for the vacation. "I find it normal that after a campaign that was also difficult for him, he needs rest," Hollande said.
16) The Socialists and Sarkozy's UMP party are now looking ahead to parliamentary elections June 10 and 17. The UMP needs a majority to keep Sarkozy's mandate for reforms. A win by the left would bring "cohabitation" -- an awkward power-sharing with a leftist prime minister -- which would put a stop to his plans.
17) The Socialists, however, are in disarray, with many calling for an overhaul of a party still attached to Marxist ideas that have lost currency in an era of borderless markets.
18) Hollande sought to shore up his authority by insisting Tuesday that he would lead the party's legislative campaign -- not Royal.
19) Sarkozy has drawn up a whirlwind agenda for his first 100 days in office. He plans to present major reforms at a parliamentary session in July: One would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more, another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France.


French president-elect ' s 3 days on yacht galls opposition
(APW_ENG_20070509.0995)
1) French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy faced a barrage of criticism Wednesday, a week before taking office, but refused to apologize to political enemies who called his post-election luxury yacht trip indecent and scandalous.
2) Sarkozy whisked his wife and son off for a tour around Malta a day after his election Sunday. However, even before dropping anchor later Wednesday as expected, he defended his mini-vacation aboard the 60-meter (nearly 200-foot) yacht on loan from billionaire investor Vincent Bollore as a reasonable right.
3) "I have no intention of apologizing," he told Europe-1 radio in Malta, adding that he had a full week before taking on "the supreme responsibilities of president of the Republic in as calm a mood as possible.
4) "I'm taking 2 1/2 days. I don't think anyone can argue with that."
5) Outgoing President Jacques Chirac is to turn over power to Sarkozy on May 16 after 12 years in office. Chirac held his final Cabinet meeting Wednesday.
6) However, Sarkozy said he would be hard at work once in Paris. He was to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Paris this week, Sarkozy's press office said, without giving a date.
7) Former Socialist Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou called Sarkozy's escapade "scandalous" and "indecent."
8) "All this money when he pretends to be the ... president of all French (people)," she said on the TV station iTele. Such an "ostentatious" display was "shocking to the great masses of French who have a hard time making ends meet."
9) The conservative Sarkozy was elected Sunday over Socialist Segolene Royal with a mandate to rejuvenate France's sluggish economy with a dose of market-liberating forces, seen as a key to resolving social ills and bringing France firmly into the era of globalization.
10) Paparazzi have captured images of Sarkozy, 52, on the yacht and jogging on an island off Malta.
11) Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope asked the left-wing opposition to end "personal attacks" on Sarkozy, criticized as a man too fond of money and glitz. The state, he added in an interview on France-2 television, was not paying for the mini-vacation.
12) Sarkozy, former interior minister, served for years as mayor of Neuilly, a wealthy Paris suburb. The ambitious politician is a friend of France's top industrialists.
13) Sarkozy defended his billionaire friend Bollore on Europe-1. "It is not shameful to have worked hard, to have created a big (investment) group, to have given people jobs," he said.
14) Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin also defended Sarkozy's retreat, saying the president-elect needed to "recharge his batteries" after a grueling campaign.
15) "Nicolas Sarkozy has the right to three days of happiness with his family," Raffarin said on RTL radio. "It's from May 16 that the French will judge the new president."
16) The opposition left, along with unions, fear Sarkozy will dismantle coveted benefits to make the system more flexible, and will favor the rich over the poor.
17) "We were warned. Mr. Sarkozy never said he would be the president of the ... poor," Senator Jean-Luc Melenchon was quoted as saying in the daily Liberation. "He is the president of the CAC40," the French stock market.
18) Meanwhile, the leader of the Workers' Force union warned that Sarkozy would have a tough time trying to push through a key proposal to guarantee minimum service during public transport strikes.
19) Sarkozy's victory does not give him "a blank check to apply each of his promises," Jean-Clause Mailly told the business daily Les Echos.
20) "We have already let Nicolas Sarkozy know that there is no question of us negotiating" an accord on minimum service, he said. "Minimum service in public transport puts into question the right to strike."
21) Following the election, bands of leftist militants took to the streets in several cities around France, breaking windows and burning cars.
22) Tuesday night, some 200 cars were burned around France and at least 80 people detained in the third night of post-election violence, Interior Minister Francois Baroin said on France-Info radio Wednesday. That was down from 730 cars burned on Sunday night for a total of 1,200 vehicles set on fire since the election.
23) Vandals broke windows at a local headquarters of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party in Villeurbanne, near Lyon in the southeast. But Baroin insisted the violence was ebbing, and was under control.


Sarkozy returns from post-election vacation, prepares for French presidency
(APW_ENG_20070510.0423)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, back from a postelection vacation, plunged into preparing for the presidency Thursday, huddling with lawmakers from his conservative party to plan strategy for next month's legislative elections that are crucial to his plans for reform.
2) Sarkozy was to make his first public appearance since Sunday's election victory, alongside outgoing President Jacques Chirac at a ceremony commemorating victims of slavery. Sarkozy takes over May 16 from Chirac, who is leaving after 12 years in office.
3) Anti-Sarkozy protests continued for a fourth night, though postelection unrest that left more than 1,200 cars burned around the country earlier this week appeared to be ebbing.
4) Hundreds of far-left protesters marched through Paris' Latin Quarter on Wednesday evening. Riot police detained dozens of people while enforcing a buffer zone between those protesters and far-right activists holding a commemoration nearby, officials said.
5) Sarkozy was meeting Thursday morning with some 500 lawmakers from his UMP party to prepare for parliamentary elections June 10 and 17. The party currently has a large majority in both houses of parliament but must keep it that way if Sarkozy wants to follow through quickly on ambitious plans to cut taxes, reform labor laws and minimize the effect of France's frequent strikes.
6) Sarkozy's vow to fire up France's sluggish economy with market-liberating reforms and pared-down social benefits has put many parts of French society on edge. He is also widely reviled by minority youth in rundown housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005 over entrenched discrimination and poverty.
7) Sarkozy faced a barrage of criticism from opponents for taking off the morning after his election on a yacht trip funded by a billionaire investor friend. Sarkozy refused to apologize, insisting it was his right to take time off before taking over the presidency.
8) The flap over the luxury outing highlights the complicated relations the French -- notably the anti-Sarkozy left -- have with wealth, and could portend the challenge the new president will face in pushing through economic reforms.
9) Unlike previous French leaders, Sarkozy makes no secret of his monied connections and taste for the lifestyle of the glitterati.
10) Sarkozy's frank rapport with money carries risks in a society that has grown fragile by a slumping economy and tends to cultivate discretion when it comes to wealth.


Bush says he looks forward to working with French president-elect
(APW_ENG_20070510.1325)
1) U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday that he looked forward to working with France's president-elect, the U.S.-friendly conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) The Bush administration is welcoming Sarkozy in comparison to outgoing President Jacques Chirac, a vocal opponent of the U.S.-led war in Iraq who has had a tense relationship with Bush.
3) Bush told reporters at the Pentagon that he spoke with Sarkozy by telephone.
4) He said he found Sarkozy, in an earlier meeting, "to be a very engaging, energetic, smart, capable person. We will have our differences, and we will have our agreements, and I'm looking forward to working with him."


Sarkozy plunges into preparing for French presidency after critics howl over vacation
(APW_ENG_20070510.1635)
1) Fresh off a whirlwind yachting break, French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy returned to busybody form Thursday, meeting with a Lebanese envoy, commemorating the cruelty of slavery and rallying his political troops for upcoming legislative elections.
2) On Friday, he planned a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has praised Sarkozy and called him his "friend."
3) True to his slogan of championing "the France that gets up early," a tanned Sarkozy got back to work Thursday, after critics pilloried him for a 2 1/2-day Mediterranean yacht getaway after Sunday's victory.
4) Sarkozy, a tough-talking former interior minister who is loved on the right and loathed on the left, defeated Socialist Segolene Royal on a platform including calls for tax cuts, free-market reforms, stronger U.S. ties and bold ambitions to bring down entrenched unemployment.
5) U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, had kind words for Sarkozy, calling him a "very engaging, energetic, smart, capable person."
6) "We will have our differences, and we will have our agreements, and I'm looking forward to working with him," Bush said Thursday. Sarkozy has called for improved French-U.S. relations, but has said he would have kept France out of the Iraq war.
7) France's Constitutional Council officially declared Sarkozy the winner on Thursday, and he is to take office on May 16. Aides said he planned to appoint his prime minister the next day -- former Education and Labor Minister Francois Fillon is the favorite -- and his Cabinet in the following days.
8) On Friday, Sarkozy planned to meet in Paris with Blair, though the agenda for the talks was not announced. Blair, who said Thursday he would step down as Britain's premier on June 27, also planned to meet with France's outgoing President Jacques Chirac.
9) The National Police said Thursday that attackers had torched nearly 200 cars overnight across the nation, a fourth straight night of unrest following Sarkozy's victory. That was down from 296 the night before and the post-election peak of 730 Sunday.
10) Sarkozy met lawmakers from his conservative party at 8:30 a.m. Thursday to plan for next month's parliamentary elections, which will play a crucial role in determining how far he can go with his reform plans.
11) Sarkozy joined Chirac, with whom he has had tense ties in recent years, at a ceremony in the capital's Luxembourg Gardens honoring victims of slavery.
12) Chirac hosted Sarkozy and Saad Hariri, the son of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at the presidential palace. Many expect France's ties to the Arab world to cool after Chirac leaves.
13) But Hariri told reporters after the meeting that Sarkozy had pledged to "continue the relations between Lebanon and France in the same manner as in the past with President Chirac." He said Sarkozy also supported the idea of an international tribunal to investigate the killings of his father and other anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.
14) Sarkozy did not speak publicly after the meeting, which conveyed the importance that Chirac places on finding and prosecuting those who were behind the February 2005 assassination of Hariri, a close friend of Chirac.
15) About 150 anti-Sarkozy protesters on Thursday occupied a branch of the University of Paris in the south of the capital, said university officials, who decided to temporarily shut down the school after the move. It was expected to reopen Friday.
16) Sarkozy's abrasive language, tough line on crime and immigration, and proposals to weaken labor protections have angered many on the left and in rundown apartment complexes that erupted in riots two years ago. Many predict he will face protests and other resistance to his planned reforms.
17) Sarkozy's UMP party currently has a large majority in both houses of parliament, but must keep it that way if Sarkozy wants to move ahead with his ambitious plans to reform labor law and minimize fallout from France's frequent strikes.
18) Centrist lawmaker Francois Bayrou, who scored a strong third-place in the presidential elections, warned of Sarkozy's close ties to French media magnates and industrial tycoons.
19) "It constitutes a gathering of power like there has never been in France," said Bayrou, who has been struggling to hold his center-right party together before the June 10-17 parliamentary race after casting himself as more of a centrist during the presidential campaign. "Faced with this power, there needs to be a counterweight."
20) Sarkozy has defended his relationship with some industrial magnates, saying that they often serve as an example for the French by creating jobs.


Blair, Sarkozy show unity over Europe in changing of guard meeting for France and Britain
(APW_ENG_20070511.1373)
1) French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy met Friday with outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair and won his backing for the budding French leader's vision of a simplified treaty to bring European Union countries closer together.
2) Wearing broad smiles and showering each other with praise after a 90-minute meeting, Blair and Sarkozy showed unity over ways to solve the bloc's integration crisis and the stalled EU constitution.
3) With new leaders in Britain and France, many see this as an ideal time to forge a new, simplified EU treaty. Blair said Thursday he would step down as premier on June 27, while Sarkozy takes over from President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday.
4) Meanwhile, Germany, which holds the EU's presidency, has been looking for ways to overcome the impasse. Friday's show of unity by Blair and Sarkozy suggested they might line up together at a summit of EU leaders late next month in Brussels -- days before Blair steps down.
5) "This is the beginning of a three-way negotiation out of the European constitutional crisis," said Noelle Lenoir, a former minister for European affairs now at France's HEC business school.
6) The energetic and ambitious Sarkozy casts a far more U.S.- and Britain-friendly figure than Chirac, who led the international outcry against the Iraq war.
7) As for Europe, Sarkozy has called the EU Constitution "dead" and favors a "simplified treaty" focusing on European institutions -- ideas more palatable to Britain, which has long been hesitant about bolder EU integration plans.
8) "I totally agree with that, yes, absolutely," Blair said in French in brief comments to reporters when asked about Sarkozy's idea.
9) Blair has said that Britain seeks changes to the EU's governing treaties that would not amount to a full-blown constitution. Britain would not therefore hold a referendum on a new, slimmed-down treaty to replace the draft constitution.
10) France, a founding member of the EU, is in a delicate position because French voters were the first to reject the constitution in a May 2005 referendum -- possibly giving Sarkozy more reason to press for an exit to the crisis. Dutch voters too rejected it shortly afterward.
11) "Blair is trying to leave gracefully, but at the same time take advantage of his last opportunity to hold up European unification," Lenoir said. "The countries that ratified (the constitution) aren't happy that two 'no's are more important than 18 'yes's."
12) Sarkozy has put free-market reforms and slashing France's persistently high unemployment among his top priorities, and praised Blair's efforts that made Britain's economy an envy to many French.
13) "Tony Blair profoundly modernized his country. He knew how to create majorities beyond his own political family to achieve important results," Sarkozy said.
14) Earlier, Blair and Chirac held a farewell meeting, looking beyond past differences and focusing on efforts to boost military cooperation, reduce African poverty and combat global warming, said Chirac spokesman Jerome Bonnafont. Blair took office in 1997, Chirac in 1995.
15) Over the last decade, Blair and Chirac had intermittently testy relations on issues such as the Iraq war -- which France opposed, while Britain supplied troops -- and EU farms subsidies.
16) The conservative Sarkozy has been stepping up international contacts in recent weeks, and has made it clear that Europe will be his first foreign policy priority.
17) Sarkozy heads to Berlin right after his inauguration for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, another sign of his commitment to getting over the integration crisis.
18) Sarkozy has said he wants the EU to have a president, which would amount to a big step toward political integration. He opposes Turkey's bid to join the bloc, which Britain has supported.
19) Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Nordic countries want to preserve as much as possible from the constitution, which has already been approved in 18 countries.


French president-elect Sarkozy courts unions
(APW_ENG_20070514.0769)
1) Conservative president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy is already shaking things up even before he's sworn in: He reached out to labor unions Monday and was said to be looking across the French political divide to Socialists as he rushes to put together a Cabinet.
2) He also resigned Monday as head of France's conservative party, vowing to be true to its values even as he cast himself as unifier-in-chief. He said he wanted to use the "new momentum" of his May 6 election victory to sweep away hidebound ideologies.
3) "The message to the French people is one of unity, of openness," Sarkozy said as he stepped down from the UMP leadership, part of the French tradition of separating the presidency from political factions. "We must not be afraid to go toward others, not be afraid to go toward different ideas."
4) Sarkozy is to take over Wednesday from President Jacques Chirac after being elected on promises of change for a nation down on itself and frustrated with traditional left-right political fault lines. Sarkozy's moves Monday suggest he's wasting no time in trying to prove he's different from one-time mentor Chirac, and the economic stagnation and social tensions left over from his 12-year tenure.
5) Sarkozy, who is loathed by many on the left, took a rare step of hosting union leaders Monday for pre-inauguration talks, in hopes of defusing their opposition to his plans to reform France's protective labor laws.
6) A guessing-game was in full swing about who will make the cut in Sarkozy's downsized Cabinet of 15 ministers, which aides say will be announced by next Monday.
7) One official close to Sarkozy said he had settled on Socialist former Health Minister Bernard Kouchner, the highly popular founder of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, as foreign minister. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are still behind closed doors.
8) Kouchner has been somewhat of a free agent within the Socialist Party, sometimes speaking against the old guard, and is known and respected abroad.
9) A spokeswoman for Kouchner had no comment, nor could she confirm a report published in the daily Le Monde saying that that he was to meet with Sarkozy later Monday.
10) Sarkozy's office would not confirm or deny the speculation, and other officials close to him said anything could change between now and the formal announcement of the Cabinet.
11) Naming a Socialist to a top post would undercut the Socialists' campaign for legislative elections next month. A strong parliamentary majority by Sarkozy's UMP party is seen as crucial to his plans for reform.
12) Socialists went on the defensive Monday. Prominent party figure Dominique Strauss-Kahn said it would be a "betrayal of oneself" for a leftist to join Sarkozy's government.
13) Officials said other Socialists were also being considered for his Cabinet, which Sarkozy pledged would hold as many women ministers as men.
14) Sarkozy is expected to name his prime minister -- former Education Minister Francois Fillon is the favorite -- shortly after taking office Wednesday.
15) Labor leaders have criticized Sarkozy's campaign call to require unions in public transport to provide at least minimum service during strikes, which have crippled France in the past.
16) Sarkozy's office said Sunday the series of meetings with union leaders and heads of business associations Monday and Tuesday were a first step toward preparing his so-called labor "summits" in September over issues like workplace gender equality and a single work contract.
17) Labor leaders said the talks should be about negotiation and cooperation. Sarkozy "emphasized several times that he didn't want to cause difficulty for union organizations and that he wanted to reform the country through dialogue," said Francois Chereque, head of the center-left CFDT union, after talks with Sarkozy.
18) "We'll see in the decisions whether he heard us or not," added Chereque.
19) The opposition left, along with unions, fear that Sarkozy will dismantle coveted benefits to make France's labor system more flexible, and will favor the rich over the poor.
20) Following the election, leftist militants took to the streets in several cities around France, breaking windows and burning cars.
21) Already Monday, Sarkozy replaced Chirac in Paris' Grevin Museum of wax figures, moving in among other world leaders.


French President-elect Sarkozy ' s overtures to left upset conservative allies
(APW_ENG_20070515.1038)
1) President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy faced his first political hurdle even before taking office Wednesday, with members of his own conservative party irked by plans to include rival Socialists in a government spanning the left-right divide.
2) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande denounced the overtures as "depraved" and "seductive" maneuvers designed to increase Sarkozy's power.
3) Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin stepped in Tuesday to try to lower rising temperatures in Sarkozy's UMP party, saying it was important that the new president "share his project with people from other horizons."
4) Some members of the Union for a Popular Movement who helped the conservative candidate win election May 6 have grumbled at overtures in recent days to Socialists, apparently fearing leftists could squeeze loyalists out of prominent posts.
5) Sarkozy's surprising pre-inaugural meetings with labor unions and some leading Socialists reflect his effort to distance himself from his one-time mentor, outgoing President Jacques Chirac, and the economic stagnation and social tensions left over from his 12-year tenure.
6) Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, a die-hard Chirac loyalist, presented the outgoing president with his resignation on Tuesday. Sarkozy is widely expected to name conservative four-time minister Francois Fillon, a close confidant, to succeed Villepin.
7) The widely popular Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist health minister and founder of the Nobel-prize winning organization Doctors Without Borders, is among those being considered as new foreign minister.
8) On Tuesday afternoon, Anne Lauvergeon, head of the nuclear group Areva and once a top adviser of former Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, was seen entering Sarkozy's office. Sarkozy also continued consultations with unions.
9) With a streamlined government of only 15 ministers, half of whom are likely to be women, there was little room to reward the faithful with ministries. Aides to Sarkozy have put the accent on competence, not loyalty.
10) Patrick Devedjian -- who had been tapped as a potential minister in Sarkozy's Cabinet -- bristled at the suggestion of Socialists in government, insisting that "loyalty is not necessarily the opposite of competence."
11) Sarkozy confidant Brice Hortefeux told colleagues Tuesday to cut out the complaining. "Nicolas Sarkozy never promised a post to anyone," Hortefeux said on RTL radio.
12) Sarkozy, elected with a mandate to rejuvenate France, takes office Wednesday, replacing Chirac, who was to address the nation Tuesday evening with a televised farewell message.
13) Sarkozy was expected to name his prime minister on Thursday. Former Education Minister Francois Fillon was widely considered a shoo-in. The full government was expected to be announced within days, possibly as early as Thursday.
14) The Socialist Party, whose candidate Segolene Royal lost to Sarkozy, was among those protesting his reaching out to the left, just as it tries to bolster its profile ahead of June legislative elections.
15) Hollande, the party leader, said he spoke with Kouchner to warn him that "if he accepts, he will be in a government of the right, a majority of the right and have friends on the right .... Everyone must face his own conscience and (code of) ethics."
16) Speaking to reporters, Hollande denounced the bid to lure Socialists to the government as a move by Sarkozy to increase his power and control, saying Sarkozy "backs away from no operation -- seduction, depravity, intimidation, pressure."
17) Former Socialist Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou accused Sarkozy of trying to break the left ahead of the legislative vote next month.
18) "I think ... those who accept are accomplices of a maneuver aimed purely and simply at smashing the left in the legislative elections," she said on France-Info radio.
19) The new government will need as large a majority as possible in June legislative elections to easily pass the expected tough economic and social reforms.


Nicolas Sarkozy ' s inauguration as French president begins
(APW_ENG_20070516.0471)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy arrived Wednesday at the Elysee Palace in Paris to be inaugurated as French president and take over from Jacques Chirac.
2) Chirac and Sarkozy shook hands in the palace courtyard before heading into private discussions about controls for France's nuclear arsenal. Sarkozy, a fellow conservative who was elected May 6, will then be officially inaugurated as president.


Possible members of new French President Sarkozy ' s team
(APW_ENG_20070516.0886)
1) Some potential players in new French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government or administration:
2) FRANCOIS FILLON: The four-time Cabinet minister is widely expected to be named prime minister. A member of Sarkozy's inner circle, Fillon, 53, shares the new president's taste for change. As minister for social affairs from 2002-2004, Fillon spearheaded a retirement reform that triggered nationwide protests. A reform of France's high schools he championed as education minister had a similar effect. Fillon was forced out of that ministry during a government shake-up in 2005.
3) BERNARD KOUCHNER: A doctor by training and prominent Socialist, Kouchner, 67, co-founded aid group Doctors without Borders in 1971 and has been involved in humanitarian action throughout his career. He has been tapped as a potential foreign minister. Kouchner was a U.N. special representative to Kosovo and in 1994, sought to bring an end to the Rwandan genocide, meeting with government and rebel forces. In 2003, he spoke in favor of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq -- while France's government led opposition against it -- on grounds that Saddam Hussein's regime was worse.
4) HUBERT VEDRINE: A Socialist former foreign minister, Vedrine was considered a contender for the top diplomat's job again or for the justice ministry, as part of Sarkozy's effort to bridge the traditional left-right divide. He was foreign minister from 1997-2002 under former President Jacques Chirac during a power-sharing arrangement with the Socialists. Vedrine has spoken out about a "multipolar" world to counterbalance U.S. global dominance.
5) ALAIN JUPPE: A former prime minister and longtime ally of Jacques Chirac, Juppe championed bold and unpopular reforms in the 1990s, but was convicted in 2004 in a fake-jobs scheme to help fund Chirac's political party. Juppe was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence and a yearlong ban from politics. Now mayor of the southwestern city of Bordeaux, he could get a ministry overseeing environmental and energy issues.
6) JEAN-LOUIS BORLOO: The respected outgoing labor and social affairs minister was one of the last officials in the previous conservative government to rally behind Sarkozy, but in a revamped Finance Ministry may take charge of both labor and economic strategy. A lawyer, Borloo is widely credited with helping reduce joblessness and efforts to shore up public housing in bleak suburbs, like those hit by riots in 2005.
7) RACHIDA DATI: Dati rose to prominence during the campaign as Sarkozy's spokeswoman. Sarkozy said he chose 41-year-old Dati, a lawyer of mixed Moroccan-Algerian origin and one of the few visible minorities in his inner circle, for her "intrinsic qualities" but also to send a message to minority youths. She is considered a possible contender for justice minister.
8) MICHELE ALLIOT-MARIE: A close ally of Chirac, the steely defense minister harbored presidential ambitions of her own. But once it became clear she had little chance of beating out Sarkozy for her party's nomination, Alliot-Marie abandoned her bid. The 60-year-old minister became a fixture at Sarkozy's rallies, a show of support that put her in the running for a senior security-related ministry.
9) CLAUDE GUEANT: One of Sarkozy's close confidants, Gueant takes over as secretary general of the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy's chief of staff. Gueant has fulfilled numerous roles in French regional and national politics. From 2002-2004 and from 2005-2007 he was Sarkozy's top aide.


Nicolas Sarkozy named new president of France, promising new era
(APW_ENG_20070516.0959)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy took office as the president of France on Wednesday, waving farewell to the outgoing Jacques Chirac and appealing to political enemies to join forces in his effort to propel France into a new era.
2) Chirac, ending 12 years in power, entrusted the country's nuclear codes to President Sarkozy in a private meeting that was a highpoint of the transfer of power between the two conservatives.
3) A 21-gun salute from the cannons of the gold-domed Invalides, where Napoleon is buried, heralded the Sarkozy presidency.
4) Chirac, 74, took his leave quietly. He shook hands with Sarkozy, a one-time protege turned rival, at the entrance of the ornate Elysee Palace and walked alone to a waiting car. Sarkozy returned the wave before entering his home for the next five years.
5) The blunt, pro-market Sarkozy, 52, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, is the first president of France born after World War II, a generational difference evident in his frontal approach to tackling the nation's problems.
6) In his first speech as president, Sarkozy, 52, made a frank appeal to rivals to help in his task.
7) Sarkozy, a divisive figure reviled by many on the left, hopes to announce a new government within days and has met with Socialist Party figures in hopes of including some in his Cabinet.
8) "I want to express my conviction that in the service of France there are no camps," Sarkozy said. "To all those who want to serve their country, I say I am ready to work with them and I will not ask them to deny their convictions."
9) Sarkozy was leaving immediately for Berlin and a meeting with German Chancelor Angela Merkel on European issues and, he said, to underscore the Franco-German friendship.
10) An immediate sign of change was the touches of glamor and informality that marked the meticulously planned inauguration ceremony. A guard chatted with Sarkozy's 10-year-old son, Louis. Four older children were present -- two sons from Sarkozy's first marriage and two stepdaughters from his wife Cecilia's first marriage -- excitedly watching the proceedings.
11) In his first speech as president, Sarkozy noted that he was elected May 6 with a mandate for change.
12) "The people conferred a mandate on me. ... I will scrupulously fulfill it," he said, adding that further delays "can be fatal."
13) Sarkozy becomes the sixth president of the Fifth Republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958.
14) He made enemies on his way to the presidency. An anti-Sarkozy protest march was planned later Wednesday starting at the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris, where postelection protests degenerated into violence on several nights last week.
15) Issues demanding attention include a jobless rate that hasn't dipped below 8 percent in a generation and the identity and cohesion of an old nation in a quickly changing world.
16) "Never has opposition to change been so dangerous for France as in this world in complete change, where each is trying to change faster than the others, where delays can be fatal," Sarkozy said.
17) He promised to restore the values of "work, effort, merit" and to "invent new solutions."
18) Sarkozy said that issues of security, order and obtaining results were priorities of his administration.
19) On the global front, protecting human rights and fighting global warming will top his agenda, he said.
20) In a sign of his determination to act quickly, Sarkozy was leaving late afternoon for Berlin to discuss European issues, including the hobbled European Union, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
21) He also is expected to quickly form a government, appointing fellow conservative, four-time former minister Francois Fillon, as prime minister in the coming days.
22) The popular Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist health minister and founder of the Nobel-prize winning organization Doctors Without Borders, is among those considered for the post of foreign minister in a streamlined Cabinet of 15 ministers. Sarkozy promises that half the ministers will be women.
23) Before leaving for Berlin, a beaming President Sarkozy paraded in an open car up the famed Champs-Elysees, escorted by Republican Guards on motorcycles or on horseback, to lay a wreath and relight the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe. Relishing his first moments in office, Sarkozy then shook hands with the crowd.
24) In the simple morning ceremony, Sarkozy received the insignia of the Grand Croix from the hands of Gen. Jean-Pierre Kelche, who heads the prestigious Legion of Honor, and the necklace of the Great Master of the Order of the Legion of Honor. Each linked medallion of the necklace bears the name of a president, with Sarkozy's name recently added.
25) Earlier, Chirac and Sarkozy held talks in which the nation's nuclear codes and related state secrets were passed from the outgoing leader to the new president. That weighty moment does not preclude discussing the incidentals of daily life at the Elysee Palace: In 1995, outgoing Socialist President Francois Mitterrand asked Chirac to be sure to take care of the ducks in the garden of the presidential palace.
26) Sarkozy will be "more implicated in daily affairs" than his predecessors, said Sarkozy aide Henri Guaino.
27) "He will communicate more, act more directly," Guaino said on Canal Plus television ahead of the ceremony.
28) The departing Chirac, criticized for being too prudent in reforming the country, leaves behind four decades in politics. In his final presidential speech Tuesday night, he urged his compatriots to stay united and proud, despite uncertainty about France's place in the world.
29) "I know that the new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will endeavor to lead our nation forward on the paths of the future," Chirac said.


Officials: Sarkozy plans to name Borloo as head of Finance Ministry
(APW_ENG_20070516.1637)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, who took office as France's new president Wednesday, plans to name labor-friendly former minister Jean-Louis Borloo as head of a revamped Finance Ministry, according to officials close to Sarkozy.
2) The independent-minded Borloo is known more for reducing joblessness and good relations with French unions than his familiarity with France's multinationals or unbridled enthusiasm for the kind of labor market shake-up that conservative Sarkozy has championed -- and that has scared many on the left.
3) Borloo, outgoing labor and social affairs minister and one of the last officials in the previous conservative government to rally behind Sarkozy, will likely take charge of both labor and economic strategy, the officials said on condition of anonymity because only the prime minister is authorized to announce government appointments.
4) "Borloo's appointment would give a positive signal to the unions," said Stephane Baumont, a professor at Toulouse university. "To mix the social with economic matters is new for France."
5) The appointment is seen as part of Sarkozy's strategy of reaching outside his circle of allies, and in some cases across the political spectrum, to form a government that will look unlike those of past presidents.
6) Borloo is widely credited with helping reduce joblessness through measures designed for the long-term unemployed. He was also behind efforts to shore up public housing in bleak suburbs, like those hit by riots in 2005.
7) Sarkozy was elected on a reform platform promising changes to halt the economic stagnation and social tensions left over from former President Jacques Chirac's 12-year tenure.
8) To diffuse opposition to his plans to reform France's protective labor laws, Sarkozy took a rare step of hosting union leaders this week for pre-inauguration talks.
9) Jean-Claude Mailly, head of the Force Ouvriere union, said Sarkozy allayed union concerns about the loss of a ministry dedicated exclusively to labor and social affairs.
10) Sarkozy, himself finance minister in 2004, first proposed a shake-up of the Finance Ministry in February.
11) The budget, the state health care system and regional financing will be separated from the Finance Ministry, and possibly put under Xavier Bertrand, Sarkozy's campaign spokesman.
12) Borloo, who once taught financial analysis at Paris' business school HEC, is expected to run what will essentially be a giant economy ministry.
13) Mailly also said Sarkozy also promised not to force through new labor laws without proper consultation with the unions, avoiding embarrassing showdowns such as last year's protests against a job contract for young people.
14) Chirac was forced to withdraw the contract, known in France as the CPE, after students and unions organized massive street protests. Unions claimed they were not consulted over the proposal, which then-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin pushed through parliament using special constitutional powers. Sarkozy persuaded the unions to return to the negotiating table after they stopped speaking with de Villepin.
15) Sarkozy is expected to name Francois Fillon as prime minister Thursday. Fillon then formally names the government, in concert with Sarkozy, on Friday or Monday. The streamlined Cabinet of 15 is expected to be about around half women.


Sarkozy, on first trip abroad, pledges to help end EU ' paralysis '
(APW_ENG_20070516.1646)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to help end the European Union's "paralysis" and signaled an energetic approach to foreign policy, hours after taking office Wednesday.
2) "I did not want just to make a symbolic gesture; I wanted to express my wish that we get to work straight away," Sarkozy told reporters after embracing German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly on his arrival at her office in Berlin.
3) "It is urgent to act," he said. "The first matter of urgency is to get the European Union out of its current paralysis."
4) Merkel, a fellow conservative whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, is trying to find ways of relaunching plans for an EU constitution -- stalled since French and Dutch voters rejected the original proposal in 2005 referendums. The new leadership in Paris could make her task easier.
5) Germany and France traditionally have been the engine of EU integration, although they have seen their influence diluted as the bloc has expanded over recent years.
6) Merkel said she wanted to "continue and intensify German-French cooperation" with Sarkozy, and thanked him for the early visit -- "which makes clear that Germany and France need each other."
7) Sarkozy said Germany and France must urgently address issues of industrial cooperation -- particularly the restructuring program at embattled European aircraft maker Airbus, whose delicate Franco-German political balance has been a source of friction in the past.
8) "It seemed necessary that we not waste a minute," Sarkozy said. "The policy of France, as I conceive it, will not bear the stamp of a wait-and-see attitude -- neither in domestic policy, nor in European policy, nor in foreign policy."
9) Sarkozy did not offer details about how the EU might be jump-started, and the two leaders took no questions.
10) He has advocated a "mini-treaty" -- rather than a full EU constitution -- to prevent bureaucratic gridlock within the 27-member bloc. He has said he would oppose another referendum and would bring the simplified treaty before the French parliament for approval before the European elections in 2009.
11) Merkel said Germany and France would work closely together on the issue, and voiced confidence that next month's EU summit "will move us forward a step."
12) Sarkozy stressed his desire to "help (Merkel) find a solution to the institutional crisis" so that the summit can be a "shared success," his spokesman, David Martinon, said after the meeting. To that end, Sarkozy plans to consult with other EU members, which he did not immediately name.
13) Sarkozy and Merkel only briefly addressed the question of Turkey, another contentious EU issue, Martinon said. He argued that "it is not indispensable to talk about it immediately."
14) Sarkozy opposes Turkish EU membership. Merkel and her conservative party also have advocated that the secular but predominantly Muslim country be granted a "privileged partnership" that falls short of membership.
15) However, Merkel's center-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats, support Ankara's bid, and the German government supports its ongoing membership talks, which are expected to last years.
16) Merkel made her first foreign trip to Paris the day after she took office in November 2005.
17) "For France, Franco-German friendship is sacred," Sarkozy said. Turning to Merkel, he said: "Dear Angela: I have great confidence in you, and great friendship for you."


Sarkozy names prime minister, pledges to assure France ' s eminent position in world
(APW_ENG_20070517.0806)
1) France's new reform-minded prime minister, Francois Fillon, started his job Thursday by pledging to implement President Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping program of change and then turning up at the Elysee Palace in shorts to go jogging with the new president.
2) Fillon has been appointed to head a revamped, slimmed-down government -- expected to be named Friday -- to include political rivals and nearly as many women as men. Well-known leftist personality Bernard Kouchner could be Sarkozy's new foreign minister.
3) During a brief ceremony in which outgoing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin handed over power to Fillon, the new head of government said he would "assure an eminent place" for France and rally the nation in a "spirit of outreach."
4) Fillon, 53, an efficient four-time minister with a lower profile than the president, has been a confidant of Sarkozy. The two men met later on Thursday to go jogging, with Fillon arriving in shorts at the presidential Elysee Palace.
5) An hour after Fillon's appointment, Villepin, in office since June 2005, formally turned over power to the new prime minister at the ornate, 18th-century Hotel Matignon on the Left Bank that serves as the office of the prime minister.
6) Events moved quickly once Sarkozy took office Wednesday from Jacques Chirac, a fellow conservative ending 12 years as president. Fillon's appointment a day later was to be followed Friday with the naming of a new government, Sarkozy aides said.
7) Sarkozy has said suggested no time would be wasted moving forward with his promises of reform to rev up the sluggish French economy.
8) The streamlined government is to be made up of 15 members, around half of them women and at least one from the left to signal the willingness of Sarkozy, accused of divisiveness by rivals, to include figures from outside his political camp. Fillon has said it would be a "tight and efficient team."
9) Consultations were continuing Thursday to put the team together, with aides of Sarkozy saying it would be made up of eight men and six women. The aides, not authorized to speak publicly, asked not to be named.
10) Kouchner, co-founder of the Doctors Without Borders medical charity, has been tapped for the post of foreign minister, but there has been no official word as to whether he has accepted the job.
11) Fillon, echoing Sarkozy, promised to defend the heritage and identity of France and keep the nation together while pushing through changes.
12) "In a world of 6 billion people, the 60 million French people must remain united," he said. "I will respect all of the commitments we made."
13) Villepin said the new prime minister "has all the assets to succeed."
14) Fillon has led several reforms, including tough changes to retirement benefits in 2003 and ending the monopoly of France Telecom. However, enemies remember students taking to the streets over his changes to the baccalaureate college examinations while education minister.
15) Fillon, a member of Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement party, has been Sarkozy's near constant companion in recent weeks and was widely considered a likely prime minister. He pushed pension reform as social affairs minister from 2002 to 2004 and was education minister from 2004 to 2005.
16) During the presidential campaign, Sarkozy called Fillon "more than perfect."
17) As prime minister, Fillon will be charged with applying Sarkozy's policy of "rupture" with the era of Chirac.
18) Sarkozy has vowed to end France's economic stagnation, lower social tensions and inspire new confidence among his compatriots.
19) He plans to put big reforms before parliament at an extraordinary session in July, including making overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more.
20) Another change would ensure tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France. He also wants to curb the ability of unions to cripple France with strikes and make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.
21) The ease with which these reforms will be enacted depends in large measure on the outcome of June legislative elections and the strength of Sarkozy's parliamentary majority.


France ' s new prime minister hits the ground running, putting final touches on Cabinet
(APW_ENG_20070517.1299)
1) France's new prime minister hit the ground running -- literally -- on Thursday, going jogging with his boss, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and putting together a radically revamped Cabinet to make good on promises of change and restored pride for the economically sluggish nation.
2) After a brief inauguration where he promised to "assure an eminent place" in the world for France, reform-minded conservative Francois Fillon turned up in shorts at Sarkozy's presidential palace for their hour-long jog -- showcasing the vigor France's new leadership wants to project after 12 years under Jacques Chirac.
3) Fillon will head a slimmed-down Cabinet to be announced Friday, likely made up of eight men and seven women and including at least one minister from the opposition left. Many of those rumored to head ministries met with Fillon at his office on Thursday.
4) Among them was popular leftist Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders medical charity, who could become foreign minister. He was the first U.N. administrator for Kosovo in 1999-2000.
5) On the campaign trail, Sarkozy promised a break from the Chirac era of sluggish growth, failed reforms, mounting debt, persistent unemployment and riots in 2005 in poor neighborhoods where many immigrants from Africa and their French-born children live.
6) But several Chirac-era veterans met with the new premier Thursday, including Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Labor Minister Jean-Louis Borloo and former Health Minister Xavier Bertrand.
7) Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe appeared poised for a remarkable political comeback, with speculation that he would be chosen to head a newly created Ministry for Sustainable Development. Juppe, who for years was thought to be Chirac's preferred successor, was convicted in a party financing scandal in 2005 and was barred from holding political office for a year. Sarkozy has said that fighting global warming will be one of his priorities.
8) Fillon, 53, is known as an efficient four-time minister with skill at negotiating difficult reforms. He comes across as a cool-headed man of the shadows compared to Sarkozy, a media-savvy operator who once said his biggest defect was that he is "in a hurry." Sarkozy is likely to be far more involved in the daily operation of government than was Chirac.
9) At a brief ceremony in which he took over from outgoing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Fillon echoed Sarkozy, promising to defend the heritage and identity of France and keep the nation together while pushing through change.
10) "In a world of 6 billion people, the 60 million French people must remain united," he said. "I will respect all of the commitments we made."
11) Events moved quickly after Sarkozy took office Wednesday and flew to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. On Friday, he will visit struggling European aircraft maker Airbus. It plans to shed some 10,000 jobs, a hot issue in the campaign that led to Sarkozy's May 6 election.
12) Sarkozy has many detractors on France's left. Angry youths clashed with police shortly after his victory; there have already been a few peaceful street protests against him; unions say they'll monitor his reforms -- and go on strike if they feel he is watering down France's labor protections.
13) Sarkozy has sought to reassure, meeting union leaders and saying that he wants to include people from outside his political camp in his government. For Socialists, Kouchner's expected appointment as foreign minister would be a blow and, to some, a betrayal.
14) Fillon has led several reforms, including tough changes to retirement benefits in 2003 while social affairs minister, and ending the monopoly of France Telecom. As education minister from 2004-2005, Fillon led a reform of the baccalaureate college examinations system that drew huge protests.
15) Sarkozy plans to put big reforms before parliament at a special session in July, including making overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. He also wants to make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers, make it tougher for immigrants to bring their families to France and curb the ability of unions to cripple the country with strikes.
16) The future of such reforms hinges largely on whether Sarkozy's conservative Union for a Popular Movement party retains its parliamentary majority in legislative elections next month.


French President Sarkozy names streamlined Cabinet
(APW_ENG_20070518.0767)
1) New French President Nicolas Sarkozy named his Cabinet on Friday, poaching from rival political factions and handing women a prominent role in a smaller government team tasked with reforming France and pulling it out of the economic doldrums.
2) The conservative Sarkozy reached across the political divide by several appointments -- most notably making humanitarian crusader Bernard Kouchner, a popular Socialist, his foreign minister. The defection is a heavy blow to the Socialists ahead of next month's legislative elections and they responded by saying that they no longer considered Kouchner a member of their party.
3) Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe got a second life. He was given the environment portfolio -- remarkable given his conviction in 2004 in a political financing scandal.
4) Sarkozy appointed a woman of North African origin as justice minister, and handed a new and already much-criticized Ministry of Immigration, Integration and National Identity to a close friend, Brice Hortefeux.
5) Sarkozy, once of France's most divisive high-profile politicians, has been trying to cast himself as a unifier after his election on May 6 over Socialist Segolene Royal. He chose Francois Fillon, a modest, moderate conservative, as prime minister Wednesday to head the 15-member Cabinet, pared down from 31 full and junior ministers under his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
6) Handover ceremonies from the last conservative government to the new one took place Friday in ministries across Paris, and the Cabinet was to meet in a full session later in the day.
7) The choice of seven women for the Cabinet was a step toward gender equality in a country where women did not get the vote until 1944. Even today, only 14 percent of France's national legislature is female.
8) The shake-up included splitting the former education ministry in two, with the creation of a full ministry for research and higher education. The Sports and Health Ministries were fused. Ministries for tourism and French overseas territories were either scrapped or brought under other posts.
9) In France, the prime minister recommends the members of the Cabinet, and the president approves it. Sarkozy, a generation younger than Chirac, has plans to be far more involved with the daily running of government -- and move beyond his predecessor's focus on foreign and defense policy.
10) Former Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie will lead France's counterterrorism efforts, at the Interior Ministry that Sarkozy headed for four of the last five years.
11) Juppe's dazzling rebound came just three years after the party financing conviction that barred him from office for a year. He spent a year teaching in Canada. Now, he will lead a new, high-ranking ministry on ecology and sustainable environment -- an issue that Sarkozy has said is a priority.
12) Jean-Louis Borloo, a popular former labor minister, became economy minister. His challenge includes making good on Sarkozy's pledge for France to reach full employment, from more than 8 percent unemployment today. He could face the anger of unions and the vocal French left over the president's aim to make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers and ease the impact of strikes that sporadically clog up France's public transportation system.
13) The appointment of Rachita Dati, who has Algerian and Moroccan roots, at the Justice Ministry followed Sarkozy's promises to introduce "French-style positive discrimination." A trained lawyer, she often visited France's poor, immigrant-dominated neighborhoods during the campaign, and will have the task of pushing through Sarkozy's planned reforms like stiffening penalties for repeat offenders.
14) Sarkozy, while interior minister, infuriated many black and Arab immigrants and their French children with tough talk about troublemakers in their neighborhoods. He wants to expand limits on immigration to France. But he has also been one of the few political heavyweights in France to reach out to minorities by calling for a kind of affirmative action.
15) Perhaps the biggest Cabinet surprise was Kouchner, co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders medical charity and the first U.N. administrator for Kosovo from 1999-2000. Socialists renounced him.
16) "The fact that he is joining Sarkozy's government excludes him de facto from the Socialist Party," said party spokesman Benoit Hamon. "He excluded himself. He joined a government of the right, the government that we are fighting ... There's nothing more for him inside our party."
17) Sarkozy also reached over the political divide in selecting Herve Morin, of a rival center-right party, as defense minister, and gave a post to Eric Besson, a former Socialist who defected to Sarkozy's camp in mid-campaign.


EU Commission president to discuss EU constitution with Sarkozy
(APW_ENG_20070521.0509)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit European Union headquarters on Wednesday to discuss revised plans for the EU constitution after French voters rejected it two years ago.
2) It will be the first meeting between Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso since the new French president took office last week.
3) "There are a lot of topics that are very burning that could be discussed," said spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen. "Some subjects are pretty obvious and they will be talking about those," she said, alluding to the constitution.
4) Sarkozy wants the EU member states to approve a limited core text which should streamline the decision-making process while shying away from many of the controversial issues that undermined the first draft of the constitution. Apart from France, voters in the Netherlands also rejected the text, which needs backing from all 27 EU nations.
5) Some EU nations reject Sarkozy's plan and still hope for a more sweeping text, while others seek an even more limited approach.
6) Sarkozy met with the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, in Paris on Monday, and they discussed the future of the treaty, said Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon.


Poll forecasts large victory for Sarkozy ' s right in legislative vote
(APW_ENG_20070521.0846)
1) New French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives are heading for victory in legislative elections in June, according to an opinion poll published on Monday, when the official campaign opened.
2) Newly-named Prime Minister Francois Fillon is leading the legislative battle for Sarkozy's right-wing Union for a Popular Movement and is running for a seat himself. A total of 11 of 15 ministers are also running for seats, daily Le Monde reported Monday.
3) Fillon met with ministers who were named Friday to the new government to set up a battle plan for the two-round elections June 10 and 17. A strong majority is central to Sarkozy's ability to carry out his reform program.
4) The poll reflected expectations that the right would profit from the momentum of Sarkozy's May 6 victory and divisions within the ranks of its Socialist rivals. The sounding by the TNS Sofres-Unilog firm showed the Union for a Popular Movement getting 40 percent of the first-round vote, far ahead of the Socialists, with 28 percent.
5) Fillon would be one of only a small handful of prime ministers to run for a seat in parliament. His leading role suggests that Sarkozy has decided not to head the battle for the elections himself, as he had originally indicated he would do.
6) The presidential elections shook up the political landscape with Francois Bayrou's center-right party disintegrating, with 24 of its 29 deputies joining Sarkozy. Bayrou, who was a presidential candidate, formed a new Democrat Movement with hopes of giving birth in France to a social democratic group.
7) Sarkozy played a deft hand in putting together a government that reaches out to centrists and even to Socialist enemies. A close Bayrou ally, Herve Morin, was named defense minister, and a leading Socialist figure -- human rights pioneer Bernard Kouchner -- was given the Foreign Ministry.
8) In the poll, conducted Friday and Saturday among 1,000 people, candidates from Bayrou's new party, referred to as MoDem, would get 15 percent of the vote.
9) The 40 percent for Sarkozy's supporters in the first round could translate into giving the president and his allies 365 to 415 seats in the 577-seat lower house, according to the poll. No margin of error was provided, but in a poll of that size it would usually be plus or minus three percentage points.
10) Socialist leader Francois Hollande warned followers over the weekend that an overwhelming majority for Sarkozy's right would put all the power in the hands of the president and "it is the French who would be in difficulty."


France ' s conservative Sarkozy wants action on global warming; Greens skeptical
(APW_ENG_20070521.0947)
1) Is French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative with friends in big business and not much of an environmental record, going green?
2) Sarkozy, his government just three days old, took on global warming, genetically modified crops and the future of nuclear energy in talks Monday with nine leading environmental groups. Ecologists welcomed his openness, though skeptics questioned Sarkozy's commitment to changing the way France and the French treat the planet.
3) "It's time for action," Sarkozy said at the meeting. He has sought to move quickly since he was elected May 6 with a mandate for change after 12 years under Jacques Chirac left many French feeling adrift.
4) Critics say Sarkozy is posturing as a unifier on subjects that are not normally his strong points as a way to poach voters ahead of next month's legislative elections. Sarkozy needs his party to retain its majority to pave the way for his ambitious reforms.
5) Monday's meeting produced no specific solutions for environmental groups' concerns, but launched preparations for a huge ecology conference in October involving national and local decision-makers, business, labor and environmental groups.
6) The conference is to focus on ways to stem global warming, prevent pollution-related health problems, and protect dying species. Sarkozy insisted that he wouldn't make any decisions on prickly issues such as nuclear energy or genetically modified crops before the conference.
7) "We will not agree on all subjects. There will be points of divergence. I don't want difficult subjects to be dodged," he said.
8) Sarkozy has sought to tap voter concerns about global warming, saying it would be a top priority in his election night victory speech and chiding the United States for not fighting it more aggressively.
9) Greenpeace France campaign director Yannick Jadot called Monday's meeting "a great sign of openness," while admitting that "strong, incontestable differences" remain.
10) Chirac often spoke eloquently about the environment, but France's ecological record is not as clean as many European peers. Greenpeace and other groups criticize France for failing to enforce EU rules aimed at preventing overfishing, protecting open spaces and regulating the production of genetically modified foods.
11) France is more dependent on nuclear energy for electricity than any other country, with more than 70 percent of supply coming from atomic reactors. Greenpeace wants to reduce that figure and halt development of the next generation of reactors, which Sarkozy has supported.
12) Sarkozy has said he would double taxes on polluters as a way of reducing taxes on employees and bosses and work to limit urban sprawl.
13) He created a new senior government ministry for the environment, energy and industry, and assigned conservative heavyweight Alain Juppe to lead it. Juppe, a former prime minister who was convicted in a party financing scandal, has little environment-related experience.
14) An umbrella group of non-governmental organizations that rated French parties' environmental records earlier this year placed Sarkozy's -- and Juppe's -- UMP party near the bottom.
15) The Green Party, which was not invited to Monday's gathering, said Sarkozy's proposed October conference "cannot be taken seriously."
16) "The cultivation of GM crops remains a reality, nuclear energy is being developed without investment in alternative energy ... and highways and incinerators are multiplying," the party said in a statement.
17) Daniel Richard, who heads the French branch of the World Wildlife Fund, suggested Monday's meeting was little more than hot air.
18) "He made a gesture but we will be waiting to see whether that translates into policies we have long been calling for," he said.


New French president Sarkozy to visit Poland in June
(APW_ENG_20070523.0616)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to visit Poland in mid-June, an aide to Poland's president said Wednesday.
2) Elzbieta Jakubiak, aide to President Lech Kaczynski, said that Sarkozy had accepted Monday's invitation.
3) "We are very happy that a meeting will take place in the coming weeks and also that it will be one of the first foreign trips that President Sarkozy will take after his election," Jakubiak told The Associated Press.
4) Poland, a new EU member, is hoping to improve relations with France that chilled under Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac.


Sarkozy accepts invitation to visit China
(APW_ENG_20070523.1142)
1) Newly-installed French President Nicolas Sarkozy assured his Chinese counterpart Wednesday that France recognizes one China and accepted an invitation to visit this year, the president's office said.
2) In a telephone conversation with Hu Jintao, the French leader underscored China's "considerable role in the world," noting that "there will be no solution to the Iranian question, to the Darfur question, to the North Korea question without the strong and positive implication of China," spokesman David Martinon quoted Sarkozy as saying.
3) "France recongizes only one China," the spokesman quoted Sarkozy as assuring his counterpart in a reference to Taiwan. Hu, who met with Sarkozy during a January 2004 visit, called the new French president an "old friend."
4) Sarkozy accepted an invitation from Hu to visit China this year "without hesitation," Martinon said. He promsed to speak "with friendship but also with frankness on all subjects," according to the spokesman, a formula that echoes what Sarkozy has said about dealings with the United States.


Sarkozy launches drive for new scaled-back EU treaty to replace EU constitution
(APW_ENG_20070524.0086)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched his drive to get a rapid agreement among European Union nations by next month on a new scaled-down EU treaty to replace the stalled constitution project which his country and the Netherlands rejected two years ago.
2) In his first visit to European Union headquarters as the new French leader Wednesday, Sarkozy said efforts to redraft and simplify the existing constitution draft were making progress.
3) He said that after meeting last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and in talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, "we seem to be making headway on the way to a simplified treaty," to replace the EU constitution.
4) The constitution needs the backing of all 27 EU nations for it to be ratified. French and Dutch voters rejected it two years ago.
5) Sarkozy said he was now campaigning to unblock the impasse of what to do with the constitution -- notably on getting EU leaders to accept a scaled-back, simplified EU treaty passed, and doing away with the current draft constitution.
6) "It is no use crying over spilled milk ... but France voted no however, and another member state voted no," Sarkozy said. "We need to move forward and a simplified treaty is the way forward. Europe cannot remain at a standstill, we cannot remain in this relative paralysis ... we have to find a way out of this impasse."
7) The EU constitution was to have streamlined how the bloc makes decisions and bolster its role on the world stage.
8) It needed the backing of all 27 EU nations for it to take effect, leading to the current stalemate.
9) Some EU nations, like France, Britain and the Netherlands are now keen to drop more contentious parts of the draft -- its name, the post of an EU foreign minister and officially designated anthem and flag -- to play down public fears that a constitution would take away powers from national capitals and create a European superstate.
10) Barroso agreed that "consensus is forming around" a toned-down EU treaty pushed by Sarkozy to replace the draft constitution.
11) "The main thing is to strengthen Europe's ability to act," Barroso said. "We need institutions to give Europe the means it requires to do what its people want."
12) Sarkozy's visit to Brussels was only his second trip abroad as president -- and was seen as a signal that the new French leader plans to take a more hands-on approach to France's European policy than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, did during his 12 years in office.
13) Sarkozy made his first trip to Berlin just hours after being installed as the new president. Both countries have traditionally been the driving force behind the EU.
14) Negotiations between EU nations on redrafting the treaty have been under way since January under the close eye of Germany. Merkel wants to strike a deal at a June summit on a more modest rule-book blueprint.
15) French officials said Sarkozy wants a "simplified" treaty to replace the current constitution, doing away with notions that the existing charter is a "solemn text," as a way to avoid the need for new referendum votes.
16) France wants to have the smaller treaty approved by the EU nations by next year.
17) At their talks Wednesday Sarkozy also reiterated his opposition to Turkey's membership bid, but said he was putting aside the matter, for now, until the EU resolved on what to do with the constitution.
18) "I have not changed my views on this," Sarkozy said. "I believe that Turkey does not have its place in the European Union."
19) Sarkozy's stance on Turkey runs against a majority of EU leaders who back the two-year-old entry negotiations with Ankara.
20) Barroso has appealed to Sarkozy not to block entry talks with Turkey. Those negotiations are now on a slow track after Turkey refused last year to implement a customs union pact with EU member Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognize.
21) Sarkozy has instead proposed Turkey be included in the creation of a "Mediterranean Union" modeled on the EU, but not part of it, something that has angered Turkey.


Pro-market Sarkozy in no rush to sell off French industrial jewels
(APW_ENG_20070528.0530)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy is keeping his country's business elite waiting.
2) The energetic Sarkozy made a big show of his determination to return Airbus, Europe's struggling planemaker, to its former glory, but other, less glamorous industrial dossiers are piling up on his desk. They are unlikely to be opened until after next month's legislative elections.
3) How he handles them will be a litmus test of Sarkozy's proclaimed pro-market tendencies in a country suspicious of capitalism and with deep traditions of state involvement in the economy. The most prickly plans include privatizations of major French companies that could help finance Sarkozy's tax cuts and other reforms -- and would almost certainly incite mass protests and strikes.
4) Since Sarkozy needs to stay popular to win a parliamentary majority, he is putting off the sensitive questions until after the June 10 and 17 parliamentary elections, said Aurore Wanlin, a researcher at the Centre for European Reform. "After that, we will see. In his vision for France, the state has an important role to play in the economy."
5) Sarkozy's new staff is largely mum about the biggest dossiers: a long-stalled merger between national gas company Gaz de France and utility giant Suez, and the selloffs of state stakes in Electricite de France, nuclear engineering giant Areva and airport operator Aeroports de Paris, known as ADP.
6) Newly appointed officials at the presidential Elysee Palace and the Finance Ministry did not return calls seeking comment on Sarkozy's industrial plans.
7) Investors and big businesses, meanwhile, are eager to uncover Sarkozy's plans for the state's euro170 billion (US$228.5 billion) in assets of traded companies.
8) The weekly financial newspaper Le Revenu last week published an investor guide to the government's portfolio, which ranges from a 31 percent stake in Safran, a conglomerate that makes jet engines, to a 19 percent holding in Air France-KLM. The newspaper speculated on possible share sales for 10 companies, but recommended buying only one: ADP.
9) French construction company Vinci has declared an interest in an eventual privatization of the airport operator, the newspaper said, explaining the stock's upside potential.
10) French power giant EDF is "ready" to put more shares on the market if the government decides to do so, Chairman Pierre Gadonneix said at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Paris last week. Under French law, the state could sell an additional 17 percent of the company, lowering its stake to 70 percent.
11) Areva President Anne Lauvergeon, who has a longstanding relationship with Sarkozy -- she was an economic adviser to President Francois Mitterrand when Sarkozy was budget minister -- may be hoping to realize her ambition of an exchange listing for Areva shares. In 2005, Areva's initial public offering plan was blocked by then-Finance Minister Thierry Breton amid opposition to relinquishing control of such a strategic industry.
12) Another possibility for Areva is forging closer ties with Alstom, famed for its high-speed trains. At a news conference this month, Alstom Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Kron said he sees "an interest" in forging closer ties with France's state-owned nuclear engineering firm, while stressing the government hadn't yet gotten around to studying the dossier.
13) Sarkozy is thought to favor a partial privatization of Areva. Martin Bouygues, CEO of Bouygues, which owns a 25.3 percent stake in Alstom, has long said his company would be interested in buying a stake in Areva. Another option mulled by the Journal du Dimanche this month is the sale of an Areva stake to French oil giant Total.
14) As for Aeroports de Paris, Sarkozy's election increases "chances for a full privatization in the future" though a "full exit" is not imminent, Franco-Belgian banking group Dexia said in a research note earlier this month.
15) The planned Suez-Gaz de France marriage -- arranged by Sarkozy's one-time rival former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to fend off a bid for Suez by Italy's Enel SpA -- is on hold. Villepin's successor, Francois Fillon, said Wednesday the government is considering other possibilities and will review the deal in late June or early July.
16) For a merger to take place, the government would have to privatize GDF, something Sarkozy promised not to do when he was finance minister in 2004. Villepin introduced legislation allowing the government to reduce its stake to 33 percent, a move vigorously opposed by unions and Socialist lawmakers.
17) Both companies say their union is the best option, but insist they will be all right if it doesn't happen. Suez announced this month it has amassed an 11 percent stake in Spain's Gas Natural, which analysts said could make a good alternative if the GDF deal falls through.
18) Sarkozy has made clear the priority of his "ambitious industrial policy" is Airbus, and has vowed to seek new investors or inject new cash in the European planemaker. It became a major French campaign issue after massive layoffs combined with an enormous golden handshake for the ousted chief executive sparked a public outcry.
19) Airbus was on the menu of Sarkozy's first overseas visit, to see German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He picked an Airbus factory near Toulouse for his first domestic visit to talk with unions and management.
20) Airbus has suffered from a falling U.S. dollar -- the currency in which it sells planes -- and two years of delays to the 555-seater A380, which have wiped more than euro5 billion (US$6.6 billion) off Airbus' profit forecasts for 2006-2010.
21) The French government currently owns 15 percent of EADS, while Paris-based Lagardere SCA owns 7.5 percent. Their combined stake is balanced by Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler AG, which holds 22.5 percent of voting rights in the defense group.
22) Sarkozy has cited his experience with Alstom as a possible model: As finance minister, Sarkozy engineered a euro2.5 billion, state-orchestrated bailout to steer the train and power-plant builder away from bankruptcy.
23) "Alstom was much simpler," said Pierre Boucheny, an analyst at Kepler Equities in Paris. "With EADS, Daimler and the Germans have always said that the state doesn't have a role in managing companies."
24) Der Spiegel reported last week that Merkel was cool about Sarkozy's plans to raise the state's stake in EADS. "The German government's position on EADS is to pursue a private investors' solution and to reduce public stakes in the company," government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters in Berlin.
25) Analysts said Sarkozy's handling of the dossier will speak volumes about his diplomatic skills and free-market tendencies.
26) "He's first and foremost pragmatic," said Boucheny. "He's someone who believes in the market but who also believes the state has a role to play."


Top French envoy visits Turkey amid differences over EU membership bid
(APW_ENG_20070529.1384)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent his top diplomatic envoy to Turkey after the Turkish prime minister called for better communications with Paris, Sarkozy's office said Tuesday.
2) The visit by Jean-David Levitte, France's former ambassador to the United States and now Sarkozy's chief international adviser, follows efforts by Ankara to keep Turkey's European Union membership bid on track despite opposition from Sarkozy.
3) The French leader's office had not officially announced the visit, but confirmed Tuesday that it took place Friday and Saturday.
4) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the visit, but said he did not meet the French envoy.
5) Erdogan said the visit was decided in a conversation with Sarkozy during which, he said, the two agreed Turkey and France were strategic partners in many areas and needed to improve communication.
6) "There is a communication problem between us," Erdogan told private NTV television in an interview on Thursday. "It partly stems from us and partly from them. We need to express ourselves better to the French public. I believe, from now our relations will be better."
7) The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Levitte discussed bilateral ties with diplomats and advisers to Erdogan.
8) A French diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the trip was aimed at finding "a way to work with Turkey."
9) France's daily Le Figaro said Tuesday that Sarkozy would not try to block the expected opening June 26 of three new areas of negotiations between the EU and Ankara.
10) Sarkozy said in Brussels last week that he would put aside the Turkish question for now, until the EU resolves what to do with its constitution. Sarkozy is apparently trying to ensure that his push for a streamlined EU constitution is not hindered by the conflict over Turkey's membership bid.
11) EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed Sarkozy's action on the matter.
12) In an interview in Le Figaro released Tuesday, Rehn said, "The new French president has shown a responsible attitude" on Turkey.
13) Sarkozy's stance on Turkey runs against a majority of EU leaders who back entry negotiations with Ankara.
14) Turkey's EU negotiations are now on a slow track after it refused last year to implement a customs union pact with EU member Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognize.


Sarkozy campaigns in Spain for simplified EU constitution
(APW_ENG_20070531.1005)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy brought his campaign to simplify the EU constitution to Spain on Thursday, visiting the country that was first to ratify the troubled document and is now outspoken in its opposition to scrapping it.
2) The conservative Sarkozy was to confer with Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Thursday -- a little more than a month after Zapatero appeared at a campaign rally alongside Sarkozy's defeated election rival, Segolene Royal. Besides the constitution, they were to discuss bilateral issues and the fight against terrorism.
3) Aiming to pull the EU out of its impasse over the constitution, Sarkozy has been pushing the idea of scaling down the document, after it was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005 referendums.
4) The constitution -- the EU's most ambitious project to date -- is designed to streamline decision-making and give the block more clout on the world stage.
5) Spaniards approved the constitution in a referendum months before the French and Dutch votes, and Spain co-sponsored a Jan. 26 meeting of the 18 countries that had approved the document. Participants said the text should not be watered down to win over skeptics.
6) Sarkozy has insisted, however, that the treaty in its current form was unworkable because two countries had already rejected it -- spoiling chances for the unanimous backing of the 27-member union.
7) The solution, Sarkozy has said, is to scale down the constitution so that a more limited document could be agreed on.
8) "We hope that on this subject the Spanish government will be receptive to the idea of a simplified treaty," French presidential spokesman David Martinon said.
9) Spain now says that any revised version of the treaty must retain "the essence" of the original text, which is key if the bloc hopes to continue expanding with more members.
10) Skeptics such as France, Britain and the Netherlands want to drop contentious parts of the constitution -- such as its name, the post of EU foreign minister, and an anthem and flag -- to assuage citizens' fears that a constitution would strip powers from national capitals and create a European superstate.
11) During his one-day stay, Sarkozy also planned to meet with King Juan Carlos and conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy. This latter meeting is not meant to irk the Spanish Socialists, but rather reflects Sarkozy's "sense of personal and political friendship" with Rajoy's Popular Party, Martinon said.
12) In March 2006, Sarkozy appeared at a Popular Party convention and praised Rajoy, saying one day he would become Spain's prime minister.


New French president looking for more U.S. movement on climate change, action on Darfur
(APW_ENG_20070604.1244)
1) Newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday he would be looking for firm figures on climate change from the United States when he makes his debut on the international stage at this week's G-8 summit.
2) Sarkozy wants the summit -- being held Wednesday to Friday in Heiligendamm, Germany -- to concentrate on climate change and aid to Africa, including action on Darfur, he told reporters after a lunch Monday with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
3) Sarkozy has put climate change at the heart of his presidential agenda, and thinks the United States should do so, too.
4) The 52-year-old French president has set himself apart from previous French heads of state by suggesting that France can learn from the United States, while stressing that Paris would be a "vassal" to no one.
5) Sarkozy met U.S. President George W. Bush during a Washington trip while still a presidential hopeful and quickly visited with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after taking office. However, he will have his first presidential encounter with Bush and other leaders of the world's richest countries at the summit.
6) Known as a man not to mince words, Sarkozy has made clear his priority for France is change.
7) In his May 6 victory speech, Sarkozy urged the United States to take the lead on climate change, saying that a "great nation like the United States has a duty not to block the battle against global warming but -- on the contrary -- to take the lead."
8) Nations need to set goals with firm numbers attached, Sarkozy said Monday.
9) "We need targets with numbers to show our will to act," Sarkozy said Monday.
10) He was referring to the lack of solid figures in a proposal unveiled last week by Bush for the 15 leading nations identified as major emitters of greenhouse gases to meet this year and come up with a global goal for carbon emissions -- but decide themselves how to reach it.
11) Bush's proposal "constitutes progress that we should welcome and which seems to mark a veritable realization ...," presidential spokesman David Martinon said. "But we think we have to go further and that we should encourage our American friends and partners to draw the conclusions of this assessment."
12) Martinon said France wants to see the United States take up the European Union goal of diminishing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared with 1990.
13) In addition, France encourages the United States to seek "universal legitimacy" for the process by integrating its initiative into U.N. action on climate change, Martinon said.
14) Aid to Africa, and the humanitarian crisis of Darfur, will also be on Sarkozy's summit agenda.
15) "The destiny of Africa and that of Europe are linked," he told reporters.
16) Sarkozy wants to honor the EU member states' commitment to bring development aid to 0.7 percent of their gross national products by 2015. France's was at 0.47 percent in 2006.
17) The French president will speak out on Darfur at a Thursday lunch, his spokesman said.
18) "We can no longer resign ourselves to being powerless witnesses of horror. After the indignation, now we must act," Martinon said.
19) Sarkozy will stress the need for a process of negotiations toward a peace accord, he said.
20) "The emergency is of a humanitarian and security nature, but the solution is political," said the presidential spokesman.


Sarkozy chasing diplomatic victories in rush to make mark on world stage
(APW_ENG_20070605.0925)
1) In just three weeks as France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy has persuaded Colombia to release a leading jailed guerrilla, won over several European leaders to his plan to rescue the EU's integration efforts, and made Darfur a top diplomatic priority.
2) The results-oriented but diplomatically inexperienced Sarkozy, heading to his first Group of Eight presidential summit this week, is determined to make his mark -- and fast -- on the world stage.
3) So far, he appears to be focusing only on areas where he's likely to make quick progress -- not the thorny issues of Middle East peace or Iran's nuclear program. The G-8 will be a key test of whether Sarkozy's get-things-done dynamism will translate beyond French voters to a more global audience.
4) "He hasn't made any blunders so far," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute for International Relations. At the G-8, Sarkozy's "presence will be felt. He will not be discreet but will be ... booming with energy and confidence."
5) Sarkozy scored one apparent victory Monday, when Colombian authorities released the highest-ranking jailed guerrilla from the leftist rebel group FARC -- at Sarkozy's request, according to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
6) Rodrigo Granda was freed as part of a wider prisoner release intended to help secure the freedom of 60 hostages -- including three Americans and Colombian-French citizen Ingrid Betancourt -- held by the guerrillas.
7) The move appeared destined for domestic consumption in France, where Betancourt's predicament has captured widespread attention. It was unclear, however, why Sarkozy pushed specifically for Granda's release, and some questioned Sarkozy's willingness to lobby for the release of a top member of FARC -- listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
8) Sarkozy met Tuesday with Betancourt's children and ex-husband and promised to bring up Colombia's hostage situation at the G-8.
9) Closer to home, Sarkozy has campaigned rapidly to revive efforts at greater EU integration.
10) On Monday, he won yet another backer for his plan for less ambitious alternative to Europe's stalled constitution -- Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates. Sarkozy has already jetted to Berlin, Brussels and Madrid and heads to Poland next week to push a pared-down version of the constitutional treaty.
11) The document is meant to replace the constitution that French and Dutch voters rejected in 2005 in a major blow to the continent's morale.
12) The focus on the EU constitution has also taken the union's eyes off the sticky issue of possible Turkish membership -- something Sarkozy strongly opposes. While his stance remains firm, Sarkozy immediately sent his top diplomatic adviser to Ankara to keep communication lines open.
13) "He doesn't want Turkey in, but he's intelligent enough to say, 'I don't want to make a crisis now,'" Moisi said.
14) Aid to Africa and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur will also be on Sarkozy's summit agenda. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner heads Thursday to Mali and Burkina Faso, and was to brief Sarkozy before the summit about his proposals for a "humanitarian corridor" for Darfur.
15) France will lay out its proposals for Darfur in the next few days, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.
16) Sarkozy -- dubbed in France "Sarko the American" -- is more openly friendly to the United States than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. But Sarkozy has urged the United States to take the lead in fighting global warming -- something U.S. President George W. Bush has resisted but that is to be the central issue at the G-8.


Bush, Sarkozy to meet on sidelines of G-8 summit
(APW_ENG_20070608.0359)
1) U.S. President George W. Bush may be saying goodbye to Tony Blair. But he gets to say hello to Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) The new French president is seen as friendly to the United States, sure to be a welcome change from the merciless tormenting Bush received from Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
3) Sarkozy is one of a couple of new leaders that make Europe a more comfortable place for Bush to be these days -- even with the impending departure of Blair, the British prime minister who has been Bush's most steadfast foreign ally.
4) Bush and Sarkozy, in office less than a month, were to sit down Friday on the sidelines of a summit of eight industrialized democracies. It will be their first meeting since Sarkozy's election, and their second overall; the first was September in Washington.
5) Bush has said little about Sarkozy.
6) Asked what he thinks of the new French leader in an interview this week with reporters, Bush merely said: "I haven't met him yet -- I have met him, excuse me, but not as president."
7) To be sure, Sarkozy does not fall in lockstep with U.S. policies.
8) For instance, he, like Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, had pushed for hard greenhouse gas emission reduction targets out of the week's gathering.
9) French officials said Sarkozy told Bush during a working session Thursday that "quantitative targets" on emissions were not negotiable.
10) "We cannot wait anymore," Sarkozy said.
11) Turns out they will.
12) The agreement on climate change produced by the leaders promises only to consider a goal of a 50 percent cut by 2050 as one option for tackling global warming. Instead of adopting that approach, proposed by Merkel, the leaders came around to Bush's insistence that a to-be-determined, and not necessarily binding goal be set later, by a wider group that includes emerging economies.
13) Still, Sarkozy earned the label "Sarko the American" from some in France during his campaign.
14) Merkel is another place Bush can now look for friendlier ties. She has made it a goal to strengthen relations with the United States. Merkel succeeded Gerhard Schroeder, who had partnered with Chirac in an alliance of unrelenting opposition against the U.S. on the war.
15) On the final day of the Group of Eight summit, the leaders are focusing on aid to Africa. Critics say all the nations are lagging on the promises they made two years ago, at the British-hosted summit, to double assistance to the troubled continent by 2010.
16) The leaders also are holding discussions with China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, all developing nations not G-8 members.
17) From Germany, the president flies to Poland for a quick, three-hour stop. He spends the night in Rome.
18) In Poland, meetings with Polish President Lech Kaczynski at that country's equivalent to the American presidential retreat at Camp David serve as a bookend to Bush's trip-opening visit to the Czech Repubexclic. Bush has chosen the two nations as the sites for a new missile defense system.
19) That system has been a source of much heated dispute with Russia.
20) On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Bush with a surprise counterproposal built around an existing Soviet-era radar system in Azerbaijan rather than the new defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. Bush said he would consider it.


Sarkozy ' s mandate for change at stake in French parliamentary election
(APW_ENG_20070610.0385)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives were expected to dominate parliamentary elections Sunday as French voters cast ballots in a vote pivotal to his reform plans.
2) Polls have shown the opposition Socialists could hope mostly to limit the damage, and the main question was how big the conservative majority in the National Assembly would be. The mainstream right gained momentum with Sarkozy's presidential election win last month.
3) Since then, Sarkozy has cast himself as a man of action -- certainly compared to former President Jacques Chirac's slower pace -- and has drawn plaudits for getting straight to work to revive a country down on its economic fortunes and adrift in its identity.
4) The new president's "strategy has been impeccable," political analyst Dominique Moisi said. "He's done the popular things first, and is saving the unpopular ones for later."
5) "There is a sense of optimism in the air -- a sense that we are on top of things," Moisi said.
6) Sunday's balloting is the first round. In France's complex electoral calculus, only candidates who win a majority of votes Sunday land a seat immediately. In races with no majority winner, any candidate who gets more than 12.5 percent will qualify for the runoff on June 17.
7) Turnout in the parliamentary vote, traditionally lower than in presidential elections, was expected to be less than the 84 percent in the Sarkozy-Royal showdown. In the first round of the last legislative vote in 2002 it was 64.4 percent.
8) The Interior Ministry said 22.6 percent of registered voters had cast ballots by noon (1000GMT) in mainland France and the French Mediterranean island of Corsica -- up from 19.7 percent at the same hour in the election five years ago.
9) A total of 7,639 candidates from 14 parties across the spectrum were vying for five-year terms in the 577-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
10) Early projections of the result were expected after polls close at 8 p.m. (1800GMT).
11) The outcome is likely to leave Sarkozy with substantial political control, much like the sweeping powers Charles de Gaulle enjoyed with his hallmark strong presidency.
12) Some left-leaning voters were already sensing defeat -- and cast ballots more to block Sarkozy's faithful out of fear they will strip away workplace protections, the ability for unions to mount crippling strikes and generous state-provided health care benefits.
13) "I'm depressed -- I voted for the Socialists purely because the right is going to win," said Geraldine Gourbe, a 30-year-old philosophy professor, on her way out of a polling station in northern Paris.
14) "I voted for them to be effective, but I'd rather have voted for the Greens or the Communist Revolutionary League," she said, concerned that those parties' candidates stood less of a chance of gaining seats.
15) Conservatives want to capitalize on momentum from Sarkozy's 53 percent-47 percent victory over Socialist Segolene Royal in the May 6 presidential election.
16) Sarkozy's reform plans weigh in the balance, because the composition of his Cabinet and its ability to push through legislation is tied to the number of seats the mainstream right holds.
17) Sarkozy wants to shake up a country down on its economic fortunes, through slashing taxes and payroll fees, making it easier for companies to hire and fire, and cutting the number of public-sector workers.
18) Labor unions and student groups are wary, and are ready to mount strikes and protests if they deem that Sarkozy wants to go too far in trying to trim France's welfare state protections.
19) Sarkozy has already met with labor union leaders to discuss his reform plans, launched plans for an environmental conference later this year, and flown to Brussels, Madrid and to Germany twice.
20) Prime Minister Francois Fillon himself is up for parliamentary election -- as are 11 of the government's 15 ministers. Fillon has set an unwritten rule that anyone who loses a parliamentary bid must quit the Cabinet. Only Environment Minister Alain Juppe appears threatened in his constituency.
21) The Socialists are primarily trying to limit the damage -- and hang on to as many of their 149 seats as possible.
22) Royal, the Socialist who would have been France's first woman president, has been stumping for her party comrades for the legislative race, but is not running herself.
23) Face-saving -- and even financial survival -- are the stakes for smaller parties such as the Communists, whom polls show are likely to garner only a handful of seats, and supporters of Francois Bayrou's new centrist party known as the Democratic Movement.
24) "I'm not convinced by the Socialists' 'non-platform' ... all they do is systematically vote 'no' regardless of whether a proposal is good or not," said 21-year-old medical student Jeremy Gottleib, who said he voted for Bayrou's camp. Gottleib called Sarkozy's candidates "too far to the right" and said their tax plans would "protect the rich."
25) A break with the past appears in store. There has been left-right alternation in parliamentary control after every legislative vote since 1978. But this time, conservatives look set to be renewed.


French voters favor Sarkozy ' s party in first round parliamentary election
(APW_ENG_20070610.0911)
1) Voters resoundingly endorsed President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to overhaul France's economy, giving his party a commanding lead Sunday in the first round of elections for parliament, according to preliminary official results.
2) With 93 percent of the vote counted, Sarkozy's UMP party had 40 percent of the vote, while the opposition Socialists had 25 percent, the Interior Ministry said.
3) Sarkozy's conservatives have a strong advantage heading into the decisive runoff next Sunday, on track to expand their absolute majority in the 577-seat parliament. Control of the National Assembly is central to Sarkozy's agenda of tax cuts, labor reforms, and other plans to try to shake France out of its malaise.
4) The election sapped support from the fringes -- including Jean-Marie Le Pen's once-influential extreme right National Front and the Socialists' farther-left allies -- and leaves France facing a parliament tilted unusually deeply to the right.
5) Turnout sank to a record low of around 61 percent, which pollsters blamed on a lack of suspense: The UMP has been widely expected to win since Sarkozy's strong victory over Socialist Segolene Royal in the president election last month. The main question was how badly the once-powerful leftists would lose.
6) Socialists tried to rally backing for the second round -- and tap fears of an all-powerful "Sarko state" if the president's camp gets a lopsided majority.
7) "There are crushing majorities that crush, dominant parties that dominate, absolute powers that govern absolutely," Socialist leader Francois Hollande warned.
8) Sarkozy's backers say a convincing mandate is the only way to get the French, eager to strike and wary of globalization, to reform.
9) "We want to set off a shockwave of confidence, a shockwave of growth," a buoyant Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday night.
10) He laid out his agenda for change for the summer and autumn: reform of universities, making transport strikes less crippling, new anti-crime measures, freeing up the labor market and a plan to cut the large national debt.
11) Many outside the conservatives' circle dread the months to come.
12) Labor unions and student groups stand ready to resist with the kind of mass protests that logjammed reforms by former President Jacques Chirac.
13) Francois Bayrou, the third-place finisher in the presidential vote, spoke of a "wave" for Sarkozy that would lead to a "terribly" one-sided parliament. "One day, France will regret this lack of balance. It is not healthy," said Bayrou. His fledgling new party MoDem has been squeezed relentlessly by Sarkozy's camp and won about 7 percent Sunday.
14) The Socialists' downfall may send the party soul-searching about its direction in an era when many European leftists have moved to the center and come to terms with global capital markets.
15) Polling agencies TNS, Ipsos and CSA concurred that the UMP would expand its majority, but varied widely in projecting how many seats they would win: They predicted between 383 and 501 for the UMP and other mainstream right groups, and between 60 and 185 seats for the Socialists and other leftist parties.
16) In the current parliament, the UMP has 359 seats and the Socialists 149.
17) The National Front, which played the kingmaker in past parliamentary races and won 15 percent in 1997, won just over 4 percent this time -- and not a single seat.
18) Marine Le Pen, the daughter and perhaps future successor to party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, acknowleged that the far right had suffered "a setback" but insisted: "The National Front is not dead."
19) The Communists, who held 86 seats in parliament in the 1970s and whose combat for workers' rights long had substantial influence on French politics, are projected to win no more than 12 this time.
20) Turnout was much lower than in the presidential race, which energized the electorate. Sunday marked a record low for the first round of a legislative race under the Fifth Republic, established in 1958.
21) Analysts attributed the apathy to Sarkozy's strong victory last month. "People really got the impression that the main game has already been played," Pierre Giacometti, head of Ipsos polling group, said on France-2 television. "There's a feeling that elections were over when Sarkozy won."
22) The parliamentary nevertheless election marked a milestone in modern French politics: Voters look set to return the outgoing majority to power for the first time since 1978.
23) Sunday's first round of voting gives a strong picture of where voters stand. Any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote lands a seat straight out. In most cases there is no immediate winner, so all candidates with more than 12.5 percent of the vote go to the runoff.
24) A total of 7,639 candidates from 14 parties were vying for five-year terms in the assembly.
25) The interior minister said at least 53 candidates -- all from Sarkozy's camp -- won by an absolute majority in the first round.
26) Compounding the government's victory, among those winning outright were the prime minister and six ministers. Four other ministers who stood all polled between 44 and 49 percent, making them firm second-round favorites.


Sarkozy ups tempo for changing welfare state; rivals warn he could face mass dissent
(APW_ENG_20070611.0872)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy appears to have won a massive mandate after his party swept first round parliamentary elections, and he is picking up speed in his plans to rehaul France's welfare state. But rivals say he should watch out.
2) His expected parliamentary majority is inflated, because of France's election rules and after many opponents threw up their hands and did not vote at all in Sunday's first round of voting. Immigrant-heavy suburbs are still seething after 2005 riots, and students -- always a potent force in France -- are dead-set against some of his reforms.
3) A major misstep, critics warn, and the streets could again explode in anger.
4) The conservative UMP party dominated Sunday's vote, the opposition Socialists fared poorly and fringe parties all but disappeared -- leaving the UMP well-placed to expand its majority in the National Assembly in next Sunday's decisive second-round vote.
5) Sarkozy, well aware of the risk of resistance to his plans, has reached out to the people most threatened by them: negotiating with unions immediately after his election last month, bringing a leading Socialist and centrist into his government and naming a woman of North African descent as his justice minister. On Monday, he bowed to labor union demands and scrapped longer hours for teachers.
6) So far at least, the strategy appears to be working. Anti-Sarkozy protests after the elections left hundreds of cars burned nationwide but quickly fizzled, and no other major resistance has been mounted since.
7) The question is what happens when Sarkozy tackles the more painful part of his agenda: university reforms, less-protective labor laws, squeezing transport workers' ability to strike, new rules for immigrants.
8) Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in the May 6 presidential election, warned Monday of "arrogance" in Sarkozy's camp. She criticized the justice minister for saying voters in the rough suburbs where 2005 riots broke out had been "manipulated" into voting for the left, and suggested the conservatives were out of touch with those neighborhoods' woes.
9) Others warn of a creeping authoritarianism if Sarkozy -- who already enjoys more power than most European leaders because of France's constitution -- gains a heavily lopsided majority in parliament.
10) "There is Sarkozy's France, and the France of poor neighborhoods. I'm afraid the divorce is getting deeper," said Brahim Abbou, who organizes get-out-the-vote campaigns in down-and-out suburbs around Paris.
11) He warned of possible violence later this year among youth who harbor hatred of Sarkozy and who still feel their voices have not been heard.
12) "They made an effort for the presidential elections," when young people and the housing project residents turned out in large numbers. "But they have the impression that their vote didn't count."
13) Student groups are readying to resist.
14) "For us, Sarkozy's reforms will not be defeated through the ballot boxes, but by organizing the students in force," student organizer Celine Coat said.
15) She said student groups were organizing a forum for the beginning of July to get things ready for protests when the new school year opens. They are hoping to repeat the success of nationwide protests and strikes last year, which forced then-President Jacques Chirac's government to back off a minor labor reform that would have made it easier to hire and fire young people.
16) The far left Workers' Struggle party predicted a "yes-man" parliament, and said it was up to the working classes to "put sticks in (Sarkozy's) wheels" through strikes and other protests.
17) "The working world is unpredictable because it can be subject to sudden bouts of anger," the party said in a statement.
18) While far leftists have performed dismally in this year's elections, they still have a solid base of backers ready to march and strike when summoned.
19) Even former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin warned Monday the UMP should not "turn in on itself," but continue opening up to those outside the conservative camp.
20) Sarkozy has sought to appease smaller parties by sounding willing to reconsider the way French voters choose their parliament. Currently voters elect specific candidates instead of a party, which skews the outcome toward larger parties, as in the United States.
21) Polls show most voters would prefer a proportional system, under which the number of seats a party wins would be linked to the percentage of votes they gain. Sarkozy last week said he would hold meetings with political leaders to discuss the idea.
22) The Socialists sought Monday to limit the damage from Sunday's election, chasing alliances and urging voters to turn out in force this coming weekend. The record low turnout for a first round vote -- 60.6 percent -- largely hurt the Socialists, since polls showed that leftists were more likely to stay home.
23) Royal said she would seek an alliance with centrist Francois Bayrou for the second round in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a "crushing" UMP majority.
24) Control of the National Assembly is central to Sarkozy's agenda for pulling France out of its doldrums and making it more globally competitive by stripping some labor protections and cutting taxes.


French President Sarkozy in Warsaw, hopes to avert Polish veto on EU treaty plan
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Poland on Thursday to try to persuade Warsaw to drop threats to veto a new European Union treaty meant to replace the stalled draft constitution.
2) An honor guard and military band greeted Sarkozy outside the Polish presidential palace in downtown Warsaw before he and Polish President Lech Kaczynski moved inside for talks.
3) Sarkozy, making his first visit to Poland since taking power in May, is likely to face a warmer welcome than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, who offended many in Poland with his criticism of Eastern European countries' support for the U.S. position on Iraq ahead of the 2003 invasion.
4) Poland is a strong U.S. ally, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it welcomes Sarkozy's plans to revive the trans-Atlantic ties that chilled with Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war.
5) But the fresh start does not mean that everything will be easy.
6) Sarkozy makes his one day stop in Warsaw with the hope of persuading the president and his twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, to accept a new, streamlined EU treaty to replace the stalled draft constitution.
7) "I will try to persuade Polish leaders that Poland has become such an important country in Europe that we need ... to obtain her consent to a compromise in the form of a simplified treaty," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in an interview published Thursday by the leading daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
8) In Wednesday's edition of Gazeta, Sarkozy was quoted as saying, "Poland cannot block the European Union. ... If every one of us shows total intransigence ... the question arises: what are we doing together?"
9) The French president also said his personal ties to Eastern Europe allow him to better understand the "dreams and aspirations" of the region.
10) "My father is a Hungarian. I understand the soul of this part of Europe," Sarkozy was quoted as saying. "Let's not forget that for 50 years we Western Europeans left Eastern Europeans alone. Behind the wall. Today, they want peace and affluence within the framework of the EU."
11) Despite the Polish government's frequent tussles with the EU, Sarkozy said "there may not be another country as pro-European as Poland."
12) Warsaw's threatened veto, an attempt to retain more votes in relation to larger EU members, is seen as a main obstacle to reaching an agreement at an EU summit next week. The country of 38 million is calling for a voting system that would strengthen the voting power of medium-sized countries.


Powerful Sarkozy set for landslide parliamentary majority
(APW_ENG_20070616.0264)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy looks set to be among Europe's most powerful leaders after Sunday's runoff parliamentary elections, which polls suggest may hand his conservative party a majority bigger than any in modern France.
2) Such a landslide, which would cement his presidential triumph last month, would give Sarkozy an enormous mandate to reshape his struggling nation: The government, parliament and top state bodies would all be under his conservative camp's control.
3) Critics call that a threat to democracy. Sarkozy disagrees, and plans to move fast to trim taxes and encourage people to work beyond the 35-hour workweek in his bid to make France more competitive.
4) Sarkozy's UMP party swept the first round of voting last Sunday, and the latest polls Friday predicted it and its allies will win more than 400 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, crushing the fractured opposition Socialists and squeezing smaller parties to ever-shrinking margins.
5) Sarkozy needs a strong parliamentary majority to push through his reforms, which could anger a populace ever-ready to strike and take to the streets to protest perceived injustice.
6) The conservatives' poll ratings slipped slightly at the end of this week, as Socialists tapped worries over a too-powerful president and suggestions of a possible sales tax hike -- but not enough to threaten the right's convincing lead.
7) Three polling agencies predicted the right would win 401-463 seats and the left would have 106-174 seats.
8) Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in the presidential race last month, urged voters Friday in a low-income neighborhood in Argenteuil outside Paris to turn out in larger numbers for the runoff than during the first round, when just barely 60 percent cast ballots.
9) "It is important for all the French that the nation be balanced, that democracy breathes," she said the night before, in Toulouse.
10) Sarkozy appears to recognize how skewed his majority looks and has appointed Socialists and centrists to his government as part of an "openness" campaign.
11) Unlike predecessors, who largely left daily governance and unpopular reforms to prime ministers, Sarkozy says he's determined to be "a president who governs" -- and some say France should change its Charles de Gaulle-era constitution to allow the new leader to fully flex his muscle on domestic issues.
12) Even without changing the charter, the French president enjoys powers broader than those of most European leaders. The head of state is commander in chief of the military and can dissolve parliament.
13) The political right has also named most members of the Constitutional Council, an important watchdog. Some French journalists have expressed concern that Sarkozy could be tempted to abuse his close ties to media magnates and France's business leaders.
14) Others say being too hands-on could come back to haunt Sarkozy if he does something unpopular and has to take the blame for it personally.
15) "This system could turn against him very violently," said Dominique Reynie of the Institute for Political Sciences.
16) Brahim Abbou, who organizes get-out-the-vote events in housing projects home to many black and Arab families that were rocked by riots in 2005, warned that the problems that drove that violence "haven't been solved" and could re-ignite.
17) Among Sarkozy's other plans are a measure to punish 16-year-olds as adults when they commit serious crimes, reforming the university system and requiring immigrants to earn a steady income and speak French before they bring their families to France.
18) The first round gave a strong picture of voters' political leanings. Some 110 seats were filled -- all but one by UMP members -- in constituencies where a single candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote outright. All other races went to a runoff.
19) The Socialists, after losing three straight presidential elections and facing five more years in a diminishing opposition, must decide whether to shift toward the center to survive, as other European leftists have in recent years.
20) Prime Minister Francois Fillon attacked the Socialists on Thursday night, saying the party of the rose -- a socialist symbol -- "has nothing left but thorns" and urged it to "look at itself in the mirror" and reform.
21) The field is much more bipartisan than usual. The new Modem party of Francois Bayrou, a middleground lawmaker who landed a strong third place in the presidential race, won just 7 percent in the first-round parliamentary race, but both Socialists and conservatives have courted him this week for races where centrist votes could make a difference.
22) The new parliament is expected to convene the first time on June 26, then hold an extraordinary session through early August. Sarkozy plans to introduce several of his reforms this summer, while much of France is on vacation, in an apparent bid to avoid painful protests.


Sarkozy ' s conservative party to see parliamentary majority shrink, loses senior minister
(APW_ENG_20070617.0770)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party won a smaller than expected majority in France's parliamentary elections Sunday, according to poll projections, and suffered a stinging loss for a senior minister who immediately announced that he would resign.
2) Alain Juppe's defeat -- he had been seeking a seat in southwest France -- was a severe blow to Sarkozy's month-old administration and left a bitter aftertaste in the otherwise comfortable if not emphatic win for his governing conservative majority.
3) Juppe said he would tender his resignation on Monday, which would force a government reshuffle. Sarkozy had ruled that ministers would have to leave his government if they lost. Juppe is a former prime minister and had been in charge of the environment and energy, among other policy areas.
4) By any measure, Sarkozy's party was still the clear winner. But the opposition Socialists -- all but written off after a poor showing in the first round of the election a week earlier -- enjoyed a stunning rebound in the decisive second-round vote and did far better that even they had anticipated.
5) Partial official results -- with about two-thirds of votes counted -- showed the Socialists getting 42 percent, not that far behind the 46 percent for Sarkozy's UMP party.
6) In terms of seats, polling agencies projected that the right would have 340-345 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, while the opposition left led by the Socialists would have 228-234 seats.
7) Those projected results marked the first political hiccup for the hard-driving and U.S.-friendly Sarkozy since his presidential election win last month. But both votes still handed him a mandate to revive French spirits and economic prospects by loosening up labor laws and cutting income and inheritance taxes among other ambitious reforms.
8) Socialists said voters had heeded their warnings that a huge majority for Sarkozy could stifle French democracy, turning parliament into his rubber stamp for uncomfortable reforms. Last week's first round vote had left the once-powerful party expecting few more than 100 seats, while the buoyant UMP had been looking forward to the strongest parliamentary majority in the history of modern France.
9) "The French showed they did not want to give all of the power to Nicolas Sarkozy," former Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou, a Socialist, said Sunday night.
10) Instead, the UMP may see its majority shrink, with almost certainly fewer than the 359 seats it had in the outgoing parliament. The Socialists appeared likely to see their power grow from the 149 seats they won in the last elections in 2002.
11) Sarkozy will still enjoy a strong hand and have little trouble getting his reforms passed, since the UMP is projected to enjoy at least a 51-seat majority.
12) Despite the UMP's weaker than predicted performance, the result still marked a milestone: It was the first time since 1978 that voters returned an outgoing parliamentary majority to power.
13) Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the right would waste no time in using its majority to modernize France.
14) "France is equipped with a majority to act," he said after voting stations closed. "We will reform, we will renovate, we will experiment with new ideas."
15) He promised to eradicate the "defeatism that is suffocating the Republic."
16) Over the past seven days, the Socialists appeared to have capitalized on fears of a too-powerful Sarkozy and worries about a 5-percent sales tax increase, intended to finance social programs.
17) Leftists said the tax would hurt poor and middle-class consumers, and Sarkozy felt obliged to release a public statement saying he would not allow the tax increase if it hurt purchasing power.
18) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said that his party had resurrected itself and that that meant pluralism.
19) "It's good for the country," Hollande said. "France will walk on both legs."
20) Turnout was low, at around 60 percent of voters, less than a percentage point above the record low. Analysts had predicted that a low turnout in the runoff would hurt the leftists.
21) There were some high-profile losers. Marine Le Pen, daughter of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, was beaten by a Socialist.
22) A Socialist also beat France's most famous anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who stood for Sarkozy's party.
23) Sarkozy's government has already scheduled an extraordinary session of the new parliament for June 26 to begin passing some of his planned reforms, including loosening the 35-hour work week, guaranteeing minimum service during public transport strikes and getting tough on repeat lawbreakers and illegal immigration.
24) The election was a victory for bipartisanship, squeezing out the once-influential margins.
25) Le Pen's far-right National Front won was slated to win no seats, after Sarkozy's successful bid to woo Le Pen voters with tough talk on immigrants and crime. For years the spoiler in parliamentary elections, able to help decide the outcome in districts where its candidates were present, the party is on its knees.
26) The Communists were expected to win about a dozen seats, and the greens two to four.
27) The centrist party of Francois Bayrou, who landed a strong third place in the presidential race this spring and commanded 29 seats in the outgoing parliament, was projected to win just three or four seats this time.
28) In last week's first round voting, Sarkozy's UMP and allies won 45.5 percent of the vote, while the Socialists and other leftist parties took 35.4 percent. A full 110 seats were filled outright -- all but one by UMP members.


Sarkozy, with a narrower-than-expected parliamentary victory, heads into hot summer
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1) When the French head to the beaches this summer, the lawmakers elected this weekend -- most from President Nicolas Sarkozy's party -- will be working overtime in Paris to push through his reforms of France's economy.
2) Sarkozy seems to have a powerful mandate to shake up France -- but the French could still take to the streets if he goes too far. Early warnings: the Socialists fared much better than expected, and Sarkozy's de-facto deputy prime minister lost his seat, which will likely prompt an early Cabinet reshuffle.
3) Sarkozy confirmed Prime Minister Francois Fillon as head of government in a meeting Monday, a formality. But as early as Tuesday, he is expected to add, as promised, up to 10 junior ministers, including some from the leftist opposition and others to reflect France's "diversity."
4) He is expected to reorganize the Cabinet to replace Ecology Minister Alain Juppe, although one minister publicly questioned on Monday whether the president would follow through with an order to get rid of any minister who lost his parliamentary race.
5) Despite surprising gains by the fractured left, Sarkozy, in office since May 16, emerged from Sunday's runoff parliamentary elections as a singularly strong leader, with the government, parliament and top state bodies all under the control of his conservative parties. It was the first time since 1978 that an outgoing majority has replaced itself.
6) Still, Sarkozy's government could still face resistance as it embarks on its reform program in coming weeks.
7) The Communist-backed CGT union told the government on Monday that the election results reflected the disagreement of many with the reform program, including easing the 35-hour work week and guaranteeing minimum service in public transport strikes. It warned the government "not to commit the error" of acting only in the interest of the business sector.
8) Sarkozy's UMP party and its allies got 345 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, parliament's lower house, the Interior Ministry said Monday, correcting a one-seat miscount on the right and left. That was fewer than the 359 UMP seats in the outgoing parliament.
9) The opposition left secured a better-than-expected 227 seats, led by the Socialists with their 186 seats -- a considerable improvement on the party's 149 in the last parliament.
10) The 52-year-old Sarkozy hopes to use his power at home, and his trademark determination, to help revive a hobbled Europe at a Thursday-Friday EU summit in Brussels, pushing his plan for a simplified treaty to replace the constitution rejected by the French, and the Dutch, in 2005.
11) On the home front, Sarkozy received the prime minister less than 12 hours after final election results were tallied, formally returning him to his post. The fate of Juppe, the government's No. 2, initially considered sealed, was thrown into doubt Monday with comments by one minister.
12) In one of the electoral shocks, Bordeaux Mayor Juppe offered his resignation Sunday night after losing his parliamentary race -- in keeping with a rule set by Fillon encouraging ministers to run and to lose their Cabinet posts if they lose the vote.
13) However, reports of Juppe's fate were contradictory.
14) Public Policies Minister Eric Besson said the resignation rule "is not automatic" and that Sarkozy is "capable" of skirting it.
15) However, Health and Youth Minister Roselyne Bachelot, a Sarkozy confidante during the presidential campaign, said the president would stick to the rule and Juppe "will be replaced."
16) Juppe's resignation would be "a loss for the government and probably for our country," Besson said.
17) The conservative daily Le Figaro raised the possibility that Finance Minister Jean-Louis Borloo could replace Juppe, with the finance post filled by AXA insurance company chief executive Henri de Castries.
18) The impressive comeback of the opposition Socialists, given up for nearly dead just days ago, surprised even the party, which campaigned on the fear factor of an all-powerful Sarkozy and hints that he could quickly raise the sales tax.
19) Analysts cited the tactic for the success that defied poll predictions.
20) That and the potential loss of Juppe were signs of a glitch in Sarkozy's calculated rise to power that contradicted French political tradition.


Modest victory, good opposition showing present an early warning for France ' s Sarkozy
(APW_ENG_20070618.1125)
1) While the French head to the beaches this summer, lawmakers will be working overtime on President Nicolas Sarkozy's economic, legal and immigration reforms. But the presidential team must tread carefully.
2) Weekend parliamentary elections assured Sarkozy a strong majority to renovate France as promised. But they also bolstered the opposition -- an early warning that the French, energized after the traditional July-August holiday period, could resort to street protests in the autumn if they feel the government is going too far.
3) "The left showed they have the capacity to react rapidly," said political sociologist Daniel Boy.
4) For the determined, energetic Sarkozy, the results were like a go-slow flag.
5) One casualty already could be counted, Ecology Minister Alain Juppe, the government's de-facto deputy prime minister. A prominent figure on the right, Juppe announced his resignation Sunday night after losing his parliamentary race. He was bowing to Prime Minister Francois Fillon's ruling that ministers -- encouraged to run -- would lose their Cabinet posts if they lost.
6) Shuffling the month-old Cabinet to replace Juppe was an immediate challenge for Sarkozy, who could announce changes Tuesday.
7) The election results clearly caught the ambitious 52-year-old Sarkozy, who meticulously calculated his rise to power, by surprise.
8) He called off a Tuesday trip to London "due to events in Paris," according to Downing Street, the British prime minister's residence.
9) Sarkozy will attend a Thursday-Friday European Union summit in Brussels, hoping to make a difference there, too, with a proposed simplified treaty to replace the EU constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch in 2005.
10) Sarkozy was expected to add a half-dozen or so junior ministers to the government. He has promised to further reflect France's diversity with new posts for the opposition.
11) But finding political opponents interested in joining up after their own electoral successes may prove tricky. One key post is already held by Bernard Kouchner, a Socialist and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders.
12) Sunday's elections gave Sarkozy's conservatives and their allies a comfortable majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, with 345 seats. But that was fewer than the 359 seats Sarkozy's party had in the outgoing parliament and certainly not the "tsunami-sized" triumph predicted by pollsters.
13) Worse, the elections resuscitated the opposition Socialists -- in crisis since Sarkozy's May 6 presidential victory -- giving them far more seats than even they expected -- 186 compared with 149 in the previous parliament. The left secured a total of 227 seats.
14) Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande attributed the unexpected gain to the "arrogance" of Sarkozy's right and its "wish to crush."
15) Boy, a specialist in electoral sociology, said a strong opposition goes hand-in-hand with street protests.
16) The government "cannot implement whatever reform it wants, especially social reforms, without considering the response of a large part of the electorate," he said in a telephone interview.
17) Sarkozy has promised to move fast to rejuvenate a morose country struggling with slow growth, a more than 8 percent unemployment rate and social tensions from decades of discrimination of its citizens from former colonies in Africa.
18) Sarkozy's government has already scheduled an extraordinary session of the new parliament from June 26 to begin passing planned reforms, like loosening the 35-hour work week, tougher punishments for repeat lawbreakers and tightened immigration controls.
19) Reform of the cumbersome university system also is on the agenda, along with new rules to ensure that immigrants can integrate -- and speak French.
20) Unions are likely to resist any perceived tampering with their right to strike, while students have a tradition of protesting.
21) The Communist-backed CGT union issued a first warning Monday, counseling the government "not to commit the error" of acting solely in the interest of the business sector.
22) Former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin attributed, like most analysts, the right's mediocre electoral results to a report that the government was mulling an increase in sales tax to help pay for social security. Seizing the affair, the Socialists made the tax increase report a campaign issue.
23) "The social tax made us lose 60 seats," the daily Le Monde quoted Raffarin as saying.
24) Political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi stressed that the government has by no means lost its ability to pass reforms.
25) "There's a psychological impact but no real impact on Sarkozy's plans," Parodi said. "Sarkozy has his majority. Whether the Socialists have 160 or 240 seats, it makes no difference at all."
26) However, some reforms could pose more problems than others.
27) "All you have to do is say the word 'university' and the students are already in the streets," Boy said.


French president promises to move fast on reforms
(APW_ENG_20070620.0778)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Wednesday to move boldly ahead with sometimes painful reforms to save France from what he said would be sure decline otherwise.
2) Boldness, he said, is the only way forward -- along with hard work.
3) "The French made a choice. They approved a project of rupture with the ideas, the values, the behavior of the past," Sarkozy said in an address before newly elected lawmakers.
4) Ticking off a range of goals, Sarkozy said sustainable development -- a major new government sector -- would be used to stimulate growth, not just protect resources. He also said he will seek to reduce the country's debt to 60 percent of gross domestic product -- down from more than 65 percent in 2006 -- within the next five years.
5) "But I say clearly: to reach that, I will not put into place a policy that could slow growth or make the great structural reforms needed impossible," the president said.
6) The speech clearly was meant to prepare the nation for the changes that lie ahead, and a sort of warning to sectors, such as labor unions, that might oppose the reforms Sarkozy pledged during his presidential campaign.
7) An extraordinary session of parliament is to open June 26 and will work through much of the summer passing draft reform bills.
8) Sarkozy took office May 16, and he has a comfortable majority backing him in the new parliament elected last weekend.
9) A new government, put in place Tuesday, held its first Cabinet meeting Wednesday, examining a first batch of reforms: a fiscal package to stimulate growth and employment, including making overtime pay tax-free to encourage hard work and weaken the 35-hour workweek.
10) The government reflects the bold approach that is quickly becoming a trademark of the conservative president. It includes opposition Socialists and three women of African or North African origin.
11) "Everything I said before the elections, I will do," Sarkozy said. "There is no choice but that of boldness and truth."
12) In another sign of a rupture with the past, Sarkozy met Wednesday with far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Le Pen's National Front party is on its knees after Sarkozy wooed away its voters with extreme-right themes such as national identity.
13) The meeting was called to discuss Europe before a two-day EU summit begins Thursday in Brussels. Le Pen's party fears the European Union will smother the French identity and sovereignty.
14) No subject can be taboo, Sarkozy told lawmakers.
15) "Nothing would be more perilous for France than to remain immobile," he said. And nothing would "condemn France to decline more than conservatism and cautiousness."
16) Sustainable development, the president reiterated, is "at the heart" of his priorities. But, he added, it must not simply be a policy of protection "but a policy of production" to spur growth.
17) Sarkozy also raised the possibility of a "social sales tax" that caused controversy during the legislative campaign and, some say, cut into votes for Sarkozy's camp. The Socialist Party, relying on the fear factor, used the talked-about hike in their campaign.
18) Such a tax would be used to lighten social charges in an effort to unburden companies and keep jobs in France. However, Sarkozy said, it would be launched as an experiment and only instituted "if it is good for jobs and growth, if it doesn't penalize buying power."


French president invites electoral rival Segolene Royal to presidential palace
(APW_ENG_20070621.0631)
1) Segolene Royal finally made it to the Elysee Palace, meeting Thursday with the man who defeated her in last month's presidential race, Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) President Sarkozy held talks with Royal on his hope to sell a "simplified treaty" to European Union leaders at a summit Thursday and Friday to replace the draft EU constitution that French and Dutch citizens rejected two years ago.
3) Sarkozy consulted with political figures of all stripes before his departure for the summit in Brussels. But Royal, a Socialist, was in no more agreement with him now than she was during the presidential campaign.
4) "At this stage, this mini-treaty is but a mini-ambition for Europe," Royal said in a statement. "Therefore, it must be improved."
5) She pointedly used the term "mini-treaty" which Sarkozy -- who speaks of a "simplified treaty" -- avoids.
6) The Communist Party candidate in the presidential elections, eliminated in the first round in April, said she wanted any "simplified treaty" to go before citizens in a referendum -- the kiss of death for the draft constitution.
7) Sarkozy, who beat Royal in the May 6 runoff, met with political rivals this week ahead of the summit.
8) On Wednesday, he raised eyebrows by inviting extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to the presidential palace for consultations on Europe. Le Pen, a euro-skeptic, said he reiterated his positions but appreciated the "democratic gesture" of Sarkozy, who broke a more than three-decade boycott of Le Pen in the corridors of power.


Sarkozy pledges to boost French public research budget
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a visit to the Paris Air Show on Saturday that he intended to boost France's public research budget by a quarter.
2) France must promote research to help preserve the nation's status, Sarkozy said in a speech at the air show.
3) "We must now find technological breakthroughs that will allow us to progress," Sarkozy said, adding that he would ask the government to boost the public research budget. The Paris Air Show, the world's largest, closes Sunday.


Sarkozy cultivates new, up-front style with media, but reporters are worried
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1) Media-savvy French President Nicolas Sarkozy is reaching out to the press corps by giving regular news briefings and frequent interviews -- a big change from the climate of secrecy cultivated by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
2) But some fear Sarkozy is playing a double game -- wooing reporters publicly while trying to clamp down on the news privately.
3) Critics say Sarkozy, who took office last month, suppresses stories and editors he doesn't like. More broadly, they say, his close friendships with the country's press barons are troubling for France's media independence.
4) This week, an association of journalists from 27 different outlets asked Sarkozy for a meeting to talk about laws to guarantee media independence from the conglomerates that own them. They fear that media are concentrated in the hands of a few people with connections to Sarkozy and his conservative UMP party.
5) "Sarkozy is the guarantor of the constitution, and he must guarantee that there's a diversity of information in this country," said Francois Malye, a journalist for Le Point magazine and the president of an association called the Permanent Forum of Journalist Societies.
6) Sarkozy, at 52, has mastered the art of the punchy soundbite and well-planned photo. His spokesman plans a news conference every week, at which the president himself might drop by.
7) Chirac, 74, kept his media appearances scarce. A Bastille Day TV appearance every July 14 was his big appearance of the year. Chirac's office held briefings only if he had a major trip or event coming up, and journalists often had to rely on off-the-record conversations for basic information.
8) His predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, was even more byzantine in his dealings with the media, dropping what became known as "petites phrases" (little phrases) as asides to friendly journalists, pithy sentences designed to be picked over by the press as a way of analyzing the president's will.
9) Sarkozy understands how important the media's role in image-building is -- and that's part of the problem, critics say.
10) The most troubling case dates back to 2005, when Sarkozy was still interior minister. Paris Match executive editor Alain Genestar was forced out after the magazine published photos of Sarkozy's wife in the company of another man. Genestar said Sarkozy was behind his dismissal, a charge Sarkozy denied.
11) Robert Menard, head of media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, said he believes Sarkozy himself may not have intervened in cases where he was accused of meddling: another possibility is that friends in high places were bending over backwards to do what they thought would please him.
12) "When Sarkozy is friends with someone, he finds it natural to call up and say whatever he wants," Menard said. "He needs to have people in front of him who can tell him no, without saying yes even before he asks."
13) One member of Sarkozy's inner circle is Arnaud Lagardere, who runs his family's defense-to-media conglomerate Lagardere Groupe SA, which owns Paris Match, Elle and other titles. In a recent case, journalists from Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper wrote to Lagardere, furious about a decision not to run a scoop that Sarkozy's wife Cecilia didn't vote in the second round of the presidential election.
14) Powerful businessman Martin Bouygues, another Sarkozy friend, has a major stake in influential TF1 television. Laurent Solly, the No. 2 member of Sarkozy's campaign staff, was recently named to a high-ranking post at TF1, raising eyebrows in the media world.
15) France's richest man, Bernard Arnault, who heads luxury goods company LVMH, also owns La Tribune newspaper and is in negotiations to buy another financial daily, Les Echos. Both papers went on strike this week, with La Tribune reporters fearing they would lose their jobs and Les Echos worried about losing independence.
16) "There's a real malaise in the press today -- journalists feel like they're being treated with spite, the public doesn't understand what's going on, and suspicion is generalized," said Menard, who signed the open letter sent to Sarkozy on Wednesday. "We need to make sure the public has confidence in the media, because they don't."


Sarkozy says EU too bound to free-market competition
(APW_ENG_20070702.1063)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that the European Union is too wedded to free-market competition and has lost ground to the United States and Asia in the economic race.
2) In a speech to supporters in Strasbourg, Sarkozy appeared to want to leverage his presidential election victory in May to garner support across Europe for his calls for a "renaissance" in the 27-member bloc.
3) Sarkozy defended his line at last month's EU summit, at which France demanded that open business competition not appear as one of the EU's guiding principles.
4) The EU, Sarkozy said, "needs debates so that competition stops being a religion. ... Europe has retreated too much, has lost too much time against America and Asia -- it can't wait any longer."
5) Sarkozy wants to put politicians back in charge in the Europe Union: "I don't resign myself to allowing Europe to be bureaucratic and technocratic," he said.
6) The French leader made no reference to Monday's warning from the European Union that France must keep the promise made by all euro-zone governments to eradicate their budget deficits by 2010, amid signs that Paris wants a two-year delay.
7) Sarkozy has sought to lift the bloc out of perceived immobility after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution in 2005 referendums. EU leaders at the summit agreed on the outlines of a new treaty to replace the aborted EU document.


Sarkozy in flurry of talks with Jordan ' s king, Israel ' s foreign minister
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1) New French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his government were holding a flurry of meetings Wednesday on the Middle East, hosting King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
2) Sarkozy was to meet first with Abdullah, followed by talks with Livni. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was also meeting with Livni.
3) Following Sarkozy's election in May, a slight shift is expected in France's relations in the Middle East. Sarkozy has reached out to France's 5 million Muslims, but he also has been more open to Israel than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. After Sarkozy's election, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that Israeli-French relations would improve.
4) Sarkozy's Middle East talks began Friday with a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas said he won France's full support for the Palestinian Authority and euro15 million (US$20 million) in aid.
5) In separate talks Wednesday in Paris, Livni was also to speak to her Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa. The meetings were among the occasional contacts between their countries despite a seven-year chill in relations.


The French exception: Sarkozy sells an open economy that sometimes needs protecting
(APW_ENG_20070707.0081)
1) Mesdames, Messieurs, France is now open for business.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency on pledges to open up the economy, and new Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and other government officials are selling one message: Things have changed.
3) Goodbye to the "old" notion of a sluggish economy, stretching jobless queues and famously French strikes and street protests. Hello to a "new" business-friendly, open economy with a flexible labor market.
4) New, but still French. Some European neighbors have been questioning Sarkozy's capitalist credentials, after he lobbied against free-market wording in a new EU treaty and insisted that it enshrine worker protections sacred to many French voters.
5) Still, change is in the air. In their efforts to draw a thick line between Sarkozy and his predecessor, French officials are even delivering their message in the language fellow conservative Jacques Chirac fought so hard against: English.
6) "We too often gave you the image of a country with escalating social contributions, an increasingly complex legal system, and discouraging red tape," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told the World Investment Conference in La Baule, western France, last week.
7) Addressing his audience in the language of his British wife, he said: "That is all over! We are going to make France a country where it's easy to do business, where you can concentrate on running your company without hassle or pressure other than those of the market."
8) The contrast with Chirac, who distrusted unfettered markets and once stormed out of an EU summit because a French businessman addressed leaders in English, couldn't be stronger.
9) Sarkozy's new regime is not just about language. After years of lagging behind Europe's more nimble economies in terms of growth, France has a president who is pushing through parliament proposals that would scrap charges on overtime, cut taxes and encourage home ownership. And Sarkozy has not even been on the job two months.
10) His appointment of Lagarde, the former head of Chicago-based law firm Baker & McKenzie, was hailed by business leaders at the Paris Europlace Financial Forum on Thursday as a signal the president is reaching out to them.
11) "It's a good sign for international investors," said Matthieu Louanges, executive vice president of Pimco Europe. "It seems like Sarkozy really wants to reform."
12) Lagarde, speaking at the conference, cast herself as a business leader running a government department.
13) She urged bankers and economists to come back to France -- and not just for the food. Sarkozy's policies are designed to stop the trainloads of executives who commute to London each Sunday evening, she said, arguing for a "brain-drain back."
14) Yet Sarkozy's commitment to open markets took a bashing at a summit of European Union leaders last month, when he lobbied successfully to strike a commitment to "free and undistorted" business competition from a list of the EU's guiding principles.
15) "My perception is that France did it for internal political reasons," Hungarian Economy Minister Janos Koka told The Associated Press at La Baule.
16) Strong worker protections and a large public service are central to France's modern structure. In a 2005 survey of 20 nations by polling company GlobeScan, France was the only country where a majority did not back the free market. This skepticism is seen as part of the reason why France rejected the EU constitution in a referendum that year.
17) Sarkozy has also set off alarm bells at the European Central Bank both by criticizing the ECB's stewardship of the euro -- whose rise Sarkozy blames for handicapping European exports -- and by announcing a delay in French commitments to reduce its debt and deficit.
18) When France signed up to the euro, it agreed to a set of rules designed to prevent governments from ramping up spending and boosting inflation.
19) To implement his reforms, Sarkozy claims he needs an extra two years to eliminate the deficit, which the previous government promised to do by 2010. He will join EU finance ministers Monday for their monthly meeting in Brussels in a bid to stem criticism.
20) His moves show France still prides itself on being an exception.
21) In an interview with the Financial Times, Britain's new Treasury chief Alistair Darling dismissed French "economic patriotism" as "nonsense."
22) Herve Novelli, France's government minister for businesses and foreign trade, insisted that his nation can be economically liberal and also believe in intervention and protectionism when necessary. "There's no contradiction," he told the AP.
23) While Sarkozy may be more vocally pro-market and friendlier to the United States than Chirac, the new president was raised in the same political landscape.
24) Sarkozy's vision of an interventionist state with a strong role in regulating the economy follows the tradition set by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, the founder of France's Fifth Republic, whose right-wing party evolved into Chirac and Sarkozy's UMP.
25) "He's a strange creature," said Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, head of Croissance Plus, an association of fast-growing French companies and president of Virgin Mobile France. "He could be the impossible illegitimate child of Margaret Thatcher and De Gaulle."


French president cheers bid to clean up doping-marred Tour -- and wants French victor
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants a doping-free Tour de France -- and a homegrown winner, too.
2) Sarkozy, in an interview published Sunday, praised Tour director Christian Prudhomme for "leading a remarkable action against doping."
3) This year's Tour started in London on Saturday.
4) Sarkozy told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that this is when Tour organizers most need support, "at the moment when they are trying to clean up this sport."
5) Sarkozy says he's rooting for Christophe Moreau, who surprised many by winning the French national road title last weekend at the age of 36.
6) "I don't have a favorite, I have a hope: Christophe Moreau," he was quoted as saying. "I don't snub his title as French champion because he's 36."
7) Sarkozy, who took office in May, said he would attend one of the Tour's stages.
8) "The month of July without the Tour de France would not be the month of July," he said.


Sarkozy ' s economic vision faces first test, in French parliament
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to make France's economy more competitive faced its first serious test Tuesday as parliament began debating a sweeping package of bills that would cut income and inheritance taxes and encourage longer working hours.
2) The package's high cost -- euro13.6 billion (US$18.59 billion) per year in losses to the state budget -- has raised concern at the EU and within Sarkozy's conservative party.
3) Sarkozy, who joined a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to explain his proposals, says economically sluggish France needs reforms, and reforms cost money.
4) "We have entered a race to get our country into the 21st century," Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in introducing the bill to parliament Tuesday afternoon.
5) The conservative government's package includes a new rule limiting a household's total tax payments to 50 percent, from 60 percent today.
6) True to Sarkozy's election campaign slogan of "work more to earn more," the bill would also reduce taxes on overtime pay, making it more lucrative for employees to work beyond the 35-hour week.
7) It includes a tax credit for mortgage interest and reduced inheritance taxes.
8) Prime Minister Francois Fillon convened regional officials -- who are largely Socialist -- on Tuesday to urge them to tighten their belts to pay for the program, and to meet EU demands.
9) "We want a considered command of our spendings. Do less with more," Fillon said.
10) Sarkozy has said he expects a surge in growth would help balance the plan's costs, and that public spending would be cut. Lagarde said the package would add a 0.5 percentage point to French GDP growth.
11) In Brussels, Sarkozy said he would try to eliminate his country's budget deficit by 2010, but warned that he could not guarantee it before 2012. He won lukewarm support from the other 12 euro-zone nations.
12) Fillon, speaking Tuesday, cited Germany, Britain and Canada as examples of countries that have managed to shore up public finances.
13) "This approach is a new idea in France. Yet this is only a model that has worked abroad, and that we have been slow to put in place," Fillon said.
14) Opposition Socialists say the bill will cost as much as euro15 billion (US$20.5 billion) in lost budget revenue. Even members of Sarkozy's conservative coalition in parliament have said it goes too far.
15) The New Center party, allied with Sarkozy's UMP, has proposed some 40 amendments to the bill, including one that exempts certain social charges from the 50 percent tax limit. The Socialists have said they would support that amendment.
16) Aurelie Filippetti, spokeswoman for the Socialist legislators, said the bill offered "fiscal gifts" to the rich and would do "just about nothing for growth and employment."
17) Already some 400 amendments have been proposed for the bill's 11 articles. The National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, is expected to continue debating it through Thursday or Friday. It will go to the Senate next week.
18) The bill is widely expected to be adopted, since the UMP has a commanding majority in parliament after legislative elections last month that handed Sarkozy a comfortable mandate to push through his economic plans, along with tougher laws on crime and immigration.


Sarkozy, visiting former French colonies in North Africa, looks to future
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the frosty edge off ties with Algeria during his first visit outside Europe on Tuesday, saying that France and its colony for 132 years must bury a rocky past and reinvent the future.
2) He announced an invitation from President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a state visit to Algeria in November.
3) Sarkozy, a conservative in office since May 16, also announced plans for a 2008 summit of nations bordering the Mediterranean to give birth to his proposal for a "Mediterreanean Union." He sees such a project as a means to boost cooperation on security, immigration, sustainable development and other issues "to form a lake of peace and security" in the volatile region. The French president did not specify where the summit would be held.
4) "I came here neither to injure nor to excuse myself," Sarkozy said after a meeting and lunch with Bouteflika, referring to a rift between the two nations that has festered since the French parliament passed a law in 2005 to put a positive spin on colonial history.
5) Then-President Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's predecessor, rescinded the law, but Bouteflika has demanded an apology for colonial-era crimes, mainly linked to the bloody seven-year independence war, and a planned friendship treaty has never been signed.
6) Sarkozy later went to neighboring Tunisia, another former colony, for dinner with President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. A visit to Morocco, which raised its terror alert status Friday, was abruptly canceled with Moroccan officials citing a calendar conflict.
7) Sarkozy is pushing for closer French ties to Algeria's oil-and-gas giant Sonatrach, and he told reporters that Bouteflika said his gas-rich country "wants to prepared the after-hydrocarbons" era and become a full economic partner.
8) Sarkozy made his case for cooperation in the civilian nuclear field. However, the United States, which considers Algeria a firm ally in the fight against terrorism, signed a cooperation accord on civil nuclear energy in June.
9) Sarkozy made no mention of joint efforts with France at fighting terrorism, a subject he discussed in depth on a 2006 visit as interior minister. Algeria faces an upsurge in attacks by an al-Qaida affiliate that also has threatened to target France.
10) Relations between France and Algeria -- the jewel in the colonial crown before it won independence in 1962 -- have for decades been marked by passion but took a dive with the 2005 bid by the French to show colonialism in a more positive light.
11) "I have come to Algeria to take part in an entente between two sovereign peoples who have a rocky history but who now want to resolutely turn toward the future," Sarkozy said.
12) "Algerians have suffered a lot but there has been lots of suffering on the other side. That must be respected," the French president said, saying each side must now "reinvent" the future.
13) During Sarkozy's visit, an accord was signed to create an Algerian-French university.
14) Sarkozy told Algerian newspapers in an interview that he wanted a "connection" between France's energy giants Gaz de France, Suez and Total and Algeria's Sonatrach.
15) Sarkozy's government was expected to decide soon on whether to go ahead with a merger of state-owned GDF and Suez. Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said other options -- including a merger with other gas producers, notably Algerian ones -- are being considered.
16) In Tunisia, Sarkozy could bring up human rights issues during talks with Ben Ali. The small country, considered an example of progress and modernity in other spheres, is criticized by human rights organizations for its aggressive surveillance of citizens, allegedly torturing prisoners and muzzling the media.
17) Sarkozy has added a human rights deputy minister to his government, Rama Yade, who was in his delegation.


Sarkozy, Brown pledge joint action on terrorism, Darfur, environment
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1) The new leaders of France and Britain promised an era of deeper cooperation Wednesday at their first meeting since taking office, with coordinated efforts against terrorism and a joint push to quickly end the humanitarian "catastrophe" in Darfur.
2) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they are looking for agreement on a U.N. resolution for a hybrid African Union-United Nations force in Darfur by the end of July, with deployment starting in September or October. They suggested they might visit Darfur themselves.
3) The meeting at the Elysee Palace was their first since Sarkozy took office in May and Brown in June. Their governments see the leadership change in both countries as a chance for a new dynamic in relations. The men's predecessors, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, had a sometimes testy relationship, sparring over issues such as the Iraq war and EU farm subsidies.
4) "On all the subjects we talked about, Gordon Brown and I have the common will to work together, to affirm the ties between Britain and France, and to take initiatives together," Sarkozy said.
5) They have decided to meet regularly, including before European summits, to harmonize their positions, and Sarkozy said they agreed to speak by phone almost every week.
6) Sarkozy and Brown paid special attention to Darfur, offering a four-point plan with diplomatic, political and financial components. The two leaders said they were prepared to travel to Darfur together to push for peace.
7) "People are dying and people are suffering. It must stop," Sarkozy said, calling Darfur a "catastrophe" while Brown named it a "humanitarian disaster."
8) Sarkozy and Brown's initiative aims to accelerate efforts at forming a hybrid force of African Union and U.N. peacekeepers. It calls for agreement on a Security Council resolution for the force by the end of the month and the start of deployment in the fall. They called on U.N. member states to offer troops and logistics.
9) Brown said he and Sarkozy will send their foreign ministers to New York to push for U.N. action "with the greatest speed."
10) Both countries will press for an immediate cease-fire in Darfur and are prepared to provide substantial economic aid "as soon as a cease-fire makes it possible," Brown said.
11) If no action is taken, Brown said, "we will be prepared to consider as individual countries a toughening up of sanctions" against the Sudanese regime.
12) In another announcement, the leaders said they were forming a joint committee to exchange terrorism intelligence. The committee is expected to meet four times a year.
13) Terrorism "is one of the great challenges that we'll face, not just for the next few years but for decades ahead," Brown said.
14) They also said their finance ministers will be rapidly dispatched to EU headquarters in Brussels to put forward the proposal to cut value-added taxes on green products.
15) The two leaders also pushed for environmentally friendly products.
16) "It is, after all, abnormal that a polluting car costs less than a car that does not pollute," Sarkozy said.
17) Brown said lower VAT on green products "could send out a very important message about what we think about pollution and about what we can do."
18) Brown and Sarkozy are not natural allies -- Sarkozy is a conservative and Brown is a Labor politician.
19) They glossed over a question about their differing views on the economy -- notably, with Sarkozy's history of occasionally protecting French companies in contrast to Brown's more steadfastly free market credentials.
20) Brown said they found common ground in their talks on economic reform and the VAT proposal. Sarkozy said the EU's goal should be full employment, and that competition should be a means, not an end. He also said the EU should not have tougher competition standards than the rest of the world.
21) "We want to open our markets," he said. "We ask all parts of the world to open their markets ... Openness, yes, but on the basis of reciprocity."


First lady or first diplomat? Cecilia Sarkozy sparks controversy with role in medics ' release
(APW_ENG_20070725.0062)
1) First lady or first diplomat?
2) With her high-profile role in Tuesday's release by Libya of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, Cecilia Sarkozy proved to be a mixture of both.
3) It also has added to her mystery.
4) Photographed just two years ago with another man and practically invisible during the presidential elections this spring, Madame Sarkozy is carving out a unique role for herself in the new France that her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, is shaping.
5) Glamorous but discreet, unelected but clearly influential with the man at the top, Cecilia is winning both admirers and critics.
6) Her role in the nurses' release broke with the tradition of French first ladies taking a back seat role. But it reinforced the image of a couple who sniff at conventions both public and private and of a president prepared to try any avenue -- even if that means dispatching his wife to North Africa -- to get results.
7) Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, made two trips to Libya this month to push for the medics' release, and scored the coup of flying them home to Bulgaria on Tuesday aboard a French presidential plane. In the crowd of officials who disembarked, she stood out with her casual white polo shirt and broad wave to the cameras.
8) It still was not clear whether France played a crucial role -- or whether the Sarkozys happened to be in the right place at the right time, able to reap the glory of years of diplomacy that had already taken place long before the French leader took power on May 16.
9) Middle East expert Barah Mikail said he was leaning toward the second hypothesis.
10) "France moved the pieces forward and tried to give the impression that it played a positive role," he said.
11) The nurses' French lawyer said Cecilia Sarkozy "participated actively" in the negotiations.
12) "Objectively, her role was very important," Emmanuel Altit said. "She was on the front line."
13) Sarkozy had mentioned the medics' plight during his election campaign and in his first speech as president-elect, and he worked the phones in the closing stages of negotiations that led to their release. At the airport in Bulgaria, Cecilia Sarkozy said she had "not slept for 45 hours."
14) The medics' release bore hallmarks that are becoming typical of Sarkozy's presidency: Prioritize a problem, and take a hands-on approach to solving it. In this case, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was clearly sidelined, with the diplomacy managed by Sarkozy and his team, led by chief of staff Claude Gueant, who traveled to Libya with Madame Sarkozy.
15) Pierre Moscovici, of the opposition Socialists, accused the French leader of profiting from the labor of others. "In my opinion, the lion's share of the work had been done by the European Union," he told France-2 television.
16) Others questioned Cecilia Sarkozy's credentials, insisting that with no elected mandate, she should not be involved in such affairs of state. But Sarkozy was steadfast in support of his wife, calling her work "quite remarkable."
17) "We resolved the problem. Period," he said. "An affair that has lasted eight and a half years is not a conventional affair to be treated in a conventional manner."
18) He added: "I thought that Cecilia could carry out a useful initiative, which she did with much courage, much sincerity, much humanity and much panache."
19) Panache is something Cecilia Sarkozy has in spades. A former model, her smart wardrobe and brood of telegenic children has drawn comparisons with the late U.S. first lady Jackie Kennedy. She and Sarkozy seem to have gotten over the rough patch in their marriage.
20) Though she spent much of her career as one of her husband's top aides, since his election, she has often been absent -- even ducking out of a first ladies' dinner at a recent G-8 summit in Germany.
21) The trip to Libya could be but the first of Cecilia Sarkozy's foreign missions.
22) "I'm sure there will be more actions of this type in the future," Isabelle Balkany, a close friend of Cecilia Sarkozy, was quoted as saying in Le Parisien newspaper.
23) The French deputy minister of human rights, Rama Yade, told LCI television that the government was now setting its sights on liberating Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been detained by the government for 12 of the past 18 years.
24) Asked whether Cecilia Sarkozy would soon make a trip to the Southeast Asian nation, her press secretary demurred.
25) "Her position is to be useful and efficient," Carina Alfonso Martin said. "Beyond that, she doesn't have a specific role as such."


Sarkozy calls on Africans to return home, defends tough stance on immigration
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended his tough stance on immigration Thursday in Senegal, a contentious issue in a country where thousands of young men risk their lives on the high seas trying to reach Europe every year.
2) "France has nothing to be embarrassed about," Sarkozy told reporters, referring to several of his policies including the controversial practice of forcibly repatriating illegal immigrants by plane. "We will continue to do this and we will do this happily."
3) But Sarkozy also said his nation was open to those seeking to come legally, saying 83 percent of visa applications from Senegal were approved by French authorities last year. He said 10,000 Senegalese students were studying at French universities, the largest group from any country. Once educated, many African professionals try to stay abroad, a phenomenon he said needs to come to a halt for Africa's sake.
4) "Africa needs its elite. The day when all of your elite will be in France, who will look after the development of Senegal?" Sarkozy said inside the colonnaded presidential palace in Dakar.
5) "Do you think its normal that there are more doctors from Benin in France than in Benin?" he said, referring to another West African state where he was called a racist and greeted with placards that said "Go Home!"
6) Sarkozy added: "Who can be satisfied with this? Do you think this is good for the health of Africans?"
7) As interior minister, Sarkozy debuted the charter flights which returned immigrants to their country of origin, including thousands to Africa. Many of the immigrants were handcuffed and shackled onboard, a move that recently prompted five airline unions to demand Air France refuse to take part in the repatriation effort saying it was inhumane and was tarnishing the airline's image.
8) The immigration issue remains explosive in Senegal, but instead of taunts Sarkozy was greeted with a boulevard of intertwined French and Senegalese flags and a red carpet leading up the steps of the presidential palace.
9) Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said that although there had been misunderstandings over immigration, the two heads of state were able to come to an agreement in private.
10) "We understand each other," Wade said, adding that he too wants to see young Senegalese return to rebuild their country. "I'm not interested in giving scholarships to people who then take off to France."
11) Wade recalled bitterly how a father of a young Senegalese student had come to thank him for having invested in the country's education. That education, said the father, allowed the son to become a well-trained doctor -- and get a job at a French hospital.
12) Sarkozy has won praise from Africans for vowing to change the way France treats its former colonies. In Benin last year, Sarkozy distanced himself from former French presidents, saying personal allegiances would no longer be the basis for diplomacy in Africa.
13) It was seen as a veiled jab at his then-boss and soon-to-be predecessor Jacques Chirac who had nurtured close ties with strongmen and dictators in France's former colonies. In Dakar, Sarkozy made a point of meeting with the country's opposition.
14) Sarkozy's first meeting with an African head of state was not with a leader of a former French colony, or even a close ally of France, but rather with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of English-speaking Liberia, a Harvard graduate and former World Bank economist who has been held up as a model of good governance.
15) During a news conference, Sarkozy dodged questions on Libya, where he traveled before arriving in Senegal. During that stop, France took a first step toward selling Libya a nuclear-powered plant to desalinate sea-water.
16) "France favors the development of nuclear energy for peaceful means and in respect for nonproliferation commitments," Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said.
17) The issue has been sensitive in France, with anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire accusing Sarkozy of handing over nuclear technologies to the Libyans in exchange for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been accused of infecting children with AIDS.
18) Senegal, France's first colony in Africa, holds a special place in French history. Dakar, the country's capital, became the capital of France's African empire, which stretched down the rim of Africa's western seaboard.
19) France is both Senegal's leading supplier and its second most important customer. Approximately 250 French companies are based in Dakar, posting a yearly turnover of US$2.3 billion (euro1.7 billion), more than a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. The volume of trade between the two nations is valued at US$874 million (euro637 million), according to figures from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
20) For Africans, Sarkozy's stance on immigration remains vexing. During the run-up to the election this spring, Sarkozy reiterated that fighting illegal immigration would be a top goal, as would cracking down on the right of legal immigrants to bring their families from abroad.
21) Although there are no protests Thursday, some Senegalese say they are offended that their country would host a man that has sent some of their own in handcuffs back home.
22) "It was humiliating," said Mamoudou Toure, 46, who was repatriated on one of the flights in 2003. "I was handcuffed, my feet were tied, like a criminal. This was Sarkozy's idea .... Because of this, it's hard for me to swallow his other ideas."


On vacation in U.S., Sarkozy deflects criticism of Libya arms deal
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy took a brief time-out from his relaxing private New England vacation on Sunday to defend himself against criticism over a deal to sell Libya anti-tank missiles.
2) Sarkozy, vacationing on Lake Winnipesaukee, gave an informal news conference to talk about events back home -- including the European defense group EADS' arms sale to Libya, reportedly valued at $405 million (euro295.75 million).
3) France's Socialist opposition has demanded to know whether the conservative Sarkozy offered up the weapons contract to convince Libya to free six medics serving life sentences there. The arms deal was announced soon after the medics flew home to Bulgaria on a French presidential plane.
4) Sarkozy said the arms deal had nothing to do with French and European negotiations to free the six medical workers -- five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus.
5) "The contract wasn't linked to the nurses' liberation," Sarkozy told reporters. He said the arms deal was the product of 18 months of negotiations between Libya and the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV.
6) The French president argued that Libya should be rewarded for shedding its status as a pariah and cooperating with the international community.
7) "The Libyans are going to pay several hundred million euros to generate work for French factories," Sarkozy said. "Am I supposed to apologize?"
8) The Socialist opposition leader, Francois Hollande, has demanded a parliamentary commission to examine France's interactions with Libya. Sarkozy said he was open to the idea.
9) "If the commission wants me to testify, I have nothing to hide," he said.
10) In an agreement brokered by European officials, the medics flew out of the Libyan capital Tripoli on July 24 in the company of French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy. A day later, Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Libya on a visit to normalize ties, bringing with him a host of defense, nuclear and humanitarian accords. The arms deal was announced about a week later.
11) Sarkozy met with reporters at a park overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee, with U.S. Secret Service agents corralling the crowd, which included tourists and gawkers. Behind him, motorboats sped on the water.
12) The French president, looking tan and relaxed in a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, said he jogs each morning and goes fishing every afternoon. He said he was enjoying the region's forests, lakes and small-town atmosphere.
13) "I must say, I'm not disappointed," he said, adding that he planned to return to France sometime around Aug. 15.
14) The president deflected criticism about how much his vacation might cost, saying he and his family flew to the United States on commercial flights and that friends had rented a vacation home and invited the Sarkozy family to join them.
15) Sarkozy declined to comment about reports that he might meet President George W. Bush during his stay in the United States, saying only that the White House and the Elysee Palace would comment "when the time comes."
16) Sarkozy, who has pledged to warm up French-U.S. relations since his election in May, said his choice of vacation spots had no political significance.
17) "There are 900,000 French people who go to the United States every year, and I'm one of the 900,000," he said.


On U.S. vacation, Sarkozy lashes out in French at 2 news photographers
(APW_ENG_20070806.0108)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost his temper with two American news photographers covering his vacation, jumping onto their boat and scolding them loudly in French.
2) Sarkozy and companions were headed for open water Sunday in a boat on Lake Winnipesaukee when he spotted Associated Press photographer Jim Cole and freelancer Vince DeWitt aboard Cole's boat, which was outside a buoy barrier monitored by the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
3) Before Sarkozy spotted him, Cole had driven his boat up to the patrol boat, identified himself and received permission to be there.
4) "He was happy and smiling and he waved at the security people as he was coming out," Cole said of the president. "And then he noticed us taking pictures and his happy demeanor diminished immediately."
5) The men said they watched through their lenses as Sarkozy pointed toward them and his boat began moving in their direction. Coming alongside Cole's boat, Sarkozy, clad only in swim trunks, jumped aboard and began shouting at them.
6) "The president was very agitated, speaking French at a loud volume very rapidly," DeWitt said.
7) Both men said they repeatedly stated they did not speak French. Cole said he asked whether any of the other passengers on Sarkozy's boat spoke English, but that no one answered or intervened.
8) Sarkozy picked up DeWitt's camera but then put it down. A woman then spoke up in English and relayed Sarkozy's request to be left alone, DeWitt said. The woman did not identify herself.
9) Hours earlier, Sarkozy had spoken to reporters and said in French, "I am naturally ready to answer all your questions, and maybe afterward you will resume covering the news and other topics, and leave me tranquilly with my family." An AP reporter taped Sarkozy's remarks and had them translated, but the photographers did not hear the translation until after the altercation.
10) After Cole and DeWitt promised to stop shooting photos for the day, Sarkozy calmed down, reboarded his boat and continued out onto the lake with his party, followed by a boat carrying U.S. Secret Service agents.
11) The French government in Paris had no immediate comment.
12) Sarkozy and his family have been vacationing at a lakefront estate owned by former Microsoft Corp. executive Michael Appe. The president was previously photographed relaxing dockside in his swim trunks.


Bushes to lunch with French President Sarkozy, wife at vacation home of Bush ' s parents
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1) President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet this weekend at the coastal home of Bush's parents in the northeastern state of Maine, the White House said Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy is vacationing at an estate on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire about 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from Kennebunkport, Maine, where former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, own a seaside compound called Walker's Point.
3) The president arrives in Kennebunkport on Thursday, staying through the weekend for a wedding. The Bushes are having Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, to a private lunch on Saturday, presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. Laura Bush extended the invitation during meetings of world leaders in Germany in June, Snow said.
4) "The U.S. and France share the deepest of friendship," Snow said. "They've worked together since the founding of our nation to protect freedom around the world."
5) The Sarkozys have been staying at an estate on Lake Winnipesaukee owned by former Microsoft Corp. executive Michael Appe. The estate can be rented for $30,000 (euro21,750) a week, according to a rental Web site.
6) France has been atwitter over Sarkozy's decision to take his first vacation as France's leader in the United States. Wolfeboro traces its history back to 1759 and claims to be the oldest summer resort in America. Questions have swirled about how much the visit cost and who was paying for it.
7) Snow said it was convenient.
8) "The president believes in building personal relationships with other heads of state," he said of Bush. "This fits into that pattern. I'm sure they'll talk about some international matters. But this is not a summit, this is not something with an agenda. The agenda is `Come by and let's visit.'"
9) The White House spokesman said Sarkozy's choice of relaxation venue was a wise one. "He certainly picked a good country to visit, didn't he?"
10) The White House has delighted at the prospect that Sarkozy's election could usher in improved U.S.-French ties after years of acrimony under his predecessors over the Iraq war and other differences. Sarkozy expressed fondness for the U.S. during his campaign and promised renewed ties with Washington.
11) Bush and Sarkozy had their first get-together on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of industrialized democracies in Germany over two months ago. But that meeting ended up more subdued than planned -- taking place in Bush's hotel room rather than a formal meeting room and not followed by the scheduled joint appearance before reporters -- because Bush came down with a stomach bug.
12) The Bush family summer home had never been used for diplomacy under the current president until last month, when Russian President Vladimir Putin came for two days.
13) Politicians from France's opposition Socialist Party on Monday demanded to know who was footing the bill for Sarkozy's vacation.
14) Sarkozy told reporters earlier this week that some friends had rented the house and invited him.


Bush, Sarkozy look for better relations
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1) U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday for a "heart-to-heart" talk on world issues and to repair relations with France.
2) "We have had disagreements on Iraq in particular," Bush said as the French president arrived at the seaside vacation home of Bush's parents. "But I've never allowed disagreements to not find other ways to work together."
3) The White House billed the event as a casual meal between two leaders just getting to know each other.
4) But Bush said the two would also talk for 45 minutes on world issues, including Iran, where he wants Sarkozy's aid in halting Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
5) "We'll have a heart-to-heart talk," Bush said. "We'll be talking about a lot of key issues. The good thing about President Sarkozy is you know where he stands. He can tell you exactly what he thinks. I hope he'd say the same thing about me."
6) The French president had his own warm words, part of an overt attempt by the leaders of both countries to warm their nations' chilled relations. Sarkozy called the United States a longtime friend, one he admires for trying to spread freedom around the world.
7) "France is friends with democracies, not with dictatorships," Sarkozy said.
8) "Do we agree on everything? No," he said, an apparent reference to the divisive Iraq war. "Because even in family, there are disagreements. But we are still the same family."
9) Sarkozy arrived alone on a sparkling day. His wife, Cecilia, canceled at the last meeting because she and her kids were sick. She informed first lady Laura Bush in a phone call, and President Bush said the family understood. Sarkozy said they had sore throats.
10) By welcoming Sarkozy to his parents' seaside home, Bush is laying a foundation for what he hopes are drastically improved relations with France over the rest of his term. In turn, the newly elected Sarkozy is eager to bond with Bush and display a pro-American mind-set.
11) As he waited for Sarkozy to arrive, Bush stood with his wife and his parents. The president started chatting with reporters, which turned into an impromptu news conference.
12) Then Sarkozy came in looking casual in blue jeans and a sportscoat. After a series of warm greetings all around, Bush prodded him to address the media, too.
13) "Want to ask him a couple of questions?" Bush said. "He's never shy about the press."
14) In a place renowned for its lobster, the Bush family opted for picnic fare: hot dogs and hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob and blueberry pie.
15) The menu selection raised some eyebrows among the visiting French press; Laura Bush said the family wanted Sarkozy to enjoy an all-American meal.
16) Aides emphasized that the meeting was not viewed as a summit, but a social meal between two world leaders who happen to be vacationing near each other in New England.
17) But there is more to it than a get-to-know-you.
18) "It would be impossible to think of Jacques Chirac stopping by Kennebunkport for lunch," said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow for Europe studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "This speaks volumes for the desires on both sides to try to turn the page."
19) Chirac, the former French president, had a bitter relationship with Bush. He opposed the war in Iraq and clashed with Bush over climate change and other matters.
20) Sarkozy, by contrast, has promised that the United States "can count on our friendship," while reminding Bush that friendship means respecting differing views.
21) So this lunch, casual as it may be, marks the symbolic start of something more: the "new era of relations with the French," as White House spokesman Tony Snow put it.
22) In a telling sign, Sarkozy apparently never considered postponing the date even after he had to dash from his New Hampshire vacation spot back to Paris for a funeral on Friday.
23) Sarkozy flew back to the United States right after, arriving Friday night. He is expected to get to the Bush compound late Saturday morning and visit for a couple of hours.
24) Sarkozy gives Bush a chance to shore up support in the core of Europe, although the new leader has clearly echoed Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war.
25) "Bush realizes that Europeans have either left Iraq or they're heading for the exits," Kupchan said. "And the Europeans may not think the war was a wise move, but they've stopped the finger-pointing. I think it's safe to say that both sides have put Iraq behind them."
26) That still leaves plenty of ground for Bush to build new ties with France. Building pressure against Iran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons pursuits is one area; pushing the U.N. Security Council to speed up humanitarian efforts in the Darfur region is another.
27) Then there's Afghanistan, where Sarkozy has shown ambivalence about the French mission.
28) "I don't think the French are getting ready to pull their troops out," Kupchan said. "But the last thing Bush wants is for the French, the Germans or others to go wobbly on Afghanistan. If a major country were to do so, the whole coalition could start unraveling."
29) In France, Sarkozy caused a considerable stir by opting to be in the United States for his first extended vacation as president. He chose Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the rocky shores of the Bush compound known as Walker's Point.
30) Sarkozy said he wanted to see the real America -- small towns and tranquility. He made unintended news, however, by getting into a public flap with American photographers.


Sarkozy, back from vacation, returns to work for busy fall season
(APW_ENG_20070819.0372)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy returned home Sunday from a two-week vacation in New England to face the most serious bump yet in his so-far smooth presidency -- fallout from the turbulence rocking worldwide financial markets.
2) Thursday marks Sarkozy's 100th day in office after his May election, and he has promised a whirlwind of activity at "la rentree" -- the end of the traditional August vacation, when much of France returns home for school or work.
3) Sarkozy has lined up back-to-back meetings for Monday, on subjects from crime to immigration to the economy. Even on vacation in Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the ever-active Sarkozy kept busy.
4) Sarkozy joined U.S. President George W. Bush for a casual get-together at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, getting whisked away for a speed boat ride. He also jetted back to France to attend the funeral of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, and he issued nearly 20 statements while on holiday.
5) Since Sarkozy's May election, his popularity rating has held strong: An IFOP poll released Aug. 11 by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper suggested that 64 percent of the French were satisfied with his governance.
6) Unions waged little protest during the summer holiday period as conservative Sarkozy pushed through a raft of reforms, including a law to guarantee that at least some buses and trains will run during transit strikes, as well as a move to trim the ranks of civil servants. Unions have pledged to be more active come September.
7) "For the moment, his state of grace is continuing," said Stephane Rozes, head of the CSA polling agency. Nonetheless, "what is happening with the financial markets objectively reduces Nicolas Sarkozy's margin for maneuvering."
8) The worldwide credit crunch sparked by subprime mortgage lending troubles in the United States hit while Sarkozy was on vacation. Reacting to it last week, he urged the Group of Seven industrial countries to better monitor international financial markets.
9) On Thursday, France's CAC-40 stock index dropped to its lowest level this year.
10) The government predicts 2.25 percent growth this year, though economists say that is overly optimistic. Parliament has pushed through bills to cut income and inheritance taxes and encourage longer working hours, and the package's high cost -- euro13.5 billion (US$18.2 billion) per year in losses to the state budget -- has raised concern at the EU, among the opposition and even within Sarkozy's party.
11) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande warned that the tax package's cost and lower-than-expected growth would stir up trouble down the road.
12) "When the state of grace ends, the government is going to hand us a bill," Hollande said in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.


France ' s Sarkozy looks vulnerable as he hunkers down to post-honeymoon reforms
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy has returned from his summer vacation with a golden tan but somewhat sapped of his superstar glow.
2) The hope he inspired with promises of changing the way France works has turned to worry amid turmoil in world markets and lackluster economic growth figures -- causing his stellar support ratings to slip slightly.
3) To make matters worse, his office has been embarrassed by love handles airbrushed out of photos of the swimsuit-clad president during his vacation in the United States.
4) True to form, though, Sarkozy is not letting any of these setbacks slow him down.
5) One hundred days into his presidency, Sarkozy had lunch Thursday with labor leader Francois Chereque in a bid to smooth relations with unions itching to protest Sarkozy's plans to reform state pensions and redesign France's worker-friendly employment contracts.
6) Later, Sarkozy showed his sporting side by hosting the captain of France's national soccer team, Patrick Vieira. The meeting had a double meaning: Vieira has spoken out against Sarkozy's pledges to crack down further on immigration, and by courting him Sarkozy continued his policy of reaching out to opponents.
7) On Friday, Sarkozy heads to southwest France to meet anti-terrorist officers, fishermen suffering from poaching and tourism officials suffering from a cold and rainy summer.
8) His young presidency has already been action-packed. His government pushed through income tax cuts and laws that encourage the French to work more hours minimize the effect of strikes and tighten punishment for repeat criminal offenders.
9) That was just on the domestic stage. Abroad, he has improved relations with the United States, took a role in freeing Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya, and revived efforts for an EU constitution.
10) Now comes the hard part: pushing through his most painful reforms at what appears to be the tail-end of an extraordinary political honeymoon.
11) "A man in politics and in the center of power cannot stay permanently at the top in popularity ratings," said Vincent Tiberj, specialist in electoral politics at the Center for Political Research in Paris. He predicted Sarkozy's ratings would continue to decline.
12) On Friday the president will present his plans for the next stage of economic reforms, including making work contracts more flexible and further eroding union powers -- ideas anathema to the French left. He also needs to decide whether to go through with a highly sensitive sales tax that hurt his conservative party in legislative elections in June.
13) Labor leader Chereque predicted a "very intense" September. "The social problems in our country are very serious. Negotiations and points of friction are numerous. We're not at risk of getting bored," he said after his lunch with Sarkozy.
14) Already, Sarkozy has been forced into compromise. A law on university reform fell short of the broad autonomy he had wanted for the educational institutions. The strike law was softened, and cutbacks on public sector workers were curtailed.
15) Meanwhile, turmoil on world financial markets has revived French fears of globalization, and put a damper on their enthusiasm for Sarkozy's market-friendly reforms.
16) Also, French economic growth slowed to just 0.3 percent in the second quarter, denting hopes of a strong European recovery and reducing the French government's room for maneuver in reining in the deficit.
17) "After the grace period, there will be the state's bill to pay," said Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande.
18) With pocketbook politics first on French minds, Sarkozy's expensive vacation in the United States prompted the opposition Socialists to demand who was paying for his stay in a mansion owned by a former Apple Corp. executive.
19) The vacation was further tainted by retouched images of Sarkozy in a swimsuit on a New Hampshire lake that appeared in French magazine Paris-Match without his "poignees d'amour," or love handles. His office denied Thursday that it had asked the magazine to fiddle with the photos, but the damage was already done.
20) His ratings are still relatively high, at 61 percent according to a poll this week by Ipsos, but have been dropping steadily in recent weeks.
21) A new book about the president releasing this week by prominent author and playwright may not help Sarkozy's image.
22) Yasmina Reza's "Dawn, Evening or Nighttime" is a character study based on close access to Sarkozy over the past year. While it reveals little new about the media-savvy president, her portrait paints him as an eager child afraid of being left alone -- far from the tough, powerful image Sarkozy cultivated during his campaign and in the action-packed three months since his election.


Sarkozy pledges to fight to free Betancourt
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Friday to fight to free politician Ingrid Betancourt from the Colombian guerrillas who kidnapped her five years ago.
2) Sarkozy compared the case to that of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were released from a Libyan prison in July after nearly nine years, having been accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with AIDS. Sarkozy worked with EU officials on the case; the medics returned home on a French plane with French First Lady Cecilia Sarkozy.
3) Asked Friday about Betancourt, who has dual French-Colombian nationality, Sarkozy said, "Of course, we'll go get Ingrid Betancourt too, and I'll fight with all my strength to free this woman who has been unjustly held in terrible conditions for five years, because it's my duty to do it."
4) Sarkozy spoke during a visit to Arcachon in southwest France.
5) Betancourt, a former presidential candidate in Colombia, was kidnapped by FARC rebels in 2002 while campaigning in southern Colombia. She was last seen publicly in a video statement in 2003.


Sarkozy defends handling of efforts to free medics in Libya
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy shot back Friday at critics who accused him of being too secretive about his wife's involvement in negotiations to free six medics from prison in Libya last month.
2) Sarkozy also asked why the Socialist opposition was so critical of his handling of the case.
3) "What is there to reproach France for?" Sarkozy asked during a visit to Arcachon in southwest France. "For being the country that freed (the medics)?"
4) A day earlier, Sarkozy's office said that neither he nor his wife Cecilia would speak about the case before an inquiry commission at the National Assembly. Sarkozy's office said the constitution does not permit a head of state to testify in such a situation -- and it said the same rule applies to Mrs. Sarkozy because she was his personal envoy in the affair.
5) The Socialists had requested the inquiry to find out more about France's role in the freeing of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were released from a Libyan prison in July after nearly nine years, having been accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with AIDS. The Sarkozys worked with EU officials on the case; the medics returned home on a French plane with the French first lady.
6) Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist lawmaker, was quoted in Liberation newspaper as saying it was "absurd" that Mrs. Sarkozy would not testify. Liberation's editorial called the decision "a constitutional aberration, and ridiculous."
7) Some critics have accused Sarkozy of trying to protect his wife. Sarkozy only touched briefly Friday on her role in the case, saying, "The issue wasn't the risk for me, my wife or (Elysee Palace chief of staff) Claude Gueant, the risk was to continue to keep those poor women" behind bars in Libya.
8) Soon after the nurses were freed, the European defense group EADS announced an arms sale to Libya, reportedly valued at US$405 million (euro295.75 million). France's opposition has demanded to know whether the conservative Sarkozy offered up the weapons contract to convince Libya to free the medics.


Sarkozy won ' t oppose resuming EU negotiations with Turkey
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that France would not oppose new negotiations between Turkey and the European Union, but remained resistant to full Turkish membership.
2) Sarkozy said such negotiations should include discussion of membership or a weaker alliance between Turkey and the EU, and said they should only take place after an EU-wide "reflection" on the future of the 27-member union.
3) "If this essential reflection on the future is launched by the 27, France will not oppose new negotiations between Turkey and the European Union in the coming months and years," Sarkozy said at an annual conference of French ambassadors where he laid out his plans for French foreign policy.
4) He added that the next "chapters" of negotiation should be "compatible with the two possible visions of the future of their relationship: either joining (as a member) or any association as tight as possible without attaining membership," Sarkozy said in a speech opening an annual conference of French ambassadors.
5) Sarkozy, who in the past vowed to halt Turkey's membership bid, reiterated Monday his preference for a weaker kind of partnership.
6) His stance on the issue runs against that of a majority of EU leaders, who back entry negotiations with Ankara.
7) Turkey's EU negotiations, which were launched amid much concern and hesitancy in October 2005, have made little progress. Talks have only opened in two of 35 policy areas where Turkey must incorporate EU legislation into its national rulebooks.
8) Sarkozy said he told the Turkish prime minister that any negotiations should start with the 30 chapters that do not require full membership, "and we'll see for the rest."
9) He described this as a solution that "does not betray the wish of France and the French but at the same time allows Turkey to have hope."
10) But he expressed hope that Turkey and France would improve relations, which have been strained over French resistance to Turkish membership. Better relations with Turkey are seen as crucial to Sarkozy's vision for a "Mediterranean Union" that he has championed.
11) Sarkozy has said his opposition to the Turkish bid was not directed against the Turkish people but rather was a question of defining Europe's borders.


Sarkozy warns Russia against ' brutality ' in exercising its energy strength
(APW_ENG_20070827.0520)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Russia on Monday against exercising its energy resources with "brutality" on the world stage, amid mounting concerns in Europe over future supplies of oil and gas.
2) Sarkozy, in a sweeping speech to French ambassadors outlining French foreign policy, noted that "Russia is imposing its return on the world scene by playing its assets, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality."
3) Sarkozy said Russia's resurgent global activity comes "while the world, particularly Europe, is hoping for an important and positive contribution from (Russia) toward settling the problems of our age."
4) He added, in unscripted remarks, "When you are a great power, you should not use brutality."
5) Since his election in May, the conservative Sarkozy has taken a somewhat harder line on Russia under President Vladimir Putin than Jacques Chirac had. In their first meeting, Sarkozy asked Putin about human rights violations in Chechnya and the slaying last October of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who wrote scathingly of the Russian president. Russia's chief prosecutor on Monday announced 10 arrests in the case.


Sarkozy vs. Chirac: Tougher on Russia, friendlier to Israel, United States
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has used his first major foreign policy speech to spell out his differences with his predecessor Jacques Chirac, casting himself as a "friend of Israel" and taking a tougher line on Russia and China.
2) While Sarkozy openly admires the United States, he said Monday that Chirac was right in opposing the Iraq war, which Sarkozy continues to call a mistake.
3) And bombing Iran, Sarkozy added, would be "catastrophic."
4) Sarkozy took over from fellow conservative Chirac in May pledging to boost France's international stature. The energetic new leader quickly scored a few high-profile diplomatic coups, such as helping secure the release of six medics held in a Libyan prison for nine years on charges of deliberately infecting children with AIDS.
5) Yet the sweeping diplomatic agenda he outlined for France under his watch was relatively modest, even scaled-back. He proposed, for example, a committee of great minds to reflect on the future of the European Union -- an unassuming proposal for the EU, which Sarkozy nonetheless said was France's "absolute priority."
6) And though Sarkozy has in the past vowed to halt Turkey's bid for membership in the EU, he softened that stance Monday, saying he would not oppose new negotiations but that they should also include discussion of a weaker alliance between Turkey and the EU.
7) The lesson: Though the ambitious Sarkozy soared through his first three months in office with his popularity rating around 70 percent, he cannot revolutionize diplomacy overnight.
8) "A few months after taking the presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy is realizing that he has limited room for maneuvering," said Philippe Moreau-Defarges of the French Institute for International Relations.
9) Sarkozy's tough language about China and Russia set him apart from Chirac, who was often criticized for too-cozy ties with authoritarian leaders. Sarkozy warned Russia against exercising its energy resources with "brutality." And he said China was "transforming its insatiable quest for raw materials into a strategy of control, notably in Africa."
10) While France has a history of close ties with the Arab world, Sarkozy said: "I have the reputation of being a friend of Israel, and it's true. I will never compromise on Israel's security." He also said the many Arab leaders who have visited him since his election know they can count on his friendship.
11) Sarkozy, who spent his summer holiday in New England in the northeastern U.S. and has the nickname "Sarko the American," sent his foreign minister to Iraq last week to smooth over ties that were ruffled when Chirac opposed the U.S.-led Iraq invasion. Friendly ties do not mean there cannot be differences of opinion, he said.
12) "France was and still is hostile to the war," he said, calling for a timetable for troop withdrawal. Sarkozy has often suggested Chirac's manner of opposing the war was too arrogant.
13) Though he criticized the U.S. over Iraq, Sarkozy showed his commitment to the security effort in Afghanistan by pledging more troops to train the Afghan army -- following months of speculation about France's commitment to the international force.
14) Closer to home, Sarkozy reiterated his proposal for a Mediterranean Union to bridge the divide between Europe and North Africa. The idea echoes a concept dear to Chirac -- a "dialogue of cultures" to counteract the forces of extremism.
15) On Iran, Sarkozy spoke bluntly: "For me, Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable."
16) Like Chirac, however, Sarkozy was careful to insist that civilian nuclear power is another story. If countries like Iran run out of fossil fuels, and "if they don't have the right to the energy of the future, then we will create conditions of misery and underdevelopment, and therefore an explosion of terrorism," Sarkozy said.
17) Sarkozy said Iran could still choose between dialogue with the international community or more U.N. sanctions, saying, "This tactic is the only one that allows us to escape from a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb, or the bombing of Iran."
18) Francois Heisbourg, a leading expert on French strategic and foreign policy, said that even when Sarkozy was sending a message of continuity, his style differed dramatically from Chirac's oratory flourishes.
19) Sarkozy's was "clear talk. No punches pulled. No dancing around words. This was very deliberate," Heisbourg said. "It's a message to the Iranians, but it's also a message to the Russians and the Chinese -- that is, that if you want us to have a serious chance to try to avoid getting ... into this awful alternative, you'd better be serious in the Security Council."


Sarkozy promises more tax cuts and labor market reform
(APW_ENG_20070830.1054)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Thursday to press for further tax cuts and labor market reform to create jobs and stimulate France's flagging economy.
2) The pledge from Sarkozy, who took office in May, amounted to a second round of proposed economic measures. Parliament approved a first set of reforms in a special session last month.
3) In a speech to French business leaders, Sarkozy called for reforming the unemployment system, urged changes in European Central Bank policy and criticized France's 35-hour work week law, which he said needs to be changed.
4) The 35-hour work week is an "immense economic mistake," he said.
5) Designed in the late 1990s by a Socialist government to reduce unemployment in a sort of massive job-share scheme, the law has failed to live up to many hopes.
6) Business leaders and others have criticized it for reducing purchasing power and productivity. But many employees say the law has increased family time and improved quality of life.
7) At the annual meeting of the French employer's federation, Medef, in Jouy-en-Josas, Sarkozy said he wanted to cut taxes further to boost purchasing power.
8) "In the world of today, directly taxing production, work and capital is to condemn us to less work, less production, less growth, less purchasing power," he said.
9) Sarkozy's conservatives control both houses of parliament.
10) Taxation is a sensitive subject in France. Rock star Johnny Hallyday disappointed fans but illustrated a point being made by his friend Sarkozy when he moved to Switzerland last year to escape high taxes.
11) Lawmakers voted last month to lower the maximum tax rate from 60 percent to 50 percent of income, and cut taxes on overtime pay, in an effort to encourage people to work more than 35 hours per week.
12) "The first 100 days of the new French government have been active, even hyperactive," said Thorsten Polleit, an economist at Barclays Capital in Frankfurt.
13) "They are trying to push things and they are very optimistic as far as change is concerned," he said. "Sooner or later they might realize that changes are hard to implement."
14) Turmoil in world markets has revived French fears of globalization and dampened their enthusiasm for Sarkozy's market-friendly reforms.
15) Earlier this month, central banks around the globe flooded markets with liquidity to prevent a credit crunch. As defaults on loans linked to mortgages offered to people with poor credit ratings increased, banks reined in lending to protect themselves from loans linked to these mortgages.
16) Sarkozy called on French banks not to tighten lending conditions "to compensate for excessive risks they've taken on financial markets."
17) French economic growth slowed in the second quarter as business investment faltered, denting hopes of a strong European recovery and reducing the French government's room for maneuver in reining in the deficit.
18) Sarkozy repeated calls for ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to do more to help exporters suffering from the strength of the euro.


French leader seen as beacon of change by U.S. candidates
(APW_ENG_20070904.0519)
1) Excitement is stirring in the presidential campaign over a politician who's been talked about in the United States in the same breath as John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
2) He's Nicolas Sarkozy, and he's just back from testing the waters in New Hampshire -- by canoe. Unfortunately for his stateside admirers, Sarkozy already has a new job, as president of France.
3) Yes, France.
4) This is the country it has been fashionable for Americans to despise -- and be despised by -- since Paris and Washington fell out over the Iraq war. It is drawing new respect, thanks to the election of a friendly leader with to-die-for approval ratings.
5) Sarkozy is so bullish on the U.S. he's known as Sarko the American. He risked flak at home by taking his first vacation as president in the United States -- on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, where a French magazine photo helpfully airbrushed his modest love handles away.
6) U.S. presidential candidates are bullish on him, some to the point of silliness.
7) Even Mitt Romney, the only Republican candidate capable of insulting France in fluent French, thinks Sarkozy might be a "blood brother."
8) John McCain has met him at least twice. Rudy Giuliani feels a special kinship with the conservative Frenchman because Sarkozy was once his country's top cop, and because another nickname for the president is "the French Rudy."
9) Giuliani said this week he's reading Sarkozy's book, "Testimony." Giuliani credits Sarkozy with "taking essential, quintessential American principles and trying to put them into effect in France to create economic growth." And then some -- he also wants to abolish taxes on overtime, so the French will work harder.
10) It's "the John F. Kennedy model, or the Ronald Reagan model, or the Nicolas Sarkozy model," Giuliani said on CNBC television.
11) If Democrats are not quite as quick to cozy to Sarkozy, they seem intrigued. After all, the right in Europe can be close ideologically to the left, or at least the center, in the United States. Barack Obama met him a year ago and Hillary Rodham Clinton was going to, but that fell through, French officials said.
12) It is rare enough for a U.S. political campaign to concern itself with anyone abroad unless that person is ripe for vilification, like the late Saddam Hussein or the missing Osama bin Laden. It is rarer still to see a foreign leader presented as a guidepost for America's future.
13) And a Frenchman? Mon Dieu!
14) Among those who consider Sarkozy a beacon is former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, who has belittled the presidential field of fellow Republicans as a collection of "pygmies" and might join the race.
15) "France proves change is possible in a country whose special interests are even more entrenched than ours," he wrote. He called Sarkozy a courageous leader who has shown how to run "the boldest campaign in our lifetime."
16) Despite Sarkozy's reputation as pro-American, he is still critical of the United States on many issues.
17) He is against the Iraq war, but then so are most Americans now. He criticizes what he calls the "brutality" of the U.S. welfare system. And he is typically uppity for a European about Americans' "lack of interest in world affairs -- by comparison, every French person seems like a specialist in foreign politics."
18) Beyond that is much common ground -- admiration for the U.S. as a land of opportunity; common cause with Republicans on the virtue of tax cuts, with Democrats and some Republicans on the environment and more.
19) With McCain, he discussed their shared advocacy against global warming; with Obama last year, their interest in easing the crisis in Darfur.
20) As interior minister, he favored zero tolerance on crime, echoing elements of Giuliani's campaign in New York City to tackle minor misdeeds that erode the civility of urban life.
21) "Well, you know, he was described when he was elected in one of the major newspapers as the French Rudy," the American Rudy enthused.
22) Sarkozy press adviser Franck Louvrier told The Associated Press the French leader probably knows Giuliani best, dating to his time as interior minister between 2002 and earlier this year. But, predictably, he's not playing favorites. It would be a scandal if he did.
23) "He's open to all of them," Louvrier said.
24) The longtime Sarkozy aide had to be reminded who Romney is, a sign that the Republican candidate's use of France as a foil has not made much of an impression there.
25) For several years Romney has warned that the U.S. risks ending up as "the France of the 21st century -- a lot of talk, but not a lot of strength behind it," as he put it while still Massachusetts governor in 2005.
26) Hostility toward European socialism in general and France in particular was threaded through an early campaign strategy document prepared for Romney.
27) These days, the France of the 21st century looks like a happening place, and Romney is keeping up with the times without letting Democrats off the hook. "I don't think Hillary Clinton could get elected president of France with her platform," he says now. "France is moving toward us."
28) That prompted a crack from Clinton spokesman Phil Singer about Romney's changing tone. "Considering how often Governor Romney flip-flops, he'll be wearing a beret and eating baguettes on the Champs-Elysees next week."


France ' s Sarkozy promises action on unemployment benefits
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Thursday to tackle the abuse of unemployment benefits, saying solidarity must have its limits.
2) "It's not normal that when one is unemployed one refuses a job corresponding to one's qualifications, because it's the others who pay," Sarkozy said during a visit to a machine parts factory in the Alsatian town of Colmar.
3) "At the end of the month, those who work should not find themselves in the same situation as those who don't," he said.
4) Unemployment hovers around 8 percent in France, above the eurozone average. Sarkozy made a similar promise on benefits earlier this year during his presidential campaign.
5) The government has pledged to lower unemployment to 5 percent in the next five years. It is planning measures to open up the labor market and boost the economy.
6) Sarkozy spoke before a Friday Cabinet session in Strasbourg, the first in 31 years outside Paris. Strasbourg is a symbolic choice for Sarkozy, who wished to underline the pro-European orientation of his government by holding a meeting of his ministers here -- the first in the provinces since Valery Giscard d'Estaing took his Cabinet to Lille in 1976.
7) "There's not just Paris. Strasbourg is the capital of a region ... bordering on Germany, which is important for us. It's the capital of Europe," Sarkozy told the Derniers Nouvelles d'Alsace newspaper in an interview published Thursday.
8) Sarkozy started his two-day trip to Alsace in Mulhouse on Thursday before continuing to Colmar and visiting a cancer research institute in Strasbourg. He was then scheduled to meet with Justice Minister Rachida Dati, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and local authorities to discuss security issues.
9) Sarkozy's stopover in Colmar was overshadowed by the death of a sniper from a police unit overseeing his security, who slipped and fell some 15 meters from the rooftop of the factory Sarkozy visited.
10) The Friday Cabinet meeting was to be convened at the Strasbourg prefecture.
11) Top-level French politicians often go to Strasbourg -- the seat of the European Parliament and Council of Europe -- to proclaim their allegiance to Europe.
12) Sarkozy himself stopped by here during his presidential campaign in February, unveiling his European agenda. France jealously guards Strasbourg as the official seat of the EU assembly, despite a mounting campaign to have it moved permanently to Brussels.
13) Some two-thirds of voters in this right-leaning eastern region backed Sarkozy in the second round of the presidential elections earlier this year, and local parliamentarians were embittered when he appointed the Socialist mayor of Mulhouse, Jean-Marie Bockel, as junior minister for relations with French-speaking nations.


Poll shows drop in popular support for new French President Sarkozy
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1) Is the honeymoon over for Nicolas Sarkozy and the French people? A poll released Wednesday showed a sharp drop in support for the new president and his prime minister, Francois Fillon.
2) The survey in glossy magazine Paris-Match found that Sarkozy's popularity rating fell 5 percentage points from July to early September -- to a still-respectable 62 percent.
3) Overall, the poll showed that a hefty 78 percent of respondents believe Sarkozy has renewed the presidency after 12 years under Jacques Chirac -- though the figure was down 4 percentage points from July.
4) The view about Fillon, who has largely been overshadowed by Sarkozy's activist approach to his new role, was more mitigated. The premier's popularity rating tumbled 9 percentage points, to 53 percent. Fifty-one percent said they still believed Fillon could reform France -- a drop of 11 percentage points.
5) The Sept. 6-7 telephone poll of 1,005 adults was conducted for Paris Match by the Ifop polling agency. No margin of error was given, but French polls of that size typically have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
6) Sarkozy has been seen as far more involved with the daily running of government than Chirac, and has gained plaudits from both supporters and even some former critics. Sarkozy defeated Socialist Segolene Royal by 53 percent to 47 percent in the presidential election runoff May 6.


French president off to rocky start with Germany ' s chancellor
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1) "Very frank" is how President Nicolas Sarkozy described his talks this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French presidential spokesman said Wednesday. Decoded, that language means "tense."
2) The leaders of two of Europe's major powers have apparently gotten off to a rocky start.
3) Sarkozy visited Germany in mid-May, just after taking office, in his first trip outside France as president. Since then, it's been a downhill slide, according to comments and press reports on both sides of the Rhine.
4) At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Sarkozy told ministers about his Monday meeting with Merkel in Meseberg, Germany.
5) "He stressed that the exchange was very frank," said spokesman Laurent Wauquiez.
6) However, the spokesman added that Sarkozy stressed to his ministers the "important steps" taken during the informal meeting, including winning Merkel over to his proposal to create a committee of experts to reflect on the medium-term future of the European Union.
7) Despite the happy faces the two leaders showed TV cameras, the German daily Rheinische Post raised the issue of tensions in its Tuesday edition.
8) For the paper, the bad blood began in July when German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck allegedly piqued Sarkozy with his own frank talk over France's disclosure that it might not eliminate the country's budget deficit until 2012, rather than the stated 2010.
9) Merkel allegedly refused to publicly dress down her minister, the paper said.
10) The French daily Le Parisien said other issues added to the tensions, from Sarkozy's taking full credit for the success of the June EU summit -- which Germany presided over -- with the accord on a simplified treaty, to the French president's effusive kisses planted on the cheeks of the reserved chancellor. Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, kissed the hand of Merkel in an elegant bow.
11) "There is a lot of distrust from the chancellor vis-a-vis the new (French) authority," the daily Le Parisien quoted a French diplomat in Germany as saying without providing his name.
12) The French presidential spokesman, Wauquiez, minimized the tensions, saying Sarkozy insisted instead on the need to put "solid projects" in place to "renew" and "give new sense" to French-German relations -- long the motor for construction of the European Union.
13) Sarkozy also told ministers that it was important to get to better know Germany, undergoing profound changes, Wauquiez said.
14) He noted the move of the German capital from Bonn to Berlin and said that the personality of the chancellor, "a woman from the East with all those qualities, was also a change."


French presidents visits Hungary, where his father was born
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1) EU countries need to develop a series of joint policies and become more dynamic in speeding up the bloc's modernization, France's president said Friday.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy's trip to Hungary, where his father was born, was his first in preparation for France's presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2008.
3) "Europe cannot remain immobile, Europe has to take a step forward," Sarkozy said in a speech in Parliament. "I'd like the French presidency to be useful for Europe -- we need to act together and we need to push Europe to act together."
4) Sarkozy said the EU needed to have a common policy in several areas, including security and defense, migration, energy and climate change.
5) He said, for example, that the EU had to be "independent and able to defend itself," notwithstanding its role in NATO.
6) "It is not about replacing the Atlantic alliance with a European defense policy, but about creating two complimentary systems," Sarkozy said.
7) In energy issues, the French president listed the development of renewable energy sources and nuclear energy as priorities and said France supported the EU's Nabucco natural gas distribution pipeline, which is in its initial planning stages.
8) He also reiterated his proposal -- backed by Hungary -- to create a "council of experts" to think about the how the EU should develop and what its objectives should be over the next 15-25 years.
9) Earlier, Sarkozy emphasized the role of Eastern Europe in the progress of the EU and said he wanted to increase France's presence in the region, where he saw Hungary as a "strategic partner."
10) "Very much will be decided (in this region) regarding how Europe is capable of developing economically," Sarkozy said after meeting Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom.
11) "For France there is no difference between small and large countries, we do not differentiate between countries which can speak up and those which have to stay silent," Sarkozy said. "There are only equal nations and states."
12) Sarkozy also met with Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and center-right opposition leader Viktor Orban.
13) Sarkozy is also scheduled to visit a construction site of Budapest's fourth subway line, in which two French companies -- Alstom and Vinci -- are involved, and meet with members of Hungary's French community.
14) Sarkozy, whose father Pal is Hungarian, traveled to the country as budget minister in 1994 and again in 2004 as finance minister. He has also been there at least once on a personal visit.
15) After his meeting with Solyom, Sarkozy also touched upon how the anti-Soviet revolutions in Hungary and in Czechoslovakia had influenced him during his youth.
16) "I belong to a generation which grew up in the tradition of the events of Budapest in 1956 and the Prague in 1968," he said. "When I was a student, I always greatly valued the courage of the Hungarian people, who never gave up."
17) The French president also spoke briefly about minorities, acknowledging Hungary's situation, as it has 10 million residents while another 5 million ethnic Hungarians live in neighboring countries as a result of post-World War I peace treaties in which Hungary lost around two-third of its territory.
18) "Stability and peace are very important for France," Sarkozy said, adding that while France did not support any sort of territorial changes, "I fully understand the cultural and emotional ties between Hungarian and Hungarians outside the borders."
19) Sarkozy also said that while his country backed individual rights for minorities, "we have a more moderate position regarding collective rights."
20) He also referred ironically to the length of his current visit -- just around 7 hours -- but said he was considering Solyom's invitation to return in November for the World Science Forum to be hosted by Hungary.
21) "You can imagine that I arrive today in Hungary as head of state with deep emotions," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in an interview published in Friday's edition of the Nepszabadsag newspaper.
22) France is Hungary's fourth-largest trading partner, with Hungarian exports to France totaling euro1.54 billion (US$2.14 billion) in the first six month of 2007, while French exports to Hungary stood at euro1.57 billion (US$2.18 billion) in the same period.
23) The previous visit to Hungary by a French president was by Jacques Chirac in February 2004.


Reform-minded Sarkozy tackles immigration, special pensions
(APW_ENG_20070918.1222)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy, making good on election promises of wide-ranging reforms, ordered Tuesday immediate talks with unions to do away with coveted retirement benefits that he deemed too costly, outdated and unfair.
2) He also said no workers should be forced against their will to retire before age 65, and he asked the government to do away with taxes and other measures that discourage seniors from staying on the job. The sweeping speech was a roadmap for change in the jobs sector.
3) France's social system "discourages work," Sarkozy said. In another proposal, he urged further easing the requirements of the 35-hour work week law, with workers offered a choice between extra money or extra time off when they work beyond 35 hours.
4) The president's speech on retirement and other workplace reforms coincided with the start of debate by lawmakers on a bill to toughen immigration laws, another delicate front on which the president promised reform.
5) Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux said the government would consider a constitutional change that would open the way for quotas on immigrants, in a vastly new approach to immigration.
6) "For many of our countrymen, immigration is a source of concern. They see a threat to their security, their jobs, their lifestyle," Hortefeux said in introducing his bill. "We must understand the ... hopes of this silent majority."
7) Conservative Sarkozy was elected in May on pledges to reinvigorate the economy and break with antiquated practices that weigh down France but do not reflect 21st century concerns.
8) Sarkozy's government has tackled smaller reforms, from toughening laws governing juvenile delinquency to modernizing the lumbering university system. The government softened some of those measures amid threats of protest.
9) The disputed immigration bill -- the third in less than four years -- would require a French language test for visa candidates, and possible DNA tests to prove family ties with immigrants already in France. The proposed tests, which would be voluntary, set off a furor among human rights groups.
10) The government contends that nearly a dozen other European countries use DNA tests to ferret out fraud. Lawmaker Francois Sauvadet said such testing offered potential immigrants "a new right."
11) The bill is a step toward fulfilling Sarkozy's goal of increasing the proportion of skilled immigrants who come here strictly to work from the current seven percent to 50 percent.
12) However, Hortefeux made clear the government would like to go further by introducing quotas. He said a commission would be set up in the coming weeks to reflect on the issue.
13) Sarkozy, tiptoeing into dangerous territory in his speech on job reforms, portrayed himself as a leveling force who would state coffers while distributing the contents more equitably.
14) Sarkozy sought more flexibility in rules governing the workplace -- and asked unions to undertake changes "by 2008" toward more constructive dialogue so that negotiations don't end in "sterile confrontations disconnected from what is real."
15) Sarkozy charged Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand with opening two weeks of talks starting Wednesday with unions, followed by negotiations to harmonize pensions among all civil servants.
16) A previous plan to trim special retirement packages for a swath of public employees fed weeks of paralyzing strikes in 1995 that unions still point to as a warning.
17) Employees of some state-run companies, such as the SNCF train authority, the RATP public transport system, and the electricity and gas companies -- more than half a million workers and 1.1 million current retirees -- benefit from special retirement privileges, which Sarkozy wants to do away with.
18) For instance, train and bus drivers, among others, can retire with a state pension at the age of 50 -- instead of the standard minimum age of 60 -- as can parliamentarians and employees of the Bank of France and the Comedie Francaise, a national theater.
19) The special privileges date from World War II and even earlier, when some sectors were considered dangerous or vital to France's interests. However, "the dangerousness of these jobs has greatly diminished and life expectancy of (these workers) is the same, if not better, than others," Sarkozy said.
20) The head of France's main employers' group, Laurence Parisot, praised Sarkozy's proposals, saying they "redesigned the social model to live up to modern challenges."
21) Unions said Sarkozy was trying to push through too much reform too fast. Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, urged a strike for Oct. 13, complaining that Sarkozy had embarked on a "mission impossible."


French prosecutors open investigation into Sarkozy ' s 1997 purchase of apartment
(APW_ENG_20070919.0660)
1) French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into President Nicolas Sarkozy's 1997 purchase of an apartment in a rich suburb of Paris, where he had served as mayor, judicial officials said Wednesday.
2) Investigators from France's financial crime brigade are investigating allegations that Sarkozy received a substantial price break on the apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine, on the western edge of Paris, officials said.
3) Under France's constitution, Sarkozy cannot be prosecuted while serving as president. His term runs through 2012, and he could bid for a second.
4) An investigating judge in April rejected a legal complaint in the case, but prosecutors have opted to revive the investigation, the officials said on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
5) It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors would proceed beyond a preliminary investigation, the officials said.
6) The officials were confirming a report Wednesday about the investigation in the satiric weekly Le Canard Enchaine, known for breaking news.
7) During Sarkozy's presidential campaign in February, the newspaper reported that Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, bought a six-bedroom duplex in Neuilly in 1997 at a hefty discount, and a developer did remodeling work for free. The newspaper said the Sarkozys saved at least euro300,000 (US$416,000) on the apartment.


Sarkozy says he will cut number of civil servants and improve pay for those remaining
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that he wants to cut the number of civil servants and improve the pay and career prospects of those who remain.
2) Sarkozy also said the government would introduce merit-based pay for state workers, who are paid based on fixed scales, saying the measure would encourage employees to do better work.
3) The French president, who has proposed sweeping changes to France's jobs sector since his election in May, said he would uphold a campaign promise -- by the end of his five-year term -- not to replace half of the civil servants who retire.
4) In 2008, the government plans not to replace a third of retiring state sector employees, which translates to 22,700 fewer civil servants, with 11,200 of those in the education sector.
5) Sarkozy said he wanted the public sector to be "smaller and better paid, with better career prospects." Sarkozy also said he wants state workers to have the right to work overtime at a higher rate of pay than normal hours.
6) Jean-Marc Canon, the head of the powerful CGT union's branch for civil servants, called Sarkozy's speech "a declaration of war." Elisabeth David, secretary-general of the UNSA union's branch for state employees, said she was "extremely shocked" and criticized Sarkozy for making decisions without consulting unions first.
7) A day earlier, Sarkozy took on another aspect of public sector reform, urging immediate talks with unions to do away with coveted retirement benefits provided for selected workers that he deemed too costly, outdated and unfair.


Nicolas Sarkozy wants growth of 2.5-3 percent, no austerity plans
(APW_ENG_20070920.1454)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Thursday for economic growth of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, but said he does not believe in too much fiscal belt-tightening.
2) "We must have growth of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent to arrive at full employment," he said in a televised interview. "I am committed to these goals."
3) After a strong start to the year, French growth has stalled in recent months and current forecasts for all of 2007 run closer to 2 percent. French unemployment remains above 8 percent.
4) Sarkozy insisted that the sensitive reforms his conservative government is undertaking -- including those on reducing public sector payrolls and changing retirement rights -- were the way to boost growth.
5) Still, he added that he does not believe in "austerity policy." Sarkozy has come under EU criticism for saying France may not keep pledges to erase its annual deficit by 2010.
6) Sarkozy also reiterated calls for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates.
7) "I don't criticize (European Bank president Jean-Claude) Trichet," Sarkozy said. "But I'm saying: look at what's going on," he said, referring to the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to cut rates in the face of troubles in global financial markets.
8) "When the Fed cuts its rates, everything starts off again. When we don't cut ours, we ground to a halt. There is a problem," he said.


French president Sarkozy calls for stronger sanctions against Iran
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested tougher sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend nuclear activities, but insisted Thursday that France does not want to see tensions lead to war.
2) Sarkozy accused Iran directly of seeking nuclear weapons and called the possibility of an Iranian bomb "unacceptable." France has been toughening its position on Iran since Sarkozy took over from Jacques Chirac in May, moving closer to the U.S. position.
3) Sarkozy was expected to discuss sanctions with other world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly next week. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, meanwhile, was in Washington to meet with senior U.S. officials -- and to discuss Iran, among other joint concerns.
4) If current sanctions are not sufficient, Sarkozy said, "I want stronger sanctions," he said in a televised interview.
5) The United States and other world powers suspect Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists it only wants nuclear technology to produce electricity. Two rounds of U.N. sanctions have failed to end the deadlock.
6) "It's a very difficult matter, but France does not want war," Sarkozy said. He said negotiations with Iran were still possible.
7) Sarkozy, known for his frank manner, dispensed with diplomatic niceties when referring to Iran's nuclear activities.
8) "Iran is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb. I say to the French, 'It's unacceptable,'" Sarkozy said.
9) "How can we convince (the Iranians) to renounce this project as the international community has convinced North Korea and Libya? Through discussion, dialogue, sanctions," he said.
10) Sarkozy stepped back slightly from comments by Kouchner on Sunday that the world should "prepare for the worst" in Iran, specifically "war." Amid criticism, Kouchner later softened that, insisting he just wanted to underline the gravity of the Iranian nuclear problem.
11) "I would not have used the word war," Sarkozy said Thursday.
12) French officials this week floated plans for European sanctions against Iran beyond existing U.N. measures, which the Foreign Ministry called "insufficient."
13) France wants European companies to be told not to seek new markets and to reduce their investments in Iran, Sarkozy spokesman David Martinon said earlier Thursday.
14) Such measures were being considered because it could take time for the U.N. Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions, Martinon said.
15) "They are recommendations which we hope each European Union state would address to their companies, which are present or which envisage having a presence in Iran," he said at a news briefing.
16) Under the proposal, European companies would be asked to "at least not pitch for new markets in Iran," and financial institutions recommended to reduce their investments there, he said.
17) Kouchner, just before leaving on his first official U.S. visit since his appointment in May, said France has moved on from the 12-year term of Chirac, who was a prominent critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Chirac also pushed for dialogue with Iran.


Sarkozy in New York: A Bush ally with a French accent who could shake up UN
(APW_ENG_20070923.0182)
1) He talks tough on Iran, likes U.S. President George W. Bush and wants quotas on immigrants. And he's French.
2) The frank-talking President Nicolas Sarkozy is out to puncture stereotypes about ivory tower French leaders as he makes his United Nations debut this week, enshrining a new foreign policy that slides Paris closer to Washington on key world hot spots.
3) Sarkozy's differences with the United States -- over global warming, in particular -- may make a mark on world diplomacy, too, at this year's U.N. General Assembly.
4) American eyes will be on the conservative Sarkozy as much for his U.S.-friendly attitude as for his policies. It has been a long time since U.S. officials so eagerly awaited a French president -- following a long chill under Iraq-war-opponent Jacques Chirac and decades of differences over issues from Middle East peace to European communism.
5) "It's an excellent relationship," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday after talks with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "I think there are many, many things that France and the United States are going to be able to do together."
6) Such comments set many French people on edge; those who say Sarkozy is compromising France's perceived moral authority in world affairs to earn Bush's approval. They will closely watch Sarkozy's reception at the United Nations, a place where Chirac was widely admired for his talk of a "multilateral" -- meaning less U.S.-dominated -- world.
7) "Allies, not aligned" is how French officialdom is describing its relations with Washington, careful not to alienate voters who remain skeptical, even fearful, of standing too close to U.S. policy in Iraq and beyond.
8) Bush and Sarkozy will not meet one-on-one, but will see each other at the General Assembly. They met before Sarkozy's election in May, and twice since -- and Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, said a trip to Washington is expected soon.
9) Sarkozy has called himself "a friend of Israel," distinguishing himself from what many have claimed were pro-Arab leanings by Paris. He has taken a tougher line on Russia and China than have his predecessors.
10) Sarkozy's outspoken and English-speaking foreign minister has gone even further.
11) While Chirac was warning Washington against invading Iraq in 2003, Kouchner said deposing Saddam Hussein was not a bad idea. Last week, Kouchner shocked many Europeans by saying the world should prepare for the possibility of war in Iran.
12) While he and Sarkozy later toned down the remarks, they both want stronger sanctions over Iran's refusal to halt nuclear activities -- a crucial topic at the U.N. assembly.
13) Kouchner also has U.N. experience, as administrator in Kosovo, that may smooth the way for his boss in New York.
14) Sarkozy was relatively untested on the world stage before his election, and faces a packed schedule of bilateral meetings Monday and Tuesday that could prove sensitive.
15) He starts with climate change, delivering a speech on behalf of the European Union likely to demand a more rigorous world push against polluters. Sarkozy has berated the United States for not taking the global lead on fighting global warming.
16) Sarkozy will talk with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about continuing violence that ensnared a new French victim on Friday.
17) Sarkozy also meets Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose bid to join the European Union is a dream Sarkozy does not want fulfilled.
18) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are on Sarkozy's agenda, too.
19) Sarkozy, meanwhile, has become an inadvertent player in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
20) Republican candidates, especially, are enamored of Sarkozy's stunning approval ratings and are studying his strategy for winning over French voters -- famously attached to their welfare protections -- despite pledges of risky labor reforms and costly tax cuts.


French President Sarkozy to meet Venezuelan president on freeing hostages held in Colombia
(APW_ENG_20070924.1099)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday Venezuela's president would travel to France in November to discuss securing the release of hostages held by rebels in Colombia.
2) Sarkozy told reporters at the United Nations that any help would be welcome in securing the release of Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen and former candidate for Colombia's presidency.
3) "Everyone who can help bring an end to this drama is welcome," said Sarkozy, who will meet Tuesday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. "That's the reason I have had several telephone conversations with President Hugo Chavez, that I invited him to France, and his intervention will be welcome."
4) Sarkozy, speaking in French, said it is France's "obsession" that Betancourt be returned to her family as soon as possible. Upon his arrival in New York on Sunday, he met with her daughter, Melanie Betancourt.
5) Chavez, who is seeking to broker a prisoner swap, has asked Uribe for permission to travel into territory dominated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. But Colombia's U.S.-allied government has dismissed such a meeting as inappropriate.
6) On his weekly Sunday radio broadcast, Chavez reiterated that he hopes to meet soon with FARC leader Manuel Marulanda as he seeks to negotiate the prisoner exchange between the rebels and the Colombian government.
7) Sarkozy was typically playful as he fielded questions from the press Monday, using a stern schoolteacher's voice to quiet down reporters who did not respond to his first few attempts. Later, after an interpreter begin translating a question asked in English, he quickly scolded, "I understood. I understood."
8) The French president reiterated his support for Israel -- a point which has distinguished him from his predecessor Jacques Chirac, whom many claimed was overly pro-Arab. And he added his support for Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas, who is increasingly under siege since militant Hamas wrested control of Gaza from his moderate Fatah party in June.
9) "France tells our Israeli friends, as we do to Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, that we support you. It's now that we must make an effort to reach an accord," Sarkozy said, adding that Abbas was a credible, respectable leader. "I don't think time is on our side."
10) President George W. Bush has called for a Middle East peace conference in the United States before the end of the year.
11) Sarkozy, who will chair a Security Council summit on peace and security in Africa Tuesday, met with Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and announced he would travel to the impoverished country at the beginning of next year.
12) "I think I can say that the page is definitively turned on bad relations between Angola and France," Sarkozy said after the meeting Monday.
13) In March, French prosecutors asked that 42 people, including the son of former President Francois Mitterrand, stand trial for selling arms to Angola during its 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002.
14) Sarkozy avoided a question on Iran, saying he had already said enough on the subject, though he did reiterate that the Iranian regime was in violation of international nonproliferation treaties.
15) France, along with the United States and Britain, is pushing for additional sanctions against the Iran -- which the international community suspects of developing nuclear weapons, though Iran denies the charge.
16) The French president also met with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. He said he plans to visit Afghanistan, where a French soldier was killed Friday, in the spring of 2008.
17) Earlier in the day Sarkozy delivered a speech to a conference on climate change, underlining the urgency of creating universally accepted limits on carbon emissions.
18) In a comment directed at the U.S., one of the biggest emitters, he said, "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. Sarkozy, speaking for the EU, also said the U.N. negotiating process is the only "efficient and legitimate framework" -- a rebuke of a separate climate meeting Bush has called for later in the week.


Sarkozy everywhere: Is the French president ' s omnipresence stifling political dialogue?
(APW_ENG_20070925.1203)
1) They call Nicolas Sarkozy the "omnipresident" because he seems to be everywhere at once, dominating news coverage with his big personality and even bigger plans.
2) Take this week. The French president went to the United Nations to expound on his vision for the world at the General Assembly. He jogged in Central Park in an NYPD T-shirt. Back home, an actor played Sarkozy in a TV docudrama about his role in saving nursery school children from a 1993 hostage crisis. And the list goes on.
3) All that exposure has generated buzz about Sarkozy's energy and vision, but it has come with a backlash. Critics complain that a cult of personality is developing, a "Sarko show," amid deeper concerns that Sarkozy is drowning out political dissent.
4) France's opposition Socialist Party said it was lodging a complaint with the national audiovisual authority CSA, asking for limits on how much airtime Sarkozy gets in comparison to other politicians.
5) Didier Mathus, a Socialist lawmaker, complained that Sarkozy gave two prime time interviews last week on France's biggest channels, one private and the other public.
6) "Is he going to ask soon that his speeches be broadcast from loudspeakers in the streets of our cities?" Mathus wrote on his blog.
7) The French audiovisual authority traditionally grants one-third of air time to the government, a third to the parliamentary majority and another third to the opposition -- but the president himself has never been counted in that equation. France's opposition says the rules should be changed to account for Sarkozy's style.
8) Jean-Louis Missika, a prominent French media specialist, says many in France are "shocked that one person can have so much coverage without a counterbalance."
9) Part of the problem is that France's main opposition group was weakened when its presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, lost the election to Sarkozy in May, and the party has been mired in infighting instead of rallying against Sarkozy.
10) There are also serious questions about Sarkozy's influence over the media. Critics say Sarkozy has suppressed stories and editors he doesn't like, and that his close friendships with the country's press barons are also troubling for France's media independence.
11) One association is urging a boycott of media coverage and even small talk about Sarkozy on Nov. 30, a day of "detox." The group bills it as the "Day without Sarkozy."
12) "Enough is enough," said Pierre Bitoun, a sociologist who founded the group, which calls itself Rally for Democracy on Television. "This is leading to a tainting of public opinion, to the detriment of other schools of political thought."
13) Sarkozy, who was elected in May on pledges of overhauling France to make it more competitive, says he is baffled about complaints that he is omnipresent.
14) "What was I elected for?" Sarkozy, 52, asked in a TV interview last week. "To take naps?"
15) Sarkozy' predecessor, 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, was fond of afternoon siestas. Chirac largely confined himself to diplomacy, letting his prime minister handle the contentious domestic reforms that often end in street protests.
16) Sarkozy keeps a much closer rein on the government. His prime minister, Francois Fillon, has been relegated to a backseat role, and Sarkozy aims to strengthen the presidency and make the head of state more accountable.
17) Sarkozy has been a telegenic figure from early on. He shot into the public consciousness in 1993, when he intervened in a hostage crisis in a school in Neuilly, the ritzy Paris suburb where he was mayor.
18) The event inspired a docudrama, aired Tuesday on state-run TV, showing Sarkozy's daring negotiations with an explosives-strapped man holding a nursery school class hostage.
19) No one was hurt, and Sarkozy, at one point, emerged with a child in his arms.


France ' s Sarkozy vows to go ahead with reforms, despite economic slowdown
(APW_ENG_20071003.1289)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Wednesday to forge ahead with his economic reform package despite a slowdown in the French economy.
2) Sarkozy, a conservative who took office in May on promises to jump-start France's sluggish economy, rejected calls for an austerity plan.
3) "There'll be no pause in the reforms," Sarkozy said in a speech to lawmakers from his UMP party.
4) "France needs a (percentage) point of growth more," he said. "We'll obtain it with all the reforms we've started."
5) Sarkozy said he wouldn't implement an austerity policy to balance the country's budget and that reforms shouldn't involve budget cuts.
6) "I refuse austerity," Sarkozy said, adding that "austerity plans have never solved anything."
7) "If we implemented an austerity plan ... the result would be even less growth and more deficits," he said. "If the solution was in hiking taxes, we'd be the country with the lowest unemployment rate in the world."
8) Sarkozy pushed tax cuts worth euro13 billion through the parliament in July, arguing that an increase in purchasing power would boost growth. The same month, the French leader pressed Eurozone finance ministers for a two-year reprieve in the deadline for balancing the country's budget, pushing it from 2010 to 2012.
9) European partners are putting mounting pressure on France to keep its promise to balance the budget by 2010. Euro Group President Jean-Claude Juncker said earlier this month that France needs to step up efforts to rein in spending growth.
10) In his address to lawmakers, Sarkozy denied that spending was at the root of France's economic woes.
11) "France's problem is not that it lives beyond its means, but it's that it lives below its ability," he said.


French president welcomed in Bulgaria, praised for helping secure medics release
(APW_ENG_20071004.0711)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy was lauded in Bulgaria on Thursday for his efforts to secure the release of six medics from Libyan prison.
2) Sarkozy had been due to visit with his wife, Cecelia, who also lobbied on the Bulgarian medics' behalf.
3) The doctor and five nurses were sentenced to death in Libya on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV, but were released in July after intense international pressure, and were flown home on French presidential jet accompanied by the French first lady.
4) Sarkozy's office said Wednesday that the first lady canceled her trip to Bulgaria because her actions in July had "drawn and continues to draw numerous criticisms," and "she does not want to rekindle new controversies."
5) In Sofia, Sarkozy said his wife had not come because "she is tired of all the polemics on this issue."
6) "If we want to mention her contribution, however, we should not forget to mention the contribution of Mrs. Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso," Sarkozy said, referring to the EU commissioner for external relations and the European Commission president, respectively. Both had also been involved in the negotiations for the medics' release.
7) Sarkozy was awarded Bulgaria's highest state honor -- the "Stara Planina" order -- for his help in having the medics freed, though he has also been criticized both at home and abroad for "hijacking" and then taking credit for a negotiation process that had been ongoing for taken years.
8) President Georgi Parvanov praised Sarkozy's efforts at the final stage of the liberation of the medics.
9) "A lot had already been achieved by the European Union, but the courage and the decisive actions by President Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, brought these efforts to a successful end," Parvanov said at the ceremony.
10) Sarkozy also was seeking to boost economic and military ties during the trip to Bulgaria, and was expected to secure a deal for four military Gowind corvettes. He planned to meet with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and with the six medics.
11) In an interview granted before his visit to four Bulgarian dailies, Sarkozy said EU-newcomer Bulgaria was an "important partner" for France in the areas of common European agricultural, defense and nuclear energy policies. "I think we should boost cooperation in each of those areas," Sarkozy was quoted as saying.
12) He declined to confirm the euro750 million (US$1 billion) corvette contract had been finalized, but said the deal would help modernize Bulgaria's fleet, as well as "stimulate the country's shipbuilding industry as it creates chances for new contracts."
13) The contract, approved by Bulgaria's defense ministry in 2005, had since been frozen due to financial constraints.
14) Sarkozy's trip to Sofia followed a visit last month to Hungary, his father's home country, as part of a tour of European capitals before France takes over the EU presidency in July.


Feisty Sarkozy takes on muscular Putin, in shadow of Iran and energy disputes
(APW_ENG_20071009.1264)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy stayed firm with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, saying he would defend France's convictions but also try to "understand" a Russia whose relations with Iran and increasing assertiveness have raised global concern.
2) "I appreciate the strength of your convictions," Sarkozy told Putin at the Russian president's forested estate west of Moscow on Tuesday night. "I think that we can understand each other, because such convictions, I have them too."
3) Sarkozy, on his first presidential visit to Russia, added that France wants to be "Russia's friend" and "to understand you." Putin responded with an oft-repeated verse from a 19th Century Russian poet: "One cannot understand Russia with the mind ... One must simply believe in it."
4) In a brief exchange before reporters, the two did not mention any of their points of discord, including Iran's nuclear program or Russia's use of its energy supplies to pressure neighboring countries.
5) "We need, for the peace of the world, to work together," Sarkozy said.
6) Putin, for his part, expressed hope that trade between the countries would grow. "France has been and I hope will be a priority partner in Europe and the world," he said.
7) Off camera, the two presidents chatted about jogging and swimming, and Sarkozy rode shotgun as Putin took him on a tour of the grounds in a Mercedes.
8) Sarkozy has accused Russia of "brutality" in exercising its energy hegemony and expressed determination to punish Iran for its nuclear program. His two-day visit comes when many eyes are focused on Putin's political future and increasing global assertiveness.
9) In an interview published Tuesday in Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Sarkozy said Russia "should assume and exercise the responsibilities that go side by side with its legitimate aspiration to be a great power."
10) His visit came days before Putin travels to Iran, where Russia is building a nuclear reactor that has contributed to concerns in the West about Iran's atomic intentions.
11) Sarkozy was the first Western leader to meet Putin since his announcement last week that he would lead Russia's biggest party into parliamentary elections in December, leaving the door open to a job as prime minister. That would allow him to keep hold of Russia's reins even after his second presidential term expires next May.
12) Much as Putin did after succeeding Boris Yeltsin, Sarkozy has sought to reassert and redefine French foreign policy since taking over from Jacques Chirac in May. Talking tough on Russia has been a running theme.
13) Sarkozy has expressed concern about human rights in Chechnya and media freedoms, and accused Russia in August of "a certain brutality" in using its energy weight to influence smaller neighbors once under Moscow's political control.
14) "When Russia cuts supplies of energy to one part of Europe without warning, trust suffers," he told Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
15) Sarkozy has also taken a firmer line on Iran's nuclear program, shifting closer to the United States in his insistence on tough sanctions and even his mention of the possibility of war.
16) "No one should doubt France's seriousness and determination" on the Iranian issue, he was quoted as saying.
17) "Between resignation and war, two words that do not belong in my vocabulary, there is a responsible position: growing sanctions to bring Iran to reason, but also an opening to dialogue if Iran makes the choice to respect its obligations," he was quoted as saying.
18) "I will not give in on a subject of such gravity," he said.
19) Sarkozy has also sent a message to Russia by shoring up relations with former Soviet bloc countries bristling at Moscow's renewed influence, meeting with Eastern European leaders.
20) In a sign of Russian irritation, a Kremlin official said Sarkozy's visit would help "clarify" the French leadership's position on several international questions.
21) The official, speaking on customary anonymity, noted "contradictory declarations by French officials," apparently referring to comments by Kouchner last month that France should be prepared for war in Iran. Sarkozy and Kouchner later toned down their language.
22) Iran is expected to be "at the heart" of Sarkozy's talks with Putin this week, Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon said.
23) Later this week, Putin will host U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- before heading to Iran himself for talks that will be closely watched in diplomatic circles.
24) Some question whether Sarkozy can hold much sway over the powerful Putin. The two first met as presidents at the G-8 summit in June, and though Sarkozy said later he spoke frankly about touchy subjects, that did not appear to have had a major effect on relations.
25) For all his concerns, Sarkozy appears keen to boost French trade with Russia, especially in aeronautics, space and telecommunications.
26) After a dinner with Putin on Tuesday night, Sarkozy was meeting French executives in Moscow and giving a speech to a prestigious university on Wednesday morning, ahead of talks with Putin.
27) Beyond Iran and energy, the two were also expected to discuss the future status of Kosovo, the Middle East and European relations, officials said.


Sarkozy urges Russia to embrace democracy and media freedom
(APW_ENG_20071010.0419)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Russia Wednesday to embrace democracy, media freedom and foreign investment and to work for world peace.
2) Sarkozy, who has taken a firm line with Moscow, nevertheless stressed that France is "Russia's friend." "When you are friends, you should talk to each other about agreements and disagreements," Sarkozy said in a speech to students at Moscow's Bauman University.
3) Sarkozy, on his first presidential visit to Russia, said late Tuesday after dining with President Vladimir Putin at his country residence outside Moscow that they had bridged differences over how the world should respond to Iran's nuclear activities.
4) Sarkozy, seeking to crank up pressure on Tehran, gave no details Tuesday about the leaders' "convergences" on Iran or any signal that a quick solution to the international standoff is in sight. Russian officials made no public mention of progress.
5) But Sarkozy -- who has toed a tough line on Russia recently -- struck a decidedly upbeat note after more than three hours of talks with Putin on a battery of touchy subjects.
6) The two leaders appeared to have a good rapport when they say down for Kremlin talks Wednesday, with Putin saying he was pleased to hear that Sarkozy liked the Kremlin.
7) Speaking to students Wednesday, Sarkozy called for greater cooperation between Russia and France in nuclear energy and aeronautics and urged the Russians to keep the doors open to international investment which he called crucial for Russia's development.
8) He also stressed the importance of media freedom, saying "it's not always easy to be the chief of a democratic state" -- a reference to criticism of him in France and also a veiled allusion to the issue of media freedom in Russia.
9) Putin has bristled angrily on foreign criticism of backsliding on democracy and curtailing media freedom amid an increasingly cold spell in relations with the West.
10) Sarkozy said Tuesday he was honest with Putin about French concerns over the killing a year ago of critical journalist Anna Politkovskaya, over Chechnya and over the rights of homosexuals in Russia.
11) It remained unclear how much of an effect the energetic and determined Sarkozy was having on the equally determined and powerful Putin. Russian officials gave no official report on the talks with Sarkozy, which were to resume Wednesday.
12) Sarkozy has hardened France's stance on Iran in recent months, shifting closer to the United States in his insistence on tough sanctions and even his mention of the possibility of war.
13) Putin heads to Iran early next week.
14) Tehran has refused international demands to suspend parts of its nuclear work that many fear are aimed at building weapons despite Iranian insistence that they are peaceful. While the United States and European nations are pressing for greater punishment, Russia and China have remained resistant.
15) Asked whether Putin could stake out a new position during the visit toward defusing the standoff, Sarkozy responded only that Putin's trip would be "very useful."
16) Sarkozy said they discussed diplomatic successes with North Korea as a possible example for the Iran dilemma, noting the influence China had in the North Korean negotiations.
17) Sarkozy said the two also made progress on differences over Kosovo's possible independence.
18) Despite Russian opposition, Sarkozy insisted that independence is "indispensable" and hinted at a possible "path" toward a solution, without elaborating.
19) Sarkozy said he and Putin spent a "a lot" of time discussing Russia's political future.
20) Sarkozy was the first Western leader to meet Putin since his announcement last week that he would lead Russia's biggest party into parliamentary elections in December, leaving the door open to a job as prime minister. That would allow him to keep hold of Russia's reins even after his second presidential term expires next May.
21) Sarkozy has recently accused Russia of "brutality" in exercising its energy dominance, and has courted central and eastern European leaders bristling under Moscow's renewed influence.
22) He was less caustic after Tuesday's talks, which he described as "long, relaxed, deep, frank, passionate."


Report: French president and wife formalize separation
(APW_ENG_20071017.0901)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, have informed a judge they are separating, a respected newsweekly reported Wednesday. The president's office would not comment on the report.
2) Rumors that the couple was on the verge of officially separating have spread for weeks and French media have widely reported the suspicions -- with no official denials.
3) Both Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, and Cecilia Sarkozy's spokeswoman, Carina Alfonso Martin, responded to queries Wednesday with a "no comment."
4) The Web site of Le Nouvel Observateur said that the 52-year-old president and his 49-year-old wife "went before a judge together at the end of the day on Monday, Oct. 15, to materialize the separation procedure of the couple."
5) It did not cite sources for the information or elaborate on what "materialization" of the separation meant. The report followed rumors that the Sarkozys would make such a move on Wednesday.
6) A different version was reported by news channel LCI. It said on its Web site that Cecilia Sarkozy saw a judge alone on Monday morning and the judge later visited the presidential Elysee Palace to countersign a document.
7) "I have no comment to make on this subject," said government spokesman Laurent Wauquiez. He added that Sarkozy had been in a good mood at a weekly Cabinet meeting Wednesday.
8) Judicial officials said divorce proceedings are a private affair and not a matter of public record, even when it involves the president.
9) Word of a possible separation comes five months after Sarkozy took office and shortly before the couple's 11th wedding anniversary on Oct. 23.
10) The Sarkozys were separated for several months in 2005, getting back together as the presidential campaign began moving into high gear. However, Cecilia Sarkozy did not vote in the final round of the election in May and has rarely appeared with her husband in public since.
11) Martinon has said that Sarkozy would travel alone on a state visit next week to Morocco.
12) The enigmatic Cecilia Sarkozy shuns the title first lady and has refused to define a role for herself.
13) Both of the Sarkozys have previously been married. Together they have five children, including their own son, Louis.


French president Sarkozy divorcing wife Cecilia
(APW_ENG_20071018.0857)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his elegant but enigmatic wife, Cecilia, are divorcing after 11 years of marriage and months of questions about their relations, a history-setting precedent that struck a deep personal blow to his young presidency.
2) In a terse, 15-word statement, Sarkozy's office said Thursday the two were separating by mutual consent and would not comment further on the decision. Sarkozy's spokesman said separation meant divorce. The Sarkozys are the first French presidential couple to separate while in power.
3) The split comes as Sarkozy faced his first major political challenge: strikes Thursday that hobbled transport nationwide.
4) Sarkozy has remained unfazed by the strikes. He has not given any hint that his marital troubles will dent his determination to push ahead with his ambitious program of economic, political and social reforms for France.
5) In the past week, as speculation about his marriage reached fever-pitch, he continued to present an image of business as normal. He was to be in Portugal on Thursday for an EU summit.
6) Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy split for a few months in 2005, and she had seemed ill at ease as first lady since her husband's election in May. She did not cast a ballot in the runoff, and has rarely appeared with her husband in public in recent months.
7) Her one political venture came back to sting her: She raised her profile dramatically during a July mission to seek the release of five Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya. The stunned French media questioned her diplomatic credentials, and parliament is investigating arms deals signed soon after the release.
8) "She was shaken, murdered, wounded by the controversy," Isabelle Balkany, a friend of the couple, said on France Inter radio Thursday.
9) "Cecilia is a woman of conviction who needs to do things, feel useful. She knew that she would have trouble tolerating the conventional side" of being a president's wife, she said.
10) Balkany predicted the split would have no effect on Nicolas Sarkozy's job.
11) Even if he is "affected to his depths" by the "painful" decision, she said, "I sincerely think that it will have absolutely no impact on his mission as chief of state."
12) Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied Sarkozy through the recent years of his political career, acting as an aide, confidante and an ever-present figure at political events.
13) Dynamic and ambitious, the two set out to buck conventions in French politics, her in designer denim and him jogging and speaking in straight, inelegant sound bites.
14) Their separation, too, sets a precedent, and sets Nicolas Sarkozy apart from France's past leaders.
15) Their idyll was shattered in 2005, when photos of Cecilia hand-in-hand with another man on a Manhattan sidewalk were splashed across a magazine cover.
16) Sarkozy talked about it on national television, saying: "Like millions of families, mine has experienced some difficulties."
17) Observers wondered then whether Sarkozy could become president without her support and presence beside him. The question turned out to be moot, as she came back in time for Sarkozy's presidential push.
18) News reports Wednesday said the couple had seen a judge to say they are seeking a formal separation, prompting debate among experts over whether the constitution allows them to divorce because of the strong legal protections designed to keep sitting presidents out of court.
19) Both Sarkozys have been previously married. They have two children each from their previous marriages, as well as their own son, Louis.
20) Until the Sarkozys, French presidents' private lives remained largely private affairs. But Sarkozy courted the spotlight for years in his long run-up to the presidency -- and that has meant his marital troubles were front-page news.
21) "The couple was quite extraordinary, really fused together," said Christine Clerc, political journalist and author of "Tigers and Tigresses," a book about presidential couples in modern France.
22) "They became an ordinary couple, a couple like many others who don't get on well anymore after 14 years, but who have a child in common, who had many projects in common, who have a deep bond, and who have lived many things together," she said.
23) The timing of the announcement could help Sarkozy on another front, by knocking nationwide strikes against his policies off front pages.
24) The daily Liberation, for example, devoted five pages and its front page to Sarkozy's marriage on Thursday, relegating the strikes to inside pages -- even though the newspaper traditionally leans left and might have been expected to devote more attention to the labor unrest had the presidential couple not overshadowed it.
25) Protesters at a union-led march in Paris on Thursday had little sympathy for Sarkozy's personal woes.
26) "There are problems more serious than that," said Yvelle Franck, a 63-year-old marching to protect retirement benefits.


A history of the relationship between Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy
(APW_ENG_20071018.1263)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, on Thursday became the first French presidential couple to announce their divorce while in office. Here is a chronological look at their relationship.
2) 1996:
3) -- Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy, together since 1987, marry, on Oct. 23.
4) 2005:
5) May -- Sarkozy admits problems in the relationship. "Like millions of families, mine has known difficulties. We are overcoming these difficulties," he says.
6) June -- Cecilia steps down as his chief of staff at his political party, the UMP.
7) August -- "Paris-Match" magazine publishes pictures of Cecilia with another man, events organizer Richard Attias. "Match" editor Alain Genestar is later forced out and blames Sarkozy.
8) October -- Newspapers report that Sarkozy has a girlfriend, a journalist who covers politics. Sarkozy says he will "never again" talk publicly about his private life.
9) November -- Cecilia says she asked Sarkozy to intervene to stop the publication of a book about her. "I no longer want our private life in the media," she says.
10) 2006:
11) The Sarkozys reunite, as his campaign for the French presidency is taking shape. In June, they appear publicly together in French Guiana. Sarkozy says in a book that he thinks they will be together forever.
12) 2007:
13) May 6 -- Sarkozy is elected president. Cecilia looks uncomfortable at his victory rally; reports later say she did not vote in the runoff that Sarkozy won and that she initially did not want to attend his victory party.
14) May 16 -- Sarkozys are a picture of family unity at his inauguration. She wears an elegant Prada shift dress in cream-colored silk. He embraces her and wipes a tear from her cheek. She straightens his tie.
15) Oct. 18 -- Presidential palace announces their divorce. Lawmaker Patrick Balkany, close to the couple, says Cecilia "no longer wanted to participate in the president's life, in public life."


Cecilia Sarkozy says public spotlight led to divorce from French president
(APW_ENG_20071019.0564)
1) Cecilia Sarkozy, explaining the reasons for her divorce from France's president, told a French newspaper she wanted to flee the harsh public spotlight on a complex relationship for the tranquility of the shadows.
2) Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy announced Thursday they had divorced, setting a precedent for France and spelling the end of a passionate and deeply political power couple who had challenged the traditional role of president and first lady.
3) A one-time model who worked as an aide to Nicolas Sarkozy in his long climb toward the presidency, Cecilia Sarkozy told L'Est Republicain newspaper that it was "no longer possible" to keep their marriage together after a separation in 2005 that made headlines.
4) "I am someone who likes the shadows, serenity, tranquility," she was quoted as saying in Friday's edition of the paper. "I had a husband who was a public man, I always knew that, I accompanied him for 20 years. ... But me, I think that is not my place. It is no longer my place."
5) "When you marry a politician, your private life and public life become one," she told the newspaper, calling that just "the beginning of the problems."
6) She expressed frustration that Nicolas had not asked her opinion when he decided she should not testify before a parliamentary inquiry into her only major public gesture as first lady: helping secure the release of Bulgarian medics and Palestinian doctor imprisoned in Libya.
7) "I have nothing to hide in this story," she told the newspaper.
8) Sent by the president, she negotiated directly with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Critics in France said that, as the president's wife, diplomacy should not have been her place. A French parliamentary hearing into the releases opened Wednesday.
9) Friends said the personal blow of the divorce will not dent Sarkozy's energetic leadership as he works to reshape France, make it more competitive and nurture its alliance with the United States.
10) Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, insisted Friday that the divorce would not "change anything in the functioning of the president's office."
11) He shrugged off charges from the leftist opposition that Sarkozy timed the announcement to coincide with nationwide strikes Thursday against his reform plans.
12) The couple's marital problems spurred debate within France about the public discussion of such private matters. Previous presidents' trysts were long kept secret.
13) This time, media outlets widely reported their troubles, reasoning that Sarkozy himself had advertised his relationship with Cecilia -- showing off his chic wife before photographers, calling her or sending text messages when out of town, and saying in a book that they would be together "forever."
14) Cecilia, in L'Est Republicain, called her ex-husband "a man who is capable of doing a lot for France and the French." She, meanwhile, plans to concentrate on her family.
15) She said the divorce has been "very difficult" -- but added that she has no regrets.
16) The two had both been married before, and have five children between them. The divorce judge granted the Sarkozys joint custody of their only son together, 10-year-old Louis, who will live primarily with his mother.


French president urges China to curb massive financial and trade surpluses.
(APW_ENG_20071019.0727)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged China on Friday to curb massive financial and trade surpluses.
2) Speaking after a two-day EU summit, he said there was no consensus that the euro -- which has soared against the U.S. dollar -- "is overvalued. But everyone agrees some other currencies are undervalued," he added, referring to the Chinese currency. Sarkozy's comment echoed the EU view that China -- a country with a vast and growing current account surplus -- must allow the yuan to trade more freely. "Great nations have rights," said Sarkozy. "But they also have duties."


French president protects his privacy after divorce, but ex-wife talks
(APW_ENG_20071019.1177)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy, freshly divorced, stood alone Friday at the helm of France, tense but promising anew to solve the nation's problems as his ex-wife confessed that she felt out of place at his side.
2) A day after the presidential office announced the divorce of the couple -- setting a precedent for France -- Sarkozy, 52, immersed himself in the final day of an EU summit in Lisbon, Portugal. Still wearing his wedding ring, he curtly told reporters that his private life was not a public matter.
3) In contrast, Cecilia Sarkozy, in an interview published in the regional newspaper L'Est Republicain, spoke frankly about the divorce five months after the president took office, and the separation in 2005 that preceded it.
4) The interview was a window onto a woman described as enigmatic and little understood by the French. Another interview, with the magazine Elle, moved up its Monday publication date to release an interview Saturday with Cecilia Sarkozy.
5) "Simply, it was no longer possible," Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, said of her marriage. The divorce by mutual consent was granted Monday.
6) "I am someone who likes the shadows, serenity, tranquility," she was quoted as saying. "I had a husband who was a public man, I always knew that, I accompanied him for 20 years ... But me, I think that is not my place. It is no longer my place."
7) In Lisbon, Sarkozy bristled at a question about the divorce.
8) "I was elected by the French to find solutions to their problems, not to comment on my private life," he said at a news conference. The French perhaps have "more modesty and more discretion, dare I say a touch more of elegance," Sarkozy said, scolding the reporter.
9) The tempestuous relationship of the Sarkozy couple was well known to the French, including their 2005 split when Cecilia, as she said, "fell in love" with another man and left, "perhaps precipitously." The Sarkozys never settled together into the private apartments of the presidential Elysee Palace.
10) Sarkozy's many public admissions of his emotional attachment to his wife raised questions about how he will manage affairs of state flying solo.
11) "There is no reason" that the divorce "in any way changes the functioning of the Elysee," said Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon.
12) Sarkozy has at least two foreign trips scheduled in the weeks ahead, a state visit to Morocco, where he will be accompanied by a friend of his ex-wife, Justice Minister Rachida Dati, of Moroccan origin, and a Nov. 6 visit to Washington for his first official meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.
13) Cecilia Sarkozy was embarrassingly absent when the two leaders met informally this summer at the Maine home of Bush's father, the former president -- one of a string of no-shows.
14) Cecilia praised Nicolas Sarkozy, saying he is "capable of doing a lot for France and for the French."
15) The divorce announcement coincided with a massive public transport strike that was the first test of Sarkozy's bid to change the mind-set of France with reforms, making the country more productive.
16) Some commentators suggested the president would benefit from a sympathy factor in France. Even Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was touched.
17) Gadhafi said in a statement Friday that he wished he'd had a chance to try to patch things up between the two.
18) "The speed with which the separation was made did not give their friends a chance to mend fences," the Libyan leader said.
19) Cecilia Sarkozy had directly negotiated with Gadhafi for freedom of six jailed Bulgarian medics -- a highpoint for the then-first lady that was clipped short by questions over her surprise appointment to a delicate mission.
20) Cecilia expressed frustration that her husband had not asked her opinion when he decided she should not testify before a parliamentary inquiry into her role.
21) "I have nothing to hide in this story," she said.
22) The divorce judge granted the Sarkozys joint custody of their only son together, 10-year-old Louis, who will live primarily with his mother. The Sarkozys have two children each from previous marriages.


French president, in Morocco, champions his bid for a Mediterranean union
(APW_ENG_20071023.0833)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought on Tuesday to spell out his vision of an alliance linking the countries that share the Mediterranean Sea, bringing business deals and tighter security between southern Europe and neighbors to the south.
2) Sarkozy used his first state visit to Morocco to usher in euro3 billion (US$4.25 billion) in bilateral contracts for high-speed trains, a frigate and uranium extraction, and to offer support for King Mohammed VI in his push to open up the Moroccan economy.
3) "We have a new partnership to build together," Sarkozy said after speaking to Morocco's newly elected parliament in Rabat on Tuesday, according to the official MAP news agency.
4) Sarkozy was to give a speech about his proposed EU-style "Mediterranean Union" in the port city of Tangiers -- just across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain -- on Tuesday evening.
5) Critics charge that Sarkozy is using the bid to promote French business in its former colonies, and to keep Turkey out of the European Union by offering a Mediterranean alliance instead.
6) They also question whether joining such countries as Israel, Libya, Turkey and Lebanon under one umbrella with France, Italy and Spain and a dozen others is necessary or feasible.
7) The idea is modeled on a precursor to the European Union and would encourage cooperation by easing barriers on trade, sharing security efforts, linking energy networks and strengthening educational and cultural ties.
8) Sarkozy, speaking to Moroccan legislators, urged better management of migratory flows, which is key to his union plan. Sarkozy has made reducing illegal immigration, especially from Africa, a priority in his presidency.
9) France is considering a summit of Mediterranean countries sometime next year, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said in Paris.
10) "We are in a position of listening and dialogue," to hear what other countries have to say about the project, she said.
11) Sarkozy's office said this summer that the union idea had received "a very favorable response from all our Mediterranean partners" -- yet even in France's traditional North African backyard, friction with Algeria and human rights issues in Tunisia could test the goodwill.
12) French relations with Morocco have fared better, and Sarkozy's three-day visit here, along with several government ministers and dozens of French executives, was a sign of the weight the countries place on their ties.
13) Sarkozy expressed support Tuesday for a Moroccan plan offering limited autonomy for the disputed Western Sahara. The Polisario Front rebels demand a referendum with a choice of autonomy or independence for the vast territory that Morocco annexed in 1975.
14) Sarkozy called the proposal "serious and credible," according to MAP, but said any solution would need to have U.N. backing. "France will be at your side," he said.
15) French and Moroccan officials signed an accord Monday night for a euro1.8 billion (US$2.5 billion) bullet train connecting Tangiers with Casablanca, Morocco's economic hub. The train is to be operational in 2013, French engineering giant Alstom said.
16) Alstom also signed a contract to help build a hybrid gas-solar power plant at Ain Beni Mathar in northeast Morocco.
17) French nuclear manufacturer Areva and OCP, a Moroccan conglomerate of mining and chemical industries, signed a deal to develop cooperation and research in the field of natural uranium, Areva said. The deal comes as several countries are looking to build nuclear reactors -- including Morocco -- to meet growing energy needs.


Energy conservation tops Sarkozy ' s vision for eco-friendly France
(APW_ENG_20071025.1368)
1) No more traditional light bulbs in cafes and chandelier-filled chateaux -- or anywhere else in France. No more energy-wasting cars and televisions, and no more drafty windows either.
2) These proposals are pieces of an "ecological New Deal" that President Nicolas Sarkozy laid out Thursday to push France toward the vanguard of the fight against global warming.
3) At Sarkozy's side, U.S. Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore urged the world to follow France's example in tackling what he called a "planetary emergency."
4) Environmental groups welcomed the gestures but said they were only a first step in catching France up to its "greener" neighbors. They criticized Sarkozy for defending nuclear energy and steering clear of a carbon tax and a ban on genetically modified crops that many had wanted.
5) "We have waited too long. We cannot want any longer," Sarkozy said in closing three months of often tense talks among activists, farmers, unions, businesses and government officials aimed at changing the way the French treat the environment.
6) "France wants to be ahead, and it wants to be exemplary," he said.
7) The unprecedented environment talks produced about a dozen measures to be sent to parliament for a vote early next year. Parliament, dominated by Sarkozy's party, is likely to pass them, though activists fear lawmakers will try to water them down.
8) Sarkozy said that by 2020, all new buildings would be required to be "energy positive, meaning they will produce more energy than they consume," without elaborating.
9) By 2010, all incandescent light bulbs and single-paned windows would be banned, according to the plan. That would put France ahead of U.S. states such as California that are phasing out the traditional bulb starting in 2012.
10) Older models of televisions and other electrical equipment considered to consume too much energy will be banned "as soon as an alternative exists at a reasonable price," Sarkozy said.
11) Drivers who buy cars that use little gasoline will be entitled to discounts, while those who buy gas-guzzlers will have to pay extra, according to another measure. Vehicle owners will be encouraged to trade in older, more-polluting cars for cleaner models.
12) Road construction will be drastically slowed while high-speed train service will be extended with another 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of new tracks, he said. River traffic also will be expanded.
13) Most agriculture measures were strongly watered down under pressure from farming unions, though Sarkozy agreed that all cafeterias at schools and other public buildings will be required to offer organic food once a week.
14) Sarkozy also urged study of a much-disputed carbon tax, but he stopped short of a full endorsement of taxing products from countries that do not adhere to the Kyoto Protocol -- including the United States. The conservative president has sought to cut the heavy taxes that the French face.
15) Sarkozy said he wanted to make France a leader in renewable energy, but stuck to his support for nuclear energy. France is more reliant on nuclear power than any other country.
16) "The truth is that it is illusory in France to want to meet the climate challenge, our primary challenge, without nuclear energy. Today, we have no other choice, without renouncing growth," Sarkozy said.
17) The national secretary of the Green Party, Cecile Duflot, called the event "propaganda and a grand publicity show."
18) "Everyone was tense. It is a critical moment," said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the junior minister for ecology.
19) Daniel Richard of the World Wildlife Federation said the talks were "very hot."
20) The discussions provoked discord over biofuels, with some activists warning that they were causing more environmental damage than good, forcing up grain prices worldwide and encouraging continued use of cars.
21) Gore called Sarkozy "a great friend of the people of this planet because you are providing leadership."
22) "We must realize that increases in global warming pollution anywhere now threaten the viability of human civilization everywhere."


Sarkozy to address Congress, discuss Iran, in first US visit
(APW_ENG_20071026.0716)
1) Iran will be "at the heart of discussions" between U.S. President George W. Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy when the French president pays his first official visit to the United States next month, his spokesman said Friday.
2) Sarkozy will also address the U.S. Congress on Nov. 7, "a very great honor granted only exceptionally to a foreign guest. We are very honored," said the spokesman, David Martinon.
3) Bush and his wife, Laura, will host Sarkozy at a White House dinner on Nov. 6 and the two leaders will hold talks the next day, he added.
4) "The issue of Iran will be at the heart of discussions," he said.
5) Sarkozy is pushing for tougher economic sanctions against Iran to punish its refusal to freeze its nuclear program, which France, the United States and other powers suspect is aimed at producing weapons. Iran insists it is for civilian power.
6) Sarkozy took power in May and is proving more U.S.-friendly than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. Sarkozy vacationed in the United States this summer, and met Bush casually at his family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.
7) Sarkozy was treated to an all-American lunch, a ride on a speed boat and an introduction to the whole Bush family. Bush's parents own an oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, and the U.S. president used all the trappings to make Sarkozy feel welcome.
8) Bush and Sarkozy also met on the sidelines of the G-8 summit of major industrialized nations in Germany in June.
9) Sarkozy's office last week announced his divorce from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia.
10) The French president will be accompanied on his trip by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Justice Minister Rachida Dati and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Rama Yade, junior minister for human rights and Bernard Accoyer, president of France's lower house of parliament, will also make the trip.


France ' s president abruptly ends CBS interview over questions about wife
(APW_ENG_20071029.1221)
1) France's president abruptly ended an American television network interview aimed at introducing him to U.S. audiences, refusing to answer questions about his wife.
2) Before the CBS "60 Minutes" news show interview in Paris even began, Sarkozy called his press secretary "an imbecile" for arranging the interview on a busy day, saying the timing was "stupid" and a "big mistake," according to a story on CBS's Web site.
3) "No. No. This is stupid. He is stupid. It is a big mistake," Sarkozy said.
4) The interview was conducted earlier this month -- about two weeks before the Sarkozys announced their divorce -- and aired Sunday night.
5) "Okay, I don't have the time. I have a big job to do, I have a schedule," Sarkozy said through a translator before the interview began. In English, he added: "Very busy. Very busy."
6) In the interview conducted, he candidly discussed what he likes about the U.S. But he grew frustrated when was asked about his wife Cecilia, who, after helping negotiate the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with infecting Libyan children with HIV, failed to show up at a ceremony in which Sarkozy was given a medal by Bulgaria.
7) "If I had to say something about Cecilia, I would certainly not do so here," Sarkozy replied.
8) He declared the interview over and said: "Bon courage." Two weeks later, the Sarkozys' divorce was announced.
9) Before he broke off the interview, Sarkozy was asked about what he would like the American people to know about him. "I want the Americans to know that they can count on us. But at the same time, we want to be free to disagree," he said.
10) The comment apparently referred to France's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a stand that until recently had soured relations with Washington.
11) Sarkozy said he admired Americans' work ethic and the opportunities for advancement in the country, irrespective of class or background.
12) He said while his Hungarian father had worried that his surname would be an obstacle in France, "he was proven wrong."
13) "That's what he thought. That a name like Sarkozy was a handicap," said Sarkozy. "That's the reason why I like the United States. You can have a name like Schwarzenegger and be governor of California. You can be called Madeleine Albright and be secretary of state. You can be called Colin Powell or Condi Rice, and succeed."


Lawmakers give French president hefty raise
(APW_ENG_20071030.1495)
1) Barely six months in office, President Nicolas Sarkozy got a hefty raise Tuesday from parliament, lifting his salary from what he said was the level of a minister's pay, half of what the prime minister takes home.
2) Lawmakers decided to give the 52-year-old president euro19,331 (US$27,836) a month, after taxes. More importantly, perhaps, they decided to fix the amount of money paid to French heads of state in law, ending -- at Sarkozy's request -- a practice by which the president decided his own salary.
3) "I want transparency. I want the French to know," Sarkozy said.
4) Speaking at the start of a two-day visit to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, Sarkozy added that he didn't "find it normal that it is the president who sets his own salary."
5) Sarkozy also suggested that he also didn't find it normal that his pay was a pittance compared to that of his prime minister, Francois Fillon.
6) "The question of whether the president of the Republic should be remunerated like a (minister), like the prime minister, good sense is the answer," Sarkozy said, adding that thus far his salary was no more than when he served as interior minister.
7) Hours later, lawmakers passed an amendment to the 2008 budget that aligns the president's salary with that of his prime minister -- "euro19,331 after taxes per month," said Jerome Chartier, a lawmaker with Sarkozy's UMP party.
8) In another change, lawmakers more than tripled the budget of the presidential Elysee Palace -- from euro32 million (US$46 million) per year to euro100 million (US$144 million). However, they also put the entire staff on the payroll. Of the 1,045 Elysee personnel, 860 had been officially "on loan" and paid by other ministries.
9) Presidential salaries have traditionally been a fuzzy area -- and no one's business.
10) Former President Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's predecessor, made about euro6,700 (US$9,648 today) per month before taxes. But to that sum was added another euro13,000 (US$18,720) in various expenses.


Poll suggests French voters happy with Sarkozy as president
(APW_ENG_20071103.0752)
1) If they could do it over again, French voters would still elect energetic conservative Nicolas Sarkozy president. A poll released Saturday suggests French voters do not regret their choice, six reform-packed months after the elections.
2) According to the survey, which is to appear in the weekly Journal du Dimanche newspaper, 55 percent of respondent said they would vote for Sarkozy if presidential elections were held again on Sunday. Sarkozy defeated Socialist rival Segolene Royal by 53 percent to 47 percent in the presidential election runoff May 6.
3) The survey also suggested that, if the first round of the two-round presidential race were held on Sunday, Sarkozy would again improve his real performance, garnering 35 percent compared with the 31 percent he actually took in April.
4) His main first-round rivals, Royal and centrist politician Francois Bayrou, have slipped, the poll suggested. Royal would take 22 percent of the vote if the first round were held on Sunday, compared with her actual performance of 25 percent. Bayrou would take 17 percent, compared with the 18 percent he took in April, according to the poll.
5) Sarkozy, who ran on a promises of change, has been quick to implement string of reforms related to taxes, pensions and the fight against crime and terrorism during his first six months in office.
6) Still, the survey suggested that the president's reforms have yet to have a real impact. Just 38 percent of respondents said they thought Sarkozy had improved the overall situation of the French, the poll said. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed did not think Sarkozy had improved things.
7) For the survey, Ifop poling agency questioned 1,008 adults in face-to-face interviews from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. No margin of error was given, but French polls of that size typically have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.


Reform-minded French president will address Congress, tour Mount Vernon on outreach trip to US
(APW_ENG_20071105.0396)
1) He's vacationed in New Hampshire, lunched with the Bush family in Maine and taken a tough line on Iran.
2) In his first six months as French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has lived up to his pledge to heal relations with the United States fractured by the Iraq war.
3) The man known as "Sarko the American" takes his quest across the Atlantic this week, arriving Tuesday night in Washington for his first official trip to the United States. He plans to tour Mount Vernon with President George W. Bush and address a joint session of U.S. Congress -- moves meant to evoke the two centuries of ties between the two nations.
4) "There is no question we are entering ... a dynamic, positive period. The tide has really turned in this relationship," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicolas Burns said during a visit last week to Paris. He gave Sarkozy a large measure of credit for the change.
5) "He has brought much fresh air to this relationship," Burns said.
6) The son of a Hungarian immigrant, the energetic 52-year-old conservative is a man in perpetual motion. He has wasted no time in his bid to modernize France, in part by trying to inject an American-style work ethic.
7) He also did not wait for his May 6 election to undertake his mission of friendship with the United States. Sarkozy nursed that goal for five years, as interior minister, as finance minister and as a candidate. Once elected, he immediately reached out to "our American friends."
8) The United States "can count on our friendship," Sarkozy said in his victory speech.
9) Already, the two countries are in deep agreement over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program, with both opting for tough diplomacy to ensure Tehran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
10) And Sarkozy sent his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, on a surprise three-day trip to Baghdad in August to enhance France's role in Iraq's future and mend relations with the United States that were damaged by former President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Kouchner caused a stir when he said that U.S.-backed Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki should be replaced.
11) In his first major foreign policy speech to France's diplomats since his May election, Sarkozy said Kouchner was right to go to Baghdad, and said his efforts there were "remarkable."
12) Sarkozy also said Iraqis needed a "clear timetable for the pullout of foreign troops," a disagreement with the Bush administration.
13) Iraq will simply not be on the agenda of Sarkozy's Washington trip, officials here say.
14) Sarkozy will bring Kouchner, a Socialist; along with ministers whose unusual backgrounds have been seen as signs of the president's reform agenda: Justice Minister Rachida Dati, of Moroccan and Algerian parentage, and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who spent years in Chicago and says bluntly that the French should roll up their sleeves and pursue a more American-style work ethic.
15) But there will be no first lady accompanying the French president. Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, announced their divorce on Oct. 18, a first for a French head of state.
16) Sarkozy's trip is not without risks -- in France. Bush remains an unpopular figure here, and while the French are fascinated by the United States, the American way of life gets low marks.
17) Sarkozy was careful, in his victory speech to add that "friendship is to accept that friends can think differently."
18) During his visit, Sarkozy must be careful not to appear subservient to Bush or evoke comparisons with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused by critics of being Bush's lap dog.
19) "French public opinion at large remains quite anti-American," said Denis Lacorne, a specialist on the United States at the Institute for Political Studies' international research center. "We dislike American wars, we dislike American capitalism," he said, even if "there's a great love of American popular culture."
20) Many French were shocked by a photo of Bush and the smiling Sarkozy, then a candidate, shaking hands in Washington. That personal rapport culminated in a lunch last summer with the Bush clan at Kennebunkport, Maine, as the Sarkozys vacationed in New Hampshire.
21) Officials here say Sarkozy's decision to actively seek to renew, and improve, French ties with the United States was seeded in his series of meetings with American officials when he served as the minister of interior, then finance, under Chirac.
22) "Some in France call me Sarkozy l'Americain. I'm proud," he said during an April 2004 trip to the United States.


Sarkozy diverts attention from domestic difficulties with success overseas
(APW_ENG_20071105.0713)
1) Because of his high-profile foreign rescue missions, some liken French President Nicolas Sarkozy to masked swashbuckler Zorro or to Jack Bauer, the fearless federal agent of the hit TV drama "24."
2) But perhaps Houdini would be a better fit. Like the famed escape artist, Sarkozy is proving a talent for making people look the other way while he tries to wriggle out of difficulty.
3) Sarkozy won praise for his hands-on intervention this weekend to win freedom for seven French and Spanish nationals held in Chad. The Europeans were among 17 detained by Chadian authorities for an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children.
4) Using international crises to divert attention from domestic problems is an age-old political tactic. Sarkozy's mission -- he flew to Chad himself to bring home the three French journalists and four Spanish flight attendants -- knocked bad news off front pages in France.
5) November is shaping up as the darkest month of Sarkozy's six-month young presidency, with mounting trade union resistance to his plans to overhaul France's debt-ridden and sluggish economy.
6) There's trouble on many fronts, with crippling rail strikes planned, fishermen protesting in Brittany over high gas prices, judges angry at proposed legal reforms and the government's target of 2 to 2.5 percent economic growth for 2007 looking increasingly unrealistic.
7) But all that was overshadowed by the positive headlines generated from the Chad venture. "Sarkozy the African" said tabloid France Soir; "Welcome aboard Air Sarko" ran Liberation's title over a photo of the flight attendants climbing the stairs onto Sarkozy's presidential plane.
8) The success distracted from seeming errors by French diplomacy in its handling of the charity group -- which called itself Zoe's Ark -- accused of orchestrating the alleged child-kidnap attempt in Chad.
9) Sarkozy's office has said that the French Foreign Ministry voiced misgivings and alerted legal authorities about the group as long ago as July.
10) But it was only stopped in late October when its members were about to fly 103 children from Chad to France, where would-be host families had paid money to take them in. Despite the Foreign Ministry's concerns about Zoe's Ark, French army planes had flown the group around Chad on several occasions.
11) The prime minister has ordered an investigation by the foreign and defense ministers.
12) Sarkozy's flying visit to Chad this weekend was the second time in less than four months that he has used a presidential plane to bring back European detainees from Africa. In July, Sarkozy dispatched his wife at the time, Cecilia, to Libya to win the release of six medics who had been languishing in jail there for nearly a decade.
13) The succession of missions prompted one cheeky Liberation reader to ask in Monday's edition whether Sarkozy could help rescue his cat -- who he said was stuck in a tree.
14) Both missions have raised questions about whether the head of state should be involved so intimately in international affairs that could be left to diplomats. Critics of the restive and omnipresent Sarkozy have accused him of turning politics into a non-stop media show.
15) Sarkozy shrugs off such criticism, saying French voters elected him to act.
16) Said his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner: "He is a man who likes to take risks."


Sarkozy, in speech to Congress, says friendship and alliance is strong
(APW_ENG_20071107.1258)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy, opening a new, cozier chapter in relations with the United States, assured an embracing Congress Wednesday that "our friendship and our alliance is strong."
2) Sarkozy also told lawmakers that such improved relations should lead to much closer cooperation on a host of international problems including Iran's nuclear program, Middle East peace and the stability of Lebanon.
3) The French president entered and left the chamber in the U.S. Capitol building to rousing standing ovations-- an indication that Sarkozy has quickly shifted the mood in French-American relations in his first six months in office.
4) Sarkozy came to Washington seeking to restore the kind of relationship that existed between Paris and Washington before sharp differences arose over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. And he repeatedly stressed his message of bilateral cooperation.
5) From the Capitol, Sarkozy went to Mount Vernon in Washington's Virginia suburbs, home of George Washington, the first U.S. president.
6) President George W. Bush greeted Sarkozy on the mansion's front lawn, which overlooks a sweeping view of the Potomac Rive and fall foliage. The French leader commented quietly to the president, who remarked, "It is beautiful." The two went inside the home for a tour of its rooms, renovated to appear as they did when Washington died in 1799, and for their meeting in the large dining room Washington added to entertain the hundreds of guests who came through Mount Vernon each year two centuries ago.
7) In the Capitol, Sarkozy spoke through an interpreter to lawmakers gathered in the chamber of the House of Representatives for a Joint Meeting of Congress. Sarkozy highlighted France's long friendship with the United States. On this U.S. visit, his words -- as well as his demeanor -- contrasted sharply with the style of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, who publicly clashed with Bush over Iraq.
8) Sarkozy's message of friendship was met with warmth.
9) The French president entered the chamber amid high pageantry and was greeted by a standing ovation as he headed to the speaker's podium. He left to claps and cheers, stopping to embrace lawmakers and even to autograph books passed to him by members of Congress.
10) Sarkozy expressed gratitude in the prepared speech for the U.S. role in liberating France from Nazi occupation in World War II.
11) "I want to tell you that whenever an American soldier falls somewhere in the world, I think of what the American army did for France," he said. "I think of them, and I am sad, as one is sad to lose a member of one's family."
12) Sarkozy's address was interrupted by applause several times. It highlighted the improved relations between the two countries. In 1996, many U.S. lawmakers boycotted a similar appearance by Chirac to protest France's nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
13) Sarkozy, an energetic 52-year-old conservative, has wasted no time in his bid to modernize France, in part by trying to inject an American-style work ethic. As a sign of his pro-American tendencies, he took a summer vacation in the United States, causing a stir back home.
14) Bush and Sarkozy dined at the White House Tuesday night and were traveling later Wednesday to Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, the first U.S. president.
15) Earlier, in a speech to the American Jewish Committee, Sarkozy supported Iran as having a right to civilian nuclear power. If denied, he said, extremist influence in Iran will grow.
16) Sarkozy, receiving an award from the Jewish group as a tireless promoter of democratic values, human rights and peace, said "there should be a dialogue developed with Iran" that acknowledges its development of civilian nuclear energy.
17) "I believe that Arab countries, including Iran, have a right to civilian nuclear power," Sarkozy said, specifically including Syria among them.
18) The Bush administration, which has taken some tentative steps to develop contacts with Iran, is suspicious of Persian Iran's nuclear program as aimed at building nuclear weapons, despite Iran's assertions it is working only on civilian power.
19) Sarkozy denounced anti-Semitism and racism as "beasts" and said France would fight for Israel's security.
20) At the same time, he said "we have waited too long" for an agreement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
21) "It is in the interest of the entire world that there be an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians," he said.
22) In his toast Tuesday night, Bush did not mention France's opposition to the war in Iraq. Instead, he spoke of working with France to help others around the world resist tyranny and oppression. "French and American troops are helping defend a young democracy in Afghanistan," Bush said.
23) For his part, Sarkozy didn't sidestep the fact that Bush and the war in Iraq remain unpopular in his country. "I also came to say that one can be a friend of America, and yet win elections in France," he joked during his toast at a White House dinner where the two leaders dined on lobster bisque and lamb.
24) That is not something Bush would have heard from Chirac.
25) Sarkozy -- known in France as "Sarko the American" -- described the U.S.-French relationship as "simple," yet "always beautiful."
26) Sarkozy, who was seated next to first lady Laura Bush, came to the White House alone. He and his wife, Cecilia, announced their divorce on Oct. 18, a first for a French head of state.


Bush and Sarkozy oppose nuclear-armed Iran
(APW_ENG_20071107.1523)
1) President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy stood shoulder-to-shoulder against a nuclear-armed Iran on Wednesday, demonstrating the cozier relationship between the two countries under France's new conservative leader.
2) Bush said agreement on Iran was a hallmark of their talks here at the Virginia home of George Washington, the first U.S. president. He said they expressed "the desire to work jointly to convince the Iranian regime to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions for the sake of peace."
3) "It is unacceptable for Iran at any point to have a nuclear weapon," said Sarkozy. He said, "I believe even in the need to toughen" United Nations sanctions now leveled against Tehran for continuing to enrich uranium.
4) Although some suspect Bush of leading a march toward war to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, the U.S. president said the diplomatic course is his preferred choice.
5) "The idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is dangerous, and therefore now is the time for us to work together to diplomatically solve this problem," Bush said.
6) Sarkozy emphasized that Iran should be allowed to have civilian nuclear power, which Tehran argues is the sole aim of its nuclear program. "Iran is entitled to the energy of the future which is nuclear energy," he said.
7) The second day of the Bush-Sarkozy meetings was unique.
8) Bush has welcomed foreign leaders to several locales to which he has personal ties -- his ranch in Texas, the White House and the presidential retreat at Camp David. But hosting meetings at a neutral site -- especially one with such significance to the American story -- became additional evidence that the on-again, off-again U.S.-French relationship is reaching new heights with Sarkozy's ascension to office in Paris.
9) Even before Wednesday, Bush had bestowed a rare invitation on the energetic, pro-American French leader, bringing him during the summer to his parents' home on the Maine coast while Sarkozy and his family vacationed at a lake nearby.
10) Bush greeted Sarkozy on Mount Vernon's front lawn overlooking a sweeping view of the Potomac River and fall foliage. The French leader commented quietly to the president, who remarked, "It is beautiful." The two went inside the home for a tour of its rooms, renovated to appear as they did when the first U.S. president died there in 1799, and for their meeting in the large dining room that Washington added to the house to entertain the hundreds of guests who came to visit each year.
11) "It's safe to say that you've impressed a lot of people here on your journey," Bush said to his guest. "I have a partner in peace, somebody who has clear vision, basic values who is willing to take tough positions to achieve peace."
12) Appearing together with the main house behind them, both played down conflicts between the two countries, including on Iraq.
13) Sarkozy made only a passing reference to a big difference for him, on climate change. The French leader wants to make his country a vanguard of the movement against global warming, while Bush advocates mostly voluntary and technology-based solutions to the problem.
14) And Bush said he was comfortable with France's effort to break a political deadlock over elections in Lebanon by engaging in direct talks with Syria. While the Bush administration has shunned Syria, a French diplomat recently traveled to Damascus to discuss the elections.
15) Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliament majority has accused Syria of blocking the presidential elections through its allies in Lebanon, a charge that Damascus denies.
16) Sarkozy came to Washington seeking to smooth over the sharp differences that arose between Paris and Washington over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. In an indication that he has shifted the dynamic after just six months in office, he was greeted earlier Wednesday by rousing standing ovations in Congress. In 1996, many U.S. lawmakers boycotted a similar appearance by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, to protest France's nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
17) Speaking through a translator to lawmakers gathered in the chamber of the House of Representatives for a Joint Meeting of Congress, Sarkozy highlighted France's long friendship with the United States and gratitude for American help in World War II.
18) Sarkozy also told lawmakers that such improved relations should lead to much closer cooperation on a host of international problems including Iran's nuclear program, Middle East peace and the stability of Lebanon.
19) He left to claps and cheers, pausing again to embrace lawmakers and even to autograph books passed to him by members of Congress.
20) Sarkozy also received an award Wednesday from the American Jewish Committee as a tireless promoter of democratic values. In a speech there, he denounced anti-Semitism and racism as "beasts" and said France would fight for Israel's security.
21) At the same time, he said "we have waited too long" for an agreement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
22) Sarkozy's whirlwind visit to Washington began with a black-tie dinner at the White House Tuesday night. On this visit to the United States, unlike the summer vacation, he came alone. He and his ex-wife, Cecilia, announced their divorce on Oct. 18, a first for a French head of state.


In Sarkozy ' s pivotal standoff with reform ' s foes, who will back down first?
(APW_ENG_20071112.0958)
1) France's Nicolas Sarkozy, just six months into his presidency, is already putting his legacy on the line.
2) If he surrenders to strikers planning to bring France to a halt in the coming days and weeks, his reformist credentials may end up irrevocably damaged. If he holds firm against stubborn unions, he stands a chance of joining the ranks of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as a leader who forced momentous change on a nation in bad need of an overhaul.
3) Crucially, the reform-resistant French public may this time take Sarkozy's side.
4) For the hyperactive president, the issue here is about getting rid of some of the economic brakes that he says have dragged down France for a generation. That means cost-cutting by slimming down France's giant bureaucracy, making state pensions less generous and universities more competitive.
5) The result is angry train drivers, hospital workers, teachers, judges and university students determined to crush Sarkozy's resolve. By confronting so many different sectors of society at once, there's a risk that Sarkozy may be overreaching himself.
6) Stage one of this season of discontent starts Tuesday night, when strikes are set to immobilize the nation's train network. Paris subway and bus workers and national electricity and gas workers join in Wednesday, all angry over the end of special pension privileges.
7) Making matters worse, these strikes are open-ended -- unlike the regular, scattered walkouts that the French have long learned to shrug off or work around. Meanwhile, campuses are starting to seethe: Riot police fired tear gas on protesting students in Nanterre west of Paris on Monday.
8) "Fasten your seatbelts," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told members of the ruling conservative party UMP last week.
9) Yet for all the unions' bluster, there are strong signs Sarkozy may have the upper hand.
10) Just six months into his presidency, he faces no serious electoral challenge any time soon. His approval ratings, though slipping, remain high.
11) And the reform that has provoked the loudest resistance -- abolishing a costly program of special retirement rights for select state workers -- even has the support of Sarkozy's Socialist rival for the presidency, Segolene Royal. Most French back it, too, polls show.
12) Sarkozy said Monday he was feeling "very calm, and at the same time very determined."
13) Philip Whyte of the Center for European Reform in London said, "These particular reforms are key. If he backs down, he will be another Jacques Chirac. His presidential authority will be destroyed."
14) Chirac tried to reform state pensions his first winter in office, in 1995 -- and was met with weeks of paralyzing strikes that angered voters who hadn't expected Chirac to toe such a tough line. Amid public opposition, the government backed down on key measures. Chirac never regained his appetite for bold change.
15) Twelve years later, Sarkozy won over the French on promises to make up for lost time and make France more competitive.
16) Sarkozy says everyone should work 40 years to get a full pension, instead of the 37.5 years that train drivers and certain other state workers are allowed.
17) Indignant train drivers say they agreed to the difficult profession on the promise of early pensions. Meanwhile, teachers and doctors say quality state health care and education are at risk from job cuts. Students fear the commercialization of universities will shut out the poor. Judges are protesting cost-cutting plans to shutter courthouses.
18) Whyte noted the risks in Sarkozy's "big bang" approach to reform. "There is a danger that by creating too many enemies at once he could end up undermining the reform process," he said.
19) Analysts predict Sarkozy may emerge wounded but victorious from this fight, while the unions may be forever weakened.
20) Sarkozy's peers and neighbors will be watching how he handles this month.
21) Thatcher's victory over coal miners' unions in the 1980s became a seminal moment in her tenure, and Britain hasn't looked the same since. Reagan's standoff with the air traffic controllers' union in 1981 redefined labor relations in the United States.
22) International travelers, too, are paying attention. Train connections to Britain and Germany were disrupted by a warning round of strikes last month.


Sarkozy calls for debate on Europe ' s identity; says Europe must defend its economic interests
(APW_ENG_20071113.0803)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that Europe must preserve its identity and economic interests in a globalized world, and warned against heedless liberalization that would put the continent at a disadvantage with its trading partners.
2) As France braced for another major strike in several industries in what was seen as a crucial test of Sarkozy's domestic reformist policies, he told the European Parliament that, while Europe should reject economic protectionism, it must protect its people from unfair competition.
3) "If other nations have the right to defend themselves against dumping, why not Europe? If others defend their agriculture, why not Europe?" he asked EU lawmakers in an address frequently interrupted with applause.
4) The clock is ticking on talks among the World Trade Organization's 151 member states to liberalize international commerce in agriculture, manufacturing and services. Sarkozy has repeatedly said France would reject any accord that does not serve its national interests.
5) But, faced with a major strike expected to severely disrupt life in France, Sarkozy held firm, saying he would carry out his sweeping reforms, particularly on the economic front.
6) "Nothing will divert me from my objectives. That's the best way in which France can serve Europe. A weak France is in nobody's interest," Sarkozy said.
7) "I've launched a policy of economic reforms. It is thanks to these reforms that France will improve its public finances and respect its (European) commitments," he said.
8) Asked after his speech whether the planned strike would slow down his reformist drive, Sarkozy told journalists he was determined to see the changes through.
9) "There are reforms that have been put in place elsewhere in Europe. I was elected to implement them in France," he said.
10) In a veiled reference to the enlargement of the European Union, Sarkozy said the EU must work on preserving its identity and work together to lay out its future borders.
11) "In a European democracy it must be possible to discuss the limits and the objectives of Europe ... It must be possible to debate the identity of Europe and its nations. Seeking to preserve one's identity is not an illness" he said.
12) During a debate behind closed doors with heads of the political groups in the EU assembly, Sarkozy repeated his resistance to full Turkish membership of the EU and his proposal to go ahead with negotiations in 30 policy fields in which Turkey's legislation must be aligned with that of the EU, but not in the five that directly concern its accession into the bloc, a spokesman for Sarkozy said.
13) Turkey's talks with the EU are now on a slow track after Ankara refused last year to implement a customs union pact with EU member Cyprus.
14) Sarkozy has called for the EU to appoint a group of wise persons to study its long-term future and borders.


Strike slows French traffic as unions resist Sarkozy ' s reform crusade
(APW_ENG_20071114.0809)
1) Striking transport workers cut train service and forced Parisians to walk, bike or skate to work Wednesday in a pivotal standoff with President Nicolas Sarkozy over his bid to pare down labor protections. But both sides quickly sought a graceful exit.
2) In a potential breakthrough, Sarkozy accepted a union proposal for talks between government, unions and companies affected by the strikes about contested retirement reforms, his chief of staff Claude Gueant told the daily Le Monde.
3) The president ordered letters to be sent to unions laying out plans for negotiations, his spokesman David Martinon said. Such negotiations could allow Sarkozy to secure the pension reform and protect his reformist credentials, but on terms the unions can swallow.
4) "It's advancing," said Prime Minister Francois Fillon after meeting with Sarkozy and Labor Minister Xavier Bertrand.
5) Transport workers trying to hang on to special retirement benefits that Sarkozy wants trimmed are threatening an open-ended strike with daily votes on whether to continue, something no one wants -- especially the public.
6) "I support the idea of strikes, but not this strike," said 25-year-old Xavier Michel, who skated 8 kilometers (5 miles) to his advertising job. This strike, he said, hurts "the little guys like us" who are "basically taken hostage."
7) Employees of the national rail and subway authorities and the gas and electric companies walked off the job to protest plans to extend the retirement age for some 500,000 public sector workers and change other special benefits certain sectors have enjoyed for more than a half-century.
8) Unlike the scattered strikes that have long dogged France -- including an Oct. 18 transport strike seen as a warning volley against Sarkozy's reforms -- this labor action is a decisive test of Sarkozy's campaign promise to overhaul France to make it more competitive.
9) The strikes started Tuesday night when the SNCF rail authority halted service on most lines. Just 90 of 700 trains were running.
10) The Eurostar between Paris and London was running as usual -- though the strike hit the same day the cross-Channel train line launched a faster route heading into London's St. Pancras station.
11) Paris transit workers joined in Wednesday. Gas and electricity workers went on strike, too, threatening targeted blackouts to illustrate their grievances over the retirement reform.
12) Students protesting a university reform added a volatile note to the transport strike, blocking at least 35 of France's 85 universities.
13) "I find it abominable and above all absurd," said a fuming Sorbonne French professor, Laurent Susini, trying unsuccessfully to get past a handful of pickets.
14) Students opposed to the blockages were doubly punished -- without transport and unable to get into class.
15) "Not only did it take me an hour and a half to get here, I can't get in," said law student Michael David.
16) Paper signs reading "No Service" dangled at subway stations and bus and tram stops in the capital. The highway circling the city was jammed with vehicle traffic from before dawn, as many commuters drove to work. Others walked or used the city's popular new rent-a-bike system.
17) Opinion polls suggest Sarkozy has the public on his side as most agree with his arguments that retirement rules are outdated, unfair and too costly.
18) "I agree with the reforms but Sarkozy is going too quickly," said Vidal Madou, who expected to spend more than an hour to make the usual 30-minute trip to the construction materials store where he works.
19) "This is the first government we have had in a very long time that is capable of saying 'We are going to carry out reforms.'" said Bruno Fourquin, taking a rare suburban train into Paris. "They have to hold firm."
20) Sarkozy wants everyone -- including the rail and utility workers, sewer workers, state bank employees and workers at the Paris Opera and the Comedie Francaise theater company -- to retire after 40 years of service instead of the 37.5 years they currently work.
21) Despite tough talk, it was the head of the Communist-backed CGT union, Bernard Thibault, who proposed a potential opening, suggesting talks with various companies and relaxing earlier demands that it would only negotiate with the government directly, according to Le Monde.
22) Sarkozy's top aide, Gueant, told Le Monde that the union leader had moved so that "the crisis can be eased on the first day of conflict."
23) Another Sarkozy aide, Henri Guaino, warned on LCI television Wednesday that if this reform is jettisoned, "all the reforms will be compromised."
24) The conservative Sarkozy is being pressured from all sides as his government moves ahead with cost-cutting reforms, from trimming bureaucracy to shuttering courthouses and allowing universities to charge tuition and attract private funding.
25) The head of the main employers' association, Medef, called the strike embarrassing to France's global image. Laurence Parisot urged the French to "abandon this taste, which I think is a bit masochist, for conflict, for struggle."


Sarkozy defiant as civil servants join rail workers in strikes disrupting life in France
(APW_ENG_20071121.0009)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted he would not surrender to strikers or water down his plans of thorough reform for France, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to French streets.
2) Sarkozy was characteristically defiant Tuesday as he broke what had been a week of uncharacteristic silence about massively disruptive public transport strikes. Sarkozy accused the strikers of holding transport users "hostage" and he pressed for a return to work.
3) More broadly, to critics who hope that Sarkozy can be made to back away from deep economic, social and political change for a country that has proved difficult to reform, the French leader's clear message was: forget it.
4) "France needs reforms to meet the challenges imposed on it by the world," the French leader said in a high-spirited speech to mayors. "These reforms have been too long in coming. ... After so much hesitation, so much procrastination, so many backward steps, we will not surrender and we will not retreat."
5) Sarkozy appears to have the upper hand in his test of strength with powerful transport unions fighting his proposed pension reforms. If he wins this conflict, bigger and more ambitious reforms also promised by Sarkozy stand a greater chance of getting through.
6) Sarkozy insisted in his speech that he didn't deliberately pick the fight with unions.
7) But he certainly chose the field of combat well: pension rights that train drivers and other specially classed workers are fighting to protect are cushier than those enjoyed by most others in France. Sarkozy says pension rights should be equal for all -- and he seems to have public opinion on his side.
8) Sarkozy "hasn't won the gamble yet, because the trains still aren't running. But it seems he will win," said Etienne Schweisguth, a researcher at Paris' respected Sciences Po school of political sciences.
9) "If he wins this first test of strength then a bastion will have given way. Unions, workers, leftists will be less disposed to strike in future," Schweisguth said in a telephone interview. "He will have weakened the opponents of reform."
10) The question now is when and how the transport strike, which was heading into its eighth full day Wednesday, may end.
11) Talks with transport unions were to start Wednesday and the government said state representatives would take part. In his speech, Sarkozy said: "You have to know how to stop a strike when the time for discussion opens."
12) Transport workers are not his only challenge.
13) Hundreds of thousands of civil servants -- teachers, customs agents, tax inspectors and the like -- stayed off the job Tuesday to press for pay hikes and job security. The strike closed schools and caused flight delays. Sarkozy has promised to slim down and reform the civil service, France's largest employer, with more than 5 million workers.
14) The double whammy of transport and public service walkouts further frayed users' tempers. In the Paris Metro, one young man cursed, "Even the escalators are on strike," when they ground to an unexplained halt in one station.
15) "Many people are getting angry, they are losing patience," said advertising firm worker Monica Deluca. She had to hire a baby sitter for her children because their school was strikebound Tuesday -- but the sitter was delayed by the transport strike, making Deluca late for work, too.
16) Civil servants, transport workers and protesting students have different demands, and there's no sign yet that Sarkozy is facing a unified protest movement -- but the risk is that one could develop if the strikes drag on.
17) Some 700,000 people joined protest marches Tuesday around France in defense of the civil service, according to crowd estimates from the CGT union. Police estimates were about half of that.
18) At the Paris demo, the Internationale communist hymn blared from loudspeakers and marchers chanted "All as One!" They crossed the Left Bank to the gold-domed monument at Les Invalides, site of Napoleon's tomb.
19) National newspapers were absent from kiosks as printers and distributors jumped on the strike bandwagon. Strike-hit France-Inter radio broadcast music and a message of apology instead of regular programming.
20) National weather service Meteo France, which has 3,700 employees, said a third of its staff who were scheduled to work Tuesday were on strike, but weather forecasts were not affected.


Sarkozy heads to China, hoping for contracts and a low-key approach on human rights
(APW_ENG_20071122.1110)
1) The sensitive issue of human rights is notably missing from a list of five priority areas that France wants to discuss during Nicolas Sarkozy's first presidential visit to China at the end of this week.
2) Unlike his German counterpart, who infuriated Beijing by hosting the Dalai Lama in September, Sarkozy appears to be opting for a more softly softly approach -- despite pledges before he took power in May that he would stand by "all those who are persecuted by tyrannies, by dictatorships."
3) French officials insist that Sarkozy will raise human rights when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao. Sarkozy's foreign minister already pinpointed specific cases of concern when he visited China last month, French officials say.
4) Sarkozy "is in the habit of raising the issue of human rights wherever he goes," his spokesman, David Martinon, said Thursday.
5) Human rights activists are vociferously critical of China's heavy use of the death penalty, imprisonment of political dissidents and labor activists, and curbs on freedom of speech. Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders appealed to Sarkozy to raise with his Chinese hosts the cases of 33 journalists and 50 cyberdissidents imprisoned there.
6) But Rama Yade, Sarkozy's minister for human rights who accompanied him on a visit to the United States, is not part of his delegation for China -- even though Yade's office said barely a week ago that it looked likely she would go.
7) And a French official who briefed reporters on Sarkozy's trip listed the five priorities for discussion as the environment, commercial ties, Africa, China's international role and bilateral concerns.
8) Sarkozy suggested Thursday that China and other emerging powers be invited to attend the 2008 G-8 summit in Japan.
9) "I don't see how one can decide the various balances of the world without China and without India," Sarkozy told a group of French and Japanese business leaders, according to a text made public. "I don't see how one can say to the Chinese that we don't accept your attitude without inviting them to the table."
10) Sarkozy will press China over its currency, the yuan, which some critics say is undervalued, making Chinese exports unfairly cheap. The French official said Sarkozy wants a "more equitable, fairer" balance between the yuan and the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen.
11) "There is a real problem," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified by name.
12) The official said, while refusing to give details, that talks are still ongoing about possible Chinese contracts for European planemaker Airbus, which is headquartered in France, and French state-run nuclear giant Areva SA. Areva has said it is negotiating to sell two third-generation EPR pressurized water reactors.
13) U.S., European and Russian suppliers of nuclear power technology have all been vying to land contracts in China, where as many as 32 nuclear plants are expected to be built by 2020 as it tries to meet surging power demands while cutting emissions and reducing reliance on imported oil.
14) France sees a market in China for "clean" technologies. And if China refuses to take steps to curb its pollution and emissions, Sarkozy has floated the idea of a possible punitive tax on Chinese imports.
15) "If the carrot is not sufficient ... there is always the stick," said the official. "The tax is still there like a Damocles sword."
16) Sarkozy lands Sunday in Xi'an, where he will visit the famed terracotta army, and he has a dinner that night in Beijing with Hu. The two leaders hold more meetings Monday, before Sarkozy flies to Shanghai on Tuesday and then leaves for Paris that night.


Sarkozy wins strike battle but faces long fight to reform France
(APW_ENG_20071123.0857)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy focused on a winnable fight, divided the opposition and appears to have come out on top after nine days of strikes by seething rail drivers.
2) Yet tensions lingered as the walkout wound down and train traffic began resuming Friday. Violence by protesting students prompted the Sorbonne university to shut down, and highlighted worries about how Sarkozy and his compatriots will weather his painful plans to remake stagnant, reform-resistant France.
3) Sarkozy scored what was seen as a necessary victory for his broader reform agenda by facing down rail workers angry over his plans to make them work longer to earn a pension.
4) "This reform, I promised it, I stuck to it," he said in a confident speech Friday.
5) On Thursday, train workers agreed to return to work on the promise of talks that could soften -- though not compromise -- the retirement reform.
6) By holding firm against the rail drivers, Sarkozy was hoping to break the unions' instinctive recourse to strikes, as Margaret Thatcher did in standing down coal miners and Ronald Reagan did with air traffic controllers in the 1980s.
7) Sarkozy craftily drove a wedge between moderate and militant labor unions during the protracted transport strike, and the opposition Socialists were at a loss to resist his methodical war-waging tactics. Sarkozy expressed hope that in the future, unions "will always prefer negotiations to confrontation."
8) That would mark a major change for France.
9) Sarkozy's election in May -- on a platform of dramatic "rupture" with the past -- showed that most French are ready for change. Commuters long accustomed to labor walkouts lost patience quickly with this transport strike, and were quick to slam the striking train drivers for defending privileges most see as unfair.
10) "At the moment when the strike is ending, when reason is prevailing, my first thoughts go to the millions of French who ... can't take it anymore after 10 days of mess .... to those millions of French who had the feeling of being taken hostage in a conflict that doesn't concern them," he said.
11) But millions voted against Sarkozy, and are not ready to give him free rein.
12) The talks with the rail drivers are certain to be tense, and some unions are threatening new strikes if they don't produce enough concessions. And the retirement reform is just one small thing Sarkozy has up his sleeve for France's future.
13) He says France has too many civil servants who are dragging down the indebted government. France's 5 million civil servants don't all agree, and many are resisting job cuts and demanding better pay. They held their first strike Tuesday and are threatening more.
14) Sure to be sensitive is Sarkozy's plan to jettison the complicated and rigid system of job contracts that underpin France's work force.
15) And then there are the restive universities. The Sorbonne campus was shut down Friday after violence between students protesting a university financing reform and other students trying to get to class.
16) Students have been blocking the landmark Left Bank building for days, but on Friday resorted to "physical violence," the administration said, shutting the school until Monday. High school and university students are planning new protests Tuesday.
17) Travelers welcomed improved traffic Friday, though restoring full service to the nationwide rail service and public transport in Paris and other cities was expected to take days.
18) In a clear sign the strike was ending, some Metro stations started collecting tickets again Friday. During the strike, transport on the few operating subway trains was free.


France ' s Sarkozy signs big deals on China visit: currency, environment also on agenda
(APW_ENG_20071126.0566)
1) French companies netted Chinese deals for nuclear reactors and Airbus passenger jets worth around US$29.62 billion (euro20 billion) on Monday, the second day of a state visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) Sarkozy and Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao presided over a series of signings following talks at the Great Hall of the People, the hulking legislative seat beside Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
3) The visit has focused firmly on trade relations, with human rights all but left off the agenda.
4) China's Foreign Ministry said the big ticket purchases showed how Beijing was working to reduce its trade surplus with France. Sarkozy has also urged the Communist leadership to let its currency rise before trade imbalances become unmanageable.
5) "China wants balanced trade with its trading partners and the purchases of these airplanes is a sign of how it is striving for that," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters at a briefing.
6) The deals and Sarkozy's gentle approach to French concerns over China's authoritarian communist regime seemed aimed at putting the relationship on a firm footing, six months after his election as a reformer pledging to stand by "all those who are persecuted by tyrannies, by dictatorships."
7) In Monday's single biggest agreement, China committed to buying 160 commercial passenger jets from European plane maker Airbus, which is headquartered in France. The deal is worth around US$14.8 billion (euro10 billion).
8) The order includes 110 of the company's A320 jets and 50 of the slightly larger A330 planes, Airbus officials said. Airbus and Chinese partners this summer signed an agreement to produce A320s in China in anticipation of large Chinese orders for the popular single aisle jet that seats 150 or more passengers.
9) In other agreements, France's state-owned Areva SA finalized a US$11.9 billion (euro8 billion) contract to sell two nuclear reactors to state-run China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. in one of the company's largest contracts ever.
10) French, American and Russian suppliers have been hotly vying for contracts in China, which plans to build as many as 32 nuclear plants by 2020 as it tries to meet surging power demands while cutting emissions and reducing reliance on imported oil.
11) While the exact value of the plane sales wasn't known, French officials speaking on routine condition of anonymity said all contracts -- including those for jets and reactors -- signed Monday added up to about US$29.62 billion (euro20 billion).
12) Despite the heavy commercial bent of his three-day visit, Sarkozy urged China to apply the death penalty less frequently while dining with Hu on Sunday, the French presidential Elysee palace said.
13) Speaking to reporters alongside Hu on Monday, Sarkozy said he appreciated China's progress on improving citizen's rights. However, he said he had also "reiterated France's desire to see further progress, especially in respect to the application of rule of law in the judiciary, the freedom of journalists and in the death penalty."
14) Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders had earlier appealed to Sarkozy to raise the cases of 33 journalists and 50 cyberdissidents imprisoned in China.
15) Sarkozy also addressed the touchy issue of China's currency, the yuan, which many trading partners insist is undervalued, making Chinese products unfairly cheap and boosting its trade surplus with France and the rest of Europe.
16) "We need to arrive at currency rates that are harmonious and fair and that will benefit the global economy. This means that, for its own sake as well, China needs to accelerate the appreciation of the yuan against the euro," Sarkozy said.
17) Sarkozy warned also of the environmental costs of China's rapid economic growth.
18) "We hope China's growth can continue, but we also hope China's growth is carbon-free and environmentally friendly. We believe this is in China's interests and the interests of the entire world," he said.
19) Hu described the talks as "frank" and "friendly" and said Sarkozy had accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony for next year's Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
20) Sarkozy was to meet with Premier Wen Jiabao before flying to the commercial hub of Shanghai on Tuesday, leaving for Paris later the same evening.
21) Sarkozy also discussed with Hu France's hopes that China would drop its opposition to further U.N. sanctions against Tehran, and pressure Myanmar's military junta to engage the democratic opposition.


With support slipping, France ' s Sarkozy announces measures to boost purchasing power
(APW_ENG_20071129.1467)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Thursday a set of measures aimed at boosting consumer purchasing power, as polls showed the conservative leader's public support slipping.
2) According to a poll by the TNS-Sofres agency, 49 percent of respondents said they trusted Sarkozy to resolve the country's problems, while 49 percent said they did not. A month ago, 53 percent of respondents said they trusted his abilities.
3) A majority of the survey's respondents said the government has been ineffective in improving purchasing power -- a key priority for French voters.
4) In an interview with French television, Sarkozy outlined his plans for boosting purchasing power, saying he wants to introduce further opt-outs to the country's 35 hour work week. He said he wants to allow workers to negotiate with their employers to trade holiday time for extra wages. Workers should also be allowed to work on Sundays on a voluntary basis for extra pay, he said.
5) Civil servants, who make up much of France's work force, should also benefit from overtime pay, he said.
6) The announcements appeared to be a bid to help stop the decline in Sarkozy's ratings, which, after holding high and steady in the months following his May election, began to slide as he launched several difficult reform plans earlier this fall.
7) Over the past month, rail workers, civil servants and university students have staged strikes and protests against Sarkozy's plans to make the French economy more competitive -- and less protective -- and streamline bureaucracy.
8) During the interview, Sarkozy addressed student concerns, saying he intends to sell then a 3 percent stake in the country's largest energy supplier, Electricite de France, to free up funds for the nation's ailing education system.
9) The TNS-Sofres poll shows pessimism on the rise, with 73 percent of respondents saying that "things are tending to get worse" in France, against just 13 percent who think they are getting better. A month ago, 62 percent saw things as worsening.
10) The French are downbeat about their country's role in the world, which Sarkozy pledged to boost in his election campaign. Fifty-three percent said the country's role in the world is weakening, up from 46 percent a month ago.
11) The poll was conducted Nov. 21-22, before a new bout of rioting broke out in a Paris suburb on Sunday and served as a reminder of another challenge for Sarkozy: the anger festering among disenfranchised minorities in housing projects that ring France's cities.
12) Pollsters questioned 1,000 people nationwide in face-to-face interviews. No margin of error was given.


Algerian president dismisses minister ' s comment about ' Jewish lobby ' in France
(APW_ENG_20071129.1494)
1) Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika distanced himself Thursday from a government minister's remarks about a "Jewish lobby" backing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a French officials said.
2) In a phone conversation with Sarkozy, the Algerian leader said the comments by the country's minister for veterans, Mohamed Chedif Abbas, did "not reflect anything about Algeria's position," Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon said.
3) Sarkozy, speaking later in an interview with French television, said he considered the matter "closed."
4) Speaking on TF1 television, Sarkozy said he told Bouteflika he would not change his plans to visit the country next week.
5) In their phone conversation, Bouteflika told Sarkozy he would be "received as a friend" in Algeria, Martinon said.
6) Bouteflika had already played down Abbas' remarks, telling Algeria's state news agency APS that only the president and foreign minister were authorized to comment on foreign policy matters, and that Abbas had spoken in his name only.
7) Abbas was quoted Monday in the daily El Khabar as saying that Sarkozy was brought to power by a "Jewish lobby that has a monopoly on French industry." Abbas also mentioned Sarkozy's "roots," an apparent reference to the French president's maternal grandfather, who was Jewish.
8) On Wednesday, Abbas told APS that he "never had the intention .... of attacking the image of a foreign head of state." He did not deny making the comments.
9) In the original interview, Abbas also demanded that France repent for its past actions in Algeria.
10) The Dec. 3-5 visit will be Sarkozy's second to Algeria, the former jewel in France's colonial crown, since his election in May.
11) Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years, particularly since France's parliament passed a law in 2005 noting the "positive" effects of colonialism. The language was later removed, but a long-awaited friendship treaty between the two countries remains stalled.


Sarkozy heads to Algeria amid tensions over Jewish remark
(APW_ENG_20071203.0934)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a three-day state visit to Algeria on Monday with tensions running high after an Algerian government minister said France's leader was backed by a "Jewish lobby."
2) Portraits of Sarkozy and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika lined the main avenues of Algiers, belying the cool political climate the leaders hoped to put behind them in favor of lucrative deals.
3) Sarkozy and Bouteflika were scheduled to sign a partnership treaty, and Sarkozy hoped to sign euro5 billion (US$7.3 billion) in contracts, including in the energy field. Algeria, a North African nation that was once the crown jewel of France's colonial holdings, is rich in natural gas.
4) But those plans have been overshadowed by a troubling comment from Mohamed Chedif Abbas, Algeria's minister for veterans affairs. He said in an interview last week that Sarkozy was brought to power by a "Jewish lobby that has a monopoly on French industry" -- a comment that stunned French officials.
5) Abbas also said France must recognize its colonial-era crimes in Algeria, or "reconciliation was not a possibility."
6) The Algerian president called Sarkozy several days later to distance himself from the minister's comments. Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was Jewish, said he considered the matter "closed."
7) The trip will be Sarkozy's first full state visit to Algeria since he was elected in May, though he made a brief working visit in July.
8) Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a brutal eight-year war. That chapter of the countries' past has continually resurfaced to hurt their ties.
9) Relations have been particularly strained since France's parliament passed a law in 2005 noting the "positive" effects of colonialism. The measure was later rescinded, but a long-awaited friendship treaty between the two countries was frozen because of it.
10) French presidential spokesman David Martinon said the two countries would sign a 10-year partnership agreement during Sarkozy's visit, referring to it as a "simplified friendship treaty."
11) Some Algerian politicians have asked France to formally apologize for its brutality during the colonial era, but Sarkozy has ruled that out. Aides said, however, that Sarkozy would say during the trip that he thinks the colonial system was unjust.
12) "We must not ignore (the past) but come to terms with it," Sarkozy said in an interview this weekend with Algeria's APS news agency. "That will require a bit more time for both of us, because there are wounds on both sides that have not yet healed."
13) Sarkozy said the countries should get to work in the meantime on concrete efforts on energy and jobs. He was accompanied on the trip by 150 business leaders and eight ministers, including Fadela Amara, of Algerian origin, who is in charge of urban affairs.
14) After a similar trip in October to another North African nation, Morocco, Sarkozy secured euro3 billion (US$4.4 billion) in new contracts.
15) The president told APS that he hoped for natural gas contracts in Algeria to "guarantee France's supply until 2019."
16) He also said the two planned to sign a nuclear cooperation treaty. New contracts could provide up to 7,000 new jobs in Algeria, he said.


French leader says colonial era ' profoundly unjust '
(APW_ENG_20071203.1257)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that France's colonial system was "profoundly unjust," in a step toward ending decades of rancor between France and Algeria, once the crown jewel among French colonies.
2) "Yes, the colonial system was profoundly unjust, contrary to the three founding words of our Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity," Sarkozy said at the start of a three-day state visit to Algeria.
3) It was a bold admission, as France has steadfastly refused to bow to entreaties, notably from Algeria, to apologize for an era marked in some colonies by humiliation and brutality.
4) However, the visit comes with tensions between the two countries running high, just as Sarkozy hoped to seal billions of euros (dollars) in contracts with the gas-rich North African nation.
5) Sarkozy announced that more than euro5 billion (US$7.3 billion) in contracts were scheduled to be signed Tuesday. He mentioned infrastructure projects, including a long-stalled subway for Algiers, but agreements regarding gas projects also were expected to be concluded. An accord on "civilian nuclear energy" was scheduled to be initialed, Sarkozy told French and Algerian business leaders without elaborating.
6) The friction over the colonial era has complicated ties between Paris and Algiers for years. Tensions increased last week when Algeria's veterans affairs minister, Mohamed Chedif Abbas, said last week that Sarkozy won the spring presidential election because he was backed by a "Jewish lobby."
7) Sarkozy responded Monday with an appeal for both France and Algeria to fight "all forms of racism."
8) "There is nothing that more closely resembles anti-Semitism than Islamophobia. Both have the same face: that of stupidness and hate," said Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was Jewish.
9) Addressing the colonial era and the brutal eight-year war of independence, Sarkozy went part way toward satisfying the longtime demand of Algiers, including of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for Paris to apologize for its actions as the colonial ruler.
10) But Sarkozy declined to have France assume full responsibility for the brutality of the war, which led to Algeria's independence in 1962.
11) "Terrible crimes were committed throughout an independence war that left numberless victims on both sides," Sarkozy said. Today, he said, "it is all of the victims that I wish to honor."
12) Sarkozy added that, despite the colonialism, "It is also just to say that inside this profoundly unjust system there were many men and women who profoundly loved Algeria, before being forced to leave."
13) In Algiers, portraits of Sarkozy and Bouteflika lined the main avenues of Algiers, belying the cool political climate the leaders hoped to put behind them in favor of lucrative deals.
14) "I came to Algeria to build ... an exceptional partnership between our people, and that happens by way of contracts," said Sarkozy. "The past exists. The future is to be built."
15) The French and Algerian presidents planned to sign a partnership treaty -- what aides called a "simplified" version of a friendship treaty that was frozen after France passed a 2005 law spelling out the "positive" effects of colonialism. The law was rescinded but rancor accumulated nevertheless.
16) The trip was Sarkozy's first full state visit to Algeria since he was elected in May, though he made a brief working visit in July. He is accompanied on the trip by 150 business leaders and eight ministers.


Sarkozy says US report reinforces concerns about Iran ' s nuclear program
(APW_ENG_20071205.1518)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a new U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear program reinforces international concerns and should not diminish pressure for new sanctions.
2) Sarkozy's office said early Thursday that he spoke Wednesday night with U.S. President George W. Bush about the report, which said Iran stopped its nuclear weapons development in 2003 but could have a bomb within the next decade. Sarkozy said if confirmed, the findings mean "international concerns ... would be further reinforced."


In Sarkozy ' s France, business deals trump concerns about other nations ' values
(APW_ENG_20071211.1163)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to congratulate Vladimir Putin after elections roundly considered undemocratic, and now has rolled out the red carpet for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
2) Though some feel betrayed by a president who once pledged to defend the world's oppressed, Sarkozy's message is clear: In diplomacy, values matter, but French business interests matter perhaps even more.
3) Libya and France were signing euro10 billion (US$14.6 billion) in deals during Gadhafi's much-criticized trip to France this week, for Airbus jets, nuclear energy and military equipment.
4) Sarkozy maintains he is teaching a lesson that he hopes pariah states will heed -- Libya is being rewarded because Gadhafi has renounced state sponsorship of terrorism and his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and should be encouraged in his quest for international respectability.
5) Meanwhile, Sarkozy is also fulfilling another pledge he made during his campaign for the presidency, in courting contracts in Libya, China and Russia. He wants to make France's sluggish economy more competitive in the global marketplace.
6) "Libya has again become a client like any other," presidential spokesman David Martinon told LCI television.
7) Many of Sarkozy's compatriots disagree. They point to continued human rights abuses in Libya, a country with a vast network of informants who monitor residents' movements and where authorities brook little dissent in media or politics.
8) Sarkozy's critics say he has compromised France's role as the cradle of human rights, and reneged on pledges made during his presidential campaign this spring to break with policies of past French leaders seen as coddling dictators.
9) In some ways, Sarkozy's foreign policy is beginning to resemble the doctrine of national interest espoused by his predecessor Jacques Chirac -- and which he had promised to overturn.
10) Sarkozy started off his tenure in May with a dramatic show of foreign policy activism, making Darfur a top diplomatic priority and persuading Colombia to free a jailed guerrilla. His appointment of socialist Bernard Kouchner, the outspoken former leader of Doctors Without Borders, sent out a signal that France was staking out a new role on the world stage.
11) But the recent business deals are prompting a rethink of what that role is.
12) When Gadhafi visited France's lower house of parliament Tuesday, more than half the lawmakers invited boycotted his appearance in their hallowed halls -- including those on the political left, center and even from Sarkozy's conservative party.
13) "The National Assembly is not just any place," said Socialist leader Jean-Marc Ayrault. It is "part of a long tradition of human rights."
14) In a key diplomatic speech in August, Sarkozy pledged to toe a firmer line against Russia and China than Chirac had. Yet Sarkozy's administration has been upfront about not wanting to lose out on international business deals by taking too principled a diplomatic stance.
15) It all marks a contrast to conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who ruffled Chinese feathers by meeting with the Dalai Lama last month and has been criticized by her center-left coalition partners for endangering German economic interests.
16) Soon after Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama, Sarkozy went to China on a visit that focused on trade and business -- and notably not on human rights. Sarkozy's delegation landed major contracts for Airbus and French nuclear manufacturer Areva.
17) After a "friendly" visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in October, Sarkozy sent a speedy congratulatory note to Putin after elections last week that were snubbed by leading international observers because they were so skewed in favor of the ruling party.
18) Days later, France's Renault SA was chosen as a strategic partner for Russia's biggest lawmaker AvtoVaz, beating out U.S. and Italian rivals.
19) "What is different with Sarkozy is that he speaks frankly about ... money," said Jean-Daniel Levy of the CSA polling agency. "He is not hiding his defense of French interests."
20) A former diplomatic adviser put it more bluntly.
21) "Chief executives will be the new diplomats," said Jean-Louis Guigou, who launched a foundation at the French Foreign Ministry on Tuesday bringing together executives from 50 companies around the Mediterranean Basin. The project is part of Sarkozy's broader push for a Mediterranean Union to bind the vastly diverse nations north and south of the sea.
22) Activists from watchdog Reporters Without Borders staged a protest Tuesday urging Sarkozy to keep values on his diplomatic radar.
23) "Moammar Gadhafi and Nicolas Sarkozy will sign commercial accords. France must also demand freedoms," read posters at the rally near the National Assembly.
24) Gendarmes barred the group from marching toward the parliament's entrance and kept them at a distance for the next two hours, the group said in a statement.


French president meets with pope at the Vatican, they discuss hostages
(APW_ENG_20071220.1243)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, saying he was personally "moved" by his first audience at the Vatican since taking office in May.
2) They discussed a range of international issues, including "the drama of hostages," an apparent reference to France's efforts to free Ingrid Betancourt, who is being held by Colombian guerrillas.
3) Betancourt is a dual French-Colombian citizen and former presidential candidate in the South American country. She has been held for nearly six years and France has been actively seeking her release.
4) During his daylong visit to Rome, Sarkozy also pitched his idea for a union of Mediterranean countries, gaining support from leaders of Italy and Spain.
5) The Vatican described the visit as "cordial" and noted what it called the good relations between the French government and the Roman Catholic Church.
6) Sarkozy, in talks with the pope and a second meeting with the Vatican's secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, discussed themes of "common interest" in France and the "role of religion, in particular the Catholic Church, in the world," the Vatican said.
7) Before the visit, Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, described the Vatican as "extremely active and influential" in diplomacy.
8) "It's a partner that counts, and it's a heavyweight ally on a great number of subjects," such as on Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Martinon said.
9) The two men held 25 minutes of private talks. Sarkozy then introduced members of his delegation to Benedict, including a priest known for his work with troubled youths and a standup comedian known for his off-color jokes.
10) The French leader arrived at the Vatican about 15 minutes behind schedule after flying in from Paris. Benedict greeted him outside his study and two men posed for photographers before taking their seats at a desk for their talks.
11) "Where did you learn your French?" Sarkozy asked Benedict. "In school," the German pope replied.
12) Sarkozy presented the pope with three books, including one he had written before becoming president on the role of religion in secular France.
13) After the talks, Sarkozy visited excavations under St. Peter's Basilica.
14) Sarkozy later visited St. John Lateran Basilica, where he accepted the title of honorary canon.
15) The title dated back to the kings of France and is one that not all French presidents wanted to accept because of the sensitivities surrounding the separation of church and state.
16) In a speech at the Basilica, he said that both Christianity and secularism were key elements of French history.
17) "My presence among you today attests to France's fidelity to its own history and to one of the major sources of its civilization," the president told a group of prelates including the pope's vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini.
18) Sarkozy drummed up support for his project for a Mediterranean Union in separate talks with Italian Premier Romano Prodi and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
19) The three leaders issued a joint appeal for increased cooperation in the region, saying the Mediterranean Union "wants to be the heart and engine" of such dialogue.
20) They announced plans for a summit to be held in Paris July 13-14 gathering countries north and south of the sea, including fellow EU nations.
21) "It's in the Mediterranean that some of mankind's future will be decided," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Prodi and Zapatero. "In the Mediterranean we have to find agreements and put aside hate and destruction."
22) All leaders insisted the plan, which has drawn some criticism in Europe, would boost ongoing EU dialogue with Mediterranean countries that are not part of the European bloc.


French president in Kabul to meet Karzai, troops
(APW_ENG_20071222.0221)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Kabul on Saturday to meet with his country's troops here and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the embassy said.
2) The focus of Sarkozy's trip is to meet with French troops stationed in Kabul, an official at the French Embassy said. He asked not to be identified because he wasn't the official spokesman.
3) Sarkozy was also to meet with Karzai. The two spoke in New York at the U.N. General Assembly and arranged the trip to Afghanistan, the official said.
4) This is Sarkozy's first trip to Afghanistan since being elected president in May.
5) France contributes about 1,300 troops to NATO's 41,000-strong International Security Assistance Force.


French president, on visit to Afghanistan, says war on terror can ' t be lost
(APW_ENG_20071222.0557)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Afghanistan on Saturday, meeting with French troops and renewing France's commitment there, saying "we must not lose" the war against terrorism.
2) French television quoted the president as suggesting there would be a "qualitative" but not a "quantitative" increase in the French presence -- currently at some 1,300 -- with more instructors.
3) The first French president to visit Afghanistan, Sarkozy also met with his counterpart, Hamid Karzai.
4) "Afghanistan must not become a state that falls into the hands of terrorists," Sarkozy said during his six-hour visit, which was not previously announced.
5) "A war, a war against terrorism, against fanaticism, is being played out here, that we cannot, that we must not lose," Sarkozy said after meeting with troops.
6) Paris pulled out 200 special forces a year ago, leading to speculation there could be a full withdrawal. However, France added soldiers this summer to help train the Afghan Army.
7) French Defense Minister Herve Morin has expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in some regions of Afghanistan.
8) Morin was accompanying Sarkozy, along with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Human Rights Minister Rama Yade, the president's office said.


Sarkozy winning support for reforms as he gears up for biggest battle: French labor laws
(APW_ENG_20071223.0049)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy has sprinkled the parched French economy with dozens of little enticements since his election in May, all paving the way for an assault on the crux of France's woes: the labor laws.
2) France is in the "stone age of labor relations," says his budget minister, Eric Woerth. At negotiations with unions and employers last week, Sarkozy pledged to drag the country into the globalized age in the coming weeks and months.
3) In the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index, France ranks 18th out of 131 countries thanks to top-class infrastructure, transport links and business culture.
4) But it slipped from 15th last year, dragged down by red tape and its notoriously inflexible labor market, which ranked 129th.
5) Laws that make it difficult to fire workers even when a company is losing money discourage hiring, economists say. They also make France a less attractive place to invest in.
6) "The most important thing is reforming the labor market and getting the politics right to get this reform done," says Eric Chaney, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley and an adviser to the French finance ministry since 1997.
7) Sarkozy has introduced more flexibility into the labor market by effectively eliminating the former Socialist government's 35-hour work week. But that still leaves the hefty "Code du travail" of labor laws.
8) A new code is to take effect in May. But Laurence Parisot, head of the French employers' federation MEDEF, said it makes things worse. According to the Labor Ministry, the new code will have 3,652 clauses, compared with 1,891 currently.
9) The government's talks with employers and unions on a streamlined labor contract have yet to show much progress. Now Sarkozy has set a Jan. 15 deadline, or he will push his own law through a parliament dominated by his fellow conservatives.
10) "My will to change is unshakable, because our country needs change, it is awaiting change with impatience, aware of the delay during past decades," Sarkozy told the meeting.
11) Sarkozy is in effect trying to rewrite a social contract set in stone during France's booming 1960s. Working in his favor are his dominance of parliament and a tail wind of public opinion that senses France must adapt to the new economic order or decline.
12) But he must tread carefully to assure a financial sector eager to surge forward, while placating labor unions that fear their rights are under attack.
13) Thus his 2008 budget introduced measures to control health spending and discourage early retirement, but also imposed a tax on stock options. To crack the 35-hour work week, he is encouraging employers and employees to negotiate their own deals to allow staff to work longer hours for more pay.
14) French society is traditionally wary of the free market, and Sarkozy speaks of his brand of capitalism as a "moral" one, which the French can embrace, says Morgan Stanley's Chaney.
15) "Slamming Wall Street and taxing stock options goes down well in France. It doesn't make a difference to companies -- they know how to reward their workers," he said.
16) Sarkozy also wants to encourage the rich to remain in France through lower taxes. The top rate has been cut to 50 percent from 60 percent, while inheritance tax exemptions have been raised. An income tax credit has also been introduced for new mortgage-holders.
17) New tax breaks and financing initiatives have been introduced to encourage small companies, and businesses of all sizes are hailing plans to raise a tax credit for research and development to 30 percent from 10 percent.
18) Sarkozy is also moving to liberalize the price-fixing rules that govern the retail sector. To cut red tape for business, the government is thinking about introducing opt-outs to a law that requires all company documents to be available in French -- a touchy subject in a society that feels its national language is under siege by English.
19) "There is a big effort today and that's to make the administration business-friendly," Stephane Richard, the top adviser to Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, told the AP.
20) "It's true for taxes. It's true for labor laws. We have a big cultural delay in this domain."
21) Taken together, economists say the main impact of the measures has been to create a positive image among investors and a feel-good factor among consumers.
22) "French society is maturing," said Daniel Gronier, chairman of Toyo Ink Europe, a unit of the Japanese ink specialist. "The vision of the globalization phenomenon is becoming more realistic. The new president is saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking."
23) One of the sharpest signs of resistance came in November, when public transport workers struck for nine days over Sarkozy's proposals to make rail workers work as many years as the rest of the population before retiring.
24) But that weapon may be blunted by a new law, taking effect Jan. 1, which will require transport workers to guarantee a minimum service during strikes.
25) The outcome of the November strike was seen as a victory for Sarkozy's broader reform agenda. Commuters, often sympathetic to labor walkouts, quickly lost patience with train drivers whose privileges most see as unfair.
26) France's economy lagged the European average in 2007, expanding 1.9 percent compared to 2.6 percent for the 13-nation euro zone, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. economy grew 2.2 percent over the period.
27) One reason is French workers spend less time on the job -- 35.9 hours per week compared to the EU average of 37.4.
28) Sarkozy is determined to boost growth by one percentage point, and this "obsession" may strengthen his resolve when the inevitable protests begin, said Patrick Artus, chief economist at Natixis and a government adviser.
29) "We are all in agreement that France needs to work more," he said.


French president arrives in Aqaba for private visit with Jordan ' s king
(APW_ENG_20080104.0880)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy who arrived Friday in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba discussed with Jordan's King Abdullah II the current situation in the Middle East, a Royal Palace statement said.
2) Sarkozy's office in Paris said his weekend trip to Jordan was a private one but that it also came on Abdullah's invitation.
3) The statement said Abdullah briefed the French president on his contacts "to rally support for the Palestinian and the Israeli sides to go ahead with their negotiation process to reach a peaceful, comprehensive, and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue."
4) Abdullah has called for the talks to "tackle final status issues which would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the end of this year."
5) Abdullah expressed appreciation to France for its positive role in debt forgiveness in the Paris Club and its willingness to help the kingdom in developing its nuclear energy program for peaceful purposes.
6) The statement also said Abdullah and Sarkozy stressed their support for efforts aiming at achieving national reconciliation in Lebanon and maintaining its unity and sovereignty.
7) Sarkozy will be staying at Abdullah's Red Sea residence and he is expected to visit tourist sites during his two-day trip to Jordan.
8) It was not clear whether the French leader is accompanied by his new companion, former model and singer Carla Bruni.
9) Sarkozy's visit to Jordan is his second to the region in 10 days. Last week, Sarkozy visited Egypt's leading tourist destinations, Luxor and Sharm el-Sheik, in the company of Bruni.
10) On the conclusion of his end-of-the-year Egyptian holiday, Sarkozy also held talks with President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
11) Sarkozy and Bruni first surfaced as a couple in early December in French media on a visit to Disneyland Paris, two months after the French president's divorce from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia.


France ' s Sarkozy to marry ex-supermodel girlfriend? Report says so
(APW_ENG_20080107.0061)
1) Is French President Nicolas Sarkozy about to get married again?
2) Under the headline "Marriage Imminent," the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, citing several unidentified sources, reported Sunday that Sarkozy would marry his girlfriend -- former supermodel Carla Bruni -- on Feb. 8 or 9.
3) The recently divorced French leader has flaunted their unmarried relationship on recent holidays in Egypt and Jordan, fanning criticism that he is playing too fast and loose with the presidential image -- and reportedly giving protocol planners elsewhere fits.
4) The newspaper report said that in December -- less than a month after Sarkozy met Bruni -- he gave her a heart-shaped diamond engagement ring.
5) The presidential palace declined to comment on the report.
6) Political analyst Dominique Moisi said that a Sarkozy proposal to Bruni could be part of his desire to head off any future controversies, and its speed would fit with his personality as a busy man in a hurry.
7) "Apparently, he's going to be marry her, so the problem will be behind him," Moisi said. "He will multiply the opportunities to travel with her, (and) to say to the French, 'You see, I must remarry ... You need a first lady.'"
8) "He's trying to seduce the French," Moisi said.
9) Sarkozy and his wife of 11 years, Cecilia, divorced in October. Their marital problems became well known in May 2005 when she appeared in public at the side of event organizer Richard Attias.
10) A marriage to Bruni, a one-time star of the catwalks who is now a singer, would be Sarkozy's third: He divorced his first wife, Marie, in the late '80s -- after he had met and befriended Cecilia.
11) Bruni, an Italian-born French citizen, has dated other famous men including Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and business tycoon Donald Trump. She has also reportedly been linked to rock guitarist Eric Clapton and actor Vincent Perez.
12) Sarkozy, a reform-minded conservative with a pro-American slant, has sought to shake France out of what he considers its hidebound ways by trimming bureaucracy and revving up a stalled economy.
13) But polls suggest the French are less eager to part with a tradition in which their presidents have kept quiet about their private lives and discretion about amorous matters has been the norm.
14) "The French reproach Nicolas Sarkozy for making his private life too visible -- that he goes a bit too far," said Francois Miquet-Marty, head of political studies at the polling group LH2 Opinion. "But people are able to separate his professional duties from his private life. It does not seem to affect their overall view about him."
15) The relationship has emerged as polls show many in France are growing increasingly wary about Sarkozy's bold campaign-trail promises for change before his election in May. And it is likely to be on many minds when Sarkozy holds a news conference Tuesday.
16) A poll published Sunday in the weekly Le Parisien Dimanche found that less than half of the respondents -- 48 percent -- had confidence in Sarkozy to solve the country's biggest problems, down 7 percentage points from December. Forty-five percent did not, with the rest undecided. The telephone poll of 1,010 adults was conducted Thursday and Friday. No margin of error was provided.
17) Abroad, Sarkozy's relationship with Bruni has drawn both criticism and confusion.
18) In India, which Sarkozy is reportedly expected to visit in coming weeks, recent news reports say diplomatic officials have been grappling with how to handle protocol if Bruni accompanies him.
19) Citing unidentified sources at India's Ministry of External Affairs, the newspaper Indian Express reported that Bruni could not receive a reception on a par with that of a president's spouse.
20) In Delhi, Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna declined to comment.
21) The relationship became public in mid-December when Sarkozy and Bruni visited a Paris area theme park together, with some photographers in tow.
22) After the pair turned up in Egypt on Christmas Day, three Egyptian lawmakers said in parliament that it was improper under Islamic law and traditions for the unmarried couple to share a hotel room. Many Egyptians tuned in to coverage of the visit, and some commentators were critical.
23) On Saturday, Sarkozy was photographed in Petra, Jordan, alongside Bruni while holding a young boy whom the weekly newspaper identified as her son on his shoulders.


Despite blossoming romance with supermodel, French president faces tough year
(APW_ENG_20080108.0991)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy hinted Tuesday he may soon marry ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, but polls suggest he's heading toward divorce with some of the voters who put him in power.
2) Many are irritated by Sarkozy's public flaunting of his whirlwind affair with someone whose cast of past partners includes Mick Jagger and Donald Trump. And they question Sarkozy's use of a billionaire friend's private jet for the couple's vacation.
3) He's being called "President Bling Bling," and it's not a compliment among the taste-conscious French. Meanwhile, there's the still sickly French economy to worry about.
4) Sarkozy appears to be losing his luster as he heads into what promises to be a tough year. In his first full-fledged news conference Tuesday since his election in May, Sarkozy deflected criticism of his lifestyle, his courting of hard-line world leaders and sensitive reforms to France's labor laws, universities and health care.
5) He basked, though, in confirming his relationship with Bruni.
6) The 40-year-old Italian-born former model, now a singer, first appeared publicly at the 52-year-old Sarkozy's side at Disneyland Paris last month. Then she joined him on vacation in Egypt and Jordan, where they were photographed arm-in-arm and often smiling.
7) "You've understood: It is serious," Sarkozy said. He suggested wedding plans are in the works, but stopped short of confirming reports of an early February ceremony.
8) "There is a strong chance that you will learn about it after it's already done," he said, with a grin.
9) Asked if they had already tied the knot, he raised his ring-less left hand, to a laughing audience including his full Cabinet and hundreds of reporters.
10) Sarkozy defended his decision to take the relationship public, saying he wanted to break with a long tradition of French leaders keeping their love lives hidden, with the media's tacit accord. He alluded to late former French President Francois Mitterrand, who kept the existence of a mistress and illegitimate daughter a secret for most of his 1981-1995 presidency.
11) If Sarkozy-Bruni wedding bells chime, it would mark the first time a French president marries in office. Sarkozy became the first sitting French president to divorce when he split in October from his second wife Cecilia -- like Bruni, a tall, dark-haired ex-model.
12) "Normally the Elysee (presidential palace) is a boring place where nothing ever happens, where there are men who wear ties, with wives they've had for 40 years and mistresses that they hide. This is a 'coup d'eclat' as has never before happened in France," said Loic Sellin, editor of popular magazine Voici.
13) He said the magazine's staff was "blown away" by Sarkozy's openness. "We're saying thank you," he said.
14) Not everyone is so thrilled. More traditional French voters and political commentators question whether Bruni -- with her rich romantic history -- is the appropriate spousal choice for a French president.
15) Some voters, especially traditional conservatives and working class French who supported Sarkozy, have issues "with the way the president behaves," said Dominique Moisi of the French Institute of International Relations. It "is not what you'd expect from the president of France."
16) "The problem is the president mixes his private and his public life," Moisi said. "If it becomes a permanent fixture it becomes embarrassing."
17) Critics accuse him of publicizing his relationship with Bruni -- which has been front-page news in France for weeks -- to detract attention from declining poll figures and economic woes.
18) Sarkozy's approval rating stands around 48 percent -- a drop of seven points in a month, and a sharp departure from his highest level, 65 percent, in July, according to a new poll from the CSA agency. The poll surveyed 1,010 people age 18 and up on the phone on Jan. 2 and 3. No margin of error was given.
19) "Sarkozy had a very long political honeymoon, and it is finally ending," said Pascal Perrineau, head of the Cevipof think tank.
20) Sarkozy defended his decision to invite Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to Paris, and his swift congratulations to Russian President Vladimir Putin after parliamentary elections heavily tilted in the ruling party's favor.
21) Sarkozy offered few solutions for French households feeling the pinch of stagnant salaries and economic growth that is expected to drop below 2 percent for 2007.
22) Socialist lawmaker Jean-Pierre Bel said Sarkozy's speech was "totally disconnected from the wishes of the French for 2008: more purchasing power."
23) Sarkozy made a few gestures to French workers, pledging state funds to protect strategic companies from foreign takeovers and pushing for all workers -- not just executives -- to have access to stock options.
24) Sarkozy declared that current measures of GDP, or gross domestic product, don't take into account the quality of life in France. To counter that, he announced he has recruited Nobel economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to advise on a new method of measuring growth performance.
25) Sarkozy took some not-so-veiled digs at his predecessors and a sometimes mocking tone toward the journalists.
26) In response to a query about his use of a jet belonging to French magnate Vincent Bollore for his vacation, Sarkozy snapped, "What do you prefer? That I travel on taxpayer money?"


Son of conservative French President Sarkozy contributes to rap album
(APW_ENG_20080108.1000)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy used to take on foul-mouthed rappers in France. Now, his eldest son appears to be embracing them.
2) French rapper Poison, known for his expletive-laden lyrics and his fierce criticism of the conservative leader, said Pierre Sarkozy helped produce some of his upcoming album -- and even contributed the lyrics for one of its tracks.
3) In an interview last week with hip-hop radio station Generations 88.2, Poison said he didn't realize who Pierre Sarkozy -- who goes by the pen name "Mosey" -- was until after he agreed to work with him.
4) "When I found out, I swear I went ballistic," Poison said. "The worst thing is that ... I found out maybe six, seven months ago, and I've known the guy for the last five years. He's a friend."
5) Poison made clear that his relationship with Pierre Sarkozy hadn't changed his opinion of the president, whose 2003 pledge to crack down on offensive rap lyrics angered many people.
6) "I'm not a fan of Sarkozy," Poison said, concluding with an expletive.
7) During his tenure as interior minister, Sarkozy complained about what he called the racist and anti-Semitic content in songs by French hip-hop group Sniper.
8) Pierre Sarkozy, who is in his early 20s, is one of the French leader's three sons. He lists the Poison track "La Rue" as one of his credits on a My Space Web site with what appears to be a picture of the president's son. On the page, "Mosey" describes himself as a "young Parisian producer."
9) Sarkozy's office would not comment on the radio interview, saying it involved the private life of the president's family.


Sarkozy says defense will be a priority of France ' s EU presidency
(APW_ENG_20080110.1318)
1) European defense will be a priority when France takes over the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2008, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday.
2) Sarkozy, in his New Year's message to French soldiers and veterans, said, "Today, Europe does not make all the efforts needed for the defense and protection of Europeans."
3) Sarkozy said France "could not be satisfied with this situation. That is why the consolidation of European defense capacities will be our priority as we preside over the European Union."
4) Slovenia currently holds the presidency of the 25-nation EU, and France takes over on July 1.


Poll suggests Sarkozy failing to stem approval slide as economy drags
(APW_ENG_20080111.0453)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's glamorous love life does not appear to be boosting his approval ratings among voters frustrated by the lagging economy, a poll published Friday suggests.
2) Sarkozy, whose popularity soared after his election in May, gave a sweeping New Year's speech Tuesday followed by the biggest news conference since his election. The energetic president repeatedly defended his reform plans and deflected mounting criticism of his flashy lifestyle and his politics.
3) The appearance was seen as an opportunity for Sarkozy to try to convince the French that he and his reforms are putting the country on the right track after recent polls showed his approval ratings sliding to below 50 percent. But only 39 percent of respondents to a poll by CSA found his performance "convincing," while 50 percent said it was not.
4) The pollsters blamed persistent voter frustration with stagnant salaries and rising prices, according to Le Parisien newspaper, which published the survey. Sarkozy was frank in his speech about the troubles with the French economy, saying he could not empty coffers that are already empty to help workers.
5) He also noted global economic challenges. Sarkozy won election on pledges to overhaul labor laws to make France more competitive and is pushing for changes to French universities, the justice system and politics.
6) The most upbeat moment of Sarkozy's appearance Tuesday was when he confirmed his plans to marry former model Carla Bruni. Critics have accused Sarkozy of publicizing his relationship with Bruni to divert attention from declining poll figures.
7) The telephone poll of 1,004 people nationwide was conducted Wednesday. No margin of error was given.


Blair praises France ' s ' very energetic ' president
(APW_ENG_20080112.0617)
1) Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a guest Saturday of France's governing conservative party, lavished praise on the "very energetic" French President Nicolas Sarkozy for seeking to change the country.
2) Sarkozy's invitation for Blair to appear at the national congress of his conservative party, the UMP, raised speculation about French support for Blair as EU president.
3) Blair said reform is the key to keeping up with globalization, showing support not only for Sarkozy, but also for reform within the European Union, which will choose a president if a simplified treaty is ratified.
4) The French parliament is scheduled to vote on ratification in three weeks.
5) "In a world that is changing, misfortune awaits those who stagnate," Blair said in his speech, delivered in French to about 2,000 people. Trying to resist globalization is a "dangerous" and "futile enterprise," he said. "The only question to be asked," he added, is "how to prepare."
6) Blair, a past leader of Britain's Labour Party, received a standing ovation as he entered with Sarkozy.
7) The invitation to Blair reflected the openness that characterizes Sarkozy's government: Sarkozy is conservative, but his Cabinet includes members of the Socialist Party.
8) "In France, I would probably be in the government," Blair said, quickly adding, "No. I was kidding. I would be in the Socialist Party, but beside those who seek to transform it."
9) Blair drew laughs with his description of Sarkozy, who divorced in October and quickly struck up a relationship with former model Carla Bruni.
10) "Your president is very energetic," Blair said, "and in all domains."
11) Sarkozy called Blair one of Europe's "great men."
12) "He is intelligent, courageous. ... He modernized (an ally) like the United Kingdom," Sarkozy said.
13) The French president also praised Blair's "leading role" in the adoption in June of the simplified European Union treaty to replace a failed draft constitution.
14) Sarkozy has not endorsed Blair for the EU presidency but has suggested he is among the obvious choices.
15) "He has already had the occasion to say he would make an excellent candidate, but that he is not alone," Sarkozy spokesman David Martinon said Friday.
16) Blair is currently the Middle East envoy for the Quartet of peacemakers-- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.


Sarkozy heads to Mideast with nuclear accord in his pocket
(APW_ENG_20080113.0587)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy opened a three-country Mideast tour Sunday in Saudi Arabia, where he was expected to discuss rising oil prices with the world's top producer.
2) King Abdullah greeted Sarkozy at the airport. The two were holding talks and having dinner before the signing of four bilateral accords -- but no contracts.
3) In contrast, France will sign a nuclear cooperation accord with the United Arab Emirates during Sarkozy's visit there Tuesday, the French leader told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in an interview published Sunday.
4) The accord for cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, a first step toward building a nuclear reactor, would be the third France has signed recently with Muslim nations, after Libya and Algeria.
5) Starting his third trip to the region in three weeks, Sarkozy was also scheduled to visit Qatar.
6) "I have often said that the Muslim world is no less reasonable than the rest of the world in seeking civilian nuclear (power) for its energy needs, in full conformity with international security obligations," Sarkozy told the London-based Al-Hayat.
7) During a December visit to Egypt, Sarkozy expressed France's willingness to assist Egypt in the nuclear field.
8) Building nuclear reactors for civilian use for these countries would mean lucrative contracts for France, which generates most of its own electricity from nuclear power. And such contracts also send a message to Iran that rewards await nations that respect international rules.
9) The Iranian nuclear dispute with the international community is among the topics on Sarkozy's agenda during his three-day trip. The threat of terrorism and the war in Iraq also will be discussed, Sarkozy's office said. The president reiterated in the Al-Hayat interview France's offer to hold an inter-Iraqi conference with all parties represented, on the model of the July meeting in France of Lebanese politicians.
10) Energy, though not a nuclear accord, is on the agenda in Riyadh. Sarkozy plans to tell his hosts that "the interest of oil producers, like consumers, is to lower" the price of oil, a French diplomat said. He was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition he not be identified by name. Oil prices have reached US$100 a barrel this month.
11) The French president also plans to take on another delicate subject, the role of religion, in an address Monday to Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council. The Majlis al-Shura, an all-male group that proposes laws in the kingdom, follows a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
12) Sarkozy will then travel to Doha, Qatar before heading to Abu Dhabi. Military cooperation is on the agenda in both capitals.
13) Sarkozy is shadowing U.S. President George W. Bush, who is on an eight-day trip through the region. Bush was scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia shortly after Sarkozy's departure. The U.S. leader was in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, and used the visit to lash out at Iran, calling it "the world's leading state sponsor of terror."


French pres. hails Saudi Arabia ' s progress on women ' s rights, freedom of speech
(APW_ENG_20080114.1275)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday hailed progress in improving freedom of speech and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, though he called movement on both issues slow.
2) Sarkozy was speaking before Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council, an all-male group that proposes laws in the kingdom and follows a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
3) "On the condition of women and freedom of expression, Saudi Arabia has also taken action -- slowly, it's true, but who would not be impressed by the changes that have taken place over the past few years?" Sarkozy asked the Consultative Council. Six women were appointed to the Council's advisory board in June 2006. They are, however, not considered members of the group.
4) Sarkozy said the appointments "represent a change of whose importance I am well aware and which I would like to hail."
5) He also addressed the rise in oil prices, saying it had a negative effect on purchasing power in France and other European nations. He urged Saudi authorities to rein in the price of oil, which reached US$100 a barrel this month -- a price Sarkozy said he judged as "speculative."
6) "We think that the real price should be at about 70 dollars," Sarkozy said.
7) "I told the Saudi authorities that if the rise in oil prices was inevitable, this rise should be steady and moderate," he said.
8) The cost of France's oil imports from Saudi Arabia nearly doubled in three years, from US$3.1 billion (euro2.1 billion) in 2003 to US$5.9 billion (euro4 billion) in 2006.
9) The address came a day after the French leader signed a series of bilateral accords on education, vocational training, oil and gas, as well as political cooperation with Saudi King Abdullah.
10) Sarkozy's delegation, which included several ministers and business leaders, has negotiated a series of other lucrative investment deals but none has yet been signed.
11) "In the coming weeks and months, there will be big contracts that are going to be signed by French companies," Sarkozy told reporters during a meeting Monday with Saudi and French business leaders.
12) The contracts were expected to be worth an estimated US$59.5 billion (euro40 billion).
13) Saudi Arabia is looking to invest in a number of sectors that France sees itself having unique experience including railway construction. Saudi Arabia is looking to build a TGV fast train link between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as well as a subway in the capital of Riyadh.
14) The oil-rich kingdom is also looking to buy more helicopters, ships and submarines, as well as to revamp its border security systems.
15) "France doesn't want to be only a strategic economic partner for Saudi Arabia," Sarkozy told reporters Monday. "France wants to be a friend of Saudi Arabia" and "the Arab world," he said.
16) Sarkozy also offered Abdullah the services of France's Atomic Energy Commission to explore the possibilities of a civil nuclear energy program in Saudi Arabia in the next few weeks.
17) A spokesman for French oil company Total SA said Monday the company has agreed to a partnership with the energy and environment conglomerate Suez and the nuclear engineering specialist Areva. The deal could result in the three companies building and operating nuclear facilities in the Middle East.
18) Later Monday in Qatar, Sarkozy attending the signing of a euro470 million (US$700 million) deal between French nuclear engineering company Areva SA and a Qatar company to building electric sub-stations in the Gulf Arab country.
19) Though it was the only firm contract signed Monday during Sarkozy's stop in Doha, the French leader's office said other negotiations with Qatar could eventually lead to a total of euro6.3 billion (US$9.4 billion) in deals. The possible projects could include the building of a subway, a bride and a geothermal electricity plant.
20) Talks are also under way on nearly euro2 billion (US$3 billion) in military spending deals, his office said.
21) France is also expected to sign a nuclear cooperation accord with the United Arab Emirates during Sarkozy's visit there Tuesday, the French leader told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in an interview published last week.
22) The accord for cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, a first step toward building a nuclear reactor, would be the third France has signed recently with Arab nations, after Libya and Algeria.


Poll: More people unhappy with Sarkozy ' s leadership than happy
(APW_ENG_20080115.1426)
1) The percentage of French people unhappy with President Nicolas Sarkozy's leadership now exceeds those who approve of it, according to a poll published Tuesday.
2) The poll by the BVA agency said that 48 percent of French people have a negative opinion of Sarkozy, while 45 percent see him positively. Sarkozy's approval ratings have dropped six points in a month, and the poll was the first since his May election to suggest that more people disapproved of him than approved of him.
3) Jerome de Sainte-Marie, BVA's polling director, said voters were concerned about low purchasing power in France, despite Sarkozy's pledges to improve the situation. He said the drop in approval ratings was strongest among seniors, who may have been motivated by concerns about the economy or value judgments about Sarkozy's lifestyle.
4) Some voters have been irritated by Sarkozy's flaunting of his whirlwind romance with former supermodel Carla Bruni, and news reports have detailed their lavish gifts to each other and high-profile trips to Egypt and Jordan. Sarkozy divorced his second wife, Cecilia, in October.
5) The poll, for Express magazine and France Telecom's mobile phone business Orange, surveyed 1,051 people age 18 and up in face-to-face interviews Jan. 10-12. No margin of error was provided.


What ' s in a rumor? Sarkozy keeps reporters guessing on a possible wedding to Bruni
(APW_ENG_20080117.1423)
1) Sarkozy, Sarkozy, wherefore art thou planning thy wedding?
2) Rumors swirled after a newspaper claimed that President Nicolas Sarkozy may have already married his sweetheart, model-singer Carla Bruni, in a small, secret ceremony at the Elysee Palace.
3) Others say they might honeymoon at a resort near the Italian city of Verona -- which, as the hometown of doomed lovers Romeo and Juliet, would seem like inauspicious symbolism for newlyweds.
4) What light through yonder window breaks to illuminate this tale?
5) So far nothing from Sarkozy -- but he seems to be amusing himself by keeping people guessing.
6) In a chat this week with reporters during a trip to Qatar, he commanded: "Stop being so fascinated by my private life."
7) He complained that reporters were so hungry for details that their "tongues (were) hanging out." And he concluded: "If I have something to tell you, I will."
8) Henri Guaino, a Sarkozy adviser, griped to France-2 television that the curiosity was "unhealthy and obsessive." But he advised people who want to know whether Sarkozy is married "to watch his hands" for a ring.
9) For now, the presidential ring finger is bare.
10) Sarkozy, 52, and Bruni, 40, reportedly met in November, soon after his October divorce from Cecilia, his second wife -- also a tall, blue-eyed brunette with high cheekbones. The world learned of the romance when Bruni and Sarkozy showed up at Disneyland Paris in December.
11) Sarkozy has refused all comment on a report in L'Est Republicain newspaper this week that said he may have already married Bruni at an intimate ceremony at the Elysee Palace on Jan. 10. Other reports since then have suggested that the newspaper may have jumped the gun, and that they are still not wed.
12) As much as he gripes that paparazzi have trailed them, Sarkozy and Bruni have been astonishingly open -- to the distaste of many French who find it unseemly that their head of state would flaunt a new love in such a manner.
13) He and Bruni were photographed together at the pyramids and beaches of Egypt, and in Petra, Jordan. He acknowledged at a news conference that their relationship was "serious," and he suggested they would marry, although he wouldn't reveal the date. A senior Saudi official had urged Sarkozy to respect Saudi Arabia's conservative Islamic culture by visiting the country without Bruni, and she did not accompany him.
14) Meanwhile, paparazzi have staked out a resort near Verona in hopes that the couple would turn up there for a honeymoon.
15) Marisa Merighi, owner of La Magioca, a countryside stone residence with a tile roof, said someone had called asking her to book space for "an important person" who needed privacy, without telling her who it was.
16) The next day, paparazzi showed up in her garden and told her it could be for Sarkozy and Bruni. She hasn't heard back from the "important person," so she assumes no one is coming.
17) "Usually with important clients there's no problem," she said. "This time it's pandemonium."
18) The French, who are accustomed to their leaders keeping their private lives discreet, have coined a word for the star treatment of politicians: "peopolisation," a French play on the English word "people." The French call their stars "les people."
19) The fact that Sarkozy and Bruni have graced the cover of gossip magazines in their bathing suits has done nothing for his approval ratings.
20) According to a poll released Tuesday by the BVA agency, Sarkozy's critics have overtaken his champions, with 48 percent of French people seeing him negatively and 45 percent taking a positive view. Analysts say Sarkozy hasn't addressed a serious concern of the French -- high prices and falling purchasing power -- and that his glitzy, jet-setting lifestyle is irritating to many older voters.
21) On Thursday, though, there were no clues from the president as to his marital status.
22) As Shakespeare might have concluded, "Never was a story of more mystery, than this of Carla and her Sarkozy."


Sarkozy says euro-dollar imbalance dangerous for world economy
(APW_ENG_20080118.1169)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday called the euro-dollar imbalance "dangerous" for the world and urged international cooperation to weather what he predicted would be a year of major economic uncertainty.
2) Sarkozy, in a New Year's speech to France's diplomats, said the "great uncertainties" expected in global markets in 2008 meant France should speed up its efforts at labor market and other reforms.
3) He urged "tight and discreet cooperation to seriously deal with the two great weaknesses of the current international system," he said, naming key exchange rates and insufficient transparency on financial markets.
4) He said the "persistent imbalance" among leading world currencies "is dangerous for everyone." The strong euro and weak dollar are hurting French exporters and Sarkozy's efforts to make his country more competitive.
5) Sarkozy also proposed that multinational oil giants put some of their profits in a special foundation to help poor countries. He did not elaborate on the idea.
6) "If tomorrow countries revolt because poverty and injustice have become intolerable, those who are today making considerable profit will be the first to see the sources of their profits destroyed," Sarkozy said.
7) Sarkozy is scheduled to meet the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on Monday to discuss global economic trends, financial market regulations and a "better repartition of oil profits," the president's office said in a statement.


France to host international conference on development aid for Afghanistan
(APW_ENG_20080118.1237)
1) France will host an international aid conference for Afghanistan, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday.
2) Sarkozy has boosted the French presence in Afghanistan since his election in May, and visited French troops there and Afghan President Hamid Karzai last month.
3) "According to an agreement with President Karzai, France will host the next conference for support to Afghanistan, and will reinforce its involvement," Sarkozy said in a New Year's speech to diplomats in Paris.
4) No date for the conference was set. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who oversaw an international donors conference for the Palestinians last month, will organize the Afghanistan meeting.
5) Sarkozy also expressed fear of a "new Talibanization" of Afghanistan amid a resurgence by the militants that NATO and U.S. military forces are struggling to quell.


France ' s Sarkozy pays unscheduled visit to rough Paris suburb
(APW_ENG_20080121.1253)
1) Conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid an unexpected visit Monday to a rough and tumble Paris suburb and promised to give youth there a "first chance."
2) Sarkozy shook hands and chatted with local youths in Sartrouville, west of the French capital, before addressing the city's police officers. It was his first visit to a so-called sensitive neighborhood since he took office in May.
3) Sarkozy has not been considered a welcome visitor by many residents of such neighborhoods since, as interior minister in 2005, he referred to troublemakers as "scum" and said the neighborhoods should be cleaned with a power-hose.
4) The poor suburban neighborhoods that ring France's big cities are home to many immigrants and French of immigrant origin. In 2005, they were the scenes of weeks of fiery riots, a nationwide explosion of frustration and despair largely over racism and joblessness.
5) Speaking with youths in front of Sartrouville's train station, Sarkozy said he would soon address unemployment as part of a plan to cure France's poor suburbs, to be unveiled next month.
6) "The idea is we're going to give you the chance to work or study," he said, adding it would be "not a last chance but a first one."
7) "I think that you haven't had many chances" here, he said.
8) "Those who want to work, we're going to help them," he said, adding "you have to get used to getting up (early) to go to work."
9) Sarkozy later congratulated local police officers for helping reduce acts of delinquency in the town by 7 percent in 2007. Nationwide, delinquency was down 3.7 percent last year.
10) "We are fully behind you. Totally," he told the officers.
11) Sarkozy had said he would visit a rough suburban neighborhood in January without saying which one or when he would do so. His office kept Monday's visit under wraps until hours before it took place, apparently for security reasons.
12) Sarkozy, who was accompanied by Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, pledged to return to the suburbs in 15 days.
13) As a candidate, Sarkozy visited a poor neighborhood in the town of Meaux, east of Paris, on April 13.


Sarkozy: India could soon have deal with UN watchdog on nuclear program
(APW_ENG_20080125.0978)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and India appear to be within weeks of reaching an agreement on oversight of New Delhi's civilian nuclear program.
2) The deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency would be a key step in finalizing India's landmark atomic energy deal with the United States -- as well as allowing it to press forward with similar agreements with France and other nuclear powers.
3) "India has never proliferated, and it has made it clear that it wants to separate its civil nuclear program from its military one," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
4) "To the best of my knowledge, it's only a matter of weeks and the authorization (from the IAEA) will be given," he told reporters.
5) France and India have completed negotiations on a civilian nuclear technology agreement, the two leaders said, but Sarkozy added the agreement is dependent on India concluding its own agreement on nuclear safeguards with the IAEA.
6) IAEA spokesman Peter Rickwood said Friday the agency had no comment on Sarkozy's claim.
7) India's blossoming economy is desperate for energy, and such deals would allow India to buy nuclear fuels and reactors. They would also bring India into the nuclear mainstream after decades of outsider status because of its refusal to sign nonproliferation treaties and its testing of nuclear weapons.
8) France has a sprawling nuclear program and is anxious to sell to India.
9) The Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, heralded as a landmark when it was first announced in 2005, has been held up by opposition in both countries.
10) In India, the government's leftist allies oppose closer ties with the United States and fear a deal could be used to dictate Indian policy. Other Indian critics say it could undermine their country's nuclear weapons program.
11) Although most major opposition in Washington has been countered, U.S. critics say the extra fuel provided by the deal could boost India's nuclear bomb stockpile by freeing up its domestic uranium for use in weapons.
12) That, they say, could spark a nuclear arms race in Asia, where neighboring Pakistan and China already are nuclear-armed.
13) The announcement came on the first day of Sarkozy's two-day visit to India aimed at cementing diplomatic and political links. Sarkozy will be the guest of honor at India's Republic Day celebrations Saturday.
14) Singh described his talks with Sarkozy as "very productive and wide-ranging."
15) "This partnership is long standing and rests on shared values and similar approaches to regional and global issues," the prime minister said.
16) Sikh leaders urged the Indian government to press Sarkozy to allow Sikh students to wear turbans in French schools.
17) "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a turban-wearing Sikh, cannot turn a blind eye to the injustice suffered by Sikhs in France," Daljeet Singh of the United Sikhs, an activist group, told reporters.
18) France bans the wearing of conspicuous religious apparel in schools. For Sikh men, the turban is the most obvious symbol of their faith.
19) Much of the attention ahead of Sarkozy's trip had been on his girlfriend, Carla Bruni, who did not come with him.
20) Sarkozy, 52, and Bruni, 40, reportedly met in November, soon after his October divorce from Cecilia, his second wife. Sarkozy's openness about his private life has surprised many French, accustomed to presidents who keep their love lives under wraps.
21) Indian officials say Sarkozy's visit will include a brief trip Saturday to the Taj Mahal, one of the world's most famous monuments to love.
22) French officials remained mum Friday on whether Sarkozy planned the visit. But Vijay Narain, a local official, said the Taj Mahal and its grounds would be closed to the public for about two hours Saturday afternoon, when the French president was expected to be there.


French President Sarkozy marries former model Bruni
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1) They had a glitzy, jet-setting courtship, but when it came time for the wedding, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former supermodel Carla Bruni opted for a simple, classic ceremony -- and the bride wore white.
2) Sarkozy, 53, and Bruni, 40, were married Saturday in a small private ceremony at the presidential Elysee Palace, less than three months after they reportedly first met, and less than four months after his divorce from the previous first lady, Cecilia.
3) The newlyweds issued a laconic statement, saying only that they tied the knot "in the presence of their families in the strictest privacy." The mayor who performed the ceremony filled in the details.
4) "The bride wore white; she was ravishing, as usual," Francois Lebel, mayor of Paris' eighth arrondissement, or neighborhood, told Europe-1 radio. The groom wore a suit and tie, and he "wasn't bad either," Lebel said.
5) About 20 friends and family members attended the 20-minute official ceremony in an Elysee drawing room, Le Bel said, referring to Sarkozy and Bruni as "young newlyweds" and saying the wedding showed "great simplicity and apparently a lot of affection between the spouses."
6) Under French law, couples must marry before a mayor to make their union official. Usually weddings take place at a city hall, with an official wedding announcement published beforehand, but Sarkozy and Bruni apparently had a dispensation to maintain their privacy.
7) On a busy day, Sarkozy squeezed the ceremony in amid official business. Addressing a crisis in the former French colony of Chad, where rebels penetrated the capital, Sarkozy also called a meeting at the Elysee Palace and spoke by telephone with Chad's president.
8) As of Saturday evening, no images of the ceremony had leaked to media. The simple, private wedding in a drawing room of the Elysee Palace came in contrast to their highly publicized romance -- which surprised many French, accustomed to presidents keeping their love lives under wraps.
9) At a news conference in January, Sarkozy revealed that his relationship with the blue-eyed singer and former model was "serious" and hinted that wedding plans were in the works, though he did not reveal a date.
10) Sarkozy and Bruni carried out their courtship in such public locations as Disneyland Paris and the ruins of Petra, Jordan. The tabloids even showed the couple at an Egyptian beach resort, Bruni clad in a tiny black bikini, Sarkozy in trunks, gold chain and Ray-Bans.
11) Sarkozy's approval ratings dropped while they were dating -- in part, analysts say, because older, more traditional voters were put off by the budding romance and by Sarkozy's glitzy style.
12) During their courtship, Sarkozy was nicknamed the "bling-bling president" by the media as the couple flew in a private jet borrowed from a billionaire investor and reportedly lavished each other with expensive presents.
13) Their relationship proved tricky for protocol planners in foreign countries Sarkozy visited. Before a visit to Saudi Arabia, a senior official in the Gulf state urged Sarkozy to respect conservative Islamic culture by leaving his girlfriend at home. She did not accompany him.
14) Being married will end such concerns.
15) "First off, he wanted to (tie the knot), and it also helps clarify things," Patrick Balkany, a lawmaker and friend of Sarkozy's, told RTL radio.
16) Former first lady Bernadette Chirac, congratulating the couple, said being president is easier with the support of a spouse.
17) "It's better to have a companion to whom you can say what you need to say and can't say to everyone," she told RTL. "You need a punching ball."
18) Sarkozy was not the first French president to marry in office: Gaston Doumergue tied the knot at the Elysee Palace in 1931.
19) The wedding was the third for Sarkozy, who has three sons. It was the first for Bruni, an Italian-born heiress whose mother is a concert pianist and whose late father was an industrialist at the head of a tire company, as well as a composer. Bruni grew up in France, where her family fled for fear of the Red Brigades, a left-wing terrorist group active in Italy in the 1970s.
20) As a young woman, the brunette with high cheekbones had a major modeling career and the love life to go with it. Bruni dated rockers Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, tycoon Donald Trump and actor Vincent Perez. She has a young son, Aurelien, from a relationship with philosophy professor Raphael Enthoven.
21) In interviews well before she began dating Sarkozy, Bruni often talked freely of her love life, reportedly telling Madame Figaro magazine that she was "bored to death by monogamy," though she was "monogamous from time to time." She has not spoken to media since getting together with Sarkozy.
22) Bruni has reinvented herself as a singer in recent years, crooning love songs in a deep, smoky voice. French news reports have said the Elysee Palace is being fitted up with a recording studio for the new first lady.


French President Nicolas Sarkozy supports Chad ' s government, could lead mission
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that France was concerned about the situation in Chad, where rebels are trying to overthrow the government.
2) Sarkozy, who was on a one-day visit to Bucharest, the Romanian capital, urged the international community to support the African country's legitimate government.
3) France and the European Union would send troops only with the approval of the U.N. Security Council, Sarkozy said. The approval was swift in coming: The council voted Monday for a nonbinding resolution to condemn the attack and to urge France and other countries to help the Chadian government repel the rebels.
4) "We must avoid a conflict in Chad by supporting the legitimate government," Sarkozy said. "In no region should weapons be a way to come to power."
5) Romania's president, Traian Basescu, said his country would contribute to a European Union force in Chad, led by France.


Sarkozy says France ready for military intervention in Chad if necessary
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1) France is ready to launch a military operation in Chad against rebels there if necessary, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday.
2) "If France must do its duty, it will do so," Sarkozy said in response to a question on a possible French military operation in Chad. "Let no one doubt it."
3) France has more than 1,000 troops already based in Chad, a former French colony in central Africa where rebels and government troops have been clashing in and near the capital for three days.
4) Sarkozy said French troops have taken no part in the fighting -- except last Friday night, when they opened fire to protect French civilians. He said that was a case of self-defense.
5) Sarkozy dismissed as "absolutely not exact" rebel claims that French forces had killed civilians.
6) A statement Monday by the U.N. Security Council paved the way for Chadian allies to help repel a rebel offensive.
7) Sarkozy insisted it would be better to "leave Chad alone."
8) "If Chad were a victim of an aggression, France would have -- and I stress the conditional tense -- the means to resist this action."
9) The fighting has taken a heavy toll on civilians and threatened to increase instability in the restive region along Darfur's border.


Sarkozy tackling tough tasks again after publicized courtship ends in marriage
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1) Now that Carla Bruni is his bride, Nicolas Sarkozy is focusing again on running France: endorsing a showcase super-fast train, promising to rescue steel workers threatened with layoffs and negotiating with labor leaders.
2) Sinking poll ratings and France's limp economy suggest the president needed to return to his energetic governing ways after weeks in which the couple's courtship dominated headlines.
3) Sarkozy and Bruni, a former model and singer, wed on Saturday, ending swirling speculation about where and when they would tie the knot.
4) That fuss, critics said, detracted from Sarkozy's gravitas and distracted him from running this nuclear-armed nation and major world economy.
5) The head of France's esteemed Constitutional Council, Jean-Louis Debre, upbraided Sarkozy for not maintaining "a certain reserve" about his love life. Ex-Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Sarkozy's presidency "has lost its concentration on the essential things, that is to say, serving France and serving the French."
6) While some readers and viewers lapped up images of the couple bathing in Egypt and arm-in-arm at Disneyland, others were less enthusiastic.
7) A poll released Tuesday showed 46 percent of respondents with a positive opinion of Sarkozy, down 7 points from a month ago. The Ifop poll was conducted Jan. 31-Feb. 1 by telephone among 1,005 people. No margin of error was given.
8) His diminishing support could have broader consequences: The country holds municipal elections next month seen as a political test for Sarkozy. Members of his conservative UMP party fear their candidates could be punished by voters disappointed in Sarkozy.
9) This week, Sarkozy appeared determined to show he is still in charge.
10) He took on angry steel workers in northeast France slated to lose their jobs under a restructuring plan by factory owner ArcelorMittal. He's also meeting with workers and management at tire giant Michelin, where hundreds of layoffs are on the horizon.
11) On Wednesday, he dives back into the reforms that he pledged would revive the French economy and inspire the French to work more and rely less on state help. He meets labor leaders to lay out a timeline for reforming pensions, health care and family welfare.
12) In the interim, he jetted to Romania, too.
13) Opposition Socialists are unimpressed. Their head in the lower house of parliament, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said Sarkozy "is improvising and searching for lost popularity."
14) Sarkozy doesn't seem too concerned. He couldn't help but throw in a reference to his Italian-born bride Bruni at the unveiling Tuesday of a prototype for a new generation high-speed train. Noting that Italy's NTV has bought 25 of the new trains, Sarkozy joked, "It's beautiful, Italy, eh?"


France ' s Sarkozy files legal complaint over article about his love life
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1) France's newly married president, Nicolas Sarkozy, filed a legal complaint Thursday over a media report saying he promised to call off his engagement if his ex-wife came back to him, his lawyer said.
2) In a statement, Thierry Herzog said the complaint accused the Web site of the weekly newsmagazine Nouvel Observateur of having made the story up. The charges, which include "using falsehoods," are punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of up to euro45,000 (US$65,560).
3) The report, posted Wednesday, alleged Sarkozy sent his ex-wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, an SMS reading "If you come back, I'll cancel everything" eight days before his marriage last Saturday to top model-turned-singer Carla Bruni.
4) He got no response, the report said. It did not provide any other details about the alleged SMS or say where it got the information.
5) The report alleged that despite his high-profile romance with Bruni, "Nicolas Sarkozy's real obsession was and remains Cecilia Sarkozy." Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy ended their 11-year marriage in October.
6) Bruni and Sarkozy went public with their relationship in December, less than a month after they reportedly met. Photographs of the couple strolling hand-in-hand in the ruins in Petra, Jordan and frolicking on the beach at an Egyptian resort have made the front pages of newspapers.
7) The report cites unnamed witnesses as saying Sarkozy appeared "less happy that one could have imagined" during his wedding to Bruni.
8) The two tied the knot in a discreet ceremony Saturday in the presidential Elysee Palace before about 20 friends and family members. Those present included Mathilde Agostinelli, a PR director for luxury brand Prada and one of Cecilia Sarkozy's closest friends, the report said.
9) The wedding was the third for 53-year-old Sarkozy, who has three sons. It was the first for Bruni, who has a young son from a previous relationship. A longtime top model, Bruni, 40, has reinvented herself as a singer in recent years.
10) Thursday's legal complaint was aimed at guaranteeing fair treatment for the French leader, lawyer Herzog said.
11) "The president doesn't want to be treated any better or any worse than any other citizen," Herzog told The Associated Press.
12) Earlier this week, Sarkozy and Bruni won a lawsuit against the low-cost Irish airline Ryanair, which was ordered to pay a euro60,001 (US$88,975) for creating an advertisement featuring a photo of the couple.
13) The advertisement, which appeared in Le Parisien newspaper on Jan. 28, showed Sarkozy and Bruni gazing skyward, with a think bubble over Bruni's head reading, "With Ryanair, my whole family will be able to attend my wedding." Sarkozy and Bruni had filed separate lawsuits seeking damages for the carrier's use of the image for commercial purposes without permission.


Sarkozy pledges more police, better schools for riot-hit French neighborhoods
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Friday to better police, educate and integrate residents of heavily immigrant housing projects as part of a sweeping plan for poor neighborhoods that exploded in riots in 2005.
2) The three-week explosion of car burnings and other violence in housing projects around the country woke France up to the seething anger among young people over discrimination, joblessness and alienation. Many of the rioters were Arab or black, French-born children or grandchildren of immigrants from France's former colonies. Riots broke out again last year.
3) The conservative, tough-talking Sarkozy on Friday announced the deployment of 4,000 more police to the poor suburbs over the next three years and declared a "war without mercy" against drug traffickers.
4) He also proposed moving students out of the "worst" housing project schools into better ones nearby -- and directly addressed the racism that faces many youths of immigrant background but that is often a taboo subject in France.
5) "Together we will build a France proud of its diversity," he said, adding that young people should not have a hard time getting work because of the color of their skin.
6) "There are neighborhoods in our country, in our democracy, in our Republic where people have fewer rights, fewer chances than others," the president said.
7) French census takers do not count people by race or religion, and independent efforts to make such calculations are often resisted by those who say it violates the country's principles of "egalite," or equality.
8) Reaction to the plan was mixed among the guests in the gilded halls of the presidential palace where Sarkozy announced the long-awaited plan. The guests included many people from the areas the plan is aimed at, including young people, local officials and people from neighborhood associations.
9) Sarkozy, as interior minister before his election as president last year, elicited anger in the housing projects by calling young delinquents "scum" and through his crackdowns on immigration.
10) But during his election campaign, he pledged what he called a Marshall Plan for France's suburbs, and assigned Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara, whose parents came from Algeria, to come up with a vast project for to improve the situation.
11) Sarkozy did not give an overall cost for the plan, but said that euro500 million ($728 million) would go toward ending the isolation of the suburban housing projects, mostly through public transport efforts.
12) "We will put an end to the law of gangs, the law of silence, the law of trafficking," Sarkozy said, by installing new intervention teams mobilized day and night against an underground economy that he said was poisoning the lives of the neighborhoods.
13) The details of his schools plan remained unclear. Sarkozy asked education officials to study ways of moving primary school students out of schools that were "most in difficulty." He also urged the opening of more private schools in such neighborhoods.
14) Amara announced outlines of the "Suburbs Plan" Jan. 22, but Sarkozy said he wanted a say, and the plan released Friday appeared to have several new measures.
15) Sarkozy noted that past government plans have failed to overcome the ills of housing projects, and vowed that this plan would break the pattern.


French president lays out plan to heal inequalities
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Friday to transform a fractured France into a land with equal rights for all with a plan to make heavily immigrant housing projects that exploded in violence in 2005 new zones of opportunity.
2) The much-awaited project fell short of the "Marshall Plan" for the projects Sarkozy promised when he ran for the presidency. No budget was announced.
3) "Yes, as we all know, there are neighborhoods in France where it is more difficult than anywhere else to make it, to succeed, to realize one's ambitions, one's dreams," Sarkozy said before 1,000 guests, including officials and residents of the projects.
4) "There are neighborhoods in our country, in our democracy, in our republic, where people have fewer rights, fewer chances than others."
5) Sarkozy ticked off initiatives to create jobs, put dropouts back in school and create public transport to bridge the gap between isolated housing projects in outer suburbs and the cities they circle.
6) The state will contribute euro500 million ($728 million) to create new trains and tramways, Sarkozy said. It was the only figure provided for any of the measures in the sweeping plan.
7) Sarkozy insisted that, unlike a string of failed plans over 20 years, this one was not about changing the urban landscape but about changing the mind-set of project inhabitants -- and the French at large.
8) "What I call on you to do is not only to break the urban ghettos but also the intellectual, cultural, social ghettos, the psychological ghettos," the president said. He said principles of diversity should be inscribed in the preamble to the constitution.
9) Sarkozy addressed the racism that many youths of immigrant background face, a subject that is often taboo.
10) Three weeks of riots in November 2005 in housing projects across France woke up a nation that was largely unaware of the anger, despair and inequality in its midst. Many of the rioters were Arab or black, French-born children or grandchildren of immigrants from France's former colonies.
11) A new flare-up in November in one Paris suburb underscored fears that the unrest could explode again.
12) As interior minister in 2005, Sarkozy provoked anger in the projects by calling young delinquents "scum."
13) The new plan calls for deploying 4,000 extra police over three years in sensitive neighborhoods. It also envisions recruiting "citizen volunteers" to become involved in neighborhood security and be a link between local populations and police.
14) Sarkozy vowed a "war without mercy" against drug traffickers.
15) "We will put an end to the law of gangs, the law of silence, the law of trafficking," he said, by installing new "intervention teams" mobilized day and night against an underground economy "poisoning the lives of the neighborhoods."
16) To lower the school dropout rate -- 150,000 students annually -- the president announced a list of measures from expanding a network of "second chance schools" to take in up to 20,000 dropouts by 2012 to a three-year experiment with a busing system that will take fourth and fifth graders in low-performing schools to ones with better success rates.
17) Among plans to get project youth on job rolls, Sarkozy said 20,000 youth wanting to start a company would be given professional guidance and 45,000 would be offered special "autonomy contracts" under which they would received training and be put on the job track.
18) No applause, and plenty of polite skepticism filled the gilded halls of the presidential Elysee Palace after the speech.
19) Hassan Ben M'Barek, president of the association Citizenship and Democracy, said he did not believe the plan "meets expectations."
20) "It's too bad that so much importance is given to the security issue when the relations between police and youth are already tense," he said.
21) "That the republic is catching up with its mistakes is good," said Claude Dilain, mayor of Clichy-Sous-Bois, the Paris suburb where the 2005 riots started. However, some aspects of the plan are "a bit unrealistic," he said, like encouraging elite private schools to locate in problem neighborhoods.
22) The opposition Socialist Party claimed that the plan simply recycled old measures and lacked vision.
23) Sarkozy had asked Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara to come up with a vast project to address the problems. But he complained that her plan needed "boosting" and took a personal role.
24) "The president ... has launched a new dynamic," Amara said later. "He is giving us a roadmap."


Sarkozy ' s son splits with French leader ' s own anointed candidate in mayoral race
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's home base was in political disarray a month before municipal elections, with his son breaking ranks Sunday with the president's favored candidate for City Hall.
2) The race in the posh Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine -- where Sarkozy long served as mayor -- has shaped up as a test for the president, whose poll numbers have fallen recently and whose once-hearty appetite for reform has shrunk.
3) The elections in around 36,000 French cities, towns and villages are the first nationwide polls since Sarkozy was elected president last May -- and some in his conservative UMP party fear its candidates will be punished by voters who are disappointed with Sarkozy.
4) In one of the most high-profile races, Sarkozy had supported his presidential spokesman, David Martinon, as the party's top candidate in Neuilly. Jean Sarkozy, 21, the second of the president's three sons, had often been on the campaign trail alongside Martinon.
5) But after Le Figaro daily reported Saturday that a "confidential" poll there showed Martinon was trailing behind another conservative, a cloud of doubt has swirled about the spokesman's candidacy.
6) Jean Sarkozy and two political allies said Sunday that they were breaking ranks with Martinon -- who has faced criticism because he only recently moved to Neuilly -- and forming their own list of candidates for mayor and city council. They did not specify who would head the list as the mayoral hopeful.
7) Neuilly "asks for people who are deeply attached to it, that it knows, in whom it has confidence," Jean Sarkozy told reporters in the city's center.
8) "The party's rank-and-file want us to assume our responsibilities," he said, "and when they see that we're headed straight into a wall, they ask us to keep an eye on the trajectory."
9) Jean Sarkozy did not specify the reasons for the rupture with Martinon, and declined to comment when asked about the role played in the decision of his father, who was mayor here from 1983 to 2002. But it was highly unlikely that the president was unaware of the political mutiny involving his son.
10) "I recognize that there's a bit of confusion today. That's the least we can say," UMP secretary-general Patrick Devedjian said on France-2 television. He said local party leaders would meet Monday to clarify their candidate slate.
11) The president's office declined immediate comment. Martinon, who had been expected to canvass Sunday at a Neuilly market, called off the planned appearance and declined to speak to reporters. In a text message to The Associated Press, Martinon said he would not join Sarkozy's entourage for a trip late Sunday to French Guiana, as had been originally planned.
12) Francois Bayrou, a center-right lawmaker who ran and lost against Sarkozy in the election last year, told reporters in Paris the disavowal of Martinon smacked of "royal court" intrigue -- and criticized Sarkozy's way of blurring his family life with his political activities.
13) Sarkozy's poll numbers have dwindled over the last few months , jeopardizing his reforms. The government last week backed off a plan to increase the number of taxi driver licenses -- part of efforts to create jobs -- after strikes by cab drivers out of fear of new competition.
14) Nearly two-thirds of the members of Sarkozy's Cabinet are standing for the municipal election. In France, it is not unusual for government ministers to simultaneously serve in elected positions such as mayor or lawmaker.
15) Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Defense Minister Herve Morin, and Justice Minister Rachida Dati are among candidates. The elections take place March 9 and March 16.


Your Majesty Sarkozy? Critics say French president has whims fit for a king
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1) It sounds like a page of intrigue from the French history books: First, the king casts off his queen and weds anew, then the golden-haired prince plots the back-stabbing of a courtier who was a favorite of the ex-queen.
2) Yet this is modern-day France, and the tumultuous tale concerns President Nicolas Sarkozy.
3) The public has been riveted by Sarkozy's divorce from his ex-wife, Cecilia, and his wedding three-and-a-half months later to model Carla Bruni. The Sarkozy saga took another twist this weekend when his 21-year-old son, Jean, burst onto the political scene to do his father's dirty work -- publicly rescinding the first family's support for a mayoral candidate who had been a favorite of the ex-first lady.
4) The candidate, David Martinon, is in the uncomfortable position of staying on as Sarkozy's press secretary, while being forced to drop out of the mayoral race in the leafy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Sarkozy's critics see Martinon's rapid promotion and demotion as a sign the president feels free to follow his every whim and to wield absolute power over his collaborators.
5) In short, they gripe, Sarkozy is behaving like The Sun King, as King Louis XIV was known, and his family and advisers are the royal court.
6) "How does the royal court function?" complained Francois Bayrou, a centrist politician who came in third in the presidential race in April and May. "Through favoritism and falls from grace."
7) Lucienne Button, the Socialist mayoral candidate for Neuilly, remarked: "On the whims of His Majesty Sarkozy, we are still witnessing palace intrigues."
8) Louis XIV, who ruled during the 17th and 18th centuries, had Madame de Maintenon, the second wife and untitled queen who influenced his decision-making. For years, Sarkozy had his second wife Cecilia, who reportedly helped him choose many Cabinet ministers.
9) Cecilia was a champion of David Martinon, a diplomat, and reportedly encouraged Sarkozy to name him as the Elysee Palace press secretary and send him to campaign for the mayor's race in Neuilly -- symbolic terrain, because Sarkozy cut his own political teeth as mayor there. French media often call Neuilly Sarkozy's "fiefdom."
10) But Sarkozy and Cecilia divorced in October. And many in Neuilly did not appreciate Martinon because he was "parachuted" in from Paris to run for office. Jean Sarkozy -- the spitting image of his father, despite his wavy shoulder-length blond hair -- had been campaigning for Martinon. Amid signs the run was struggling, Jean Sarkozy and several other supporters withdrew their backing Sunday.
11) Martinon officially pulled out of the race on Monday. He also offered to resign as Sarkozy's press spokesman, but Sarkozy turned down his offer. Martinon seems to have an uncanny ability to roll with Sarkozy's punches: He managed to keep his job last autumn even after the president publicly called him an "imbecile" before storming out of an interview with American television network CBS.
12) Sarkozy's conservative party, the UMP, said the president didn't get involved in the drama of the weekend. But observers say it would have been impossible for Jean Sarkozy to take part in such a coup without his father's support.
13) Jean Sarkozy, whose mother is Sarkozy's first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli, is the second of Sarkozy's three sons. He did not immediately say who he would support in the race, but his role leaves him open to take a position in the Neuilly City Hall. The UMP party said Monday that it could not rule out he might run for mayor -- though that is an unlikely prospect, as it would leave the president open to charges of nepotism.
14) The president's critics often accuse him of wielding too much power, pointing out that he has taken over functions that traditionally belonged to the prime minister and that he wants to change the constitution to strengthen the presidency. The refrain from critics -- Sarkozy as monarch -- has crescendoed as his popularity has tumbled.
15) A poll released Monday by the CSA agency for Le Parisien newspaper and itele TV station suggested that Sarkozy's approval rating is only 42 percent, down six points from a month ago. Another survey released the same day by Ipsos for Le Point magazine put his approval rating at 39 percent, down 10 points in a month.
16) While the French say purchasing power is their No. 1 concern, many also were uncomfortable with Sarkozy's high-profile courtship of Bruni -- including the couple's use of a private jet on vacation and their exchange of lavish presents, not to mention their constant presence in the tabloid media. The two married Feb. 2.
17) Segolene Royal, the Socialist who was Sarkozy's runner-up in the presidential election, says Sarkozy's openness about his love life harkens back to the royal spectacle at Versailles, where hundreds of people once traipsed through the king's chambers to pay him homage from morning to night.
18) She told Europe-1 radio last month: "Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to make the events of his private life into public events, like Louis XIV did."


Party official: Sarkozy ' s son will not run in suburban Paris mayoral race
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 21-year-old son will not stand for mayor in a wealthy Paris suburb, the leader of the conservative UMP party said Tuesday, putting an end to speculation about the young man's intentions.
2) That news was the latest installment in a local political drama that has riveted the nation because it touches on the centers of power in France and, some believe, reflects its inner workings.
3) Jean Sarkozy burst onto the political scene over the weekend in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine -- long the political bastion of the president -- by publicly disavowing the candidate his father had selected to run as mayor.
4) The candidate -- David Martinon, the president's chief spokesman -- pulled out of the race Monday.
5) The surprise turnaround left France's governing conservatives reeling and led many to wonder about Jean Sarkozy's political ambitions.
6) Jean Sarkozy, the second of the president's three sons, "has a lot of talent, he's a smart and sensitive boy who loves politics," Patrick Devedjian, the secretary-general of the president's UMP party, told Europe-1 radio. But "his time has not come."
7) "There is no monarchy in Neuilly," Devedjian said, alluding to the fact that the president himself had long served as mayor of Neuilly, and used the post as a stepping stone toward the presidency.
8) The Sarkozy administration views winning March 9 and 16 municipal elections as a national priority. Losing Neuilly would amount to losing face.
9) There were indications that Martinon's campaign was struggling, and Jean Sarkozy and two political allies said Sunday that they were breaking ranks with him.
10) Martinon dropped out of the race and offered to resign as Sarkozy's press secretary, but the president turned down that offer.
11) The party has insisted that President Sarkozy was not involved in the Neuilly turnaround, but observers said it would have been difficult for his son to act without his father's approval.
12) Martinon, a longtime diplomat who has never stood for an election, has long been considered close to Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cecilia, whom the president divorced in October. Sarkozy married model and singer Carla Bruni a week ago.
13) Even after Martinon's departure, the situation in Neuilly remained messy. Sarkozy's UMP party could not come up with a replacement for Martinon and on Tuesday announced that it would support an outsider who was ahead in the polls. Chosen candidate Jean-Christophe Fromantin, an entrepreneur who has lived in Neuilly for more than two decades, does not even belong to the president's party.
14) The French president, 7,000 kilometers (4,200 miles) away in French Guiana, advised all concerned to calm down.
15) "Difficulties must be faced with sang-froid, with humility," he told a news conference, in a reference to the turmoil in Neuilly and sinking poll numbers.


Sarkozy urges nuclear watchdog to keep up investigations of Iranian activities
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday to stay firm in its investigations into Iran's nuclear program.
2) Sarkozy met with IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei in Paris and "encouraged the agency to pursue its investigative work in Iran for the long term and with determination," Sarkozy's office said in a statement.
3) Sarkozy "reiterated the concerns and the demands of the international community regarding Iran's nuclear and ballistic activities," it said.
4) ElBaradei is to report on the progress of his probe next month to the 35-nation IAEA board.


Sarkozy strikes back over report on his love life
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1) One of Nicolas Sarkozy's Cabinet ministers complained that journalists are behaving like vultures as they pick over his love life. Another asked reporters to leave him in peace.
2) The newly married leader's decision to break with the practice of past French presidents and expose his private life to the public has caused a dilemma for French reporters, who traditionally set themselves apart from more muckraking tabloid reporters in places like Britain.
3) But Sarkozy now feels they have crossed the line, and he's fighting back with a court case that, in theory, could send a journalist to prison.
4) What started the uproar? A report on the Web site of respected French newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur that claimed the president sent a message to his ex-wife, Cecilia, begging her to come back to him a week before his wedding to model-singer Carla Bruni. The report claimed the mobile phone text message read: "If you come back, I'll cancel everything."
5) The reporter stands by the story; Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, says it is pure fabrication. Instead of launching a suit for invasion of privacy or libel, Herzog is trying for a criminal charge usually reserved for forgery, which is punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of up to euro45,000, or about US$65,000, if proven.
6) Airy Routier, the journalist who wrote the item, says the case has "no legal basis" and hopes the court will throw it out.
7) "The sky could fall on my head, but I don't think that will happen, because I think that would be counterproductive for France's government," he said in a phone interview.
8) Several of Sarkozy's Cabinet members have lashed out at Routier and reporters in general. Human Rights Minister Rama Yade told RTL radio, "It seems like we're witnessing vultures who sniffed the odor of their prey and swooped down to attack it." Another minister, Eric Besson, said reporters should "leave him the hell alone."
9) Meanwhile, media across France are left pondering how to deal with the spotlight-loving president and his romantic life. Even if the report is true, they ask, is it news? Should it be? Le Nouvel Observateur's editor said the magazine's Web site should not have run the item, but he also faulted Sarkozy for putting his love life on display.
10) "We should not have crossed through the door he opened when he flaunted his private life," editor Jean Daniel wrote.
11) Since taking office in May, Sarkozy has been remarkably open about his romantic tumults, from his divorce from his second wife, Cecilia, in October, to his wedding Feb. 2 with Bruni.
12) France learned Sarkozy was dating Bruni when he took her to Disneyland Paris -- hardly a destination for discretion. At a news conference in January, he talked about how serious the budding relationship was.
13) Sarkozy said he wanted to embark on a new era of openness, pointing out that "everybody knew" that late President Francois Mitterrand had a longtime mistress and illegitimate daughter, though media kept the secret for most of his 1981-95 presidency.
14) "I have helped break with a deplorable tradition in our country: hypocrisy and lies," Sarkozy said at the time.
15) Sarkozy has generally seemed to take pride in cultivating good relations with media -- chatting with reporters over late-night drinks on presidential trips, for example.
16) But the relationship has soured as Sarkozy's approval ratings have plunged. Regional elections are looming next month and his conservative party could take a ballot-box beating. Some voters have been repulsed by the public nature of Sarkozy's rapid romance with Bruni, and Sarkozy seems now to feel that the limelight is not always favorable.
17) Just last month, Sarkozy had promised that his government would work on a bill to help journalists protect their confidential sources. Now the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders fears that his legal suit could force Routier, the journalist, to reveal who his source or sources were.
18) Jean-Francois Julliard, the group's research director, said that usually only happens "in questions of state security, when classified defense documents and things like that are at stake."


Son of President Sarkozy to run in one of France ' s local election contests next month
(APW_ENG_20080220.1046)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 21-year-old son is running for a post in local government as part of nationwide elections next month, the ruling conservative party said Wednesday.
2) Jean Sarkozy, who has burst onto the French political scene in recent weeks and displayed turns of phrase and intonation eerily reminiscent of his father, is seeking a post in the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris.
3) President Sarkozy, too, got his political start in the chic Paris suburb, becoming France's youngest mayor there in 1983, at age 28, and holding the reins of City Hall until 2002.
4) The younger Sarkozy's candidacy follows recent political turmoil in Neuilly, in which the president's own spokesman, David Martinon, bowed out of the mayoral race amid signs his campaign there was floundering.
5) Jean Sarkozy will run for election in a canton -- the smallest administrative segment in France -- in south Neuilly as part of local elections across France on March 9 and March 16, the president's UMP party in the town said.


Like father, like son: President Sarkozy ' s son runs for office in posh political fiefdom
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1) America has the Bushes and the Clintons, so why not a Sarkozy dynasty in France?
2) President Nicolas Sarkozy's 21-year-old son Jean, whose voice, vernacular and glad-handing verve eerily resemble those of his father, took a big step in that direction Wednesday by launching a bid for local office.
3) Jean Sarkozy is running for a seat in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the same town where his father launched his political career more than three decades ago -- at age 22 -- and later served as mayor for 19 years.
4) He will run for election in a "canton" -- the smallest administrative segment in France -- in south Neuilly as part of local contests across France on March 9 and March 16. A win would give him a seat on the council for the Hauts-de-Seine department, which groups the southwestern Paris suburbs.
5) The younger Sarkozy told a French daily that he has "things to prove" and acknowledged speaking about his political intentions with his father -- but said he did not get specific advice.
6) "He told me to be myself and assume my responsibilities," the younger Sarkozy was quoted as saying in an interview posted on the Internet site of Le Figaro newspaper. "I'm very aware of the stakes."
7) The president's poll numbers have plunged in recent weeks, with many critics faulting him for blurring his personal and political lives -- out of step with French presidential tradition -- such as in two high-profile getaways since December with former model Carla Bruni. They were married on Feb. 2.
8) Jean, and his older brother Pierre, reportedly a rap producer, are Sarkozy's sons from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli. After their divorce, Sarkozy married Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, with whom he had his third son, Louis. Their 11-year marriage ended in divorce in October.
9) Jean Sarkozy, a law student and part-time actor, has burst onto France's political scene in recent weeks, displaying turns of phrase, intonation and press-the-flesh instincts that are strikingly reminiscent of his father's.
10) The popular TV satire show "Les Guignols de L'Info," which spoofs politicians with the use of marionettes, depicts Jean with the same puppet as it uses for his father -- except taller, and with a mane of blonde hair.
11) The son's bid follows recent political turmoil in his father's political base. The president's own spokesman, David Martinon, bowed out of the Neuilly mayor's race amid signs his campaign was floundering. Jean Sarkozy often accompanied Martinon in public appearances, before unexpectedly dropping support for him on Feb. 12.
12) While it's tough to handicap the son's chances, Neuilly -- France's richest city per capita -- is known for its conservative slant, and Jean Sarkozy has the blessing of his father's governing conservative UMP party. Three rival candidates also made the deadline for bids on Wednesday.
13) President Sarkozy has long said he enjoys taking risks -- and his son's candidacy, whether encouraged by the president or not, amounts to a gamble that the family name, connections and familiarity with Neuilly will sell.
14) "It's not an appointment, it's a candidacy," Jean Sarkozy told Le Figaro. "A risk to take, and a risk I accept."


French president says he wants UNESCO to honor French cooking
(APW_ENG_20080223.0738)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy trumpeted French cuisine as the world's best, saying Saturday he wants UNESCO to honor it.
2) Sarkozy said France would be the first country to apply in 2009 for recognition of its cuisine to be included in a listing of world heritage at the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
3) "We have the best gastronomy in the world -- at least in our point of view," Sarkozy said in an inaugural day kickoff of an annual agricultural fair in Paris.
4) "We want it to be recognized among world heritage."
5) Sarkozy also said his country would defend its farming interests internationally, including at the World Trade Organization. France is the EU's top agricultural producer.


Rival criticizes President Sarkozy for remark to man at Paris fair
(APW_ENG_20080224.0846)
1) With his poll numbers sinking, is French President Nicolas Sarkozy losing his cool?
2) An opposition leader pounced Sunday and Web surfers gawked by the hundreds of thousands over video footage showing Sarkozy telling a man in a Paris crowd, "Casse-toi alors, pauvre con, va" -- a phrase whose mildest translation is: "Then get out of here, you total jerk."
3) The incident Saturday is not likely to be welcomed by Sarkozy's fellow conservatives, who are already concerned that his sinking popularity rating could damage their chances in next month's municipal elections.
4) At a Paris trade fair on Saturday while the president was working a crowd, to intermittent boos, a freelance cameraman caught on tape an unidentified man telling Sarkozy not to touch him. The man accused Sarkozy of "dirtying me."
5) Sarkozy briskly snapped out his surprising rejoinder. He then moved on, continued to smile and shake hands with others along his path, saying "Merci." AP Television News received a copy of the video from the freelance cameraman.
6) Le Parisien newspaper posted a video of the incident on its Internet site, and it tallied more than a half-million views by Sunday afternoon.
7) Socialist leader and frequent Sarkozy critic Francois Hollande, speaking Sunday on Canal Plus TV, said Sarkozy was out of line and that it was "intolerable ... that the president isn't exemplary."
8) The incident had echoes of an expletive that U.S. President George W. Bush, while first running for the White House, used on an open microphone to describe a reporter.
9) Sarkozy's less-formal, and at times in-your-face, approach to governing has rankled many in France, where elite political classes long held sway. He has prided himself on frank, direct talk and for not hiding his policies or persona.
10) In recent weeks, Sarkozy has sought to impose a "much more direct, even head-on style of leadership," and the remark was one example, said Pascal Perrineau, head of the Cevipof think tank.
11) "I don't think the French people, in their hearts, expect this type of activity," he told France-Info radio. "They believe presidential duties ... should be imbued with a certain distance, majesty and reserve."
12) The president's spokesman, David Martinon, did not respond to a call to his mobile phone, and a lower-level official in the presidential press office declined to comment on the incident.
13) Sarkozy bared a short fuse last year by calling Martinon an "imbecile" before storming away from an interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes."
14) Sarkozy has engaged in public shouting matches and used tough language from time to time over his political career. While interior minister in 2005, he angered many residents from poor housing projects by calling young delinquents "scum."
15) The president has seen his popularity sink in recent months. Some voters have been put off by Sarkozy's flaunting of his romance over the last few months with former supermodel Carla Bruni, whom he wed Feb. 2, at a time when many French are more worried about pocketbook issues and the creaky state of France's economy.
16) A poll in the weekly Journal du Dimanche published Sunday showed 38 percent of respondents were very or partly satisfied with Sarkozy this month, down nine percentage points from January. The remainder said they were partially or very dissatisfied.
17) The phone poll of 1,879 adults was conducted Feb. 14-22 by Ifop agency. No margin of error was provided.


Sarkozy says he shouldn ' t have lost his cool
(APW_ENG_20080226.1176)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he shouldn't have lost his cool and used an expletive to berate a man who insulted him -- an exchange caught on camera that became an Internet sensation.
2) "It would have been better if I didn't respond to him," Le Parisien newspaper's Tuesday edition quoted Sarkozy as saying in a panel interview with its readers.
3) Sarkozy was shaking hands at an agriculture fair Saturday when a man in the crowd asked Sarkozy not to touch him because it would get him "dirty."
4) Video of the episode showed Sarkozy telling the man to get lost and using an expletive in a phrase whose mildest possible translation is: "Get out of here, you poor jerk."
5) On the Internet, the video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
6) Le Parisien quoted Sarkozy as telling its reader panel: "It is difficult even when you're the president not to respond to an insult. ... Just because you're president, that does not mean people can use you as a doormat."
7) The newspaper said the presidential office had "amended and corrected" the interview before the newspaper published it, a practice not uncommon in France.
8) Presidential adviser Franck Louvrier said that what was published "was similar to what was said ... in the same spirit as the oral" version.
9) Rival politicians have roundly criticized Sarkozy's outburst at the agricultural fair as unpresidential.
10) The president's poll numbers have slid dramatically in the past few months. A survey by the IFOP agency published Sunday in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper said Sarkozy's approval rating is at 38 percent, down 9 points in a month.
11) Some voters have been put off by Sarkozy's flaunting of his romance over the last few months with former model Carla Bruni, who he married Feb. 2, at a time when many French are more worried about pocketbook issues and France's economy.


France ' s president announces
(APW_ENG_20080228.0635)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says all his country's defense accords with African countries will be re-negotiated.
2) Sarkozy, speaking at a news conference in South Africa, was promising more details of what he called a "major turning point" during a speech later Thursday before the South African parliament. He says proposals for changes already had been made through diplomatic channels.


France ' s president announces
(APW_ENG_20080228.0767)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans a major overhaul of his country's policy toward African countries.
2) According to Sarkozy's speech to the South African parliament Thursday, France's policies should "reflect the Africa of today and not the Africa of yesterday."
3) He says the former colonial power has no interest in keeping forces in Africa indefinitely.
4) France has thousands of troops at four military bases in Africa. Sarkozy says the military presence is based on out-of-date accords.


France ' s president announces
(APW_ENG_20080228.0931)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a major overhaul of his nation's policies toward Africa on Thursday, saying that its military agreements were outdated and it had no interest in keeping its forces permanently on the continent.
2) Sarkozy told the South African parliament that he would re-negotiate all defense agreements dating to the end of the colonial era in the 1960s. France is often accused of propping up African dictators and ignoring cronyism and corruption. In future, relations would be more open and transparent, Sarkozy said.
3) "Defense agreements must reflect the Africa of today and not yesterday," he said, describing many of the existing contracts as "obsolete."
4) "We are now in the 21st century as opposed to the 20th century."
5) "It is unthinkable that the French army should be drawn into domestic conflicts," Sarkozy said. He said the new policy marked a "major turning point" for the former colonial master.
6) France has thousands of troops at four military bases in Africa, the largest at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The other bases are at Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and in Senegal and Gabon in West Africa. France has also troops in Ivory Coast, Chad and Central African Republic.
7) Sarkozy did not say whether any of the bases will be closed, although French media have speculated that this may happen.
8) Sarkozy arrived in South Africa after a brief stopover in Chad, an oil-rich, coup-prone former French colony that has been beset by low-level insurgencies for nearly a decade, and has never known real democracy.
9) When rebels besieged Chad's capital earlier this month, French forces helped evacuate foreigners and gave logistical support to the government, including transporting munitions from Libya and protecting the airport.
10) Critics say French intervention helped support a bad regime. But Sarkozy emphasized that he did not authorize French troops to get involved in the fighting or shoot any Africans and said this was "unprecedented" and indicative of future policy.
11) France is playing a key role in a planned 3,700-strong peacekeeping force, known as EUFOR to protect refugees from Darfur and others caught up in the turmoil along Sudan's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.
12) Sarkozy said that in future France also wanted to pay greater attention to human rights and democracy, describing delays in free and fair elections in Ivory Coast and Chad as "unacceptable." The same applied to Zimbabwe, he said.
13) France's relationship with leaders in its former colonies has benefited both sides, with France receiving support at the United Nations from African regimes and access to the continent's natural resources. African leaders in turn have reaped aid and some might not have survived without French military backing.
14) Sarkozy, who was elected in May, has insisted that he wants a "healthier relationship" with Africa.
15) "Africa must take on its own security issues and problems," he said. Policing was a role for the African Union and regional African organizations, and France would help those organization play a more active decisive role in peacekeeping, the French leader said.
16) Sarkozy announced an initiative to mobilize euro2.5 billion (US$3.8 billion) in new investment in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years. He said this would finance 2,000 companies and help create 300,000 new jobs.
17) The French leader stressed that the country's relationship with South Africa, never a French colony, should serve as a model for the new African relationships. At a news conference and in his speech he kept emphasizing the strength of ties and depth of consensus -- and the invaluable role that South Africa plays on the world stage.
18) Sarkozy's new wife, model Carla Bruni, watched his speech from the public gallery. She visited an employment project for women in the impoverished township of Khayelitsha, and was due to join him at a visit to an AIDS clinic. She met on Wednesday with the wives of opposition leaders in Chad who have disappeared.
19) Sarkozy is accompanied by 40 French business leaders including chief executive officer Ann Lauvergeon of AREVA, which built South Africa's Koeberg nuclear power plant and has bid against a consortium led by Westinghouse Corp. of the United States to build a second one.
20) South Africa is suffering from energy shortages that have badly hurt its mining sector, and sees the expansion of its nuclear energy program as the way to solve the crisis in the long term.
21) Sarkozy said he would send a team of French engineers in the coming days to try to help South Africa overcome its energy problems, but stressed that this was unrelated to the AREVA bid.
22) The two presidents also signed a number of bilateral agreements covering energy, transport, science and tourism.


Germany ' s Merkel meets France ' s Sarkozy, who stresses common interests
(APW_ENG_20080303.1258)
1) Chancellor Angela Merkel met on the sidelines of a technology conference Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who stressed the two sides' common interests following recent reports of discord.
2) France is this year's partner country at the annual CeBIT trade and technology fair in Hanover, and Sarkozy traveled to the central German city for the opening ceremonies. He was meeting Merkel for bilateral talks afterward.
3) The postponement last week of a previously planned Merkel-Sarkozy meeting and an encounter between the two countries' finance ministers generated media speculation about possible tension between Paris and Berlin.
4) Merkel has been skeptical about Sarkozy's proposal of a "Mediterranean union," advocating a wider European Union effort to engage with the bloc's southern neighbors.
5) She also has robustly defended the European Central Bank's independence, while French politicians have urged it to put the brakes on the rising euro.
6) "It is perhaps in the economic field that the Franco-German understanding which is so indispensable to our two countries and to Europe is least easy," Sarkozy said Monday. "We have to accept our differences."
7) "Not only must we make the effort to understand each other, to digest our differences in economic culture, our political questions, but we also must put it to the service of the European project," he added. "We need positive energy to advance."
8) Sarkozy noted that "our foreign policies converge to a large extent and our soldiers today are side by side in Afghanistan."


Sarkozy, gone from superstar to poll loser, faces test in France ' s local elections
(APW_ENG_20080306.0723)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy is lying low, chased by bad ratings into the stately gilded recesses of the presidential palace, all but out of sight until France votes in Sunday's municipal elections.
2) It is an unlikely state of affairs for a leader who craves the limelight and has been dubbed France's "omnipresident" for his penchant to be everywhere at once, pushing ministers aside to get the job done.
3) His ostentatious romance with supermodel-turned-first lady Carla Bruni and his tempestuous public outbursts, combined with a sluggish economy and little movement on promised reforms, have led to a catastrophic slide in the polls.
4) Now some candidates from Sarkozy's conservative party are keeping the president at arms length, fearful his unpopularity will damage their own chances in two-round elections that start Sunday and end with a runoff March 16.
5) The rival left, led by the Socialists, has the clear advantage going into the voting in nearly 36,700 cities, towns and villages across France. They hope to turn the tide after a right-wing wave of victories in the last municipal elections, in 2001.
6) Though centered on neighborhood parks, nursery schools and other local issues, the elections for mayor, deputy mayor or municipal councilor take the pulse of the nation. They can bolster -- or break -- the flagging image of the 53-year-old president and serve as a critical test of his ability to fulfill promises of reform that brought him the presidency last May.
7) Sarkozy "would be like a magician who has lost his magic" if the right suffers a major loss, said political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi. Even some lawmakers from his own party might be less likely to fall in line with his policies, he said.
8) The municipal races often have more to do with local concerns than party affiliation. But Sarkozy sought to infuse them with national import, saying two months ago that elections without a political message were "absurd."
9) Since then, the dynamics have changed, and his own popular support has waned.
10) Sarkozy now says only that he will "take into account" election results. "I have no intention of pacing my five-year mandate to local, regional or European elections ahead," he said in an interview in Thursday's daily Le Figaro.
11) Many candidates of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, have removed the party logo from their posters.
12) Former small business minister Renaud Dutreil, a UMP member who risks defeat by his Socialist adversary in Reims, capital of Champagne country, blames his troubles on "the bad winds blowing from Paris."
13) Polls show the president's popularity plummeting to as low as 37 percent while the rating of his understated prime minister, Francois Fillon, has climbed. A poll by the Ifop firm published Thursday gives Sarkozy a 41 percent popularity rating, compared to 66 percent for Fillon -- a record-setting spread.
14) A turbulent love life -- divorce, high-profile courtship, then marriage -- angry confrontations with Brittany fishermen and a bare-faced insult to a man who refused to shake his hand at the annual Paris agriculture fair have damaged the presidential image.
15) Sarkozy's fall from grace as his prime minister rides a wave of popularity shows "a serious disagreement with the public about the very conception of the presidential function," analyst Jerome Jaffre wrote recently in Le Monde.
16) Fillon -- not Sarkozy -- has been making sorties to bolster flagging candidates in key cities where the president's image problems could wreak the most havoc.
17) Traditionally, French presidents have distanced themselves from the daily process of governing, playing the role of arbiter and unifier of a sometimes divisive nation. That vision runs counter to Sarkozy's vow to modernize the country -- and to his get-things-done temperament. He has made a point of meeting with striking taxi drivers and tobacco vendors at the presidential palace.
18) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande called on voters to use the ballot box "to send a note to Nicolas Sarkozy and call him to order."
19) There is little hope that Paris, the crown jewel of the elections, can be wrenched from popular Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who took the rightist bastion in 2001. Lyon, the other big leftist win in the previous vote, also appears solidly in Socialist hands.
20) The right hopes to save other big cities like Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Toulouse. Marseille risks going left.
21) One personal loss for Sarkozy has already been registered, in Neuilly, the wealthy Paris suburb where he cut his political teeth and served as mayor for 19 years. A rebellion pushed his hand-picked candidate, presidential spokesman David Martinon, off the ballot. Sarkozy's UMP now backs a party outsider. As a consolation, Sarkozy's 21-year-old son Jean is running in low-profile cantonal elections in the region.
22) A sweep by the left could be devastating for Sarkozy, encouraging his political rivals and France's feisty unions to mobilize against reforms to tighten labor laws and perhaps causing fissures within the presidential majority.
23) "All of the right considered Nicolas Sarkozy the savior," said Parodi. "If this element disappears, it will be much more difficult for the president. He cannot impose his will as easily."
24) A full 22 ministers -- two-thirds of the government -- are running in the elections, too. If they lose their local races, that could damage their political standing.
25) Sarkozy, however, told Le Figaro there would be no big government shuffle after the vote.
26) There are some who believe that Sarkozy has simply had a run of bad luck. Boosting growth and buying power -- a key demand of the French -- cannot be quickly fixed in a morose economic climate.
27) "I think he would be pardoned if everything were going well in the country," said Emmanuel Riviere of the TNS-Sofres polling firm. But "there is too big a gap between this France that suffers and his private happiness."


French voters favor leftists in local voting seen as test for conservative Sarkozy
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1) French voters have sent a warning to President Nicolas Sarkozy and his conservative government, favoring leftists in the first round of local elections that were seen as a test for his presidency and his reform agenda.
2) Pollsters' projections showed the Socialists and their allies in the lead in key cities from Sunday's first round -- but overall, the left's lead was slim, and the decisive runoffs a week away remained an open battleground.
3) With more than 76 percent of ballots counted, candidates from Sarkozy's UMP party and its allies had 45.5 percent of the nationwide vote, according to official results from the Interior Ministry. The Socialists and their allies had 47 percent.
4) That could put the long struggling leftists on track for gains in the runoff voting March 16, reversing defeats in the last municipal voting in 2001. Voters are choosing mayors and other local leaders in more than 36,000 towns and cities nationwide.
5) While most voters chose based on local matters like maternity wards or garbage service, Sarkozy's dynamic persona loomed large over the elections. The president himself sought to infuse them with national import.
6) Analysts warned that the bid could backfire on the increasingly unpopular president, and that the overall outcome could affect Sarkozy's appetite for reforms to the euro zone's No. 2 economy.
7) Prime Minister Francois Fillon insisted that would not be the case.
8) "We will hold our course on reforms," he said Sunday night, urging voters not to confuse local issues with national ones.
9) Segolene Royal, the Socialist who lost her presidential race against Sarkozy last spring, said France was punishing Sarkozy for the rising cost of living and meager increases in pensions, among other issues.
10) "All this anger is being manifest today," Royal said.
11) The chief of Sarkozy's party, Patrick Devedjian, acknowledged that the initial results were "not good."
12) Sarkozy's once-soaring popularity ratings have withered in recent weeks amid increasing frustration with what critics call his ostentatious and impetuous presidential style. While Sarkozy's dramatic romance with Carla Bruni dominated headlines, voters pocketbook concerns remained unanswered.
13) Sarkozy won the presidency on pledges to make France more competitive by easing rigid labor laws and lowering taxes, but has pushed through mostly minor reforms. Meanwhile, inflation is up and consumer confidence down.
14) The Socialist-led left had the advantage going into Sunday's first-round elections.
15) Initial results showed that Paris City Hall looked set to stay in the hands of Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who has tried to cut car traffic and pollution and is angling for a presidential bid in 2012.
16) Leftists also hung onto power in Lyon, and were on track to oust conservatives in Strasbourg and Reims in the east and Rouen and Caen in the west, according to partial results and polling agency projections by the Ipsos and TNS-Sofres polling agencies.
17) The conservatives held their own in several cities, keeping Bordeaux and running neck-and-neck with Socialists in Marseille and Toulouse.
18) Ipsos and TNS-Sofres projected citywide results in several key cities based on the vote count at select polling stations.
19) The elections had national impact for another reason: 22 ministers, or the majority of the government, were running for local seats. Most were leading in their races, the Interior Ministry said.
20) Mayors of large cities often wield political clout beyond their constituencies, and a mayoral stint in a major metropolis is often a springboard to a government career.
21) Sunday's results were just a hint of what could happen next week.
22) Several candidates from parties across the spectrum were running in most races. That means that some towns where a Socialist candidate was in the lead Sunday, for example, could end up in conservative hands next week thanks to centrist or other swing votes.
23) Jockeying began immediately after polls closed Sunday for support from the centrist Modem party. Party chief Francois Bayrou said he would not give an overall suggestion to voters to swing left or right.
24) The far right National Front, led by outspoken nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen, earned just 1 percent. In the past, the party often played kingmaker in local runoffs.
25) Any candidate who took more than 50 percent of Sunday's vote was declared the winner outright, avoiding the need for a second round. All other races headed to a runoff involving all candidates who garnered more than 10 percent of the first-round vote.


Sarkozy ' s ' Club Med ' plan set to undergo tough scrutiny at EU summit talks
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to set up a Mediterranean Union linking European, Middle Eastern and North African nations is expected to get a rough ride from other EU leaders at a summit starting Thursday.
2) Sarkozy's scheme, first presented during his presidential campaign last year, has already undergone numerous redrafts to appease opposition within the European Union -- particularly from Germany, which fears the project would boost Paris' influence while Berlin foots the bill.
3) The Mediterranean Union is supposed be launched at a summit in Paris in July. Getting it running would be the highlight of France's turn as EU president in the second half of this year.
4) Sarkozy sees the plan as linking the nations of southern Europe to the mainly Muslim nations to the south and southeast of Europe. He hopes to build trade and political ties and tackle issues such as trade, migration and security.
5) The French leader has also suggested the Mediterranean Union could be a way of developing close ties between the European Union and Turkey, whose entry into the EU he opposes.
6) However, the idea has irked many of France's EU partners. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded that the entire EU -- not just France and its southern neighbors -- be allowed to take part, especially if the EU as a whole is being asked to contribute funds.
7) Other EU nations, including Austria, Spain, Italy and Britain, have been annoyed by the way they see Sarkozy attempting to ram through a policy they see little use for, given that the EU already has a euro2 billion-(US$3 billion-)a-year aid program for its Mediterranean neighbors.
8) "I'm waiting for a convincing French argument for why we need something completely new and different," Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said this week.
9) Skeptical diplomats are calling Sarkozy's plan the "Club Med." They expect the 27 EU leaders will give only a preliminary endorsement of a much scaled-back version of the blueprint during a summit dinner on Thursday.
10) "It will be a bitter pill for Sarkozy to swallow," said one diplomat on condition of anonymity.
11) Diplomats said elements of Sarkozy's plan have been so watered down that they are basically the same as the existing EU policies for the region, raising questions of why the French plan is needed at all. Nations that support Turkey's bid to join the EU -- like Britain and Poland -- fear Sarkozy's plan will be used to thwart Ankara's ambitions.
12) "President Sarkozy's proposal ... has so far been poorly conceived and, to say the least, awkwardly presented politically," said Michael Emerson, from the Center for European Policy Studies, a Brussels-based think-tank.
13) The EU launched the so called Euromed program in 1995 in Barcelona, Spain to foster economic, political and social reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
14) That plan also aims to create a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area by 2010. But progress has been disappointing due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the refusal of many Arab states to abide by international human rights standards.
15) In the 10 years up to 2005, the EU has doled out euro20 billion (US$30 billion) in grants and soft loans, but with little result in terms of boosting democracy or ending poverty in 10 countries stretching from Morocco to Turkey.
16) The EU also has a separate so-called Neighborhood Policy with many North African and Mideast states to develop closer trade and aid ties without the prospect of membership.
17) French officials are adamant however that their idea has value.
18) "The Union for the Mediterranean ... is a formidable bridge between two river banks, the Western world and the Arab world," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. "I hope that we will do it together, with the Germans in particular and all those others who want to take part."


President ' s party braces for loss in local elections with national risks
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party braced for a blow in Sunday's final round of municipal elections, hoping to hang on to two of France's largest cities -- and salvage its pride.
2) The campaign has dented the dynamic president's golden boy aura, and a bad loss for his party could disgrace the ruling right and compromise Sarkozy's ability to reform his sluggish nation.
3) The fear of failure centered on tight races in the rightist bastions of Marseille and Toulouse that could give the rival Socialists the country's four largest political power bases.
4) The rival Socialists took the crown jewel, Paris, in the 2001 elections, saving face despite a national loss, and were sure to keep it this time. Leftists also dominate in Lyon.
5) Despite the local character of the vote for mayors and other town officials, the elections are a barometer of a party's political strength and provide a precious grass-roots anchor. A loss for the conservative Union for a Popular Movement -- or UMP -- once led by Sarkozy, could weaken his bid to live up to his promises of economic, social and institutional reforms. He already suffers for failing to increase buying power and revive Europe's third-largest economy.
6) "His own majority would be less under the spell of the Sarkozy magic" if conservatives lose badly Sunday, said analyst Jean-Luc Parodi.
7) The outcome of the elections could hinge on voter turnout and the weight of the small, new centrist party Modem, which could play kingmaker in more than a dozen races.
8) The first-round vote March 9 gave the rival Socialists a modest lead, 47.5 percent of the vote compared with 44.4 percent. Relatively low turnout of 66.5 percent may have hurt Sarkozy: Among absent voters, up to 32 percent had backed Sarkozy in the presidential race 10 months ago, a poll by the CSA firm suggested.
9) "The municipal elections are as important as the presidential elections for residents of each district," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on a campaign swing this week.
10) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande asked voters to turn out to send "a clear message" to Sarkozy.
11) The state of affairs in the president's former fiefdom of Neuilly, the wealthy Paris suburb where he served as mayor for 19 years, was a sign of the problems brewing in his party: Sarkozy's UMP backed an outsider after its own candidate was chased out in an internal rebellion.
12) Sarkozy's plunging popularity ratings have tarnished the superstar status he brought to the usually understated presidency. Angry public outbursts and a widely publicized divorce, quick courtship and remarriage to former model and singer Carla Bruni have proved costly for Sarkozy, and left some UMP candidates fearful of the fallout.
13) The president went to Toulon last week in an outing that was officially unrelated to the elections but clearly designed to rally far-right voters whom he had lured into his camp in the presidential race -- and who are now apparently disenchanted with his performance.
14) "France cannot accept everyone," he said in a tough speech devoted to containing immigration, an emblematic theme of the far-right National Front. He spoke in the Mediterranean port city -- not far from Marseille, where UMP incumbent Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin risks an upset.
15) The CSA poll showed that UMP supporters who stayed home in the first round were mainly working class sympathizers of the extreme-right.
16) "If this electorate gets out and votes for the UMP, it could limit the size of the left's victory," said Stephane Rozes, head of the CSA polling firm.
17) The far-right party, in contention in only a dozen districts, has faded after decades as an electoral spoiler. That role has been taken on by the centrist Modem Party.
18) Modem, headed by longtime centrist Francois Bayrou, is wreaking havoc among the left and right with alliances that defy political convictions. It is backing the Socialist candidate in Marseille and the right in Toulouse.
19) UMP leaders hope to limit the damage and win 10 to 15 cities, deputy chief Dominique Paille said Friday. Whatever the result, it "will not impede the legitimacy of the president and the government," he said.
20) Not everyone agrees.
21) "There will necessarily be a national political conclusion drawn from Sunday's results," Hollande, the Socialist leader, said Friday.


Pollsters: Sarkozy ' s conservative party lags in local elections
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing conservative party suffered stinging defeats in municipal elections Sunday, losing control of key cities in a new setback for a leader beset by sinking support, polling agencies' projections showed.
2) Sarkozy's prime minister, Francois Fillon, insisted, however, that the government would forge ahead with its program of sweeping reform for France -- despite demands for a change of tack from opposition Socialists buoyed by their apparent strong showing in the elections.
3) "You can't change a great country like ours in a few months," Fillon said. "Tenacity is needed to reform."
4) He and his ministers sought to play down the projected poor showing by candidates from Sarkozy's UMP party in a string of large cities -- saying not too much should be read into what were local elections for mayors and city councilors.
5) Looked at nationally, the electorate still seemed fairly evenly divided between the left and right. Even the loss of key cities did not appear to be a giant defeat that could have hampered Sarkozy's ability to carry out promised reforms.
6) Nevertheless, the results were a sobering reminder of how the 53-year-old president has shrunk in the estimation of many voters since his election last May. Then, he was welcomed like a rock star by tens of thousands of cheering supporters in Paris. On Sunday, he did not even make an appearance -- leaving Fillon to defend his policies in a televised declaration.
7) The president has been beset by low poll ratings and complaints from opposition politicians and voters alike that he has acted in a manner unbefitting for a president with a series of angry public outbursts, a widely publicized divorce, and a quick courtship and marriage to former model and singer Carla Bruni.
8) Ten months after his election, France's economy remains sluggish and Sarkozy has backed off from or toned down some of the sweeping reforms that he promised on the campaign trail. A huge UMP loss Sunday could weaken Sarkozy's bid to live up to promises of economic, social and institutional reforms.
9) With 29 percent of the vote counted, official results showed parties of the left and right with nearly identical support. A telephone poll of voters by the CSA agency showed 49.5 percent preferred Socialist candidates and their allies, compared with 47.5 percent for Sarkozy's UMP party and its camp. No margin of error was given for the poll of 2,002 people nationwide.
10) But, because of the local nature of the elections, all eyes were focused on how the UMP would fare in key cities -- and whether the Socialists would succeed in winning some of them back. Early results and polling agency projections suggested the opposition had scored several significant victories.
11) In Perigueux, in foie-gras country in the southwest, Sarkozy's minister for education, Xavier Darcos, lost his bid to be re-elected as mayor -- by 113 votes.
12) A Socialist was in the lead in the important conservative bastion of Toulouse in the south, home to plane maker Airbus, according to projections based on partial vote counts by the TNS-Sofres and Ipsos polling agencies.
13) The projections also showed conservatives and centrists set to lose control of Strasbourg, Reims, Amiens, Metz, Saint-Etienne and Caen.
14) The race was neck-and-neck in Marseille between the UMP mayor and his Socialist challenger. Losing the crucial port city would be a big blow for the UMP.
15) Paris was expected to stay in the hands of Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, and Lyon also was in Socialist control.
16) Socialist heavyweight Segolene Royal, the candidate Sarkozy defeated in the presidential election last May, called Sunday's setbacks for Sarkozy's party "a vote of hope."
17) She said his government must "change its politics and its behavior."
18) The results threw a lifeline to the Socialists, beaten in three consecutive presidential elections over the past two decades and divided and weakened following Royal's presidential defeat.
19) Looking to capitalize on their showing, leading Socialists insisted that the two rounds of voting over two weekends across the country and in France's far-flung overseas territories represented a major setback for Sarkozy's politics.
20) Socialist former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius said the government was heading for "divorce" with the French electorate if it refuses to change its policies. He used a soccer metaphor to characterize Sunday's results, saying voters had given the government "a red card."
21) The municipal elections have less to do with party affiliation than other elections, and most voters say they cast their ballots based on local issues like parks, public transport and garbage collection. Yet the race was also a gauge of how the French rate Sarkozy's performance.
22) Bruno Marcandella, a computer engineer from Paris' Latin quarter, expressed dissatisfaction with the way Sarkozy handles "everything -- not just his personal life."
23) "I'm going to vote because I want my vote to count on a national level," he said.


Sarkozy ' s team, weakened by electoral defeat, takes on economic changes
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1) Brushing off defeat for his ruling conservative party in municipal elections, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government vowed Monday to reinvigorate the economic reform agenda that brought it to power last year.
2) But voters' rejection of Sarkozy's increasingly unpopular UMP party in Sunday's voting, combined with a sluggish economy, could stiffen opposition to plans to shake up labor markets and the welfare state.
3) "It will make some of the reforms more difficult -- those that are seen as hostile," such as pension reforms, political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi said.
4) Sarkozy is languishing in the polls just 10 months after his election. He blames the media focus on his private life, including his divorce, quick courtship of and marriage to former model and singer Carla Bruni.
5) But polls suggest that what is known in France as "the Sarko-show" is only part of the story, and that voters are increasingly pessimistic about government policies aimed at boosting purchasing power as the global economy grinds slower.
6) Since his election in May, Sarkozy has tackled pension reform among railway workers, given more autonomy to universities and loosened -- but not abandoned -- the 35-hour work week coveted by many. A deal between employers and unions made it moderately easier to fire workers, with the aim of encouraging hiring.
7) "There has been a lot of talk about reforms, but economically there has been nothing of real note," said Marc Touati, chief economist at Paris-based Global Equities, told The Associated Press. "We have to go much further."
8) Prime Minister Francois Fillon vowed "tenacity" on the reform agenda despite demands for a change of tack from opposition Socialists buoyed by their showing in the elections.
9) "You can't change a great country like ours in a few months," he said.
10) Government spokesman Laurent Wauquiez said voters seemed to want results from promised reforms "faster in their daily lives."
11) He said Sarkozy would "take into account the message expressed by the French." Wauquiez downplayed speculation of a major Cabinet shake-up, but said there would be "adjustments."
12) Four Cabinet members lost their bids for mayorships. Among them was Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, whose task has been to help revive a poorly performing economy. In France, Cabinet members can also hold elected office.
13) Some analysts have speculated that Lagarde could be a casualty of a government reshuffle. As recently as late last month, Sarkozy expressed his "admiration" for the first woman finance minister from a Group of Seven nation.
14) An official from the president's office, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement is not expected until Wednesday, said no government minister will be fired.
15) Since he faced down striking railway workers last year, Sarkozy has backed off from or toned down some of the sweeping reforms that he promised on the campaign trail last year -- such as the introduction of a single work contract.
16) For his second wave of reforms, a commission appointed by Sarkozy in January presented a sweeping 300-point plan to boost France's sluggish growth rate. Among the many ideas: Removing restrictions on businesses, store hours, immigration and retirement ages.
17) But shortly after the panel's recommendations were published, the president was already ruling out several suggestions amid signs of public disgruntlement in the run-up to the elections. Those suggestions included liberalizing some of France's heavily regulated industries, such as the taxi and pharmacy sectors.
18) Voters ousted Sarkozy's party from office in a string of towns and cities Sunday. Looked at nationally, partial official results showed parties of the left leading slightly, with 48.7 percent of the total vote compared with 47.6 percent for the right.
19) Despite the result, most voters in a survey published by CSA polling agency said they wanted the reforms to continue, and considered purchasing power their No. 1 concern.
20) Stephane Rozes, head of CSA, said voters were failing to see "coherence" in Sarkozy's reform agenda so far.
21) Another question is whether the government would stand firm against street protests that would likely meet more painful reforms in labor protections and public services.
22) In a research note published before Sunday night's result, Lehman Brothers economist Alastair Newton said Sarkozy "may feel able to return to his reform agenda" once the balloting is over, and with no more major elections until 2012.
23) But he said a "significant electoral defeats" and the continuing economic slowdown could make the UMP "increasingly cautious" about taking tough measures in the public sector or health care, or about freeing up the retail sector.
24) Public finances pose another problem. After years of running up public debt, the government has little budget maneuver to sweeten reforms.
25) Reeling since Sarkozy defeated their candidate, Segolene Royal, in May, the Socialists could now bounce back after the municipal results as a more forceful opposition.


Sarkozy pushing ahead with reforms but adjusting image, government after French electoral loss
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1) President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he would see through reforms promised during his campaign because France's economy needs them.
2) The president was making adjustments to his image and his Cabinet in the wake of electoral losses but said he would stay the course with economic and other changes.
3) In his first public comments about policy since his conservative party suffered sweeping defeats in local elections Sunday, Sarkozy said he would making "continue changes that are necessary."
4) "It is not a question of ideology, it is not a question of policy, it is not even a question of left and right. It is a question of good sense," Sarkozy said.
5) "Our country should proceed with the changes necessary to rehabilitate work, allow people to work more, to allow better universities," he said.
6) He said it was especially necessary to "modernize our economy," given world financial troubles, high oil prices and the strong euro.
7) "All these problems should encourage us to make changes instead of encouraging us to turn in on ourselves," he said.
8) "That is my job. I was elected to pursue this policy, and this is the policy I will pursue," he said. He was speaking during a visit to the tomb of a World War II Resistance chief in Le Petit-Bornand in eastern France.
9) Some analysts have questioned whether Sarkozy would have the political will to push through with painful promised reforms after Sunday's vote.
10) Sarkozy was expected to make minor government changes Tuesday or Wednesday that leave major ministries untouched.
11) Sarkozy's poll ratings had been sinking for weeks ahead of Sunday's elections, which dealt a stinging defeat to the president's party and boosted the rival Socialists' political standing.
12) While most voters chose mayors and city councilors based on local concerns, a substantial minority used the election to punish Sarkozy, according to pollsters. Polls also showed many voters think Sarkozy should act more "presidential."
13) Sarkozy, 53, has made clear he has no intention of cutting back on promised reforms to the French economy and society, but officials have indicated he is willing to try to win back popular support by adjusting his image and his approach.


Sarkozy ' s style makeover: less in-your-face, more statesmanlike
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1) Does this mean bye-bye to the bling-bling presidency? Just 10 months after his election, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is giving himself an image makeover, trading in his flashy style for a more dignified demeanor.
2) Newspapers nicknamed Sarkozy the "bling-bling president" because of his affinity for Rolexes, private yachts and putting his love life on display. But with his approval ratings dropping, and after voters punished him by snubbing his conservative party in local elections, Sarkozy has spent the past week trying to look more presidential.
3) Sarkozy channeled Charles de Gaulle -- general, Resistance leader and statesman -- as he marked the death of France's last World War I veteran, paid homage to World War II Resistance heroes and toured a new state-of-the-art nuclear submarine named "Le Terrible."
4) The visit Friday to the submarine building site in Normandy, where de Gaulle was the last president to visit in 1967, was the occasion for a stern speech about nuclear deterrence and disarmament, followed by a rendition of La Marseillaise.
5) It also provided the perfect photo op to remind France he is commander-in-chief: Sarkozy in a stately blue overcoat, descending into the submarine with a firm grip on the ladder.
6) Next stop is Britain on Wednesday and Thursday, where Sarkozy will meet Queen Elizabeth II and lay a wreath at a de Gaulle statue there. A French official said Sarkozy hoped that by meeting the queen and following the protocol of a royal visit, he will appear as the rightful heir to the presidential legacy.
7) "He will stand in a way he has never done before. It's important for the French to see him like that," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the trip.
8) Sarkozy may be taking a cue from pollsters who analyzed why his conservative UMP party lost cities including Toulouse, Strasbourg, Amiens, Caen, Rouen and Reims in local elections that ended March 16.
9) A CSA-Dexia poll said 58 percent of respondents said he should "adopt a more presidential style." Some 67 percent of voters wanted the government to continue its reforms -- confirmation that the problem is more about style than substance.
10) Stephane Rozes, head of CSA, believes Sarkozy's advisers didn't dare tell him he was exposing his personal life too much.
11) Sarkozy believed that "even if the country was unhappy with him, the country had no other choice but to continue to look at him," Rozes said. "After the local elections, he is taking the country's expectations into account. Things are requiring him to change his attitude."
12) Voters elected Sarkozy in May partly because of his no-nonsense, direct demeanor -- in contrast to former President Jacques Chirac, known for eloquence but not for getting things done. Sarkozy's image was in line with his vision of remaking France into a business-friendly land of opportunity.
13) The reforms have not come as fast as Sarkozy hoped. He managed to push through tax cuts and to trim retirement benefits for some transit employees, navigating a 9-day rail strike in the meantime, but he either caved in on or watered down many other planned reforms, from the taxi sector to higher education.
14) In the meantime, many believed Sarkozy's high-flying style spiraled out of control as he enjoyed the spoils of victory. Sarkozy spent election night celebrating with friends at Fouquet's, a cafe on the Champs-Elysees popular with the jet-set. Then he borrowed a private yacht from a billionaire friend to relax before taking office.
15) There was also the soap opera of his love life, which France quickly tired of. He divorced his second wife, Cecilia, in October, and reportedly began dating model-singer Carla Bruni the following month. Their quick courtship, leading up to a February wedding, annoyed many French for its glitz -- they borrowed a private jet from the same billionaire friend for a vacation and reportedly lavished each other with expensive presents -- a Patek Philippe watch for him, a Dior ring for her.
16) Meanwhile, with all of France worried about the growing cost of living, Sarkozy proclaimed himself helpless to do anything, though he had made it an election promise. It does not help that the economy is stagnant, with growth slowing to 1.9 percent last year from around 2.0 percent in 2006.
17) The final straw came when Sarkozy used an expletive to brush off a man who insulted him as he worked the crowd at an agriculture fair. The video became a hit online.
18) The president's approval ratings have dropped to around 40 percent from a high of around 65 percent in July. Until now, Sarkozy hasn't done much to fix them.
19) "The magician didn't realize his wand was broken," said political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi. "The magic isn't lost, but it will take a long time to repair."


Sarkozy says he cannot rule out possibility of boycotting Beijing opening ceremony
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he cannot rule out the possibility he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, if China continues its crackdown in Tibet.
2) Asked whether he supported a boycott, Sarkozy said he could "not close the door to any possibility." A spokesman for the president confirmed that Sarkozy was referring to a possible snub of the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.
3) "Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible," the president said during a visit with a military regiment in southwest France.
4) Sarkozy also said he had told Chinese President Hu Jintao of his concern, asking for restraint and the end of violence through dialogue in Tibet. Sarkozy also disclosed contacts between his office and that of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
5) "I have an envoy who spoke to the authorities who are closest to the Dalai Lama," Sarkozy said. "I want dialogue to begin, and I will gauge my response on the response that the Chinese authorities give."
6) Violent protests in Tibet, the most serious challenge in almost two decades to China's rule in the region, are forcing human rights campaigners to re-examine their approach to the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games.
7) Sarkozy has come under increasing pressure to take a stance on the violence, especially after a Paris-based press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, last week appealed for an opening ceremony boycott by heads of state and government, as well as royalty.


Sarkozy and wife coming to Britain to meet with Brown, queen in two-day summit
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1) Most state visits are dry, boring affairs that generate little public interest. Fashion experts and gossip columnists stay away.
2) Not so when the cast of characters includes Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a glamorous Italian fashion model and pop singer who is now first lady of France, and Queen Elizabeth II, who will throw a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle after taking her guests on a carriage ride through the streets of Windsor.
3) Oh, and the president of France will be there, too. Nicolas Sarkozy, in trouble at home, desperately wants to leave the gossip behind and appear serious and presidential. He is banking on the two-day summit that starts in London Wednesday as a first step toward reviving his sagging popularity at home.
4) The beleaguered president, derided by some as "President Bling Bling," will address Parliament, lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, and dine with political and business leaders.
5) Analysts believe that Sarkozy's visit to Britain as an official guest of the queen offers the president a chance to show the French public that he can command respect on the world stage as a statesman, not just as a jet-setter with beautiful clothes and a striking third wife.
6) "The president is attempting to re-presidentialize his image," said Dominique Moisi, a political analyst with the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.
7) He said that Sarkozy, whose center-right party has lost a string of important local elections, is under pressure to have a successful meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to bolster his standing as France prepares to take control of the rotating European Union presidency this summer.
8) For the summit to help Sarkozy, the president and his wife must project an image that will make French citizens proud of their first couple, Moisi said.
9) "They have to behave in the proper manner that people expect from those who symbolize France," he said.
10) The agenda for Sarkozy's meetings Thursday with Brown includes a number of weighty topics: expansion of France's military role in NATO and Afghanistan, a joint nuclear energy program, immigration, and the credit crisis that has spread from the United States to Europe.
11) The timing could help shift attention away from Sarkozy's personal saga. His approval ratings have fallen as French voters have been turned off by his turbulent love life and his ostentatious taste for Ray-Ban shades and Rolex watches.
12) There will be pressure on Bruni-Sarkozy as well as she makes her first state visit as France's first lady under intense media scrutiny.
13) The British tabloid press has focused on her physical beauty -- and her prior relationships with British rock icons Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton -- amid fevered speculation about what she will wear and how she will conduct herself when she meets the queen.
14) The Telegraph Tuesday published a black and white nude photo of Bruni-Sarkozy on its web site. A print of the photo will be auctioned by Christie's in New York. The Times published sexy photos of Bruni-Sarkozy in revealing designer gowns and called her the most prominent of the "Sarko babes" -- a reference to the attractive female members of the French cabinet, who were also shown in evening wear.
15) British officials looking to improve ties with France are lavishing attention on the Sarkozys, who married in February after a whirlwind romance that drew far more attention than Sarkozy's policies.
16) Brown hopes the visit will cement his warm relationship with Sarkozy, and offer a chance to discuss France's positive new stance toward the United States, British government officials said.
17) Relations between London and Paris have improved dramatically in recent months, and Sarkozy's arrival is a chance to "put it up in lights," said a British official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the visit publicly.
18) Prince Charles and his wife Camilla will greet Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy when they land Wednesday morning at London's Heathrow Airport. They will receive a formal welcome from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the outskirts of Windsor before enjoying a carriage ride to the castle.
19) After visiting the queen, Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey -- a gesture designed to emphasize the two world wars Britain and France have fought together -- and the president will give a speech to both houses of Parliament.
20) The focus Thursday will be Sarkozy's meetings with Brown at the British prime minister's official residence in Downing Street. A host of French and British ministers will join the leaders for a summit at London's Emirates Stadium, home of the popular Arsenal soccer club, an English team with a French manager and some top French players.
21) Ministers plan to use the meetings to thrash out thorny issues including a stalled joint aircraft carrier project and slow progress on a joint call for a 26,000-strong peacekeeping unit of U.N and African Union troops for Sudan's western Darfur region.
22) Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy will visit the Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, east London, the site where the east and west hemispheres meet at zero degrees longitude, and home to a museum on timekeeping.
23) British officials said the French president requested to visit the site because of his fascination with clocks.


Sarkozy pledges troops to Afghanistan, new cooperation with UK on state visit
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in London Wednesday for a two-day state visit at which he hoped to create a "new Franco-British brotherhood" to face such issues a nuclear energy, defense, immigration, and the downturn in the global economy.
2) The French president -- accompanied by his glamorous wife, the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy -- was greeted by Queen Elizabeth II, rows of cavalrymen and a military band. He was making the first state visit to Britain by a French president in 12 years.
3) The leader nicknamed the "bling-bling president" because of his extravagant tastes, appeared reserved and somber in a dark overcoat as he reviewed the Horse Guards -- part of a concerted effort in recent weeks to appear more statesmanlike.
4) During the 36-hour trip he will be a guest of the queen at Windsor Castle, hold talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and address members of both Houses of Parliament.
5) Sarkozy is seeking to demonstrate that, under his leadership, France is putting aside differences over the 2003 Iraq war and revitalizing relations with both the U.K. and the United States.
6) In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Sarkozy said France is committed to NATO's action in Afghanistan and indicated he is willing to send more troops to the country if France's allies are also ready to stay, give Afghans more responsibility and better coordinate nonmilitary efforts.
7) "Can we afford to lose in Afghanistan?" Sarkozy told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Of course not. In Afghanistan, what is at stake is part of our battle against world terrorism."
8) Canada has warned that it will pull its 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan if other allies do not offer more help. Canada wants 1,000 more troops for anti-Taliban efforts.
9) "If all the terms and conditions are met, why not send in more troops?" Sarkozy said in the radio interview recorded in Paris, France, on Tuesday.
10) Sarkozy also stressed his admiration for what he called British strength and dynamism, calling for "a new Franco-British brotherhood."
11) "It has been long enough now that we have not been at war, that we are not wrangling," he told the BBC. "Perhaps we can move from being cordial to being friendly -- that's my first message."
12) Sarkozy's meetings with Brown on Thursday will touch on a number of weighty topics: expansion of France's military role in NATO and Afghanistan, a possible joint nuclear energy program, immigration, and the credit crisis that has spread from the United States to Europe.
13) "I believe that our talks over the next few days will be very constructive," Brown told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
14) Rows of red-jacketed mounted cavalrymen lined the route as the couple arrived at Windsor Castle and were formally received by the queen and Prince Philip.
15) Bruni-Sarkozy, in a smart high-necked gray jacket and matching hat, curtsied as she was introduced to the queen. French tricolors and Union flags fluttered from lampposts in a light breeze as the band of the Grenadier Guards played the national anthems of both countries.
16) After lunch with the queen, Sarkozy and his wife will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey -- a gesture designed to emphasize the two world wars Britain and France have fought together -- and the president will give a speech to lawmakers and peers in the Royal Gallery of Britain's Parliament.
17) Such pomp -- and the opportunity to appear dignified -- is important to Sarkozy, who is facing a France worried about the cost of living, a stagnant economy and a slowing growth rate. The malaise was typified by an outburst last month at an agriculture fair when a man in the crowd asked the president not to touch him because it would get him "dirty."
18) Video of the episode showed Sarkozy telling the man to get lost and using an expletive in a phrase whose mildest possible translation is: "Get out of here, you poor jerk."
19) The president's approval ratings have dropped to around 40 percent from a high of around 65 percent in July. The barrage of photo opportunities designed to help lift those ratings includes a state banquet later Wednesday at Windsor Castle hosted by the queen. Sarkozy has he expects guests to be impressed by his ceremonial outfit.
20) His focus Thursday will be on a series of meetings with Brown and a summit with a host of French and British ministers at London's Emirates Stadium, home of the popular Arsenal soccer club, an English team with a French manager and some top French players.
21) In an interview appearing Wednesday in France's Le Monde daily, Brown said France and Britain could work together on projects including reforms of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He suggested the World Bank could be transformed into a bank financing environmental and development projects, while the IMF could become a financial crisis alert system.
22) Ministers plan to use the summit to thrash out thorny issues including slow progress on a joint call for a 26,000-strong peacekeeping unit of U.N and African Union troops for Sudan's western Darfur region and new support for French language lessons in British schools.
23) Sarkozy, who said Tuesday he could "not close the door to any possibility" of a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, is likely to raise China's handling of protest in Tibet. Brown insists he will attend the Olympics.


Sarkozy pledges troops to Afghanistan, new cooperation with UK on state visit
(APW_ENG_20080326.0992)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will strengthen its presence in Afghanistan.
2) He says he will confirm the offer during a NATO summit next week in Bucharest, Romania.
3) Sarkozy was speaking Wednesday in London at the Houses of Parliament, but did not offer a figure for the number of troops that would be sent to Afghanistan.
4) Canada has warned it will pull its 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan if other allies do not offer more help.
5) Sarkozy is in Britain for meetings with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
6) It is the first state visit by a French leader in 12 years.


Sarkozy-Brown agree deals on defense, climate but are divided over China
(APW_ENG_20080327.1364)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended an ambitious state visit to Britain on Thursday by sealing a multibillion-pound (-dollar; -euro) defense deal and vowing to cooperate on issues from pressing the U.S. on climate change to curbing the spread of nuclear weapons technology.
2) But on a rare point of dissonance with his British host, Sarkozy said he could still boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in China -- something Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted he would not do.
3) Sarkozy and Brown showcased their warm friendship during the French leader's 36-hour trip amid pomp, ceremony and promises of a new era of cooperation.
4) As the French president charmed Brown, his glamorous wife -- the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy -- captivated the British public with her poise and elegance, winning comparisons with late Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis.
5) Sarkozy said he and Brown had worked "hand in glove" since they both took office last year, but acknowledged they were divided over a possible Olympics boycott.
6) He said that because France would hold the European Union's rotating presidency during the Olympics, he must consult with the rest of the 27-member bloc before making a final decision. France takes the EU presidency on July 1.
7) But he insisted, "I reserve the right to say whether I will attend."
8) "Depending on how the situation in Tibet evolves, I will hold back from saying whether I will or will not go to the opening ceremony and whether other initiatives should be taken," Sarkozy told a news conference at London's Emirates soccer stadium.
9) Brown has said Britain will not boycott the Olympics, and himself plans to attend the closing ceremony and carry out ceremonial duties expected of him as London will stage the next summer Olympics in 2012.
10) It was a rare point of discord. Sarkozy offered an effusive speech Wednesday to a joint sitting of the House of Commons and House of Lords, praising Britain's role in countering the threat of fascism in Europe.
11) Visiting as guests of Queen Elizabeth II -- the first state visit by a French leader in 12 years -- Sarkozy and his wife attended a grand royal banquet and laid a wreath at a statue of Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
12) The queen gave Sarkozy a ceremonial honor -- the Order of Bath -- and in turn, toasted the British monarch at a Windsor Castle banquet. "My wife and I will never forget this visit," he said.
13) Britain seems unlikely to forget his wife. Eyes have been fixed on Bruni-Sarkozy and her chic outfits; she even drew smiles from the queen as she curtsied before the monarch.
14) The French couple appeared comfortable with their royal hosts, and apparently shared a joke with the queen at Brown's expense.
15) "Has the prime minister got lost?" the queen asked Sarkozy at the start of a banquet Wednesday, caught on an open microphone as Brown failed to appear. "That's Gordon," the French president said, laughing as he and the British monarch scanned the room.
16) With Brown's wife, Sarah Brown, Bruni-Sarkozy attended a fundraising lunch Thursday for charity.
17) "I think she has been an honor to our country," Sarkozy told the news conference. "Not simply because of the way she looks, but beyond that, everyone understands ... this is a woman who has beliefs and sensitivity."
18) Following the leaders' talks at the soccer arena, Airbus parent company EADS said it had agreed an air tanker contract with Britain's defense ministry worth up to 13 billion pounds (euro16.7 billion; $26.36 billion).
19) EADS signed a US$35 billion contract to build refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force last month.
20) In a joint communique, Britain and France vowed to establish a system of "nuclear fuel assurances to reduce the proliferation risks" of the spread of nuclear technology.
21) Brown plans to host a conference later this year for non-nuclear countries who aim to develop civilian atomic power programs. London would extend an invitation to Iran, if it meets its international obligations to cease uranium enrichment, his office said.
22) Britain and France also pledged to examine expansion of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, increase representation on the U.N. Security Council and urge a new push on financial transparency, including changes to the International Monetary Fund.
23) Sarkozy rejected suggestions that his trip, in which he has repeatedly emphasized his deep affection for Britain, had been heavy on flattery, but light on substance.
24) "I don't think it's a matter of a one-night stand, I think we now go into the next day's breakfast," Sarkozy said, comparing relations between the countries to a blossoming affair, rather than a fling.
25) Britain and France will hold twice-yearly summits to discuss progress on their projects, Brown said.
26) Discussions were expected to lead to a deal between France and Britain on a joint nuclear power program to replace aging plant power plants in Britain and to export technology to non-nuclear states across the world.
27) In a break from talks, the two leaders watched a group of young people train on the soccer stadium's pitch. Sarkozy elegantly knocked a ball with the back of his heel to Brown, who collected the pass but declined to indulge the French leader's eagerness for a brief skills practice.
28) Despite his playful instinct, Sarkozy -- Sometimes nicknamed the "bling-bling president" because of his extravagant tastes -- has played the statesman on the trip, ditching his trademark sunglasses and leaving his cell phone out of view.


French parliament rejects no-confidence motion against government on Afghanistan, NATO
(APW_ENG_20080408.1081)
1) France's lower house of parliament on Tuesday rejected a motion of no confidence brought by leftist lawmakers angry about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to expand the country's role in NATO.
2) It was the first time Sarkozy's government, led by loyal Prime Minister Francois Fillon, had faced a no-confidence motion since Sarkozy's election last May.
3) The censure motion had no chance of passing because Sarkozy's party has a large majority in the National Assembly. Filing the motion, however, gave Sarkozy's rivals a chance to debate the issue in parliament for two hours.
4) Political rivals of conservative Sarkozy are unhappy about the government's decision to send 700 more troops to Afghanistan and rejoin NATO's integrated military command next year -- more than 40 years after Gen. Charles de Gaulle pulled France out.
5) The decisions were announced last week at a summit of the NATO military alliance in Romania. Both moves were a sign of Sarkozy's policy of drawing closer to the U.S.-led NATO alliance, although his speech to the summit also stressed France's desire to build up the defense role of the European Union.
6) Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande, backing the no-confidence motion, argued that France will lose its independence on military matters by closer strategic alignment with the United States.
7) "We are going to be dragged into terrains and operations where we don't want to go," Hollande argued.
8) The prime minister accused critics of "knee-jerk anti-Americanism." He insisted that France remains "an ally but not a slave" of the United States.


Sarkozy tells Chinese envoy that China should open dialogue with Dalai Lama
(APW_ENG_20080418.0714)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has told a top Chinese envoy that China should open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
2) Sarkozy made the comments during a meeting with Zhao Jinjun, a special representative for China's president and a former ambassador to France.
3) Sarkozy's office says that during Friday's meeting the two men also discussed recent events in Tibet in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
4) France has often urged China to talk to the Tibetan spiritual leader. Sarkozy has put pressure on China by keeping his options open about whether he will attend the Olympic opening ceremony.


Poll suggests French leader Sarkozy ' s approval rating continues to sink
(APW_ENG_20080420.0577)
1) Beleaguered French President Nicolas Sarkozy's approval rating continues to slip, according to a poll published Sunday.
2) Just 36 percent of respondents to the survey -- conducted by the Ifop agency for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper-- are satisfied with Sarkozy's performance, down 1 percent from March.
3) Sixty-four percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with Sarkozy, while 8 percent declined to give an answer, according to the poll -- conducted by telephone between April 10-18, with 1,867 people interviewed. No margin of error was given.
4) A separate poll released Sunday suggested a majority of French people consider Sarkozy's first 11 months in office a failure.
5) According to the poll, conducted by Viavoice for Liberation daily, 59 percent of respondents said Sarkozy's performance thus far "somewhat of a failure." Just 20 percent of respondents called it "somewhat a success," according to the poll.
6) Nineteen percent said Sarkozy's first 11 months were neither a success nor a failure, while 2 percent declined to respond. The poll was conducted by telephone interviews with 1,004 people from April 17-19. No margin of error was provided.
7) Sarkozy campaigned on promises of vast economic and social reforms, but since taking office in May, he has made relatively few concrete accomplishments. With his approval rating sinking steadily, Sarkozy has of late sought to change his busybody image and appear more statesmanlike.


Still combative but no longer adored, Sarkozy defends volatile first year as president
(APW_ENG_20080424.0749)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy bolted out of the gates as France's president, freeing imprisoned nurses from Libya, resuscitating European integration, embracing American and Israeli rivals and showering the encrusted French economy with reforms.
2) Then the world fell into financial crisis and Sarkozy fell in love with a supermodel, and the French fell out of love with him. Thursday night, Sarkozy goes on national television to defend his stormy first year at France's helm.
3) The task is daunting. A majority of respondents to one poll this week already dub his presidency a "failure." Respondents in another survey, asked which modern French president best represented their nation, ranked Sarkozy last among the seven leaders since Charles de Gaulle.
4) Thursday's 90-minute live TV interview is about more than Sarkozy's sagging image.
5) Observers say the scope of reforms to labor protections, schools and health care in the world's sixth-largest economy hinges on Sarkozy's will to push them through -- and his ability to convince the French of their importance.
6) His prime minister, fellow conservative Francois Fillon, appealed for presidential backup as he tries to loosen up France's protective economy while the population's pocketbooks and faith in the future are shrinking.
7) "I am expecting a road map for the coming weeks and months that would reset the course for reforms," Fillon said Wednesday of Sarkozy's TV appearance. Fillon said these reforms "need to be explained by the president."
8) Polls show that most voters still want reforms, even painful ones, but think Sarkozy isn't following through on campaign pledges last year of "rupture" with the past and plans to build a brave, competitive new France.
9) Sarkozy's reforms so far "are limited and complicated," said Philippe Moreau Defarges of the French Institute for International Relations. "He says that the 35-hour workweek is a bad thing, but at the same time ... he doesn't dare" get rid of it.
10) It has been only a year since Sarkozy was elected on May 6, 2007, and he has four more to go to build a legacy and change France. His aides have urged him to rein in his impatient style.
11) He set the tone immediately after taking office. He overturned political tradition by inviting opposition Socialists into his government, then hit parliament with a volley of small but symbolic laws such as reducing taxes on overtime pay and reducing the impact of strikes.
12) On the international front he was bolder. He revived the EU constitution that French voters had buried and streamlined it into a treaty that the bloc's 27 members could agree on. He helped orchestrate the release of Bulgarian medics imprisoned in Libya and mended frayed ties with the United States and Israel.
13) But Sarkozy's drive appeared to lose steam over the winter, around the time he divorced his second wife Cecilia and began courting model-turned-singer Carla Bruni.
14) His high-budget, high-profile romance soured voters feeling the pinch of global economic downturn, while Sarkozy's impetuous outbursts and a blow to his party in municipal elections made matters worse.
15) Few grand announcements were expected during Thursday's interview. Instead, Sarkozy was likely to face questions on slow economic growth and the widening budget deficit, and to play up high points like shrinking unemployment.
16) Sarkozy's normally frenetic schedule was thinned out this week -- he canceled a visit to Poland -- apparently so he could concentrate on the interview. He reportedly scheduled the interview this week instead of on the May 6 anniversary of his election to head off one-year-later criticism of his mandate.
17) Despite the president's low ratings, political analyst Jean-Luc Parodi said many voters still appreciate Sarkozy for being different from his predecessors.
18) "Strangely, there is still this idea that at least this president is trying to make things move," he said. "Even if he breaks something ... he's trying."


Still combative but no longer adored, Sarkozy defends volatile first year as president
(APW_ENG_20080424.1210)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy says he made mistakes in his first year as French president but that he remains committed to deep reforms.
2) Sarkozy says he understands "disappointment" in his leadership. His poll ratings have plunged in recent months amid frustrations that he has not lived up to campaign promises.
3) Acknowledging mistakes, he says smaller reforms pushed through so far were not explained well enough to the public.
4) Sarkozy said in a televised interview Thursday that he recognizes France is in a "bad mood" but insisted he would continue to push for change.
5) Some critics are angry at Sarkozy's economic reforms, while others are frustrated that he has not moved boldly enough on changes to labor rules, education and health care.


Sarkozy welcomes Chinese talks with Dalai Lama envoy as ' major ' step
(APW_ENG_20080425.0606)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says China's offer to meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama is a "major step" and a reason for "real hope."
2) Sarkozy has been urging Chinese authorities to resume dialogue with Tibetan leaders after a violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet earlier this year.
3) Sarkozy has threatened to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if the situation around Tibet does not improve.
4) His office says in a statement released Friday that Sarkozy welcomed the Chinese offer for talks. The offer was reported in state-run Chinese media, coming after weeks of pressure from world leaders.


France ' s president to propose Europe suspends VAT tax on fuel
(APW_ENG_20080527.0956)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday proposed cutting fuel taxes Europe-wide, responding to economic discontent that has prompted French fishermen to launch protests now spreading to other European shores and sectors.
2) Sarkozy urged the European Union to suspend part of the value-added tax on fuel to counter rising crude oil prices that have risen repeatedly to new highs in recent weeks.
3) For more than two weeks, angry fishermen have blocked ports across France to protest rising fuel prices. The protest was set to spread to Portugal, Spain and Italy, after European fishermen decided at the International Fishing Fair in Ancona, Italy, to go on strike indefinitely starting Friday.
4) Truckers in Britain joined the show of discontent Tuesday. About 300 honked their horns and parked on a highway on the edge of London, jamming a major route into the capital and forcing police to divert motorists.
5) While Sarkozy said France can take some stopgap measures on its own to offset the bite of higher crude oil prices, he insisted that any decision to lower the VAT "must be European."
6) "If the barrel continues to rise, must we maintain a VAT rate that is proportional to the price in the same conditions?" Sarkozy said in an interview on RTL radio.
7) In Brussels, EU officials said such proposals often crop up when oil prices spike, and pledged to study Sarkozy's proposal -- while cautioning it might require unanimous approval from the bloc's 27 member states.
8) EU energy spokesman Ferran Terradellas said that in the past, the EU executive Commission has said that "changing taxation on fuels in order to combat increasing prices would send a wrong message to producing countries. This would show them that they could increase prices and that the citizens would have to pay for this."
9) Sarkozy, whose poll numbers have been lagging, made the comments after he reached out to the common folk Tuesday with a visit to butchers and cheesemakers at France's largest wholesale market.
10) He was reprising his role as a hands-on "omnipresident" who eschews France's stuffy presidential traditions -- a role that has marked his first year in office, which began with a burst of hope that has since fizzled.
11) The president visited the Rungis market south of Paris, telling his glamorous wife, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: "That's the France that wakes up early." It was a catchphrase he used in his presidential campaign, aimed at inculcating a strong work ethic.
12) Sarkozy said France's government could create a new fund from revenues generated by oil taxes to help those in need, including fishermen. He estimated such a fund could be worth euro150 million to euro170 million (US$235.5 million-US$267 million) per trimester.
13) Many voters have given Sarkozy low marks for failing to quickly bring about promised economic reforms and stop the slide in purchasing power -- and some pundits said his pitch was designed as a bid to retrieve public support.
14) The world economic downturn also has limited Sarkozy's room for maneuver, and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that solutions should be sought globally.
15) Lagarde said consumer nations must ask oil producers to do something about rising prices, and said she has asked counterparts within the Group of Seven richest nations to "discuss this issue among consumer nations" so it can be presented to producing countries.
16) "We cannot eternally be in a market mode where the price climbs endlessly to the benefit of producers," she said on France-2 television.


Sarkozy: France to lift job restrictions on Poles
(APW_ENG_20080528.0572)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will lift all job restrictions on Polish workers as of July 1.
2) Poland joined the European Union in 2004 but its citizens and those of other new EU members were not immediately allowed to seek jobs without restriction in France and many other Western countries.
3) Sarkozy told a news conference Wednesday that Paris will lift the job barriers to Poles saying he believed the free movement of people was good for Europe.
4) Sarkozy is on a one-day visit to Warsaw for talks before Paris takes the rotating EU presidency on July 1.


France ' s president speaks with Syrian counterpart by phone for first time since Lebanon crisis
(APW_ENG_20080529.1183)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy phoned his Syrian counterpart Thursday for the first time since a chill in bilateral relations late last year over Lebanon's political crisis, the French presidency said.
2) Sarkozy called Syria's Bashar Assad and made good on a promise to revive high-level contacts once there was "tangible" progress toward ending Lebanon's 18-month political crisis, Sarkozy's office said in a statement.
3) A political deal on Lebanon reached in Doha, Qatar, on May 21 was "a positive development in this regard," the statement said. The deal paved the way for the election of President Michel Suleiman, and ended the crisis.
4) In Syria, the official news agency SANA reported that Sarkozy "praised" Assad's efforts in facilitating the Arab League-brokered deal in Doha.
5) Syria suspended contacts with France in January, retaliating for a similar move made earlier by Sarkozy, who had accused Syria of blocking the election of a Lebanese president.
6) The contact comes a week after Israel and Syria unexpectedly announced the resumption of indirect peace talks after an eight-year break.
7) Sarkozy praised those efforts, his office said, and pledged France's support.


French president Sarkozy to visit Lebanon on Saturday after volatile elections
(APW_ENG_20080602.0426)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says he will visit Lebanon on Saturday to meet the new Lebanese president elected after a protracted political crisis.
2) Sarkozy's office says he will meet Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Beirut and visit French troops in the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
3) Sarkozy's office said in a statement Monday that he will stress France's support for Lebanon and its independence.
4) Suleiman was elected May 25 after a deal brokered in Qatar to end an 18-month political crisis.
5) Sarkozy will travel there from Greece, where he is paying a visit Friday.


French president calls for stronger EU defense, immigration policies
(APW_ENG_20080606.0986)
1) France will push for a common European defense policy during its six-month presidency of the European Union, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, but he insisted it would not undermine NATO.
2) The United States has been wary of a French-led push for a security and defense role for the EU because of concerns it could threaten NATO unity.
3) In a speech to Greece's Parliament, Sarkozy said the European Union must be able to defend itself.
4) "We are telling our partners that the European Union is one of the richest regions of the world. We cannot be rich, want to be powerful, hope to count politically and not be capable of ensuring our own defense," said Sarkozy, the first foreign head of state to address the Greek Parliament in nearly two decades.
5) But he said an EU defense would not threaten the Atlantic alliance.
6) "It is not a case, nor will it ever be a case of competing with NATO," he said. "We need both. A NATO and European defense that oppose each other makes no sense."
7) The president also said France, which assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1, would press for an accord between all 27 EU members on immigration and asylum.
8) "We can't at the same time have a common area of free movement of women and men and have 27 national policies on this issue," he said.
9) Sarkozy stressed that neither France nor Greece wants "a closed Europe. ... But nor do we want an Europe that stands by powerless before unchecked waves of immigration."
10) "We cannot leave Europe's border states alone to guard the frontiers," he said.
11) Sarkozy also spoke of Europe's relations with aspiring member Turkey.
12) France has been wary of letting the relatively poor and predominantly Muslim Turkey into the EU, alarming Turkish proponents of membership. Sarkozy said his views had not changed but he would ensure he acted on behalf of the entire EU during France's EU presidency.
13) "I am convinced that an association, as close as possible, is the best response, for Europe and for Turkey. I know that others envisage a different response and I respect that," he said. "And I want to affirm here that during its presidency, France will behave as the loyal and impartial spokesman of the 27 member states."
14) Sarkozy will fly from Athens to Lebanon for a one-day visit Saturday. He will be accompanied by Prime Minister Francois Fillon and the heads of all France's main political parties in what his office described an "unprecedented" effort to show French support for the Lebanese people.
15) "Martyred Lebanon must survive as an independent country, because it is an example of diversity in a Middle East that badly needs this," Sarkozy said. "Tomorrow I will be in Beirut, to say that Europe and France will be at the side of the Lebanese people, of all Lebanese people without exception."
16) Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he stressed that an independent Palestinian state was essential.
17) "The greatest assurance of the security of Israel is the existence of a Palestinian state with clearly delineated borders."
18) During his one-day visit to Athens, Sarkozy met with Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, and signed a security and trade agreement. Talks included possible Greek purchases of French fighter aircraft and other military equipment, as well as Sarkozy's proposal for a union of Mediterranean countries.
19) Sarkozy said the United Arab Emirates had announced Thursday it would start talks with France on replacing 63 French Mirage fighters with 63 high-tech Rafale jets.
20) "This is an extremely important decision that will have consequences ... on French industry and employment," Sarkozy said.


French president visits Lebanon to show of support for country ' s peace efforts
(APW_ENG_20080607.0377)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged strong support for Lebanon's new president and urged feuding factions to engage in dialogue Saturday during a one-day visit to the country.
2) Sarkozy is the first Western head of state to meet President Michel Suleiman since the former army chief was elected as compromise president on May 25. The election was part of an agreement signed in Qatar last month to end an 18-month political crisis that had pushed Lebanon to the brink of civil war.
3) Sarkozy arrived from Athens and was received at Beirut airport by Suleiman, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. His office has described the visit as an "unprecedented" effort to show French support for the Lebanese people.
4) The French president was accompanied by Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, but the three arrived in separate planes apparently for security reasons. He is also accompanied by the heads of all France's main political parties.
5) Lebanese army cannons fired 21 shots to salute Sarkozy as he descended from the plane to a red carpet welcome. A brass band played the Lebanese and French national anthems.
6) In brief comments at the airport, Sarkozy said Suleiman's election was "a synonym for hope" for all the Lebanese and called on leaders to follow through on commitments made in Qatar. He also pledged French and European support.
7) "Mr. President, dear Michel, you know you can count on the engagement of France, political engagement and economic engagement," Sarkozy said.
8) "President Suleiman has a big responsibility to achieve national reconciliation... There has been too much suffering in Lebanon," he added.
9) Suleiman and Sarkozy's convoys drove through streets decorated with the French and Lebanese flags to the suburban presidential palace in Baabda as army helicopters flew overhead.
10) Sarkozy then held a closed meeting with Suleiman before meeting with representatives of the main 14 Lebanese political factions, including delegates of the militant Hezbollah group, at a lunch at the presidential palace.
11) France, a former colonial power with strong ties to Lebanon, hosted representatives of the 14 groups at a conference last year meant to encourage dialogue between them, but the meeting did not achieve any results. Kouchner had made several trips to Lebanon to try and bring Lebanon's rival leaders together.
12) Speaking at the presidential palace flanked by Suleiman, Sarkozy later called for a "sincere dialogue between the Lebanese on a national defense strategy, which can longer be deferred."
13) The parliamentary majority has repeatedly called for a defense strategy that would eventually integrate Hezbollah's weapons into the national army. Hezbollah has resisted the calls and balked at a requirement to disarm included in the U.N. resolution that ended a monthlong war between Israel and the militant group in 2006.
14) Sarkozy later gave a speech to members of the French community at the Pine Palace, which is the residence of the French ambassador, before wrapping up his five-hour visit in the afternoon.
15) Outside the airport, about three dozen people gathered for a sit-in to demand the release of a Lebanese citizen serving a life sentence in France. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was convicted in 1987 of complicity in the 1982 killings in France of a U.S. and an Israeli diplomat and in the attempted murder of another American diplomat.
16) In comments to three local Lebanese newspapers on the eve of his visit, Sarkozy said "France is the friend of all Lebanese without exception." He described the agreement reached in Qatar as "a victory for dialogue against violence."
17) Sarkozy's visit is the first by a French head of state to Lebanon since the 2005 trip by then-President Jacques Chirac who came to Beirut to pay condolences for the family former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in a massive truck bomb in central Beirut on Feb. 14 that year.
18) Relations between France and Lebanon deteriorated since the assassination of Hariri, who was a close personal friend of Chirac.
19) He had been scheduled to travel to south Lebanon by helicopter to meet around 1,100 French troops serving with the U.N. peacekeeping group but it was announced Friday that he would dispatch his defense minister, Herve Morin instead.
20) Sarkozy's office said he canceled the south Lebanon visit because he wants to keep the trip "exclusively political."
21) The trip is also seen as sending a French message to Syria that Damascus should back the Doha accord.
22) Sarkozy called Syrian President Bashar Assad on May 29, breaking a long chill in French-Syrian relations. Syria suspended contacts with France in January, retaliating for a similar move made earlier by Sarkozy, who had accused Syria of blocking the election of a Lebanese president.
23) Lebanon gained independence from France in 1943.


Bush reunites with France ' s pro-American leader as farewell tour of Europe rolls on
(APW_ENG_20080614.0266)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy energetically greeted U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday for private talks, the latest sign of the warming in U.S.-European relations that Bush has touted all week in his travels abroad.
2) Bush is dashing through Europe -- Slovenia, Germany and Italy came first, and England and Northern Ireland are next -- in a farewell tour of ally nations.
3) In France, he is reunited with Sarkozy, a walking billboard for Bush's message that relations have rebounded since the start of the war in Iraq.
4) Bush's limousine pulled through a narrow iron-gated arched entrance into the gravel Elysee Palace courtyard on Saturday, where a colorfully dressed honor guard, with red-plumed headpieces and bayonet-tipped guns, lined the space and played music.
5) Sarkozy sprang down the palace steps to greet Bush. The two shook hands, smiled and waved at the giant press contingent before disappearing inside.
6) The French president and his new wife, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, also hosted Bush and first lady Laura Bush for a dinner Friday night.
7) Even before he was elected last year, Sarkozy worked to mend relations with the U.S. that were bruised by former French President Jacques Chirac's clash with Bush, especially over the Iraq war. Sarkozy is so pro-American that the energetic conservative is known in France as "Sarko the American."
8) Still, Bush is nearing the end of his two-term presidency, and France must first look out for its own interests. And Sarkozy must watch over his. Sarkozy's approval ratings dived after a year of unpopular domestic policies. They have started to inch upward, and he could lose that momentum by playing host to Bush who remains unpopular in Europe.
9) The French, once indignant over the war, have turned indifferent about Bush and are more interested in who will be his successor.
10) Simon Serfaty, a foreign relations expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says Sarkozy has reorganized French foreign policy within Europe.
11) "In my judgment, the bilateral relationship between Washington and Paris today is better than the bilateral relationship between Washington and London and the relationship between Paris and Berlin," he said.
12) Sarkozy gets low marks for his domestic reforms, yet has remained combative and determined. "I know that there are those who claim that Sarkozy's first year in office was just a disaster," Serfaty said. "Sarkozy behaved like a teenager, to be sure. But he was spanked."
13) France and the United States split on whether Turkey should be a member of the European Union, and France differs with the U.S. on other European issues. They also have diverging thoughts on Syria's role in Lebanon.
14) But on the marquee issues, Bush and Sarkozy are aligned. Keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a key issue of agreement between the two and France recently announced that it would sent 700 more troops to Afghanistan.


Sarkozy: No reason French should not take part in NATO military structures
(APW_ENG_20080617.0407)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no reason France should not participate in NATO's military structures.
2) The French president says that was the conclusion of a top-to-bottom review of France's defense strategy. He also says he wants to see a more European NATO.
3) Gen. Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966.
4) Sarkozy has stressed that France must maintain its freedom to decide whether to send troops to an operation.
5) Some analysts expect France will join NATO fully at a summit next year. Sarkozy left that question open in his speech Wednesday on making France's armed forces more adaptable to new threats.


Sarkozy stained by Irish ' no ' to treaty he touted
(APW_ENG_20080617.0578)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy kicks off France's six months in charge of the European Union with egg on his face and a continent again in crisis.
2) Irish voters thumbed their noses last week at the EU treaty that Sarkozy touted as a French rescue package for the flailing bloc -- and left the ambitious leader with a pile of problems.
3) Sarkozy heads to Brussels on Thursday to lay out France's plans for its six months of the rotating EU presidency, which begins July 1. The summit is certain to be clouded by the Irish "no" vote, which has eroded confidence in the bloc's readiness to take on a greater international political role. The vote effectively vetoes the treaty for all the EU's 27 member states.
4) The setback is especially embarrassing for France: In 2005, French voters rejected a sweeping EU constitution in a humiliating blow to then-President Jacques Chirac, who had championed it. The French and Dutch rejections of that charter left the EU in limbo for two years.
5) Sarkozy, when he came energetically into office in May 2007, sought to revive the bloc by pushing a streamlined version of the constitution that was later approved in Portugal and named the Lisbon Treaty.
6) "By this success, because it is a success, France is back in Europe," Sarkozy said earlier this year. "The simplified treaty was a necessary condition to get out of the European crisis."
7) In recent days, however, Sarkozy -- whose picture adorned posters in Ireland urging a "no" vote -- has changed his tune.
8) "A lot of Europeans do not understand how we are shaping Europe right now and building Europe, and we have to take account of that," he said Saturday. "I take the Irish 'no' as a call for us to do things differently and do things better."
9) The Lisbon Treaty -- which seeks to smooth out and speed up the bloc's decision-making and bolster its international profile -- had been scheduled to go into effect just as France turns over the EU helm to the Czech Republic on Jan. 1, 2009. Sarkozy had expected to spend the next six months getting EU leaders to fill new posts created by the pact and setting up a new joint EU diplomatic corps in Brussels, but instead he is starting off France's EU tenure on the defensive.
10) He "has lost a lot of credibility on the European stage," said his Socialist rival for the presidency last year, Segolene Royal.
11) Irish politicians bristled at comments by French leaders in the runup to the referendum. The final blow came when Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said days before the vote that the Irish would be the "first victims" if they rejected the treaty, since Ireland had received so much help from the EU over the years.
12) Irish "no" campaigner Declan Ganley criticized what he called arrogant French diplomacy and France's own refusal to obey EU rules. For example, Sarkozy has said France will not meet a euro-zone deadline for balancing its national budget by 2010, but will do it by 2012 instead.
13) France's European affairs minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, told the French Senate on Tuesday that the Irish "no" was cause for more "modesty" and "rigor" -- but not a reason to give up.
14) "Europe didn't stop on June 13," the day the results of the Irish referendum were announced, he said.
15) Sarkozy said Monday he plans to travel to Dublin to patch up differences over the Irish rejection. He also said there was no need to create a "two-speed" Europe that would differentiate between those pushing for more integration and those more skeptical.
16) Jouyet insisted France's main priorities for the EU presidency will stay the same regardless of where the Lisbon Treaty stands: a political accord on energy and fighting global warming, a pact on tighter immigration and asylum policies and boosting European defense policy.
17) But EU members are far from unanimous about these issues, either.
18) Sarkozy will also face a challenge with Turkey. He opposes Turkey's membership bid and has suggested a special partnership plan instead. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Tuesday urged France to conduct EU entry talks with Ankara in a fair and impartial way during the French presidency.


Sarkozy: No reason French should not take part in NATO military structures
(APW_ENG_20080617.1130)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy made the case for greater French participation in NATO, saying Tuesday that nothing prevents the country from rejoining the trans-Atlantic alliance's military structures.
2) But Sarkozy essentially put the ball in NATO's court by setting conditions for full French participation; among them, France must maintain its freedom to decide whether to send troops to an operation.
3) "France is an independent ally, a free partner," Sarkozy said. A NATO official said Sarkozy's conditions would not likely pose a problem.
4) President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military command in 1966 as he sought to reassert France's independence after the grueling post-World War II years. The decision has damaged trans-Atlantic ties for decades, and France remains outside the alliance's nuclear group and its planning committee.
5) Sarkozy, who has pressed for better relations with the United States since his May 2007 election, insists that a greater French role in NATO would not compete with the European Union's own defense plans.
6) Washington has in the past been reticent about EU defense -- which France has been pushing -- as a possible competitor of NATO. But the United States has been warming to the idea recently, in part because of Sarkozy's assurances.
7) The U.S. State Department welcomed Sarkozy's comments.
8) "We have always appreciated France's role in the alliance, but full integration of France into the military command structure has been a goal for a long time and we are certainly pleased to see it happen," said spokesman Tom Casey.
9) Sarkozy pointed to three conditions for France to rejoin NATO's military command -- that France retains freedom to decide whether to send its troops to an alliance operation; will not put any French contingent under NATO command permanently during peacetime; and will have full control of its nuclear arsenal.
10) NATO allows its 26 member countries to have freedom to choose whether to take part in alliance missions, and states do not typically have troops permanently under its command, a NATO official said, on condition of anonymity because he had not yet seen the report.
11) "I have said many times before that I will very much enjoy France taking again its full position in NATO," the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, told Associated Press Television News, adding that France "has always been a very active member."
12) Sarkozy's third condition could prevent France from joining NATO's nuclear planning group, but that would not be a major issue.
13) The tricky part could come as France and its NATO counterparts go through the details, trying to fit French officers in the NATO command structure.
14) Sarkozy made the comments during a speech laying out plans to make France's armed forces leaner, smarter, more high-tech and more capable of facing threats like terrorism. The speech gave his interpretation of a broad-based French defense report released a day earlier.
15) Some analysts expect France will join NATO fully at a summit next year, but Sarkozy did not go that far in his comments. He said experts who carried out the top-to-bottom review of France's defense strategy found that there is "nothing preventing us from participating in NATO's military structures."
16) Sarkozy said he wanted to see European countries become more influential in NATO, which has been dominated by the United States for decades.
17) "If France returns to its full role in NATO, the alliance will make more space for Europe," Sarkozy said. "I want a more European alliance. Explain to me how you can make a more European alliance without France?"
18) EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, asked whether he believes France is moving closer to NATO, gave an emphatic yes.
19) "I don't know when or the way of doing it, but the rapprochement of France to NATO it's a done deal," said Solana who had testified before the panel putting together France's new defense plan. Solana was attending an arms show outside Paris.
20) The defense report, nearly a year in the making, is the first since 1994, before cyber-crime became a threat, before France moved to an all-volunteer military and before a surge in worldwide radical Islamic terrorism. At that time, Europe was reaping a peace dividend after the end of the Cold War.
21) The document, issued Monday, places a greater focus on intelligence-gathering and more spending on satellite and airborne drones -- paid for in part by reducing staff.
22) The white paper calls for reducing France's total Defense Ministry personnel by 54,000. Sarkozy said the total size of the military would drop to 225,000 over the next six or seven years.


Nicolas Sarkozy ' s presidential visit marks dawn of new era in Israel-France relations
(APW_ENG_20080622.0415)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has landed in Israel for his first presidential visit to the country.
2) Sarkozy arrived at Israel's international airport on Sunday afternoon. He is getting a red-carpet reception, and Israel's president and prime minister are greeting him along with an army band and honor guard.
3) The three-day visit is aimed at cementing the improved relations between the two countries after years of frosty ties. He's being joined by his wife, model-turned singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
4) Sarkozy's visit will include meetings with top Israeli leaders, a historic speech before the Israeli parliament and a sit-down with the parents of an Israeli soldier being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The young serviceman holds French citizenship.


Sarkozy says peace within reach as he opens visit to Israel
(APW_ENG_20080622.0549)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday opened his first presidential visit to Israel, promising Europe's support for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and saying a deal ending the conflict could be reached immediately.
2) Sarkozy's three-day visit is aimed at cementing the improved relations between France and Israel after years of frosty ties. His schedule includes talks with Israeli leaders, a historic speech before parliament and a sit-down with the parents of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The young man, Gilad Schalit, holds French citizenship.
3) The Iranian nuclear threat, Israel's fledgling peace talks with Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are also expected to top the president's diplomatic agenda.
4) "I have always been and will always be a friend of Israel," Sarkozy said at a welcoming ceremony at Israel's international airport in Tel Aviv. He quickly turned his attention to the staggering peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.
5) "I believe that the path to peace lies there before us, that the path to peace is not blocked. I have come to bring my support and that of France and the European Union, your partners in the negotiations," he said. "An agreement is possible, tomorrow, and that agreement would allow the two peoples to live side-by-side in peace and security."
6) Sarkozy was welcomed with a red-carpet reception, and President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eagerly awaited him along with a full army band and honor guard.
7) "France has left an imprint on Israel's revival, a revival you recently referred to as 'one of the most significant events in the 20th century,'" Peres said. "France's contribution to the foundation of the state of Israel did not stem from an opportunistic sentiment, but was sparked by the noblest of human values."
8) Sarkozy then traveled to Jerusalem for a ceremony at Peres' official residence followed by dinner with Olmert.
9) At the ceremony, Sarkozy was serenaded by a French-speaking Israeli high school choir. Sarkozy was accompanied by his glamorous wife, the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The first lady's schedule has been tightly guarded to prevent aggressive paparazzi coverage.
10) Bruni-Sarkozy, wearing a brown summer dress, tapped her feet to the tune of the popular Israeli song "Hallelujah."
11) France was a strong ally in Israel's early years of independence and was instrumental in establishing Israel's nuclear program. But relations soured, particularly after the 1967 Mideast war, when France imposed an arms embargo and began adopting more policies critical of Israel.
12) Many Israelis have long viewed France as biased in favor of the Palestinians, and reports of rising anti-Semitism toward the French Jewish community -- at 600,000, the third-largest in the world -- has only fanned the flames.
13) On Sunday, only hours before Sarkozy's arrival, a skullcap-wearing Jewish teenager in Paris was beaten into a coma and hospitalized in intensive care. Jewish groups denounced the assault as an anti-Semitic attack.
14) The last French presidential visit came in 1996, when Jacques Chirac, perceived by many Israelis as unfairly pro-Arab, angrily shouted at Israeli police and accused them of limiting his movements during a tour of Jerusalem's holy sites.
15) The tension reached a high point in 2001, when Daniel Bernard, then France's ambassador to England, used an expletive to describe Israel.
16) In 2004, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon outraged Paris when he said France was home to "the wildest anti-Semitism" and urged French Jews to emigrate to Israel for their own safety.
17) Only a year later, a Sharon visit to Paris began a friendlier period in the relations between the countries.
18) Tsilla Hershco, an expert in Franco-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said the close ties have only improved under Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was a Greek Jew.
19) "There is an environment and style that is very warm and positive," she said. "His statements have been friendly toward Israel and have been sensitive to Israel's security needs."
20) Statements aside, though, Hershco said France's basic pro-Arab policies have not changed dramatically under Sarkozy. She said fundamental disagreements with Israel remain, particularly over settlement activity and Israeli control over the West Bank. She said the shift in mood is mostly due to France's desire to become an influential player in Arab-Israeli mediation efforts by appearing more evenhanded.
21) Israeli leaders have lauded Sarkozy for being more supportive than his predecessors and have been encouraged by his tough stance toward Iran's nuclear program.
22) At the airport ceremony, Olmert said Sarkozy's government has "taken a supportive and loyal position on issues concerning Israel's regional policy and has stood by Israel's side at testing moments."
23) Sarkozy, accompanied by six Cabinet ministers, will also visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and watch an exhibition of an environmentally friendly electric car being developed by Renault-Nissan and an Israeli-American entrepreneur.
24) Sarkozy's speech before the Israeli Knesset on Monday will be the first by a French president since Francois Mitterrand addressed the plenum in 1982.
25) Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said the diplomatic talks will focus on Iran's nuclear program and on the newly revived Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
26) On July 13, Sarkozy hosts a conference in Paris where he hopes to bring together Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad. It remains unknown whether the Israeli and Syrian leaders will attend, and if so, whether they will meet face to face. Israel and Syria recently announced they have reopened indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators.
27) Sarkozy will also make a brief visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where he will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.


Police officer ' s shooting death at farewell ceremony mars Sarkozy trip to Israel
(APW_ENG_20080624.0874)
1) An Israeli police officer fatally shot himself in the head on Tuesday at an airport departure ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, authorities said, sparking fear of an assassination attempt and prompting bodyguards to whisk Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert away.
2) The shooting occurred while a military band was playing, and the leaders apparently didn't hear anything. Dark-suited security men then quickly ushered Sarkozy up the stairs of his plane. In a panic, Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rushed up the stairs ahead of him.
3) At the same time, security guards, with their guns drawn, rushed Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres toward their cars. The incident was over within minutes, and Olmert returned and boarded the plane to inform Sarkozy what happened, witnesses said.
4) The dead policeman's body, covered with a sheet, lay on the tarmac after the bizarre incident.
5) Police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld denied reports that there had been an assassination attempt on the French leader. Police officials said none of the leaders were in danger.
6) The area police commander, Nissim Mor, said police were looking into the incident. "We are currently investigating the circumstances to see whether it was suicide or if he accidentally discharged his weapon," he said. "His mission was to secure an area to prevent people from reaching the ceremony."
7) Witnesses said the man fell from a roof after shooting himself. He was at least 100 yards away from Sarkozy's plane.
8) French presidential spokesman Franck Louvrier could not be reached for comment on his mobile phone. Another presidential spokesman, who was on another scheduled flight out of Tel Aviv, said he knew nothing about the incident.
9) The airport shooting was a dramatic end to a three-day visit that had gone according to plan up to then.
10) Earlier Tuesday, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sarkozy said Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank would not guarantee its security forever, renewing his call for Israelis and Palestinians to make peace and share the holy city of Jerusalem.
11) Sarkozy spoke at a news conference alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, following his only meeting with Palestinian leaders during his visit, aimed primarily at cementing the improved relations between France and Israel after years of frosty ties.
12) Nevertheless, the French president was unusually frank in his comments critical of Israeli policies.
13) On Monday, he told the Israeli parliament that there could be no Mideast peace unless Israel halted its West Bank settlement construction and divided Jerusalem. On Tuesday, he focused his words on the West Bank separation barrier Israel says it has built to keep suicide bombers out, but Palestinians denounce as a land grab.
14) "You can't protect yourself with a wall, but with politics," Sarkozy said. "What will give Israel security ... is making a democratic Palestinian state."
15) Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Sarkozy was "a great friend of Israel," adding that "great friends don't always see eye-to-eye on every issue."
16) Sarkozy, also repeated his call to share Jerusalem, the eastern part of which Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.
17) "Can Jerusalem be for one side, and not the other? I don't think so," Sarkozy said. "I'm a friend of Israel and I can say this. I understand everybody's attachment to Jerusalem, it's a holy city for three faiths ... but Jerusalem's wealth is its plurality."
18) Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was a Greek Jew, devoted most of his trip to friendly meetings with Israeli leaders. He also delivered a speech before parliament and met with the parents of an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The young man, Gilad Schalit, also holds French citizenship.
19) Throughout the visit, he repeatedly called himself a "friend of Israel" and showered praise on the Jewish state.
20) "On behalf of France, we would like to declare our true love to Israel -- we love you!" he said, at a meeting with French and Israeli businessmen on Tuesday.


Sarkozy proposes tax on Internet providers to finance end of advertising on public TV
(APW_ENG_20080625.0979)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a new tax on profits of Internet providers and telephone companies Wednesday to finance the end of advertising on public television and radio.
2) Sarkozy confirmed a timetable for phasing out advertising on public stations starting next January. Ads would be gone completely by 2011.
3) He said a new tax of 0.9 percent should be imposed on profits of Internet providers and telecom operators to compensate state coffers for the estimated euro650 million (US$1.3 billion) annual loss in advertising revenue.
4) In a surprise announcement, Sarkozy said in January that he wanted to eliminate advertising on public stations as a way to ensure quality programming.
5) On Wednesday, a commission he appointed presented Sarkozy with a plan laying out how to make up for the loss in ad revenue. The plan still requires parliamentary approval.
6) Commission head Jean-Francois Cope, who also leads the governing party in the National Assembly, proposed the new tax and increasing the television license fee in the report.
7) Staff members at public radio and television stations staged a strike earlier this year against the plan.
8) Critics of Sarkozy's shakeup say he is handing a present to private channels. Shares in leading private channel TF1 soared after Sarkozy's January announcement, and climbed 5.9 percent to euro11.11 (US$17.33) on Wednesday.


Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy, Europe ' s most glamorous political couple, assume EU ' s throne
(APW_ENG_20080629.0468)
1) France's first lady sings in English and dreams in Italian, and the president's roots reach to Hungary and Greece. Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy could be a metaphor for a harmonious, borderless Europe.
2) The real Europe is a cacophonous and conflicted place, though, as the Sarkozys will soon discover: On Tuesday, they become the continent's public face, as France takes over the presidency of the 27-nation European Union.
3) It's an unusual, important job, presiding over a bloc that boasts nearly half a billion people and an economy rivalling America's yet that struggles to manage its financial and diplomatic heft.
4) Impatient and attention-grabbing, Sarkozy will have his hands full trying to guide -- and not dictate to -- an EU that is trying to prepare the sometimes sluggish continent to meet this century's challenges, from China's growing clout to expanding global demand for shrinking energy resources.
5) "Sarkozy can sometimes do brilliantly, but can equally be damaging," said Hugo Brady, research fellow at Center for European Reform in Britain. As EU president "you're not supposed to think in terms of national interest ... The presidency needs to lead from the back as a conciliator."
6) One of Sarkozy's first decisions after France takes the EU helm from small Slovenia will be whether to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics over its treatment of Tibet. The repercussions of a walkout on the EU's relations with emerging economic superpower China could be huge.
7) Sarkozy inherits an EU facing slowing growth, rising inflation and soaring fuel prices -- and mired in doubt about its future after Irish voters rejected a treaty meant to tie the bloc closer together.
8) The "no" vote was humiliating for Sarkozy, who had touted the treaty last year as France's balm for an ailing EU after French voters helped bury its predecessor, the EU constitution, in 2005.
9) "Modesty" and "no arrogance" -- Sarkozy's aides say these are the watchwords of the French EU presidency. Skeptics question whether the glamorous and wealthy Sarkozys can pull that off.
10) Olivier Louis of the French Institute for International Relations says Sarkozy's boldness could be an asset, and he could "kick in the anthill" of often-stalled EU decision-making.
11) But Sarkozy could also be "dangerous, because if it goes over badly, the partners will push back things until the (French) presidency is over."
12) France's "big country" status within the EU is also a mixed blessing. Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel deftly used its role as an EU founder and heavyweight to build consensus on global warming and the EU treaty.
13) But the French "nakedly use the presidency to advance their interests," Brady said.
14) France has had to tone down its ambitions in recent months and is focusing on what look like achievable goals: an immigration pact, agreement to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 to fight global warming, and renewed efforts to build up EU defense forces.
15) French diplomats hope Sarkozy stakes out a high EU foreign policy profile while the United States is sidelined with a presidential transition over the next half-year. Sarkozy is likely to maintain pressure on Iran, but any breakthroughs on that front are likely to come from the United States or Tehran -- not Paris or Brussels.
16) EU partners, meanwhile, threw cold water on Sarkozy's ambitious plans for a Mediterranean Union joining nations around the volatile Mediterranean rim. A watered-down union will be inaugurated in Paris on July 13.
17) The last time France held the EU presidency, in 2000, the bloc had just 15 countries. Back then, as today, the EU was in disaccord over how and how much to integrate and expand.
18) And back then, as now, France was pushing for a stronger European defense to lessen reliance on U.S. diplomacy and firepower. France recently had to beg European partners -- and even Russia -- for helicopters for the French-dominated EU peacekeeping force protecting refugees from Sudan's Darfur region.
19) Six months isn't a long time in terms of EU bureaucracy, and analysts note few countries make great strides during their half-year terms in charge. Sarkozy may hope to be an exception -- after all, he met, courted and married supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni in a whirlwind three months.


Sarkozy in combative mood as France takes the EU helm for six months
(APW_ENG_20080630.1088)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy was in combative mood Monday as France assumed leadership of the European Union, criticizing the bloc's trade chief and warning Europe's central bank against hiking interest rates.
2) Some analysts have questioned whether Sarkozy's sometimes brash and often direct style will be suited to the task of building consensus among the EU's 27 member nations. France is taking over the rotating six-month presidency amid high oil prices, economic challenges posed by the euro's strength over the U.S. dollar and uncertainty about the bloc's future after Ireland rejected an EU reform treaty this month.
3) Sarkozy, in a television interview Monday evening, reiterated that France's priorities during its half-year at the helm would in stemming the influx of illegal immigrants, combatting global warming and softening the blow of high oil prices.
4) He said Europeans wanted the EU to protect them against threats coming from globalization. France says the EU risks alienating Europeans if it fails to take care of their day-to-day concerns.
5) "The European idea will be in danger if we don't protect Europeans," Sarkozy said.
6) One of Sarkozy's long-standing complaints is that the common euro currency is overvalued, hurting European economic competitiveness. The European Central Bank is widely expected to raise its interest rates this week amid record high euro-zone inflation -- a move that could send the euro rising even further against the dollar.
7) Sarkozy said raising interest rates would prevent people and companies from borrowing and investing. He blamed inflation on rising prices for products like oil, and said doubling or even tripling interest rates would not bring oil prices down.
8) "Don't tell me that to fight inflation, we must raise interest rates," he said.
9) Sarkozy indicated that he, like his predecessor Jacques Chirac, would be a strong defender of European farmers.
10) And he accused the EU's trade chief, Peter Mandelson, and the head of the World Trade Organization of seeking to push forward trade proposals that Sarkozy said would lead to a 20-percent cut in European agricultural production and a 10-percent reduction in its agricultural exports.
11) "That is 100,000 jobs lost. I will not let that happen," Sarkozy said.
12) Irish voters' rejection of the EU reform treaty on June 13 has cast a pall over France's EU presidency. The treaty, which took years to draft and was signed last year in Portugal, aims to streamline the way the bloc makes decisions and bolsters its powers in such areas as immigration and fighting crime. It also aims to make the EU's foreign policy more effective with the creation of an EU president and single envoy to represent the bloc abroad.
13) The treaty can only take effect in 2009 if ratified by all 27 EU states. To date, 18 have done so, and Ireland has nixed the chance of unanimity for the moment.
14) For the next six months, France will preside over a bloc that boasts nearly half a billion people and an economy rivaling America's yet that struggles to manage its financial and diplomatic heft.
15) Six months isn't a long time in terms of EU bureaucracy, and analysts note few countries make great strides during their half-year terms in charge.
16) Some countries are more effective than others.
17) The context counts for much.
18) The Irish no vote could make this presidency tricky. Also, August is a holiday in Europe, so France's presidency will really be five working months, not six.


Bumpy start as France takes over EU presidency; Sarkozy criticizes EU trade negotiator
(APW_ENG_20080701.1025)
1) France's six-month European Union presidency got off to a shaky start Tuesday amid bickering between the bloc's trade chief and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and glum comments from Poland's leader on the EU's future direction.
2) As Europe's flag of 12 gold stars on an azure field fluttered side by side with France's tricolor under Paris' Arc de Triomphe on a warm, breezy day, Sarkozy met nearby with the 17-member European Commission, the EU executive that runs the bloc's day-to-day business.
3) He and European Commission President Manuel Barroso pledged to work together for projects that enjoy broad public support, such as measures aimed at tackling high food and fuel prices, reversing climate change, combatting illegal immigration and channeling the impact of globalization.
4) The biggest challenge facing France at the outset of its EU presidency was Ireland's vote last month rejecting a treaty meant to make the EU work better. Sarkozy has a personal stake in seeing the deal through, because he was one of its architects. But the Irish vote has thrown the ratification process into turmoil because the treaty can only take effect in 2009 if ratified by all 27 EU states.
5) Polish President Lech Kaczynski was quoted Tuesday as saying that ratifying the EU reform treaty would be "pointless" after the Irish rejection.
6) But Sarkozy told reporters he counts on the Polish leader to stick to the reform treaty that he and the other 26 EU leaders signed in Lisbon in December. He added he knew Kaczynski "as a man who never goes against his word."
7) French diplomats made clear they expect Dublin to somehow undo the Irish referendum outcome that now blocks EU enlargement, holds back popular internal reforms and is seen to sap energies needed to deal with the global financial crisis, climate change and soaring fuel and food prices.
8) "The Irish voted once 'no' to an EU treaty," in 2001 and reversed that vote in 2002, said one official, who asked not to be named given the sensitivity of the issue.
9) "We are not saying they have to do that again, but a day will come when the Irish will do what they have to do" to end the internal stalemate their latest referendum has caused, added the official.
10) The treaty aims to streamline the way the bloc makes decisions and to bolster its powers in such areas as immigration and fighting crime.
11) As leader of one of the EU's large nations, Sarkozy will have to tread carefully not to steamroller over smaller countries and their concerns. He also will have to put the EU's interests -- not France's -- first, which is a concern among critics. Sarkozy's aides say that "modesty" and "no arrogance" will be buzz words of France's tenure.
12) But Sarkozy's brash style was already causing irritation on day one.
13) On television on Monday evening, Sarkozy slammed the EU's trade chief, Peter Mandelson, and the head of the World Trade Organization, saying they wanted to make job-destroying concessions in global trade talks.
14) On Tuesday, the European Commission struck back with an unusual rebuke.
15) "Such criticism is wrong and unjustified. At a difficult time in world trade negotiations, the EU needs to maintain its unity," the European Commission said in a statement.
16) Standing next to Sarkozy at a news conference outside the Elysee Palace, Barroso -- without mentioning the French president's name -- said it was unfair to use his EU executive as a whipping boy.
17) "True political courage is not to hold Brussels responsible" for matters it is not responsible for, he said, adding, "Europe is all of us."
18) On Monday night, Sarkozy also took on the European Central Bank, which is widely expected to raise its interest rates this week amid record 4 percent inflation in euro nations. Sarkozy said raising interest rates would prevent people and companies from borrowing and investing.


Sarkozy kept in dark on hostage release but still gets PR boost
(APW_ENG_20080703.0844)
1) As it meticulously planned and executed its daring rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Colombia kept a very important person out of the loop: French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) That is extraordinary because Betancourt is a dual French-Colombian national, her captivity was a cause celebre in France and Sarkozy had maintained a drumbeat of diplomatic pressure to try to spring her from the hands of Colombian rebels.
3) And yet, when word of Betancourt's long-awaited freedom started to reach Paris on Wednesday night, Sarkozy was out of the office, at his wife's residence in a posh part of town, his office says. He had to scramble back to the presidential Elysee Palace.
4) France learned of the release just 15 minutes before Colombian media broke the news, said Sarkozy's closest aide, Elysee chief of staff Claude Gueant.
5) Gueant explained on French TV that while Colombia did tell France months ago that a military operation was being contemplated, "it is true that we weren't expecting it at that precise moment." Gueant added that the French played no role in what Sarkozy called the "extremely brilliant" Colombian army rescue.
6) But Sarkozy is a master of spotting public-relations opportunities, and this was too huge to miss. Having collected himself, the French leader gathered Betancourt's children, Melanie and Lorenzo, and her sister Astrid to his side and led them out before the cameras for an address Wednesday night that French television stations broke into normal programming to broadcast.
7) For Sarkozy, it could not have gone better: The joyful children and Betancourt herself, who spoke in Colombia, thanked the French leader publicly for his efforts -- even though he was kept in the dark for the final chapter. Unusually, even his political opponents tipped their hats to Sarkozy's unrelenting diplomatic efforts after he promised on his election night last year that, for him, getting Betancourt out was a priority.
8) The image boost for Sarkozy from Betancourt's release comes after a rocky first year in power, where he's suffered slumping polls and often failed to maintain the statesmanslike poise that he displayed Wednesday night, standing quietly behind Betancourt's children as they breathlessly described their delight.
9) Just this week, Sarkozy started France's six-month presidency of the European Union on an undiplomatic foot, ripping into the bloc's trade chief. He accused Peter Mandelson in a television interview of making job-destroying concessions in global trade negotiations. The public spat with Mandelson -- who responded though his spokesman that Sarkozy's criticisms were "wrong and unjustified" -- cast a pall over what promises to be a tricky spell for France at the helm of the EU.
10) Embarrassingly, Sarkozy was also surreptitiously caught on camera losing his cool before that TV interview, when a studio technician ignored the French leader's greeting of "bonjour monsieur."
11) "A guest is entitled to a 'hello,'" Sarkozy said, twitchily adjusting his suit and chair, obviously peeved. "Unbelievable."
12) French diplomats said they didn't find it strange that France was kept in the dark about the army operation that freed Betancourt. They said the rescue was planned over months in great secrecy and that even some members of Colombia's government weren't in the know.
13) But while France wasn't informed, the United States apparently was. The freed hostages included three Americans. U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said U.S. and Colombian forces cooperated closely on the rescue mission, including sharing intelligence, equipment, training advice and operational experience. U.S. presidential candidate John McCain also said Colombia's president had told him in advance of the rescue plans.
14) Gueant said he expected Betancourt to fly to France on Friday afternoon, on a plane that Sarkozy dispatched to Colombia with her children on board. Her arrival will offer another photo op: Sarkozy's office said he would preside at a welcoming ceremony for her at the airport.


French president says China, India and other emerging nations should be invited to G8 summits
(APW_ENG_20080705.0279)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says it is neither reasonable nor fair for the Group of Eight industrialized nations to hold summits without including emerging countries like China or India.
2) Sarkozy says that "everyone must be invited" to the G-8 meetings if the world wants peace and development.
3) In the past, Sarkozy has made it clear he would like to see the exclusive club enlarged. But his remarks Saturday come just two days before the annual G-8 summit in Japan.
4) Sarkozy noted to a gathering of his conservative political party that no Arab, African or Latin American country is a member of the G-8, and neither is China or India, whose combined populations make up a third of humanity. For Sarkozy, the situation "is not fair."


Sarkozy: Food crisis requires handling by experts, similar to climate change panel
(APW_ENG_20080706.0590)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he has received international support for his idea of creating an experts group to tackle the global food crisis, similar to the Noble Prize-winning panel on climate change.
2) "In the 21st century, we must be able to feed the planet," Sarkozy said in an interview published in Japan's Yomiuri newspaper Monday, as the Group of Eight summit of major economic powers was opening on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
3) Early last month, Sarkozy proposed creating a panel of top experts on food issues, similar to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to diagnose problems and help world leaders make the best possible decisions. Sarkozy told the newspaper that the world needs the panel "to improve our way of approaching and understanding food problems."
4) "This idea seems to have been received favorably by our G-8 partners, and I am delighted," Sarkozy told the newspaper. A transcript of his remarks was also provided by his office.
5) The president's office has said it expects the G-8 to endorse much of his thinking on the subject during the Monday-Wednesday summit.
6) Food prices have risen worldwide in recent months because of high oil prices, growing demand, extreme weather, higher biofuel production and market speculation. The crisis has triggered protests in parts of Africa and Asia, while raising fears of widespread malnutrition and economic instability.
7) The food crisis was high on the agenda, along with climate change, soaring oil prices and possible steps against Zimbabwe, at the G-8 summit, which brings together France, the United States, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
8) Sarkozy has often urged the G-8 to expand to take in growing powers China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, saying it is unwise to keep them on the sidelines. Sarkozy told Yomiuri that, "at the least," those countries should be brought in for a full day of discussions at the annual G-8 summits. In Japan, the countries have been invited for a half-day of talks.
9) With oil prices up more than 50 percent so far this year, Sarkozy said oil producers should boost production. He also urged the G-8 to encourage market transparency by asking both producer and consumer nations to release information about how much oil they have in reserves or in stock.


France ' s Sarkozy to go to Olympics, ending boycott threat; China ' s Hu says ' correct ' decision
(APW_ENG_20080709.0817)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony next month, his office said Wednesday, ending his threat to boycott the event in an apparent attempt to soothe Chinese irritation over French support of Tibet.
2) Sarkozy was the first world leader to raise the possibility of skipping the festivities to protest China's violent crackdown in Tibet after riots and protests there in March. A snub would have been a slap in the face to China's communist leadership, eager to use the Games to show off the country's power and clout.
3) After keeping the threat alive for months, Sarkozy on Wednesday reassured Chinese President Hu Jintao that he would attend the Aug. 8 ceremony, his office said. The two men spoke on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of industrialized powers in Japan.
4) Hu described Sarkozy's decision as the "correct" one, China's state Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
5) Hu noted the strained relations between the two countries in past months, but said traditionally friendly ties "deserve to be treasured by our two sides," the report said. The Chinese president said he hoped French athletes perform well at the Olympics.
6) Since the March unrest, international pressure has built on both China and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, for an easing of tensions over the Himalayan region, which China has governed since the 1950s when communist troops marched in. The talks are important to China's hopes of hosting a flawless Olympics.
7) Sarkozy, in particular, has pressed for dialogue between the two sides, saying that he could attend the event if the discussions made more progress. He has also left open the possibility that he could meet with the Dalai Lama when he visits France in August, though China disapproved of the contacts.
8) But there was no mention of Tibet, human rights or the spiritual leader in the brief statement from Sarkozy's office.
9) "The chief of state stressed the Olympic values of peace, friendship and brotherhood, and wished great success to the Beijing Olympic Games," Sarkozy's office said.
10) The statement added that France wants to "deepen its strategic partnership with China," a major client for European planemaker Airbus, as well as French companies from nuclear giant Areva to transport and engineering company Alstom.
11) Sarkozy's office refused to discuss the sensitive issue Wednesday, saying it had to be "discreet."
12) The announcement came as news outlets reported that China's ambassador to Paris warned of "serious consequences" if Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama. Le Figaro newspaper, which printed the ambassador's comments, reported that business contracts were at stake, including the sale of more than 100 Airbus planes.
13) Sarkozy and other world leaders have been under intense pressure from human rights groups to skip the event, a 3 1/2-hour extravaganza of fireworks, dancing by ethnic groups and performances portraying 5,000 years of Chinese history.
14) But like Sarkozy, U.S. President George W. Bush has decided to attend the Olympics opener: He said this week at the summit in Japan that it would be an "affront to the Chinese people" if he stayed away. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will skip the opener but attend the closer.
15) German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not plan to attend, but Sarkozy's office said she supported his decision, saying it was important to have a European Union representative there. Sarkozy's office said he consulted his EU partners, and he will represent both France and the European bloc at the Games. France currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
16) Media advocacy group Reporters without Borders said recently that Sarkozy, who has pledged to defend human rights since his election last year, would heap "scorn on his commitments to the French people" if he attended.
17) Reporters without Borders was among the organizers of massive protests when the Olympic flame passed through Paris in April. Many Chinese were shocked that a pro-Tibet protester in Paris tried to grab the Olympic torch from a Chinese athlete in a wheelchair. Anger reverberated in China, with protests organized at outlets of the French retailer Carrefour.


France ' s Sarkozy to go to Olympics, ending boycott threat; China ' s Hu says ' correct ' decision
(APW_ENG_20080709.1231)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to snub China but then backed down with barely a whimper.
2) His decision to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics, having previously suggested he might boycott the event, reflects how China is increasingly getting its way as it grows into a major power.
3) Sarkozy realized it was risky to anger the Asian giant -- especially if you want to keep selling it planes, power plants and other goods. Last month, as his position started to shift, Sarkozy cautioned that a boycott could "push a population of 1.3 billion people into wounded nationalism."
4) The way the usually media-hungry Sarkozy announced his intention to attend the Aug. 8 ceremony -- via a brief statement Wednesday, away from TV cameras -- spoke volumes about French desires to cool Chinese passions, following tensions centered on the Olympics and Tibet.
5) Sarkozy had been the first world leader to raise the possibility of skipping the ceremony to protest China's crackdown in Tibet after riots and protests there in March. That would have been a slap in the face to China's communist leadership, eager to use the Games to show off the country's power and clout.
6) But the statement Wednesday from Sarkozy's office, issued after he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of industrialized powers in Japan, made no mention of Tibet, human rights or the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. It said France wants to "deepen its strategic partnership with China" -- which is a major client for European plane manufacturer Airbus, as well as French companies from nuclear giant Areva to transport and engineering company Alstom.
7) Critics of China's human rights failings decried Sarkozy's climb-down. Robert Menard, head of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, who has played a vocal role in protesting torch relays for the Beijing Games, accused Sarkozy of "betraying values of democracy."
8) Sarkozy's decision was pilloried at a debate Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
9) "The Chinese Communist Party is prevailing, the tougher they get, the more you sink to your knees," said German Green member Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
10) "Europe has capitulated," said Edward McMillan Scott, a British Conservative. "This is an arbitrary, paranoid and brutal regime. We should keep politics away from sport, we should keep Sarkozy away from Beijing."
11) The parliament's president, Hans-Gert Poettering, said he will boycott the ceremony because of a lack of progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives.
12) Sarkozy was defended in the assembly by his minister for Europe, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who said the decision to attend was taken after talks with other EU leaders. Sarkozy will represent both France and the European Union at the Games. France currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
13) "Do we really want a cold dialogue between two antagonistic blocs?" Jouyet asked. "We need to have a broad global dialogue with China."
14) Hu, the Chinese president, called Sarkozy's decision "correct," according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.
15) Like Sarkozy, U.S. President George W. Bush has decided to attend. He said this week it would be an "affront to the Chinese people" if he stayed away. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will skip the opener but attend the closer. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have said they plan to stay away.
16) Jean-Vincent Brisset, a French expert on China who formerly served as military attache in Beijing, said Sarkozy put himself in a position of weakness by never saying clearly, early on, whether he would attend or boycott and by since seeking to patch up France's ties with Beijing.
17) "China only respects positions of strength," said Brisset, a research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations think-tank in Paris. "We have a long tradition of weakness toward China."
18) More clouds lie ahead: Sarkozy has said he could meet this summer with the Dalai Lama, despite China's displeasure. China's ambassador to Paris said such a meeting could have "serious" consequences. He, in turn, got a ticking off Wednesday from France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner. Kouchner's spokesman said the minister told the ambassador that France would reject "pressures wherever they come from."


Sarkozy defends decision to attend Beijing games, will raise human rights
(APW_ENG_20080710.0696)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended his decision to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, saying it would be wrong to "humiliate" China with a boycott.
2) But he also insisted he would raise human rights concerns with the Chinese leadership and chastised Beijing for pressure aimed at persuading him to drop plans to meet with exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
3) "I happen to think that humiliating China is not the best way to respect human rights," Sarkozy told critics in the European Parliament. "I don't think you can boycott 1.3 billion people, a quarter of the world's population."
4) Despite Sarkozy's decision, French relations which China were strained this week when China's ambassador to Paris, Kong Quan, said a possible meeting between Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama this year would have "serious consequences."
5) "There are things I will not say because China deserves respect, but there are things that China must not tell European countries," Sarkozy told the Parliament. "It's not for China to set my agenda, to say who I will meet."
6) Kong's comments were widely interpreted in France as a threat to French investments and exports in China. At a news conference after his parliament address, Sarkozy blasted the ambassador's words as "clumsy" and "misplaced."
7) U.S. President George W. Bush also has decided to attend the opening of the Games. He said this week it would be an "affront to the Chinese people" if he stayed away. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will skip the opener but attend the closer. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have said they plan to stay away.
8) Sarkozy's announcement Wednesday that he will attend the Aug. 8 ceremony opening of the Beijing Olympics, after previously suggested he might boycott the event, sparked widespread dismay from human rights campaigners.
9) Criticism in the European Parliament was led by Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who suggested the decision was taken in order to promote French exports in China. Cohn-Bendit told Sarkozy the decision was "a disgrace."
10) "I will go, I will talk about human rights, I will defend human rights," Sarkozy said in reply. The French leader said he'd consulted with all 27 European Union states before making his decision and received their support.
11) "China can be a factor for peace and security in the world, so can we boycott China at this time, which is something so important for a billion people?" he asked.
12) Sarkozy told reporters he'd asked Cohn-Bendit to draw up a list of human rights concerns which he would present to Chinese leaders.
13) By engaging China, Sarkozy said Europe could aim to secure Chinese support to end violence in Darfur and isolate Iran, if it doesn't change it nuclear program.
14) China is a supporter of the Sudanese government, which is blamed by Western governments for much of the bloodshed in the troubled province of Darfur. China also is part of an international group seeking to persuade Iran to bring its nuclear program in line with U.N. norms, but has been reluctant to support Western demands for stronger sanctions against Tehran.
15) Sarkozy had been the first world leader to raise the possibility of skipping the ceremony to protest China's crackdown in Tibet, after riots and protests there in March. That would have been a slap in the face to China's communist leadership, eager to use the Games to show off the country's power and clout.
16) But the statement Wednesday from Sarkozy's office, issued after he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of industrialized powers in Japan, made no mention of Tibet or human rights.
17) It said France wants to "deepen its strategic partnership with China" -- which is a major client for European plane manufacturer Airbus, as well as French companies from nuclear giant Areva to transport and engineering company Alstom.


Sarkozy insists EU cannot enlarge further without the Lisbon Treaty in place
(APW_ENG_20080710.0837)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday he hopes to find a solution by December to the crisis caused by Ireland's rejection of the new EU treaty and warned that the bloc could not expand further without it.
2) "If we want further enlargement, and I want it, we need new institutions," Sarkozy told the European Parliament, claiming that an EU with more than its current 27 members cannot function without changes to the way it is run.
3) Sarkozy said he will go to Ireland on July 21 as part of a drive to find a solution to the political crisis created by the "no" vote by the time EU leaders meet for a summit in December.
4) He denied trying to "blackmail" the Irish, but his insistence that Croatia and other candidates for EU membership will be prevented from joining adds to pressure on Dublin to call a second referendum on the treaty before elections to the European Parliament in a year's time.
5) Sarkozy also insisted there would be no renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty, which was designed to smooth out and speed up the bloc's decision-making and raise its international profile.
6) The Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2007 after years of painstaking negotiations. It has been voted in by parliaments in 21 of the 27 EU nations, but rejected by the only one to hold a referendum; it must be approved by all before it can come into force.
7) Sarkozy also had a message for Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski, who has hinted he may withhold his signature for the time being even though he played a prominent role in negotiating the text that has already been approved by the Polish parliament.
8) "He gave his word, he must keep his word," Sarkozy said. "I told President Kaczynski we need his signature," he added.
9) Sarkozy told the parliament the top priority of France's six-month presidency of the EU will be tackling climate change, and warned that action was needed fast to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
10) "We are the last generation that can prevent catastrophe, the very last," Sarkozy told the chamber, appealing for EU governments to approve a package of energy measures to reduce emission by the end of the year.
11) "The world is condemned if we don't take a decision right away," he warned. With an agreement, he said the EU could take a strong united position into global talks on climate change next year.
12) He warned countries such as the United States, China and India that the EU would consider trade barriers if they did not impose environmental restrictions on their companies that matched those in the European package.
13) Sarkozy said the other priorities of the presidency would be securing an EU-wide policy on immigration, a stronger EU defense and defending European agriculture.
14) The removal of frontier restrictions between EU members made a common approach to immigration essential that would allow for controlled entry of workers from outside Europe, he said.
15) "It will show that Europe doesn't want to be a fortress, Europe doesn't refuse to take people in," he said. "But Europe cannot take in all the people who want to come to Europe."
16) He said a strong European defense policy would complement NATO, rather than rival the trans-Atlantic alliance, reflecting French plans to reintegrate its forces with the central command structure of NATO after 40 years.
17) Sarkozy repeated criticism of proposals under discussion in world trade talks what would see European farmers forced to cut production.
18) Sarkozy insisted he would not allow the EU's institutional crisis over the Irish referendum vote to bring deadlock to the Union.
19) "There would be nothing worse than for Europe to be stuck, marking time while going through some sort of institutional soap opera," he said.


Sarkozy nudges Syria into international fold for bold Mediterranean summit
(APW_ENG_20080712.0647)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy, keen to realize his vision for harmony and prosperity around the Mediterranean, reached out Saturday to Syria, a nation often accused of sponsoring terrorism and undermining regional unity.
2) "France should be a messenger of peace," Sarkozy told a news conference in the presidential palace after talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. "For that, one must have the courage to talk to everyone."
3) That is the message France is sending Sunday in launching, to much fanfare, the Union for the Mediterranean, bringing together leaders of 43 nations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa who have never before sat around a single table.
4) Overcoming age-old enmities between nations along the Mediterranean rim is a key challenge for the sweeping yet vague project. And Syria is at the heart of many of those tensions.
5) Sarkozy hosted Assad at the French presidential palace for private talks, marking the end to years of chill between their countries. Sarkozy then sat proudly at Assad's side at a news conference, appearing determined to bring Syria back into the international fold.
6) Sarkozy asked Assad for help in easing the international standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Assad, in his turn, asked France to contribute efforts toward a peace deal between Syria and Israel. Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, also called for reviving efforts toward an EU cooperation deal with Syria that stalled in 2005.
7) Sarkozy at times seemed to overestimate his Syrian counterpart's enthusiasm for cooperation.
8) The French president, after meeting the Syrian and Lebanese leaders, said they had agreed to open embassies in each other's countries for the first time.
9) Sarkozy praised the "historic" moment -- but the Syrian president was more cautious, saying the sides must "define the steps to take to arrive at this stage" of opening embassies.
10) Still, even talk of embassies marks an important shift in relations between the neighbors and serves as a boost to Sarkozy. Syria and Lebanon have not had full-fledged embassies in each other's countries since Lebanon became independent in 1943 and Syria in 1945.
11) Syria's relations with Lebanon -- and much of the western world -- further crumbled in 2005, when former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed. Syria's critics accuse Damascus of having a role in the slaying, a charge Syria denies.
12) France and the United States led the push for a U.N. tribunal investigating Hariri's killing, and have accused Syria of backing Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Hamas militants in Israel.
13) Assad on Saturday asked for French participation in eventual Israel-Syrian peace talks. But he threw cold water on speculation of a possible one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
14) Assad said indirect Israeli-Syrian talks mediated by Turkey could turn into full-fledged direct negotiations -- but suggested little progress was likely before the United States elects a new leader.
15) Sarkozy acknowledged that his Mediterranean union idea was riddled with potential thorns.
16) "On the road to peace and confidence, there is still a lot of work to do," Sarkozy said.
17) But the meeting of these 43 leaders "is already something that marks a very big turning point ... for this region of the world, and for the influence of France, for the influence of Europe and I hope for the good of everyone."
18) Sarkozy, who wants to create a consequential role for Europe and France in Middle East peace efforts, said he would visit Damascus in September but did not set a date.
19) It was quite a step for a leader whose predecessor, Jacques Chirac, spurned Syria after the death of Hariri, a friend of French leaders.
20) French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said "a wind of hope" was blowing around this weekend's summit, but added that "talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are not part of this wind of hope." He urged the leaders present to press Israel and the Palestinians to push faster and harder for peace.
21) Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan all expressed hope separately Saturday that the summit would increase chances for stability in the region.
22) Sarkozy will co-chair the summit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the grandiose, glass-domed Grand Palais, with rooms set aside for private talks. The event will be capped Monday with dozens of leaders attending France's national Bastille Day military parade as special guests.
23) Sarkozy hoped the Mediterranean group would become a pillar of his presidency and France's leadership of the European Union, but it overlaps with expensive European projects in progress.
24) The new union is to include at least 43 nations, all of which are sending a president or prime minister to the summit. Libya, whose leader Moammar Gadhafi has objected to the whole idea, is sending a minister as observer.


Barack Obama and America-friendly French president Sarkozy meeting in Paris
(APW_ENG_20080725.0436)
1) Barack Obama is stopping briefly in France for talks and a news conference with America-friendly French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) The U.S. Democratic presidential contender is squeezing in a few hours in Paris Friday between stops in Berlin and London. A day earlier, an enormous crowd in Berlin cheered Obama as he spoke on U.S.-Europe relations.
3) Sarkozy is rushing back from a summit in southwestern France to host Obama at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris. Sarkozy has previously welcomed Republican John McCain to the palace. Sarkozy and Obama also met in Washington in 2006, before the French leader's 2007 election.


Obama says Iran should accept EU nuclear proposal and not wait for next US president
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1) Barack Obama, nearing the end of a fast-paced international campaign trip, has warned Iran not to wait for the next U.S. president to take office before yielding to Western demands to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
2) "The pressure, I think, is only going to build," the Democratic presidential candidate said at a news conference Friday as he stood beside French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
3) Obama spent less than five hours in the French capital, time enough for his motorcade to drive past curious Parisians gathered along the sidewalks hoping to catch a glimpse, receive a greeting from his host on the steps of the presidential palace and then hold private talks before a news conference.
4) The French president veered close to an endorsement to a man he called "my dear Barack Obama."
5) Sarkozy recalled that when they first met in 2006 neither was president.
6) "And one of us became president. Well, let the other do likewise, huh? I mean, that's not meddling" in the U.S. election, Sarkozy said.
7) For his part, Obama, observed that when Sarkozy visited the United States two years ago, he met with only two senators -- himself and John McCain, now the Republican presidential candidate-in-waiting. "So I would suggest that, for the reporters in the room, if you want to know something about elections, you should talk to the president of France."
8) Obama said he and Sarkozy agreed that Iran poses "an extraordinarily grave situation," and the world must send "a clear message to Iran to end its illicit nuclear program."
9) Obama has spoken frequently of Iran on his trip, stressing that its nuclear ambitions pose a threat to Israel's existence and threatens to destabilize the entire region. While the United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, Tehran says its program is for peaceful purposes.
10) Obama disclosed that earlier in his trip, he had found Israelis curious about a possible shift in Syria's foreign policy, "that if, in fact, Syrian President Bashar Assad was serious about dealing with their support of Hamas or their support of Hezbollah, that that could be a game-changer."
11) Obama said, "I think that's an area worth exploring and having leaders like President Sarkozy help -- helping to move that along, I think has enormous potential."
12) Israel has been in indirect discussions with Syria in recent weeks, though little is known of their content.
13) Obama told reporters that "Afghanistan is a war we have to win." The Taliban and terrorist groups it supports, he said, pose an unacceptable threat to the U.S., France and other nations.
14) "We've got to finish the job," said Obama, who often has said the Iraq war was an unwise move that distracted the United States from efforts to find Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and to root out the Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
15) Sarkozy said he agreed that the Taliban must be defeated in Afghanistan, where French troops are part of a multinational force.
16) Obama is on an election-season trip, financed by his campaign, that ends on Saturday with talks with British officials. Part of his goal for the trip through the Mideast and Europe has been to allow him to make his debut on an international stage in the hopes of reassuring skeptical voters in the United States about his readiness for the presidency.
17) His mere presence at a joint news conference with Sarkozy provided images, at least, to achieve his goal. And while the senator reminded his audience there is only one president, he also spoke as though he was representing the country he hopes to lead.
18) "I obviously am very appreciative of President Sarkozy's long-standing commitment to strengthen the bilateral relationship between France and the United States and enhance trans-Atlantic relations as a whole," Obama said.
19) "He has been a great leader on this, and the American people greatly appreciate President Sarkozy's approach to the relationship between our two countries," he said.
20) Sarkozy and Obama met for more than hour, including 20 minutes of one-on-one talks, according to an aide to the French president. Upon arriving at the Elysee Palace, Obama greeted a crowd of reporters with a simple, "Bonjour!"


Sarkozy says he will not meet Dalai Lama in France
(APW_ENG_20080806.1167)
1) First, French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Then he backed down. Now, he is heaping praise on China's leadership and avoiding a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
2) "If the organization of the Olympics were a sport ... we should give China the gold medal," Sarkozy said in an interview with the Xinhua news agency released Wednesday. He said he was "greatly delighted at the prospect of going to Beijing."
3) Sarkozy has been under pressure from Chinese officials and human rights activists to make a decision about whether to meet the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan spiritual leader comes to France next week.
4) A carefully worded statement from Sarkozy's office Wednesday suggested it was the Dalai Lama's decision, not Sarkozy's, to forego a meeting. The Dalai Lama begins an 11-day stay in France on Tuesday.
5) "The president understands the reasons that are leading the Dalai Lama, given the current circumstances, to not request a meeting during his stay in France in August," the statement said.
6) The Dalai Lama's representative in Paris gave a slightly different version.
7) Jampal Chosang said in a faxed statement Wednesday that the Dalai Lama "confirmed his wish to meet the president" and that Sarkozy has "expressed his wish to meet the Dalai Lama." Chosang said such talks would not take place during this month's France visit, but that his office was in contact with Sarkozy's office about arranging a meeting later this year.
8) Sarkozy's wife, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, will take part in a religious ceremony presided over by the Dalai Lama on Aug. 22 opening a Buddhist temple near Lodeve in southern France, the French president's office said.
9) Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics because of China's crackdown in Tibet earlier this year. That, and French protests during the Olympic torch relay through Paris, prompted a Chinese backlash.
10) Sarkozy later agreed to attend Friday's opening ceremony of the Beijing games but remained vague about whether he would meet the Dalai Lama.
11) Kong Quan, China's ambassador to France, had said there could be "consequences" for France if such a meeting took place. Sarkozy bristled at the public warning, saying last month, "It's not for China to fix my agenda, or to dictate my meetings."
12) Sarkozy's decision not to meet with the Dalai Lama is certain to further rile human rights defenders who accuse him of kowtowing to Chinese pressure and wanting to secure major Chinese contracts for French companies.
13) Sarkozy will leave soon after the Olympic opening ceremony Friday and is expected to be in France during the Dalai Lama's visit. Sarkozy is spending much of this month on vacation at his wife's Mediterranean villa.
14) The Dalai Lama will meet with lawmakers in the French Senate during his stay and hold a spiritual teaching session in the western French city of Nantes.
15) The French president has not met the Dalai Lama since taking office in May 2007.
16) French voters would have preferred a meeting. A French poll last month by Ifop showed that 78 percent of respondents wanted Sarkozy to meet the Dalai Lama.
17) Meanwhile, Sarkozy was unequivocal in his support of China's leadership in the Chinese news agency interview, a full transcript of which was released by his office.
18) Staging the Games in Beijing "consecrates the recognition of all that is the China of the 21st century: a modern power, of a global stature, one of the giants of the world today," Sarkozy said, adding: "Friendship between France and China is a fundamental axis of France's foreign policy."


Sarkozy defends presence at Olympics
(APW_ENG_20080808.0666)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended his decision to attend Friday's opening of the Beijing Games as a step toward coaxing greater reforms from China and brushed off criticism for avoiding a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
2) "We don't boycott a quarter of humanity," Sarkozy said as he met with French athletes ahead of the evening's opening ceremony. "The Olympics are the opportunity to accompany China on a path toward openness, tolerance, progress and the respect of our values."
3) Initially, Sarkozy had threatened to boycott the opening of the Aug. 8-24 games over China's crackdown in Tibet earlier this year. He later changed his mind, prompting criticism from human rights groups.
4) Sarkozy also met on Friday with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and Sarkozy's office said he handed them lists of political prisoners in China that European officials would like to see freed.
5) The men did not discuss the lists, and they also did not discuss Tibet, although Sarkozy's office said the question of human rights was raised.
6) Sarkozy's critics and human rights groups have accused him of bowing to Chinese pressure and wanting to secure major Chinese contracts for French companies.
7) The French president told France 2 television in an interview, "The Olympics are universal -- if we can only choose organizing countries that share exactly the same values as ours, then we would have a group as small as a postage stamp."
8) Criticism of Sarkozy has increased since his office announced this week that he would not meet the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan spiritual leader travels to France. The Dalai Lama begins an 11-day stay in France on Tuesday.
9) The French president said the Dalai Lama himself told him "that he didn't want to organize a meeting during the Olympic Games."
10) "He is a wise man, who knows very well that, when things are tense, you can't improve the situation in Tibet," Sarkozy told France 2. He added that he would have the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama before the end of the year.
11) At a lunch of leaders in Beijing, Sarkozy was seated at the Chinese president's table, and invited Hu to visit France. Sarkozy was accompanied by the youngest of his sons, 11-year-old Louis, for his brief visit to Beijing, his office said.


Sarkozy demands that Russia comply with cease fire
(APW_ENG_20080817.0390)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned Russia's leader of "serious consequences" for Moscow's relations with the European Union, if Russia does not comply with its cease-fire accord with Georgia.
2) Sarkozy's office says he has told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that there must be a "withdrawal, without delay, of all the Russian military forces that entered Georgia since Aug. 7."
3) Sarkozy's office says Medvedev promised that the troop pullout would start Monday around midday.
4) The French president's office says the men spoke by telephone Saturday. Sarkozy helped broker the cease-fire agreement.


France and Jordan sign civilian nuclear deal
(APW_ENG_20080827.0955)
1) The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France and Jordan have signed an accord on civilian nuclear cooperation.
2) Sarkozy's office says the deal will "reinforce and institutionalize" nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
3) In a parallel agreement, French nuclear giant Areva says it has signed a uranium mining deal with Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission.
4) The announcements coincided with talks in Paris Wednesday between Sarkozy and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
5) Sarkozy has said France would support Muslim nations seeking civilian nuclear technologies. Under Sarkozy, France has signed similar nuclear accords with Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.


France ' s Sarkozy joins Mideast summit
(APW_ENG_20080904.0303)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined the leaders of Syria, Turkey and Qatar on Thursday for a summit aimed at promoting peace and stability in a turbulent Middle East.
2) The discussions in Syria's capital followed a one-on-one meeting between Sarkozy and Syrian President Bashar Assad a day earlier to discuss prospects for direct peace talks between Syria and its longtime foe Israel.
3) Sarkozy offered France's help to sponsor such negotiations when the time comes.
4) Thursday's summit aims to follow up on that discussion and other regional issues with the participation of two other important regional players. Turkey has been mediating indirect Israeli-Syrian talks for more than a year, and the Gulf nation of Qatar is a key broker in inter-Arab disputes.
5) Sarkozy's visit to Damascus, the first by a Western leader in at least three years, also aims to undercut Iranian influence in Syria.
6) France, Turkey and Qatar are allies of the United States, a sharp critic of Damascus. Thursday's summit further boosts Assad's government and consolidates the international warming toward his country led by Sarkozy. In addition to their individual clout, France is the current head of the European Union and Qatar is the current head of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council. Turkey, which borders Syria and Iraq, has good ties with Israel.
7) The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, joined Assad and Sarkozy at the hilltop al-Shaab presidential palace for the talks Thursday morning.
8) The four were expected to discuss regional stability and prospects for Arab-Israeli peace.
9) Assad hosted the four-way summit on the second day of Sarkozy's visit to this Arab nation, which ushered in a new era in bilateral ties after several years of estrangement.
10) On Wednesday, Sarkozy held bilateral talks with Assad and encouraged direct talks between Syria and Israel.
11) "It is very important that the time for Syria and Israel to talk directly comes soon, to build the peace that everyone needs," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Assad.
12) Syria demands a full return of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Face-to-face talks collapsed in 2000 because of disagreement over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the heights.
13) Sarkozy has stressed that Syria could play a role in persuading its ally Iran to cooperate on resolving Tehran's standoff with the West over the Iranian nuclear program. Sarkozy also wants to woo Syria away from the fold of regional power Iran, which the U.S. and its European allies suspect of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
14) "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. ... Nuclear weapons in Iran are a threat to peace in the region and the world. Everybody, in their own way, should get the message through," Sarkozy said.
15) Assad, who recently visited Tehran but apparently failed to persuade Iranians on the nuclear question, said he would continue that dialogue with the Iranian and French sides.
16) "We hope to reach a resolution to this problem. No one in the world can bear the consequences of any non-peaceful resolution because it will be a catastrophe," Assad said.


Sarkozy: unlikely diplomat in Russia-Georgia fight
(APW_ENG_20080907.0432)
1) He's not know for his diplomatic graces, but blunt-talking French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks like Europe's best bet for making peace between Russia and Georgia.
2) Paris, unlike Washington, can claim to be an impartial mediator, and Sarkozy is bolstered by his current role as the chief of the 27-nation European Union, Russia's biggest trading partner.
3) But a cease-fire deal that Sarkozy crafted is spluttering. His diplomatic blitz to Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday may be his last chance to save it -- and his credibility as a peacemaker.
4) Officially, Sarkozy, who will be joined by the European Commission president and the EU's foreign policy chief, is charged with ensuring that the terms of the accord are being honored.
5) Even for the most seasoned diplomat, that is no small feat. Russian forces have been digging in their heels, President Dmitry Medvedev has given no sign of backing down, and the historical and legal backdrop is complex.
6) Sarkozy made his reputation as a results-oriented, energetic and tough-talking interior minister, qualities in contrast with the stuffy, eloquent and high-minded French diplomats of yesteryear. At times Sarkozy's abrupt, unstatesmanlike style has overshadowed his message.
7) Several analysts said the primary goal of Sarkozy's mission Monday needs to be cooling tensions between Russia and Georgia, which are not as quantifiable as the hard results that he typically seeks.
8) Sarkozy will be carrying an EU mandate: Bloc leaders who met at an emergency summit on the crisis Sept. 1 scolded Moscow, insisting it was not holding up its side of the deal because Russian forces remain inside Georgia. Russia calls them peacekeepers and says they are allowed under the accord.
9) Sarkozy's priority No. 1 is to get Moscow to pull out hundreds of forces that crossed over from the breakaway zones of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and have taken positions deeper in Georgia, French diplomatic officials say.
10) The Sarkozy-led mission is also aiming for agreements that would allow more international observers to be deployed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia to monitor the cease-fire, and set a timetable for talks about the security and stability of the breakaway republics, which Russia recognizes as independent.
11) Sarkozy's first shuttle mission in the first days after hostilities broke out Aug. 7 led to the cease-fire deal. His second trip to Moscow and Tbilisi in less than a month indicates the crisis is among the biggest that the EU has faced.
12) "It's very good that the French presidency reacted so quickly," said Sabine Fischer, an expert on Russia at the EU's Institute of Security Studies in Paris. But the cease-fire deal has problems, she added: "It gave the Russian side room for interpretation ... this is what Sarkozy has been criticized for."
13) So far, in his 16 months in office, Sarkozy's doggedness has paid off in the international arena. He helped win the release of six Bulgarian medics held in Libya; he has boosted France's diplomatic and military role in Afghanistan; and he has restored France's ties with Syria, among other things.
14) Above all, Sarkozy patched up relations with the United States, which suffered badly over President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war. Nearly as importantly, he reached out to some European countries that Chirac had scolded for lining up with the Bush administration over Iraq.
15) In part for that reason, analysts said, Sarkozy was able to flesh out a common EU line against Russia at the emergency summit Sept. 1. He had to strike a compromise between calls for tough action made by countries like Poland or the Baltic states and the hesitation of nations like Italy, whose Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi opposed any sanctions against Russia.
16) Analysts differ about the importance of Sarkozy's role. Francois Heisbourg of the state-backed Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris gave the French leader "high marks" for bringing Berlusconi on board.
17) Thomas Gomart, of the independent French Institute for International Relations, said Russia's actions -- and what he called the "inaudible" role of the United States -- were the main driving forces behind the EU unity, more than Sarkozy.
18) "The positions of the member states have grown closer. ... Countries like France and Germany toughened their stance toward Moscow and others like the Baltic states or Poland have become realistic. They see the United States is distant in this affair," he said.
19) France does not have as much historical antagonism with Russia or as much addiction to Russian oil and natural gas as some of its EU partners do. This makes the timing of Paris' EU presidency a bit of a lucky break, some say.
20) The French "can make good relations that Paris has with both Moscow and Tbilisi bear fruit," Gomart said. "Had it been another country -- say, Poland -- EU mediation would have been much more complicated."
21) In the crisis, the EU is speaking with an uncommonly unified voice, say analysts, and that serves Sarkozy's long-term goal of bringing member states closer together in diplomatic, political and military affairs.
22) On the other hand, Sarkozy doesn't have a full hand to play in his mission to Moscow.
23) "The fundamental problem is that the European Union only has diplomatic tools," said Gomart. "They realize that at the core, to be taken seriously by a country like Russia, you have to be a security player too."


EU-Ukraine summit moved at last minute to Paris
(APW_ENG_20080908.0835)
1) A summit between the European Union and Ukraine has been postponed and moved at the last minute because of talks on resolving tensions between Russia and Georgia.
2) The summit had been scheduled for Evian, France, on Tuesday morning. Instead French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says it will be held Tuesday afternoon in Paris.
3) Sarkozy is holding talks in Moscow and Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday on defusing the conflict between Russian and Georgia. He will also preside over the EU-Ukraine summit, because France holds the EU's rotating presidency.
4) Sarkozy's office said in a statement Monday that the change was because of the "delay" in Sarkozy's Russia-Georgia trip.
5) Such last-minute changes in EU summit venues are unusual.


French troops rescue hostages from Somali pirates
(APW_ENG_20080916.0701)
1) French troops stormed a yacht hijacked by Somali pirates, killing one, capturing six others and freeing their two French hostages in a raid that France's president said Tuesday was a warning to criminals on the high seas.
2) President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the world to mobilize against maritime piracy and said the overnight military assault that freed Jean-Yves and Bernadette Delanne -- the second such French operation in five months -- was a demonstration of France's "unbending determination against piracy."
3) "The pirates now know that they are taking risks, big risks," Sarkozy said.
4) The Delanne couple, from French Polynesia, were sailing a friend's boat from Australia to France when they were captured Sept. 2 by pirates lying in wait in the Gulf of Aden.
5) About 30 French soldiers took part in what Sarkozy called a meticulously planned assault that he ordered Monday night. The hostages were freed in 10 minutes and the soldiers were unhurt, he said.
6) Sarkozy said he ordered the rescue when it became clear that the pirates planned to take the hostages to Eyl, a Somali zone that serves as a base for numerous pirates.
7) Freeing them would have been difficult once they got there and "their captivity could have lasted months," Sarkozy said.
8) High winds deferred the assault for two nights running, he said.
9) Piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden has "literally exploded" this year, Sarkozy said, adding that Somali pirates are currently holding 150 people and at least 15 ships, mainly in Eyl.
10) The Gulf of Aden has been the scene of most of the 54 pirate attacks this year off the coast of Somalia. The French president said that some 48,000 ships pass through the gulf annually.
11) Sarkozy said France will take action in the U.N. Security Council, where it has a permanent seat, to mobilize the international community against "this plague" of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
12) "The world cannot accept this. Today, these are no longer isolated cases but a genuine industry of crime. This industry casts doubt on a fundamental freedom: that of movement and of international commerce," said Sarkozy.
13) He added: "I call on the other countries of the world to assume their responsibilities, as France has done -- twice."
14) Sarkozy said he intends to bring the six pirates -- now held on a French frigate -- to France. But he left open the possibility that Somalia could keep them, if "we are certain that these pirates will be tried, sentenced and will serve out their punishments."
15) The body of the slain pirate will be handed over to Somali authorities, Sarkozy added.
16) France has six other pirates in custody from an April 11 French operation by helicopter-borne troops. that took place after pirates freed the 30-member crew of a pleasure yacht, the Ponant. A US$2 million ransom was apparently paid by the yacht's owner. Some of the money was recovered by French troops.
17) Sarkozy said a ransom demand was made, but not paid, in the latest case.
18) On Monday, European Union foreign ministers agreed to set up a special unit to coordinate warship patrols off the coast of Somalia to protect shipping from pirates.
19) Sarkozy noted that armed pirates hijacked a Hong Kong chemical tanker with 22 crew members in the Gulf of Aden in a fresh attack on Monday.
20) Sarkozy said pirates also fired rockets in recent days at a French tuna fishing boat that was 750 kilometers (465 miles) off the Somali coast.


French president urges reform of capitalist system
(APW_ENG_20080923.1231)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Tuesday for a summit of leaders of the world's main economic powers later this year to examine the lessons learned from the current financial crisis, which he described as the worst since the U.S. Great Depression.
2) Addressing the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, Sarkozy also urged the European Union to create a "continentwide common economic space which would unite Russia and Europe."
3) The deepening international financial crisis has weighed heavily on the summit of world leaders at the United Nations. In his speech, Sarkozy said it was the "duty of the heads of state and government of the countries most directly concerned to meet before the end of the year to examine the lessons of the most serious financial crisis the world has experienced since that of the 1930s."
4) Sarkozy proposed that the summit be held in November, possibly in London, New York, Washington, Paris or Brussels, Belgium.
5) "What is important is that no country however powerful it may be can bring an effective answer to the financial crisis on its own, so it would be logical to have it in the format of the G-8, the major eight economies of the world," he said.
6) But he added that leaders of emerging economies such as China should also be invited to attend.
7) In his speech, Sarkozy called for a wholesale reform of the global financial system.
8) "Let us rebuild capitalism in which credit agencies are controlled and punished when necessary, where transparency ... replaces opaqueness," he said. "We can do this on one condition, that we all work together in our globalized world."
9) Sarkozy said he strongly opposed the granting of lucrative "golden parachutes" to executives of failing financial firms, describing it as a "mad system ... not compatible with a market economy."
10) The French leader, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, said Europe wants to build a "shared future" with Russia.
11) "We want to be Russia's partner," he said. "Why not build a continentwide common economic space which would unite Russia and Europe?"
12) Sarkozy, who brokered the deal that ended the brief August war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, said the new arrangement with Russia should go beyond the current "strategic partnership" between the EU and Moscow. But it would be "far short" of a common market, he said.
13) The French president also touched on the Middle East, noting that Europe respected Iran's right to nuclear energy, but that it could not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. Speaking on behalf of the EU, Sarkozy said Israel must recognize that there will be no peace in the region without an independent Palestinian state.
14) Sarkozy called on the government of Sudan to end the violence in Darfur, saying that if the authorities in Khartoum "completely change their policy" Paris would back the suspension by the U.N. Security Council of indictments handed down against Sudanese leaders by the International Criminal Court.
15) In July, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir on charges he is behind attempts to wipe out three African tribes in Sudan's western Darfur province.
16) "We want peace in Sudan (and) we want that the individuals accused of genocide do not remain ministers in the Sudanese government," Sarkozy said. This was an apparent reference to Sudan's Interior Minister Ahmed Haroun who was charged last year with war crimes.
17) Sarkozy's words drew a quick rebuke from Amnesty International. A statement described Sarkozy's proposal to suspend the arrest warrants as "a dangerous precedent" which could be interpreted by the leaders of other nations accused of war crimes as a sign that "their immunity is always negotiable."


French leader wants world finance system overhaul
(APW_ENG_20080925.1219)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the world came within "a whisker of catastrophe" and the financial and monetary systems need overhauled as they were after World War II.
2) Sarkozy says French growth, employment and buying power will be affected by the crisis. But he wants to reassure citizens they won't be forgotten.
3) Sarkozy said Thursday that French banks appear poised to ride out the crisis. In any case, he says no saver will lose a single cent because the state will guarantee the security of the nation's banks.
4) Sarkozy says that, despite the gloomy climate, he will not impose an austerity package.
5) But executives may feel the pinch. Sarkozy warns their pay may be trimmed by a law setting out "acceptable practices."


French leader says markets neared catastrophe
(APW_ENG_20080925.1275)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday the world came within "a whisker of catastrophe" during the recent financial crisis and that those responsible for the crisis must be identified and held accountable.
2) In his first major public address since the start of the crisis, Sarkozy also criticized "abuses and scandals" involving executive pay, and pledged to intervene to halt these practices unless executives come up with their own solution.
3) "Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished," Sarkozy said.
4) "The world came within a whisker of catastrophe. We can't run the risk of it happening again," Sarkozy, a conservative, said in an address in the southern Mediterranean port city of Toulon.
5) Sarkozy warned that the ongoing crisis "will have consequences in the coming months on growth, on unemployment and on spending power."
6) "The crisis is not finished ... its consequences will be lasting," Sarkozy said.
7) The president said the crisis made it necessary to accelerate his labor and fiscal reforms, to improve France's competitiveness and help small businesses. He said the ranks of the country's huge corps of civil servants would be shaved by 30,600 next year, not replaced as they retire.
8) Speaking a day before the French government presents its 2009 budget to Parliament, Sarkozy promised not to impose an "austerity plan" that would, according to him, "deepen the recession."
9) France's economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the second quarter, but French government ministers including Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde have denied the country was in recession, saying it was only a slowdown.
10) In a wide-ranging speech that touched on both the global economy and France's domestic economy, the president said, "We must identify those responsible for this disaster and they must be punished, at least financially."
11) Saying there had been "too many abuses and scandals" involving executive pay, Sarkozy warned business leaders that "either they agree on acceptable practices, or the government will regulate it before the end of the year."
12) The president said executives' pay "should be indexed to the real economic performance" of their companies.
13) Executive pay has emerged as a hot button issue in the crisis, with the U.S. Congress forcing the administration to accept limits on Wall Street pay packages as part of its proposed US$700 billion bailout of the American banking system.


Sarkozy ' s son acquitted of fleeing accident scene
(APW_ENG_20080929.0695)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's son was acquitted Monday of accusations he fled the scene of a 2005 scooter accident.
2) The Paris court also ordered plaintiff M'Hamed Bellouti to pay euro2,000 ($2,928) in damages to the president's son for "malicious prosecution."
3) Bellouti had argued in court that Jean Sarkozy -- who has followed his father into politics -- rammed his scooter into his car, then disappeared from the scene. Jean Sarkozy has denied involvement in the incident.
4) "I knew that Jean Sarkozy was above the law, but at this point ... it's worrisome for the justice system and the republic," Bellouti said after the ruling. Critics have accused the Sarkozy family of getting favorable treatment in judicial cases in the past.
5) Sarkozy family lawyer Thierry Herzog said, "The justice system did what it had to do, and justice is the same for all."
6) Bellouti said he noted down the license plate at the time of the accident but did not learn who the driver was until later. He had asked for euro260 ($380) in car repairs and euro4,000 ($5,856) in moral damages.
7) Jean Sarkozy, who was a student at the time, has always denied any role.
8) Jean Sarkozy, 22, is the second of the president's three sons. He was elected this year to a regional council representing a section of the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where his conservative father served as mayor for 19 years.
9) It wasn't the first time Jean Sarkozy and his scooter attracted the attention of law enforcement.
10) While Nicolas Sarkozy was campaigning for the presidency in 2006, thieves made off with his son's scooter, and police used fingerprints and DNA tests to quickly catch three suspects.
11) Nicolas Sarkozy was interior minister at the time, France's top cop and political rivals questioned why this case was handled so quickly while many other scooter thefts go unsolved. Sarkozy dismissed the complaints as "stupid, nasty attacks."


France to host Saturday EU summit on money crisis
(APW_ENG_20081002.0606)
1) France will host a European financial summit Saturday in Paris, bringing together a handful of European countries to deal with the international financial crisis.
2) The leaders of Germany, Britain and Italy are to attend, a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said. Others invited are Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, a top European financial official; European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet; and the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.
3) The aim is to prepare the EU members of the Group of Eight for broader talks on the financial crisis with the club of leading industrialized nations, the statement said. No meeting of the full G-8 has been announced, and Sarkozy's office did not further elaborate.
4) Sarkozy has pushed for a global summit on the crisis, saying capitalism must be restructured to better adapt to a new era.
5) The official announcement of the summit came as Sarkozy denied suggestions that France was backing the creation of a special fund to rescue any crisis-hit European banks.
6) Speaking to reporters in Paris, Sarkozy denied that France supported the idea for such a fund, as well as the reported euro300 billion (US$422 billion) price tag.
7) "I deny both the price and the principle," he said.
8) The idea for a fund had been floated by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt. She suggested the creation of an emergency EU fund that would be available if a bank were on the brink of going under, though she did not put a price tag on it. The suggestion was swiftly rejected by Germany.
9) Several news reports had suggested the fund would amount to euro300 billion.


Sarkozy: EU working on financial crisis response
(APW_ENG_20081008.0689)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy says France is working with EU partners toward a unified response to the global financial crisis and that it should emerge in the coming hours.
2) The French leader says only coordinated action by the world's central banks and governments can stanch the systemic risk. He says no country can act on its own to resolve global challenges.
3) Sarkozy hasn't provided details about what the EU response might be. He was speaking at a policy conference in the Alpine town of Evian.
4) The European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and China's central bank were among several monetary authorities to announce interest rate cuts before Sarkozy made his comments Wednesday.
5) France currently holds the EU presidency.


Official: Thieves hack Sarkozy ' s bank account
(APW_ENG_20081019.0291)
1) The French Cabinet's spokesman says "swindlers" have broken into the personal bank account of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) Spokesman Luc Chatel told France's Radio-J an investigation is under way and insists the incident "proves that this system of checking (bank accounts) via the Internet isn't infallible." He did not elaborate.
3) Weekly Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday that thieves seized Sarkozy's bank account information and swiped small sums of money.
4) The newspaper said Sarkozy reported the theft last month and that those responsible haven't been found. The report cited an unnamed official close to the investigation for its information.
5) The press service for Sarkozy's office declined comment.


Sarkozy: EU should consider sovereign wealth funds
(APW_ENG_20081021.0652)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Tuesday that the nations of the European Union should set up their own sovereign wealth funds to prevent European companies falling into foreign hands as share prices plummet.
2) "I don't want European citizens to wake up in several months and find European companies belonging to non-European capital, which bought at the share price's lowest point," he said.
3) "All of us here should think about the opportunity to set up sovereign wealth funds in each of our countries," Sarkozy told European Parliament. "And maybe these national sovereign wealth funds could eventually coordinate to form a business response to the crisis."
4) Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation EU, is suggesting that state funds act as political investors to head off foreign purchases of strategic industries -- the latest sign of governments are considering greater state intervention in the face of the current financial crisis.
5) In a speech to the EU assembly outlining the bloc's response to the recent turmoil, Sarkozy also said new rules for financial markets should include a ban on banks with state money working through tax havens, and a global system of regulation to prevent a repeat of the market meltdown.
6) He pledged to use a trip to China this week to persuade Asian nations to sign up to a plan to redraw the rule book for international capitalism.
7) In Europe, he said the 15 nations using the euro currency needed to better coordinate their economic policies, including through regular summit meetings of euro-zone leaders.
8) Sarkozy called the first euro-zone summit earlier this month where nations agreed parallel government bank guarantees to shore up their financial sectors. This led Denmark, Sweden, and other EU members that do not use the common currency, to complain that major decisions were being taken without them.
9) Sarkozy has previously been a critic of government-owned sovereign wealth funds, which are found mostly in Asia and the oil-rich Middle East, and in Russia and Norway. They control an estimated US$2.5 trillion (euro1.7 trillion) in assets.
10) Critics contend the funds offer little transparency and could lead to those countries exerting political power by taking key stakes in strategic sectors such as defense, energy or banking.
11) Sarkozy gave no indication of where cash-strapped European nations would find the money for such funds, but said they could perhaps make a profit by buying cut-price shares in strategic companies then selling them off when their stock rises.
12) "Even finance ministers can do some good deals, so why not," he told a news conference.
13) However, some analysts doubt whether other European leaders would support the plan given that EU nations lack the deep pockets of the oil-rich nations. "Is this the best use of taxpayers' money? No," said Katinka Barysch, economics expert at the Center for European Reform, a London-based think tank.
14) Sarkozy met with U.S. President George W. Bush over the weekend to seek support for a series of meetings among major world powers to draw up new rules for global finance to ensure there is no repeat of the crisis that has thrown markets into turmoil in recent weeks.
15) He hopes the first such summit can be held in November in New York.
16) Sarkozy said new rules were needed to regulate the markets, but insisted the summit would not be about "bringing the market economy into question."
17) No financial institutions should be able to work without being covered by financial regulations, he said. New rules on tax havens should exclude their use by banks in which governments have a stake. The way traders are offered bonuses should be reformed to ensure they are not pushed into taking undue risks, and a fresh look should be taken at accounting standards for banks and the relationship between the world's leading currencies, Sarkozy said.
18) He also repeated a call for the EU to consider aid to the auto industry to help it adapt to new environmental standards while struggling to cope with falling sales as the economic crisis begins to bite.
19) He insisted the European Union should stick to its plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, saying the crisis could not be used as an excuse to weaken environmental ambitions despite concerns of Italy and several Eastern European nations.
20) "It would be dramatic if we were to turn our backs on this policy using the pretext of the financial crisis," Sarkozy said. "It would be irresponsible."


France stresses need for good EU-Russia ties
(APW_ENG_20081021.0820)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday stressed the need for the European Union to rebuild strong relations with Russia despite the concerns of many EU nations following the Russian invasion of Georgia.
2) Sarkozy told the EU's parliament that the world financial crisis made it even more important for the EU to have a good relationship with Russia.
3) "Given the state of the world, I don't think the world needs a crisis between Europe and Russia -- that would be irresponsible," Sarkozy said. "Europe should not be an accomplice in starting another Cold War."
4) The 27 EU nations are split over whether to resume negotiations on a major political and economic cooperation agreement that were frozen after the invasion of Georgia in August.
5) Italy and Germany are leading calls for a quick normalization of relations after Russia pulled its troops in Georgia back to two disputed regions in line with a peace plan brokered by Sarkozy. But many former Soviet bloc nations in eastern Europe say Russia must do more to show it can be a trustworthy partner.
6) Faced with the divisions, EU leaders postponed until next month a decision on whether to reopen the talks on the partnership and cooperation agreement. EU foreign ministers are expected to look at the issue again before, a Nov. 14 summit meeting between Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
7) Sarkozy says Russia has stuck to the EU's peace plan by pulling its troops back to Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia's critics say the continued presence of large numbers of Russian troops in those regions show it does not respect the plan.


Court refuses to ban voodoo dolls of French leader
(APW_ENG_20081029.1246)
1) A Paris court has seen a funny side to hot-selling voodoo dolls of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, refusing his lawyer's request to order them pulled from sale.
2) Sarkozy's attorney had argued that the president -- like any French person -- owns the right to his own image under the law. But publishing house K&B Editions, which markets the doll, said humor is part of freedom of expression.
3) The court ruled Wednesday in the firm's favor, saying the doll was deliberately aimed to be "satire and humor."
4) Sarkozy lawyer Thierry Herzog filed an appeal shortly after the verdict was handed down. It marked the first time in France that a president's case to defend the use of his image had been rejected in court.
5) "Nicolas Sarkozy: The Voodoo Manual" kit costs 12.95 euros ($16.54)and includes a handbook and 12 pins. The blue-colored doll shows Sarkozy's face on a body covered with some of his most famous -- and infamous -- quips.
6) The publishing house sells a similar doll of Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in presidential elections in 2007. She did not file suit.
7) Royal, reacting to the decision in southern Toulouse on Wednesday, said she was "astonished" that Sarkozy "has time to lose on issues of dolls."
8) In their ruling, the judges recognized that inciting people to stick pins in dolls may be distasteful to some but added that it was not their role to be arbiters of "good or bad taste."
9) They noted the "willingly fantastic and burlesque" way in which the accompanying manual tells users how to spike the doll, and said it targeted not Sarkozy himself but his "ideas and political positions, as well as his comments and public behavior."
10) The head of the publishing house, Jean-Francois Kowalski, told Associated Press Television News earlier this month the dolls were meant to be funny. He said Sarkozy's opposition to the doll was unexpected, "especially considering that back in 2006 the president declared that he would rather have more caricatures than more censorship."


French leader, Obama discuss financial crisis
(APW_ENG_20081106.1313)
1) French leader Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama have discussed the financial crisis by phone.
2) Sarkozy's office says they spoke for 30 minutes on Thursday evening. It characterized their discussion as "extremely warm." It says they agreed to meet in the "quite near future."
3) The statement from Sarkozy's office says they discussed international issues, particularly the financial crisis.
4) It says Sarkozy congratulated Obama on his "brilliant" election victory.


French president will meet with Dalai Lama Dec. 6
(APW_ENG_20081113.0524)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will hold a long-awaited meeting with the Dalai Lama next month, but not in France. The two will meet during Sarkozy's visit Dec. 6 to Gdansk, Poland.
2) In his announcement, Sarkozy says Tibetans have the right to freedom, not repression -- an indirect criticism of China.
3) Some observers thought Sarkozy snubbed the Dalai Lama by not meeting with him when the Tibetan spiritual leader was in France for 11 days during the Beijing Olympics.
4) Sarkozy praised the Dalai Lama as he announced the meeting Thursday while receiving a prize for political courage.
5) During his visit to France, the Dalai Lama expressed hope that Paris would press China for concessions in Tibet.


Sarkozy praises China amid uproar over Dalai Lama
(APW_ENG_20081208.0578)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy has praised China as "one of the greats of the world" and insisted that he "always thought there was only one China."
2) That accommodating language comes amid an uproar by Beijing over Sarkozy's weekend meeting with the Dalai Lama. Sarkozy has justified the encounter in the Polish city of Gdansk by saying it was his duty to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader.
3) Sarkozy said Monday during a speech about human rights that "France would be unfaithful to its history" if it made no room for Nobel Peace Prize winners.
4) China postponed an EU summit and summoned the French ambassador to say Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama represented a "rude intervention" in Chinese affairs. Many in France fear trade retaliation.


France floats EU plan on nuclear weapons cuts
(APW_ENG_20081208.0610)
1) France's president has presented an ambitious European plan to the United Nations to revive global nuclear disarmament efforts.
2) Nicolas Sarkozy says the EU wants a global ban on nuclear tests, a moratorium on production of fissile material and a treaty banning ground-to-ground short- and medium-range nuclear missiles.
3) France is a nuclear power and currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
4) Sarkozy says France is "convinced of the necessity to work for general disarmament."
5) Sarkozy presented the plan in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released by Sarkozy's office Monday.
6) A new international group of former world dignitaries is launching a campaign in Paris on Tuesday for eliminating nuclear weapons.


Iran summons French diplomat over Sarkozy remarks
(APW_ENG_20081211.1340)
1) The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador to Tehran over remarks this week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy about his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian media and France's foreign ministry said Thursday.
2) According to Iran's state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari expressed strong objections to recent "interventionist comments" by Sarkozy.
3) The report said Safari summoned the French ambassador, Bernard Poletti, on Wednesday.
4) During the meeting, the Iranian official warned about the impact Sarkozy's remarks could have on the two countries' bilateral relations, the report added.
5) In a speech about human rights Monday, Sarkozy said he had told former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that "it is impossible for me to shake hands with someone who dared to say that Israel should be wiped off the map."
6) Sarkozy also reportedly said that Ahmadinejad doesn't represent all Iranians.
7) "I know perfectly well the Iranian president does not represent all the power in Iran, and even less ... the Iranian population," Sarkozy said, according to the text of his speech posted on the French president's Web site.
8) Sarkozy was addressing former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who was one of the guests attending a ceremony in Paris celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
9) In Paris, the French ministry said Thursday that its ambassador reiterated France's opinion that Ahmadinejad's statement regarding Israel was "unacceptable."
10) In 2005, Ahmadinejad prompted international criticism when he said the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map."


Sarkozy ' regrets ' uproar over Dalai Lama meeting
(APW_ENG_20081212.0860)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday he "regrets" tensions with China over his recent meeting with the Dalai Lama and expressed confidence that relations would soon improve.
2) Sarkozy bristled at the "advice" China gave him not to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, whom China considers a separatist. Sarkozy insisted that France is a friend of China, not a "vassal."
3) "I regret this friction," Sarkozy said at an EU summit in Brussels. "It is in Europe's interest to have good relations with China and it is in China's interest to have good relations with Europe."
4) Sarkozy met with the Tibetan leader last weekend in Poland, prompting a high-level diplomatic protest from China. Chinese officials were particularly upset that Sarkozy held the meeting while France holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and was therefore seen as representing the entire 27-nation bloc.
5) "We will find the means to talk again, but not at the price of denying our own European values," Sarkozy said.
6) Sarkozy said that France-China trade was good for both countries -- an apparent appeal to thwart a repeat of the Chinese backlash against French goods earlier this year, also over Tibet. It followed pro-Tibetan protests on the streets of Paris during the Olympic torch relay in April.
7) Chinese officials called Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama "arrogant" and a "rude intervention" in its internal affairs and urged France to "take responsibility and concrete measures" to repair strained ties.
8) Sarkozy insisted Friday, as he did after meeting the Dalai Lama, that he considers "there is only one China."


Sarkozy: Others must match EU climate change cuts
(APW_ENG_20081216.0381)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the United States and others must match the European Union's commitment to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
2) Sarkozy has told the European Parliament that President-elect Barack Obama and leaders elsewhere "must take account of what we have done."
3) Last week Sarkozy chaired a meeting of the leaders of the 27-member bloc who agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.
4) Sarkozy told the EU assembly on Tuesday that pollution concessions were made to smokestack industries in the eastern EU for the sake of ensuring a unanimous accord.


Sarkozy acts for ethnic diversity
(APW_ENG_20081217.1136)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy, impatient with what he said was the slow pace of promoting diversity in France, announced measures Wednesday to put more ethnic minorities on TV screens, in political parties and in elite schools.
2) A government action plan to be presented by March will spell out the measures in detail. The project is to be overseen by a newly appointed commissioner for diversity and equality, Yazid Sabeg, a son of Algerian immigrants who is known for his efforts to bring equality to the workplace.
3) "It's not moving fast enough," Sarkozy said in a speech at the elite Ecole Polytechnique, south of Paris, a symbol of the very system that has locked minorities out of the mainstream. France must change so that "no French person feels like a stranger in his own country."
4) Turning to his audience, Sarkozy said prestigious schools must make room for all.
5) "We are going to throw open the doors of places where tomorrow's elite are formed," he said.
6) He wants top schools to reserve 25 percent of their places for students receiving state aid by September -- and 30 percent by September 2010. Many students who receive government education funds are ethnic minorities from underprivileged backgrounds.
7) Increasing diversity was a campaign promise of Sarkozy, elected in May 2007. Long ignored, diversity topped the political agenda after fall 2005 riots in poor French neighborhoods exposed deep anger among people of immigrant origin and revealed the extent of discrimination in France.
8) The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president sparked renewed soul-searching about why so few ethnic minorities rise to the top in France.
9) Sarkozy squarely rejected affirmative action for France. But in a significant departure from French practice, he raised the possibility that scientists might begin gathering statistics on ethnicity -- long taboo in a country that is officially colorblind.
10) Researchers are handicapped by the inability to make head counts based on religious or ethnic factors and have pressed for permission to do so. Sarkozy said scientists must be able "to clearly identify lagging and measure progress."
11) While offering no firm promises or dates, Sarkozy said a dialogue would be opened with scientists on how to advance ethnic diversity in France.
12) He encouraged companies to accept anonymous resumes from job seekers to avoid discrimination due to name or address as is often the case today.
13) The government will propose that 100 large companies experiment with using such resumes in 2009, Sarkozy said, adding that he wants to extend the reach of the High Authority Against Discrimination so that it has the right to make surprise checks of work places.
14) Among other measures, political parties will be asked to sign a "diversity charter" that could become a criteria for receiving public funds, Sarkozy said.
15) Sarkozy also said TV stations will be required to spell out diversity goals to the CSA, France's audiovisual watchdog.


Sarkozy meets Hariri ahead of Mideast trip
(APW_ENG_20090102.0239)
1) A Lebanese politician says he expects French President Nicolas Sarkozy will use his trip next week to the Middle East to try to end the crisis in Gaza.
2) Saad Hariri, head of the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament, met with Sarkozy in Paris on Friday morning.
3) Sarkozy travels Monday and Tuesday to Egypt, Israel, Syria and Lebanon, and also will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
4) Hariri said that Sarkozy "will speak to everyone to try to stop what is happening in Gaza."
5) France has been vocal in the diplomatic push for peace in Gaza.
6) But Israel this week rejected French calls for a pause in the Israeli assault on Hamas in Gaza to allow in humanitarian supplies and to get casualties out.


France ' s museums to be free for under-25s
(APW_ENG_20090113.0660)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the country's national museums and monuments will soon stop charging admission to visitors under 25.
2) Sarkozy says the measure will go into effect April 4. Sarkozy didn't offer any other details about the measures.
3) French national museums include Paris' Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. Adult admission to the Louvre permanent collection is euro9 ($12).
4) In his New Year's address Tuesday to members of France's culture sector, Sarkozy also announced the creation of a new museum devoted to chronicling the country's history. He said the future Museum of French History would be located in a "site emblematic of our history," but did not say where.


Mitchell to stop in Paris on way to Mideast
(APW_ENG_20090126.1158)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet with the newly appointed U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, before he flies to the region in his first bid to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
2) Sarkozy's office says the French leader spent a half hour on the telephone with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday for "substantial" exchanges on the Mideast and other issues.
3) A statement says Obama told Sarkozy that Mitchell would stop in Paris and Sarkozy would meet him. Washington has not announced an official date for Mitchell's first trip, but an Israeli Foreign Ministry official has said Mitchell is due in Israel Wednesday.
4) Sarkozy has made two Middle East trips and was instrumental in achieving the current cease-fire.


Sarkozy blisters traders, vows to cut bank bonuses
(APW_ENG_20090205.1581)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy blistered financial traders and ruled out bonuses for managers of banks bailed out by state funds as he sought Thursday to reassure a nation still jittery following nationwide strikes sparked by the global economic crisis.
2) Sarkozy proposed a panoply of investment measures, tax cuts, profit sharing and an increase in short-term unemployment benefits during a 90-minute live session with journalists on national television Thursday night.
3) Dressed in a sober dark blue suit, the French leader was part the comforting parent and part the scold as he outlined proposals that his government will discuss in detail later this month with unions and other social groups to fight growing unemployment and shrinking spending power.
4) "I must ensure that France enters the crisis as late as possible and gets out of it as early as possible," Sarkozy said.
5) He called on a joint European response to the crisis, which he said he had discussed in a recent telephone conversation with President Barack Obama.
6) "I told him that I feel an ally of the United States, but one country cannot lead the world."
7) Polls released Thursday indicated that confidence in the energetic Sarkozy is falling amid frustration over job cuts and taxpayer concern that money used to bail out the financial sector is lining executive pockets.
8) Sarkozy sternly announced that there would be no bonuses in 2009 at banks that had received state aid. He also said he would consider a cap on salaries for top managers of companies that received public funds but was skeptical about making it a hard-fast rule.
9) The president's harshest words were reserved for traders whom he accused of fueling speculation.
10) Sarkozy said he was "more shocked by the system of pay" for traders than he was for bankers. "That's what you have to forbid." He also said France would review its relations with neighboring financial havens such as Luxembourg, Andorra and Monaco.
11) Nationwide strikes and protests last week focused on fears over rising unemployment, and the government is worried that the one-day action could turn into a broader and protracted walkout.
12) Riot police fired tear gas Thursday at a handful of student protesters trying to force their way into the University of Strasbourg in eastern France, police said. Protesters lobbed eggs and shoes at the facade of the new university complex.
13) Student protests over layoffs and reforms in higher education disrupted several French universities Thursday, though most were peaceful.
14) Sarkozy, however, said despite the protests in recent weeks that he would press ahead with his reforms.
15) "Naturally, I will continue to reform the country. This is the mandate I received, it is my duty," Sarkozy said. "It is the only way for France to emerge from the crisis stronger than going into it."
16) Prime Minister Francois Fillon said this week that the protests would not lead to a reversal in French economic policy. But even before the recent strikes, major reforms appeared to have been put on hold while the government finds ways to save major industries from collapse.
17) Sarkozy pledged to eliminate the so-called "professional tax" that he said penalized French companies, including the auto sector, and he promised to try to reverse outsourcing of French industry.
18) Turning to workers, Sarkozy said he favored a system of profit sharing in enterprises and an increase in short-term unemployment benefits, would consider income tax cuts for lower wage workers, and would look at increasing state allowances for families as well as an increase in child care benefits.
19) Not everything was on the table, however. Sarkozy ruled out an increase in the minimum wages, saying it would not help enough people.
20) Part of the government's euro26 billion ($33.6 billion) economic stimulus plan would go to construction of new university buildings, new high-speed train rails, and improvements in French waterways, including canals.
21) French economic growth is expected to be close to zero this year. Unemployment is up to 7.7 percent after years of steady decline. The worsening employment outlook has pushed down consumer spending.


French unions criticize Sarkozy ' s reform plans
(APW_ENG_20090206.0697)
1) French unions and leftist politicians on Friday lambasted President Nicolas Sarkozy's latest proposals to fight the deepening economic crisis, calling his ideas tepid and hesitant.
2) Sarkozy floated a series of measures on national television Thursday, a week after nationwide strikes crippled France. The proposals included investment stimulus measures, tax cuts, public construction projects, an increase in short-term unemployment benefits and profit sharing.
3) The measures, which have yet to be adopted and will be discussed shortly with unions, aim to encourage the French to spend more and to counter unemployment, which has crept up to 7.7 percent.
4) Still, opposition leaders were not impressed.
5) "I had this very painful impression of a president who does not understand what the French are going through," Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry told RTL radio on Friday. "Does he realize there are French people today who cannot make ends meet?"
6) Marie-George Buffet, the head of the Communist Party, told Canal Plus television that she thought Sarkozy's TV interview was "lamentable."
7) Sarkozy announced scrapping the "professional tax," a levy on companies that benefits local and regional budgets which Sarkozy says hurts the competitiveness of French companies. The CGT union criticized that idea, saying it would hurt communities and taxpayers.
8) "Today, in the short term, what is there concrete for workers? Nothing," Jean-Claude Mailly, secretary general of the Worker's Force union told The Associated Press.
9) Nationwide strikes last week prompted the 90-minute live interview with four French journalists. University students demonstrated Thursday over layoffs and reforms in higher education and more protests are expected in the next few weeks.
10) Even Sarkozy's profit-sharing proposal for workers came under fire.
11) "He was elected by 53 percent of the population, but his concrete measures are only for 7 percent of the privileged population," Olivier Besancenot, leader of France's Revolutionary Communist League.


France ' s Sarkozy urges shorter maternity leave
(APW_ENG_20090213.1377)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday the country's generous leave for new mothers can hinder women's careers and recommended reducing its length.
2) In an address to a group of family organizations, Sarkozy also said he would like to see more new mothers put in reduced hours instead of stopping work altogether. Under French law, women get several weeks or even months of paid maternity leave and can also take up to three years unpaid time off.
3) Such long periods off work "are sometimes ... a great waste," Sarkozy said. "A long-term parental leave breaks up the career path and can mean a lessening of (women's) chances of succeeding" at work.
4) Sarkozy did not provide any specifics on how much time might be shaved off new mothers' leave time but said the issue "must be talked about."
5) It is a sensitive issue because France's family leave system is widely considered a model and is credited with giving the country among Europe's highest fertility rates. French women give birth to an average more than two babies each -- a rarity in graying Europe.
6) Sarkozy said any future changes would not be aimed at scrapping the French system and insisted the proposals in response to "new family realities" -- and to the country's budget crunch.
7) France's family leave system costs about euro80 million ($102 million) per year.


French first lady says adoption is an option
(APW_ENG_20090304.1038)
1) The first lady of France is into kids and says she will adopt one if, at 41, she cannot have a baby with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy concedes in an interview with the weekly Madame Figaro that with her seven-year-old boy from a previous relationship and Sarkozy's three boys from two earlier marriages "we can't say that we need children."
3) But she wants another one and says that "if it's not possible biologically, I'll adopt one."
4) She has also announced plans to create a foundation aimed at developing education, reading and culture among youth.
5) The interview, to be published Saturday, comes after the first anniversary of her marriage to Sarkozy. A copy was provided to The Associated Press on Thursday.


Sarkozy calls for rejoining NATO military command
(APW_ENG_20090311.1052)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the "time has come" for France to rejoin NATO's military command that it quit 43 years ago.
2) Sarkozy says France's "independence won't be in question" -- a clear message to critics who fear he is handing over too much national sovereignty to the Atlantic alliance.
3) He also says France will maintain control over its nuclear arsenal.
4) Then-President Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the NATO military command in 1966 in a bid to assert France's independence during the Cold War. France remains a member of NATO.
5) Sarkozy says new threats require greater international military cooperation.
6) Speaking at a conference in Paris on Wednesday, Sarkozy said, "The time has come to put an end to this situation."


Merkel lauds Sarkozy ' s push to re-engage NATO
(APW_ENG_20090312.1108)
1) German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday praised President Nicolas Sarkozy's intention to return France to a leadership position in NATO, a move she said would strengthen Europe's position in the alliance.
2) "I know this is a bold decision," Merkel said after meeting with Sarkozy in Berlin.
3) Sarkozy announced in a speech Wednesday that it was time to rejoin NATO's military command after 43 years of self-imposed disengagement. France is a NATO member, but does not have any of the alliance's troops on its territory and does not participate in decision making.
4) Merkel said France's reemergence would also, "improve and intensify European security and defense policy."
5) France and Germany are co-hosting a NATO summit April 3-4 in Strasbourg to celebrate the alliance's 60th anniversary, and both leaders emphasized the symbolism that joint conference would carry. France and Germany spent much of the first half of the 20th century as adversaries in World War I and II. Germany was then divided for more than 40 years into the Communist East and democratic West, until steps toward reunification began when Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
6) "Who would have thought that 20 years after the fall of the wall that we would find ourselves hosting a joint summit, Germany and France together!" Sarkozy said. "It's the most beautiful image that we could have!"
7) Merkel and Sarkozy also pledged to push a tough joint agenda at a highly anticipated summit on the global financial crisis for leaders from 20 advanced and developing nations in London on April 2.
8) "Germany and France are putting forth the same proposals, we will defend the same convictions and we will share a common demand for a result," Sarkozy said.
9) He reiterated a strategy that both he and Merkel have favored: swift, tough reforms on international market regulations rather than a new round of government stimulus spending.
10) "We believe that we have already invested a lot to stimulate the economy in Europe, and that the problem is not to spend more, but to put into place a regulation system to prevent the economic and financial catastrophe that the world is now experiencing from happening again," Sarkozy said.


Sarkozy makes major speech on economic crisis
(APW_ENG_20090324.1061)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to explain in a speech Tuesday how his government is handling the economic crisis, amid growing discontent among his fellow conservatives and the French public.
2) The televised speech, made before as many as 5,000 people in the northern town of Saint-Quentin, will not break new ground, said an official from Sarkozy's press office.
3) Sarkozy will detail government measures that are about to take effect, like a euro200 ($270) payout in April and tax breaks for poorer families, the official said only on condition of anonymity, citing rules at the presidential palace that limit attribution.
4) The French leader has already addressed the financial turmoil in several recent conferences and TV appearances. Tuesday's speech is a sign that he does not think his message is getting through.
5) Cracks over tax policy are appearing in the ranks of his UMP party. Sarkozy was a target of huge street protests across France last week demanding more government help to get people through the crisis.
6) Sarkozy's popularity has been on the wane in recent weeks, according to polls -- including one over the weekend that showed him hovering around an all-time low nearly two years into his five-year term.
7) Lawmaker Frederic Lefebvre, spokesman for Sarkozy's UMP party, said the speech would also touch on broader themes like security and education.
8) Sarkozy, like many Western leaders, has been struggling to convey the impression that his government is effectively battling the crisis, which is affecting family budgets and endangering millions of jobs worldwide.


French president travels to Congo on Africa trip
(APW_ENG_20090326.0427)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Congo at the start of a three-day trip to Africa.
2) Sarkozy arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday morning where he is expected to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila. Later in the day, Sarkozy is due to address the parliament of the Central African nation.
3) Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, continues to be destabilized by various rebel groups, mostly active in the nation's distant and lawless east.
4) Although democratic elections three years ago raised hope, Congo's president has been unable to contain the various rebellions.
5) Sarkozy is also making stops in neighboring Republic of Congo and in Niger on his trip to the continent.


French president says world expects action at G-20
(APW_ENG_20090401.0340)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he won't accept a "false compromise" from world leaders at the G-20 summit in London and left open the possibility of walking out of the meeting if this were the case.
2) "I will not be a part of a summit that concludes with a statement of false compromises, which doesn't deal with the problems we face," Sarkozy said in an interview broadcast live on Europe-1 radio early Wednesday.
3) Asked if he might leave the talks before the end, Sarkozy said "the 'empty chair' policy would represent the failure of the summit. I don't want to believe it will come to that."
4) The Group of 20 summit meeting on Thursday, bringing together rich and developing nations, aims to grapple for the second time in five months with the world financial crisis. An initial meeting in Washington was convened, notably under pressure from the French president, on Nov. 15.
5) Sarkozy said preparations for the London summit had been difficult, and "as it stands...we're not there yet." Sarkozy said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he spoke late Tuesday evening, were in agreement on this point.
6) "Today, there is no stable agreement," Sarkozy said. "The G-20 begins this evening...I know from experience that it's going to be necessary to struggle until the last minute."
7) Sarkozy reiterated calls for stricter oversight of tax havens and the compensation of financial traders and speculative funds. He said lists of non-cooperative financial centers should be drawn up and that banks worldwide should refuse to do business in these places.
8) "If we don't put a little more morality and regulation back into the financial system that is totally deregulated and out-of-whack, then we have no chance of restoring confidence, and therefore the economic situation," Sarkozy said.
9) Sarkozy also said that in addition to strengthened regulation, the summit should reaffirm "the need for worldwide stimulus" and agree to give more support to the poorest countries.
10) The radio interview came on the heels of a commentary released overnight in five languages, due for publication in newspapers Wednesday, in which the French president said the world expects leaders to press ahead with reforms of the international financial system at the G-20 summit in London.
11) "The world expects that we rebuild, together, a new form of capitalism, better regulated, with a greater sense of morality and solidarity," Sarkozy said in the commentary.
12) "This crisis is not the crisis of capitalism. On the contrary, it is the crisis of a system which has drifted away from the most fundamental values of capitalism," leading to reckless risks, speculation and a lack of controls, he said.
13) In his commentary, the French president emphasized the need to make progress in regulation of financial markets to ensure a stable system and renew world confidence.
14) At the Washington summit, Sarkozy said, it was decided that "in the future not one financial player, not one institution, not one product would be beyond the control of a regulatory authority." This rule, he said, must be applied to credit rating agencies and speculative investment funds as well as tax havens.
15) He said he also looked for progress in reforming disclosure standards and levels of oversight for financial firms, saying this area has not received the attention it deserves.
16) Other issues where progress must be made include raising the funding level for the International Monetary Fund to help the nations hardest hit by the financial crisis.
17) Sarkozy said he understands that "radical change overnight" is out of reach of the leaders.
18) "I am certain ... of the need to achieve practical results already this Thursday in London," Sarkozy said. "Failure is not an option, the world would not understand it and history would not forgive us for it."


France, Germany want concrete G-20 results
(APW_ENG_20090401.1058)
1) The leaders of France and Germany said Wednesday they wanted concrete results from the Group of 20 summit in London.
2) Speaking at a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they had come in a constructive mood. But she said that "we do not want results that have no impact in practice."
3) She added: "We want the kind of results that are really an outcome and change the world."
4) Sarkozy had implied he might walk out if the summit's agreement didn't toughen financial regulation. He said Wednesday that Europe wants the summit to succeed.
5) Sarkozy and Merkel stood firm on the need for financial market regulation and concrete results at the summit. But Sarkozy steered clear of reiterating an earlier threat to walk out of the summit and sounded more conciliatory toward the United States than he has in recent weeks.
6) "I have confidence in Obama," Sarkozy said, when asked about his threats to walk out of the summit if there are no solid results and about tensions between the European and American positions going into the summit.
7) "I am sure that he will help us and that he will understand us," he said.
8) Sarkozy set out ultimatums, however, on tax havens, hedge funds and ratings agencies. He said France and Germany had set all three as "red lines" in the negotiations, suggesting that if the summit doesn't agree to rein them in, it will have failed.


Sarkozy, Obama to visit Normandy
(APW_ENG_20090403.0578)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he and U.S. President Barack Obama will visit the beaches of Normandy in June to mark the anniversary of D-Day.
2) Sarkozy announced the visit at a news conference after he and Obama spoke privately on the sidelines of a NATO gathering.
3) The two leaders were effusive in their praise for each other.
4) Obama says he's personally grateful for Sarkozy's friendship, and called the French leader courageous. Sarkozy says France and the United States belong in the same family and says France must never forget what the U.S. has done for it.
5) On June 6, 1944, a 5,000-vessel armada landed at Normandy and unleashed some 156,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, British and Canadians, in a massive assault known as D-Day.


Sarkozy says France to accept Guantanamo prisoner
(APW_ENG_20090403.0621)
1) In a symbolic gesture, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will accept one terrorist suspect being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
2) France opposed the Bush administration's decision to open the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
3) President Barack Obama has decided to close the camp by next year. He says its existence does not make America safer. His administration is reviewing what to do with its roughly 200 prisoners.
4) One option is to send some of them to U.S. allies, such as France.
5) Sarkozy said Friday that he would take custody of one prisoner if asked because France opposed the prison. Sarkozy also says he would do it because that's what it means to be a good ally.


Sarkozy offers more help for Afghanistan war
(APW_ENG_20090403.0628)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy offered enthusiastic support for President Barack Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan, saying France was preparing to do more to help the allied fight there.
2) "We totally endorse and support America's new strategy in Afghanistan," Sarkozy told a joint news conference after talks with Obama.
3) "We are prepared to do more in terms of police training ... we are helping Afghanistan rebuild," Sarkozy added.
4) For his part, Obama offered strong praise for the French efforts, which do not, however, including sending more troops at a time when the United States is pressing for more soldiers.
5) "I just wanted to publicly thank France once again for its outstanding leadership with regard to Afghanistan," Obama said.
6) Obama added that it was more likely that al-Qaida would be able to launch successful terrorist attacks in Europe than in the United States, due to Europe's proximity to Afghanistan.
7) Many Europeans, however, do not believe that, and there is strong public opposition to providing more resources for the Afghan war.
8) The two leaders also discussed Guantanamo Bay, and Sarkozy said France would be willing to take in one of the suspected terrorists held there. European Union countries have been weighing whether to accept a U.S. request to take some of the detainees when the controversial prison is shut.
9) "Guantanamo was not in keeping with U.S. values ... and I was proud and happy that the United States (will) close it down," Sarkozy said.
10) Asked if France would take in some of the prisoners, Sarkozy replied: "If we are consistent we say yes. We can't condemn the United States for having this camp and then we ignore them when they shut it down."
11) France earlier had indicated in the past that it would be willing to review U.S. requests to take former prisoners on a case-by-case basis.
12) Before the meeting, Sarkozy had been eager to get on a good footing with Obama.
13) Sarkozy rolled out all the pomp possible, with a red carpet arrival with full military honors from a company of soldiers unusually dressed in camouflage at the majestic 18th-century Rohan Palace.
14) Obama announced that he would be returning to France in just two months to help celebrate the 65th anniversary of the allied landing in Normandy on D-Day.
15) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also were present, as was Sarkozy's special envoy for Afghanistan,
16) While Obama and Sarkozy were meeting, their wives, Carla and Michelle, were to have a sumptuous lunch prepared by a two-star chef. On the menu, Guinea Fowl stuffed with foie gras and Coquilles St. Jacques and the famed green asparagus, a specialty that is highly prized in spring in this region.
17) Obama was to travel later in the day across the Rhine river into Germany where he will meet in the spa town of Baden-Baden with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is co-hosting the NATO summit with Sarkozy.


Tough riposte after paper rats on French president
(APW_ENG_20090418.0690)
1) Nearly two years after a national election famous for its intense rivalry between Nicolas Sarkozy on the right and Segolene Royal on the left, the feud is back in the news and getting nastier.
2) Sarkozy's party said Saturday that Royal, the candidate he defeated in a runoff vote for the presidency in 2007, "needs psychological help." That comment by Frederic Lefebvre, spokesman for Sarkozy's conservative UMP party, was a mere addendum in a statement devoted largely to castigating the leftist daily Liberation. And that newspaper touched off the whole uproar by quoting Sarkozy as allegedly insulting other world leaders.
3) "This newspaper, which increasingly resembles a pamphlet, is losing its credibility after having lost its readers," the statement by the UMP spokesman said.
4) As for Royal, the statement said, "There remains one assiduous reader, Segolene Royal, who -- I was right -- truly needs psychological help!"
5) How did the dog-eat-dog world of politics become even nastier than usual?
6) Liberation had quoted Sarkozy denigrating world leaders, from Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero -- "perhaps not very clever" -- to President Barack Obama -- "has never run a ministry in his life."
7) The remarks were allegedly made at a Wednesday lunch bringing together lawmakers from left and right, and reported Thursday, quoting lunch participants, under the headline "Sarkozy Sees Himself as Master of the World." Newspapers in Britain and elsewhere picked up the alleged remarks, and on Saturday Liberation, which delights in uncovering the Sarkozy administration's bloopers, vaunted its scoop.
8) Worse still, Royal, working to raise her profile after losing the battle for Socialist Party leadership, said she personally apologized in writing to Zapatero for Sarkozy's alleged slip.
9) The presidential Elysee Palace denied the reported remark. However, that made the report no less damaging because Sarkozy is to make a state visit to Spain on April 27-28.
10) Royal apologized in a letter to Zapatero, assuring him "that these words concerned neither France nor the French," according to Royal's political Web site, Desirs d'Avenir.
11) Royal's excuse followed a public apology she made on a trip to Senegal earlier this month on behalf of France for a remark in a July 2007 speech by Sarkozy in Dakar about Africans' failure to have "sufficiently entered into history."
12) There has been no denial of Sarkozy's alleged remarks about other leaders, for instance, that Obama has a "subtle mind ... (but) has never run a ministry in his life" or German Chancellor Angela Merkel who "rallied to (Sarkozy's) position."
13) The UMP party spokesman said that Liberation's "attitude is simply scandalous .... contributing to tarnishing the image of our country."
14) If Royal has an apology to make, it should be, "in the name of Liberation," Lefebvre said.


France ' s Sarkozy making state visit to Spain
(APW_ENG_20090427.0689)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a two-day state visit to Spain on Monday during which he is to discuss issues including terrorism and the international financial crisis with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
2) Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni, was greeted at Madrid's airport by Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. The couple were then taken to the Pardo palace on Madrid's outskirts where visiting dignitaries traditionally stay. There they met with King Juan Carlos and the Spanish premier and were honored with a military parade.
3) After lunching with the monarch, the royal couple were to accompany Sarkozy and his wife on a visit to the Prado art museum in downtown Madrid. Later Monday, Sarkozy was to meet members of the French community in Spain and hold talks with conservative opposition Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy.
4) On Tuesday, Sarkozy and Zapatero will host a Spanish-French summit of ministers during which they are to discuss cooperation in combating the armed Basque group ETA.
5) French police have arrested dozens of suspected ETA members in recent years, including the group's three suspected chiefs in recent months.
6) ETA has killed more than 825 people in Spain in its 40-year campaign for a Basque state. Many of its members live in hiding in Basque areas of southwestern France.
7) Officials say the two leaders are also likely to discuss the international financial crisis, Spain's upcoming presidency of the European Union and other issues such as immigration, Afghanistan and the fight against piracy in waters off Somalia.
8) About 10 technical accords are to be signed by ministers, on energy, water routes, education and security.
9) Earlier this month, there was a commotion in diplomatic circles over Sarkozy's reported retort that the Spanish leader was "perhaps not very smart."
10) French newspaper "Liberation" reported April 16 that Sarkozy made the comments during a private meeting with lawmakers. Sarkozy's office denied them, but they still provoked a political uproar in France.
11) Sarkozy and Zapatero gave interviews ahead of the trip vaunting their close ties.
12) "I have a very good relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy and I know that all the comments he could have made about me were positive," Zapatero told French daily Le Monde.
13) In an interview in Spain's El Pais on Sunday, Sarkozy called Zapatero "a man of talent, a man of conviction, a great man of Europe."


French presidential couple video a hit
(APW_ENG_20090522.0890)
1) A video clip of Nicolas Sarkozy's surprise visit with his wife during her interview at the Elysee Palace with readers of a French women's magazine has become worldwide internet hit.
2) Staged or not, the video provided a glimpse into the life of Sarkozy and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former top model with a successful singing career before she married the French president last year.
3) The hit moment is when Bruni-Sarkozy affectionately calls her husband her "chouchou," or "sweetheart." In French, a chouchou also is the name for a fabric-covered elastic hair tie favored by young girls.
4) The moment was filmed earlier this week when five readers of the magazine "Femme Actuelle' (Present Day Woman) were meeting with Bruni-Sarkozy in the private quarters of the Elysee, which is both office and presidential residence.
5) The magazine says the clip has been widely seen on YouTube in many countries.
6) In the clip, Bruni-Sarkozy, dressed in a lavender top and dark pants, is seen talking with the women when Sarkozy, wearing a business suit, suddenly appears and sits down on edge of a chair next to his wife. He claims to have just finished a workout in the gym.
7) For her part, Bruni-Sarkozy affectionately and repeatedly strokes her husband's hands and face. The couple married last year. Both have been divorced, Sarkozy twice and Bruni-Sarkozy once.
8) Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy regularly appear together at official events, but photos of them together privately indoors are rare.
9) On its Web site, Femme Actuelle, claimed the video had been widely watched throughout the world, naming the United States, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and even Zimbabwe.
10) Cole Camplese, director of Education Technology Services at Penn State University, said short videos that capture the public's imagination can spread at "mind numbing speed," in part because so many people post YouTube videos on Facebook.
11) "The rise of social networks have led to high-speed passing around of video," he said. "They post it on Facebook, so it's seen by 200 or 300 of their friends. The hours spent watching video online has now replaced the hours watching video on TV. It's video on demand."
12) The clip has been shown in part on some French television stations and can be seen on the Internet. It conspicuously has not been posted on the official Web site of the French president.
13) Mainstream newspapers largely have ignored it. The left-leaning French daily "Liberation" said Sarkozy had stolen the idea of showing off his dogs, Clara and Dumbledore, in another video, from President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.


Sarkozy says he wants to help stabilize oil prices
(APW_ENG_20090526.0284)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he wants to work with the United Arab Emirates to try to stabilize world oil prices.
2) Sarkozy says that the global economy cannot afford major price swings while it works to recover from the global economic downturn.
3) Sarkozy did not give a price range in a speech Tuesday to diplomats and French military personnel, but he says stability in oil markets is essential.
4) Sarkozy says high prices global undermine growth, but low prices "sow the seeds" of future shocks by discouraging investment in other investment technologies, such as nuclear power.
5) Sarkozy's two-day visit to the Emirates included inaugurating his nation's first military base in the Gulf.


Sarkozy: Prospect slim of finding plane survivors
(APW_ENG_20090601.0896)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the prospects of finding any survivors from an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean carrying 228 people are "very small."
2) Sarkozy says "no hypothesis is excluded" in the search for causes of the disappearance of the Rio to Paris flight.
3) Sarkozy met Monday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport with some of families of those aboard the plane, including "a mother who lost her son, a fiance who lost her future husband."
4) Sarkozy said, "I told them the truth. The prospects of finding survivors are very small."
5) He said finding the plane "will be very difficult" because the search zone "is immense."
6) He said France has asked for help from U.S. satellite equipment to locate the plane.


Sarkozy to get his Obama moment on D-Day
(APW_ENG_20090602.0620)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy is a big fan of the United States and makes no secret of his craving for the limelight. Enter Barack Obama, the perfect guest.
2) Obama will be the star visitor at Saturday's commemoration ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy that helped turn the tide of World War II. And the ambitious Sarkozy may be hoping some Obama luster will rub off on him.
3) So eager was Sarkozy to ensure Obama's attendance at the D-Day ceremony that he didn't bother to invite Queen Elizabeth II -- Britain's head of state -- even though British soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy alongside Americans, and the queen herself served in the war. His government spokesman said it was a "Franco-American event."
4) The monarch's subjects are in a huff over the perceived snub. Even the White House said Monday it wants Her Majesty to be present.
5) But the queen apparently stood firm. On Tuesday, Prince Charles' office said he will come instead.
6) Even before Obama, Sarkozy was enamored of the United States. His nickname is "Sarko l'Americain." He jogs, often wearing an NYPD T-shirt, and tries to imbue France with an American-style work ethic.
7) When taking office in May 2007, he pledged to heal a relationship between Paris and Washington torn asunder by the Iraq war, which France stolidly opposed.
8) Just months after his election, Sarkozy took a most un-French presidential vacation -- to New Hampshire with a side trip to Kennebunkport, Maine, for lunch with then-President George W. Bush at the family compound. It was a risky move given Bush's unpopularity in France.
9) Later that year, Sarkozy publicly flaunted his love for American culture by escorting his soon-to-be new wife, former top model and songstress Carla Bruni, to Disneyland Paris on their first public date.
10) Now Sarkozy's sights are on Obama.
11) Unlike some other western leaders, Sarkozy has yet to be invited to Washington by the new U.S. president. No matter. He set about luring Obama to France.
12) Sarkozy tried unsuccessfully to get Obama to Normandy in early April, squeezed between a G-20 meeting of leaders in London and a NATO summit in Strasbourg, France and in Germany.
13) Sarkozy said in a radio interview May 8, when France marks the end of World War II, that he was "very touched that President Obama ... accepted to come to France" for the June 6 anniversary of D-Day.
14) "The president of the United States will arrive by the evening of the 5th" of June, Sarkozy said with evident anticipation.
15) Like so many French, Sarkozy carries heartfelt thanks for America's help during Nazi-occupied France's darkest hour. But this is also clearly about prestige, stature and the frenetic Sarkozy's own undisguised search for more of both.
16) First lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has toned down her husband's tendency toward flash that led many to call him "president bling-bling," and was the epitome of elegance when the couple called on Queen Elizabeth II during a London state visit last year.
17) But this year, someone flubbed the protocol. Sarkozy's rivals suggest the queen was left out on purpose.
18) The goal, said centrist leader Francois Bayrou, "is that only Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama be recognizable in the photo." Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said the affair was a "media show orchestrated by the president."
19) France contends an invitation went out to the British and they can choose whom to send. "There will be other 6ths of June," Luc Chatel, French government spokesman, said last week.


Demands for invites foil Sarkozy plans with Obama
(APW_ENG_20090605.1384)
1) A French presidential official has confirmed that Nicolas Sarkozy initially planned to limit this year's D-Day commemoration to Barack Obama. But as soon as other leaders learned the U.S. president would be in France "we had an avalanche of demands."
2) The prime ministers of Britain and Canada and Britain's Prince Charles are joining Sarkozy and Obama on Saturday in Normandy.
3) The official said that "naturally, the president (Sarkozy) was favorable." The official speaking Friday about the delicate subject asked not to be named. Queen Elizabeth II never received a personal invitation, causing an uproar in Britain.
4) Sarkozy had tried to arrange a meeting with Obama in April. The official said Obama then suggested D-Day's 65th anniversary.


Obama, Sarkozy, agree on Middle East strategy
(APW_ENG_20090606.0273)
1) President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy are again mutually calling for Iran not to develop a nuclear weapons program.
2) Obama says he appreciates Sarkozy's leadership on a host of issues. Speaking with reporters after a meeting Saturday, the U.S. president reaffirmed that there must be "tough diplomacy" with Tehran on this issue.
3) Sarkozy agreed with Obama's call for Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank, and said he worries about "insane statements" by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
4) Obama said he and Sarkozy will work "in close collaboration" on many issues, including anti-terrorism strategy.
5) Sarkozy said France would accept some Guantanamo detainees, as the U.S. has requested.


France ' s Sarkozy says Iran gov ' t reaction ' brutal '
(APW_ENG_20090616.0920)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has denounced the Iranian government's "brutal" reaction to demonstrators protesting the nation's disputed election.
2) Sarkozy calls the situation in Iran "extremely alarming" and says Iran's clampdown on demonstrators was "totally disproportionate."
3) Sarkozy said Tuesday: "The ruling power claims to have won the elections ... if that were true, we must ask why they find it necessary to imprison their opponents and repress them with such violence."
4) Sarkozy is in Libreville to attend the state funeral of Gabon's late President Omar Bongo.


Sarkozy warns crisis not over yet
(APW_ENG_20090622.0554)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Monday that the economic crisis "is not finished," but added that the profound changes it is causing mean France's views will carry more weight around the world.
2) Sarkozy also pledged that he would not introduce austerity policies as a result of the downturn, and said "I will not raise taxes because ... it will prolong the crisis."
3) "In raising taxes ... we will not settle the deficit, we will make it larger," Sarkozy said.
4) "The world after the crisis will be a world where France's message will be better heard and better understood," Sarkozy said in a speech marking the first time a French president has addressed the parliament in 136 years.
5) The global economic crisis will lead to "a world where the demand for justice, regulation and protection will be stronger," Sarkozy said.
6) The French president cautioned lawmakers gathered at the Chateau of Versailles that "the crisis is not finished."
7) "We don't know when it will finish, we have to do everything so that it is as soon as possible," Sarkozy said. "To believe that the crisis is over would be a fatal error," Sarkozy said, "because nothing will be like it was before."
8) Sarkozy has called for a "moralization of capitalism" and pushed for greater international regulation and measures to prevent new market crises.


Sarkozy pledges better chances for minorities
(APW_ENG_20090622.0752)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Monday to improve the fate of the country's minorities and growing numbers of laid-off workers in the first speech by a French president to parliament in 136 years.
2) Sarkozy's strongest words in the speech targeted the burqa, a full-body covering worn by some Muslim women. He called them unwelcome in France and a sign of the "debasement" of women.
3) Speaking at Versailles, France's most famous castle, said he would reshuffle his conservative-led Cabinet on Wednesday, and that fighting discrimination "will be the priority of the next government." He acknowledged that efforts to integrate France's minorities "have not succeeded."
4) Most of his speech focused on the economy, a "post-crisis" France, and ways of pulling the country out of recession.
5) He said those people laid off for economic reasons should be able to keep their salaries and receive job training for a year afterward. French workers across sectors have protested recession-related job cuts by blocking factories and even kidnapping their bosses in recent months.
6) Sarkozy said the new Cabinet's key task would be "to reflect on our national priorities and to put in place a loan to finance them."
7) He gave no details about how the loan would work.
8) He said investment is important to keep the economy going, but insisted he would not raise taxes and balloon the country's already heavy debt. France's deficit is estimated at between 7 and 7.5 percent of GDP this year.
9) "I will not raise taxes because raising taxes would delay the end of the crisis," he said.
10) He promised to tackle pension reform next year to ensure the system doesn't run out of money for future generations. Sarkozy also called the crisis an opportunity for France's economic recipes.
11) "The world after the crisis will be a world where France's message will be better heard and better understood," Sarkozy said. "The global economic crisis will lead to "a world where the demand for justice, regulation and protection will be stronger."
12) He made the historic speech in a historic setting. He was greeted by Republican Guards in the palace courtyard graced in the past by French kings, and strode in to the joint parliamentary chamber after undergoing several steps of greeting protocol. Critics said the setting was fitting for a man leftist critics dub a new emperor.
13) More than 900 lawmakers from both houses of the legislature -- the National Assembly and the Senate -- gathered Monday morning for a joint session whose marquee event was Sarkozy's appearance in the afternoon.
14) The last presidential speech to France's parliament was in 1873, before lawmakers banned the practice to protect the separation of powers and keep the president in check.
15) The kinetic Sarkozy said soon after his 2007 election that a president should be able to "explain his actions and take stock of his results" once a year before parliament -- in an appearance somewhat modeled on the U.S. president's State of the Union speech before Congress.
16) Many leftists remain opposed to the move, and 54 legislators from the Communist and ecological parties boycotted the speech.
17) Opponents accuse Sarkozy of being power-hungry and pushing through measures, such as changes to labor laws or opening up universities to private funding, without taking dissenting voices into account.
18) The daily Liberation ran a front-page cartoon of Sarkozy wearing a jeweled crown, headlined "Nicolas II."
19) While each house of parliament is normally based in Paris, joint sessions are regularly held at Versailles, alongside the tourist-packed museum and resplendent royal grounds.


Sarkozy wants to help Tour fight doping
(APW_ENG_20090701.0867)
1) French president Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged his support to help the Tour de France fight the scourge of doping.
2) Sarkozy said Wednesday that "it was necessary to support the Tour de France and its organizers," his government spokesman Luc Chatel said.
3) The showcase race has been marred by a string of doping controversies over the past three years, and Sarkozy was commenting after new French Sports minister Rama Yade had also spoken out against doping.
4) Yade, who recently replaced Bernard Laporte, said that this year's Tour will be particularly scrutinized by police to help the fight against doping.
5) Sarkozy plans to follow one of this year's Tour stages, but it is not yet known which one he will attend.
6) The Tour starts Saturday in Monaco and will finish in Paris on July 26. Last year, Sarkozy planned to come to the Tour, but had to cancel his visit at the last minute.


Sarkozy names team to guide French bond issue
(APW_ENG_20090706.0514)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy assigned a leading conservative and leading Socialist on Monday to figure out how to spend money from an exceptional government bond issue meant to stimulate the recession-hit economy.
2) Sarkozy named former prime ministers Alain Juppe and Michel Rocard to work out the priorities for the "exceptional investment effort to prepare France's future."
3) Last month Sarkozy announced plans for a bond issue designed to boost investment in the French economy, suffering its worst recession in 30 years.
4) By choosing two prominent figures from left and right to oversee the spending effort, the conservative Sarkozy appears to be seeking to keep unions at bay amid worker frustration over downturn-linked job losses.
5) Sarkozy's office said in a statement that the two ex-premiers will lead a commission that will release its plans for spending the bond money before Nov. 1. The bond will be issued early next year.
6) France announced a euro26 billion ($35 billion) stimulus plan last year that includes a euro6.5 billion investment program and euro11.5 billion in tax credits and rebates. But France and Germany led the EU in resisting U.S. calls for more, and more coordinated, stimulus spending. Sarkozy has said past stimulus measures -- such as pumping liquidity into French banks and providing handouts to the poorest families -- need time to work.


Sarkozy urges release of Frenchwoman held in Iran
(APW_ENG_20090707.0492)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded the liberation of a young French academic detained in Iran and dismissed accusations that she was spying as "high fantasy."
2) Clotilde Reiss, 23, was arrested last week as she was about to leave Iran after five months of studying at Isfahan University, and accused of espionage, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
3) "These accusations of espionage are high fantasy," Sarkozy said at a news conference with Brazil's president in Paris on Tuesday. "Kidnapping and holding French nationals under the pretext of espionage, no one can accept this."
4) Sarkozy said he expects the woman to be released "in a short time" but gave no details.
5) France's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Monday to press its demand her release. Officials have released no other details about her case.
6) An official at the University of Lille said Reiss received a diploma in political science there in December before heading to Iran earlier this year. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to university rules.
7) Sarkozy stressed that he was not questioning the results of Iran's June 12 elections but criticizing the crackdown on protesters who said they were plagued by fraud.
8) "What we condemn is the violence," Sarkozy said.
9) Sarkozy has been outspoken in criticism of the Iranian authorities' response to days of opposition protests in Iran that left several dead and many people arrested.
10) Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Western governments on Monday of a "negative impact" on relations over what he called their meddling in Iran's postelection riots.


French first lady to sing at NY Mandela concert
(APW_ENG_20090716.0276)
1) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will sing at a birthday celebration for Nelson Mandela in New York in her first public concert since she married France's president.
2) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says the model-turned-singer will perform at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday along with stars including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys. The concert is part of several "Mandela Day" events marking the South African statesman's 91st birthday.
3) Sarkozy's office says Bruni-Sarkozy has not performed in public since she married on Feb. 8, 2008.
4) Sarkozy will hold a working lunch with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in New York on Friday to discuss world financial governance, peacekeeping operations and climate change.


Sarkozy hospitalized after feeling unwell on jog
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says he was rushed by helicopter to a military hospital Sunday after he felt unwell during a strenuous jog on a hot afternoon.
2) Military doctors performed a battery of tests on the 54-year-old president after the episode at a presidential residence outside the capital. Although the Elysee palace said Sarkozy's test results were normal, Sarkozy was to remain in the hospital until at least Monday morning.
3) His office denied that Sarkozy had lost consciousness in the episode. Earlier, the health minister indicated the French leader had fainted and his chief of staff also implied that he had lost consciousness.


Sarkozy hospitalized after collapsing during jog
(APW_ENG_20090726.0631)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy collapsed while jogging Sunday on the lush grounds of the Chateau of Versailles and will stay at a hospital overnight even though tests so far have found nothing wrong, his office said.
2) Military doctors quickly performed a battery of tests on the 54-year-old president, who is known for his hyperactivity. The presidential Elysee Palace said Sarkozy's test results were normal but that doctors would keep him under cardiological observation until Monday.
3) Upon his collapse, Sarkozy was rushed by helicopter to a military hospital. His office denied the president had lost consciousness in the episode. The Elysee Palace statement followed reports from members of Sarkozy's government and his chief of staff, who had indicated that Sarkozy had lost consciousness.
4) "Today, late in the morning, while he was jogging in the park at the Chateau of Versailles, the president of the republic felt unwell. This episode, which came after 45 minutes of intense physical activity, was not accompanied by a loss of consciousness," the palace statement said.
5) Sarkozy, an avid jogger and cyclist, was forced to interrupt his run and "lie down with the help of an aide," the statement said. A presidential doctor who is with Sarkozy at all times sounded the alert and administered initial treatment.
6) Doctors at the Val de Grace military hospital conducted neurological, blood and cardiological tests as well as an EEG, an electroencephalogram. Sarkozy, ever mindful of his image, received close advisers Sunday to keep up on the news and was resting, the statement said. A new health bulletin was expected Monday morning.
7) "He's doing well. He's hungry. He's grousing, so everything's OK," Patrick Balkany, a close friend and deputy mayor of the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret told RTL radio. Balkany said Sarkozy was on a diet and doing too much. "I hope, moreover, for him, that this is a healthy warning," Balkany added.
8) Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and former French President Jacques Chirac were among those who sent Sarkozy wishes for a speedy recovery.
9) French Health Ministry Roselyne Bachelot, speaking live on French 2 television, said Sarkozy had suffered a "small" vasovagal episode.
10) A vagal episode can be caused by strenuous exercise when it is very hot. It can lead to a temporary loss of consciousness but usually is not serious. It is named for the vagus nerve which slows down the heartbeat and reduces arterial tension.
11) The Le Parisien newspaper on its Web site quoted Claude Gueant, the secretary-general of the Elysee Palace, as saying that Sarkozy's illness was over quickly.
12) "The president is completely conscious. His illness did not last a long time," Gueant said in the newspaper interview. Gueant, who was not with the French leader at the time, indicated that Sarkozy had been inanimate but he "had regained consciousness."
13) Gueant said Sarkozy had been jogging with his bodyguards on the grounds of the Lanterne pavilion, a hunting lodge at the vast Chateau of Versailles used by French presidents. Temperatures reached 28 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) at Versailles on Sunday afternoon.
14) Earlier, the Elysee Palace had issued a brief statement saying that Sarkozy "felt faint" Sunday while exercising.
15) Sarkozy, 54, was elected in 2007. He last underwent a medical examination July 3, when his cardiovascular and blood tests were normal, the Elysee's medical service said.
16) His first medical bulletin issued shortly after his 2007 election said Sarkozy's health was "good" and compatible with his presidential duties. Since his election, Sarkozy has maintained a frenetic pace, traveling the world and performing political activities, as well as divorcing his second wife and marrying his third, the former fashion model and singer, Carla Bruni.
17) During his presidential campaign, Sarkozy pushed for greater transparency on presidential health bulletins, but his short hospital stay for a throat problem in 2007 was revealed only three months later.
18) Previous French presidents regularly concealed their health problems from the public.
19) The French public learned that former President Georges Pompidou had bone marrow cancer only after he died of it, while in office, on April 2, 1974.
20) Former President Francois Mitterrand, who led France from 1981-95 and died of prostate cancer just months after leaving office, ordered his doctor to systematically falsify his health bulletins for 11 years.
21) Former President Jacques Chirac was hospitalized for a week at Val de France in 2005 for a vascular problem and officials never fully explained what was wrong.
22) If a French president dies in office, the president of the Senate takes over temporarily while fresh presidential elections are organized.
23) Sarkozy is not the first president to have problems while jogging.
24) U.S. President Jimmy Carter was in the middle of a 10-kilometer race in Maryland when he collapsed into the arms of his bodyguards on Sept. 15, 1979. Dr. William Lukash said the next day that the American leader was in "excellent form."


Sarkozy says health is ' good '
(APW_ENG_20090729.1023)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted his health was "good" Wednesday, but he acknowledged he was "really tired" as he made his first official appearance since an overnight hospital stay following his collapse while jogging.
2) "I need to rest," he told reporters outside the Elysee presidential palace following the regular weekly Cabinet meeting. "I'm not above the rules of physics, I am a human being," he said.
3) The 54-year-old leader collapsed while running in the midday heat on Sunday on the grounds of the Chateau de Versailles. He was whisked via helicopter to Paris' Val-de-Grace hospital, where he underwent nearly 24 hours of observation and a battery of cardiological tests. The results of the exams were normal, his office has said.
4) "I want to tell the French people that my health is good," Sarkozy said in brief remarks. "I was really tired."
5) Sarkozy was released from the hospital on Monday, but events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday were canceled to allow the French leader to rest.
6) Wednesday's Cabinet Meeting -- a seemingly dull event dominated by discussion about the future of the French postal system -- marked the final event on Sarkozy's schedule before the start of the government's three-week-long summer holiday. French media have said Sarkozy and his wife, ex-supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, will spend their vacation at her family's compound on the Mediterranean.
7) Sarkozy's collapse sparked worries that the French leader's frenetic activity is taking a toll on his health. Sarkozy, a teetotaler, has made seemingly constant activity -- foreign trips, domestic meetings and his very public exercise sessions -- a hallmark of his presidency.
8) He insisted his lifestyle was a healthy one, saying: "With my wife, we never go out at night, never go to dinners. I don't drink, as you know, and don't smoke cigarettes, though I do enjoy a cigar once in the while."
9) "Really, I don't live in the fast lane, as you well know," he said.
10) In France, the private lives of elected officials are considered just that, and the media have long resisted reporting on their health, their romantic entanglements and illegitimate children, though that tradition has been fading under Sarkozy, who courts the spotlight.
11) Still, speaking Wednesday, he ruled out paring down his schedule, saying his role required him to keep busy.
12) Sunday's episode touched a sensitive nerve in France, where the health of the country's leaders has long been shrouded in secrecy -- so much so that the public didn't even learn of former President Georges Pompidou's bone marrow cancer until after he died of it, while in office, on April 2, 1974.
13) Former President Francois Mitterrand was dogged by rumors of health problems throughout much of his 14 years in office and ordered his doctor to systematically falsify his health bulletins. He died of prostate cancer just months after leaving office in 1995.
14) Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was hospitalized for a week at Val-de-Grace in 2005 for a vascular problem when he was 72, and officials never fully explained what was wrong with him.
15) During the presidential campaign that brought him into office in 2007, Sarkozy pledged transparency about his state of health. He renewed Wednesday his commitment for transparency on the issue, saying that if his recent medical exams had turned up a problem "I would have told you, I ask you to believe me."


Sarkozy pledges support for next Afghan government
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France will stay in Afghanistan "as long as necessary" and has pledged to back Afghanistan's next government ahead of a key election.
2) In a letter Wednesday to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Sarkozy says "the next Afghan government can naturally count on the full support of the international community, firstly on France, a loyal friend of Afghanistan."
3) Sarkozy's letter does not endorse Karzai in Thursday's election. Some three dozen presidential candidates are running. Karzai is favored to win but faces a challenge from his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah.
4) Sarkozy also pledged to maintain France's military and civilian efforts to help Afghanistan, where France has about 3,000 troops.


Sarkozy criticizes Iran ' s leaders, al-Qaida
(APW_ENG_20090826.0857)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy criticized Iranian leaders for their handling of contested elections and their nuclear program, and pleaded for a new push for peace in the Middle East in a sweeping diplomatic strategy speech Wednesday.
2) Sarkozy also urged other countries to follow France's example and limit bonuses handed out to bank traders to avert the kind of risk-taking blamed for fueling the financial crisis. French banks agreed Tuesday to change the way they hand out bonuses and penalize traders who lose money for their companies.
3) Sarkozy floated the possibility of "severe" new sanctions against Iran if it continues its nuclear activities.
4) "These are the same leaders, in Iran, who tell us that the nuclear program is peaceful and that the elections were honest. Frankly, who believes them?" he asked.
5) Sarkozy's diplomatic posture remained firm and united with Washington against Iran. His speech included no major policy shifts, but pointed to a desire for a stronger French role in the Mideast and in global decision-making.
6) Sarkozy says France will support new sanctions and stronger inspection powers for the International Atomic Energy Agency if Iran does not suspend activities, which leading Western powers suspect are aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
7) "There are more and more tests, there have never been so few negotiations," he said.
8) Tehran says it is only seeking nuclear energy. Iranian leaders have also defended their handling of June 12 presidential that were marred by allegations of fraud and prompted mass opposition protests.
9) Sarkozy reached out to Iran's ally Syria, however, proposing to facilitate talks between Syria and Israel "if the two parties confirm their wish to do so."
10) Sarkozy sought Syria's help earlier this month in winning the release of French researcher Clotilde Reiss and embassy employee Nazak Afshar from an Iranian prison.
11) Afshar was released on bail, and France specifically thanked Syria for its help. Reiss, too, was released on bail, though neither can leave Iran pending a verdict. The women are among more than 100 people in a mass trial of pro-reform opposition supporters accused of trying to mount a "soft" revolution.
12) The U.S. lists Syria as a sponsor of terrorism. But Sarkozy and President Barack Obama have sought to improve ties with Syria, which appears to be quietly seeking to improve its image in the West after years of isolation.
13) Sarkozy reiterated his appeal for a freeze in all Jewish settlement building in the Palestinian Territories, and said he would meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris next week.
14) "The truth is that there will be no peace if settlement is continued," he said.
15) Sarkozy's annual foreign policy speech to France's ambassadors focused heavily on efforts to overcome the world financial crisis and his agenda for a Group of 20 summit of leading rich and developing countries in Pittsburgh next month.
16) He said keeping current world governance systems as small as the Group of Eight is a "stupid" idea and that they should be broadened to include poorer nations.
17) Sarkozy also broached France's role in Afghanistan.
18) "France remains firmly committed to Afghanistan," he said.
19) The French president pledged before Afghan presidential elections last week that France will maintain its military and civilian support for the Afghan government "as long as necessary." France has about 3,000 troops in the NATO-led and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, but Sarkozy has resisted calls by Obama to send more.
20) He also stood firm against the terrorist threat from an al-Qaida offshoot based in Algeria that has threatened French interests.
21) "France will not let al-Qaida install a sanctuary at our doorstep, in Africa," he said.


Sarkozy discusses economy with Obama, then Brown
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke Tuesday with the leaders of the United States and Britain about their plans to tackle the economy and the international financial system at the upcoming G-20 summit.
2) Sarkozy talked on the telephone with President Barack Obama, then dined at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Both conversations focused on the Sept. 24-25 meeting in Pittsburgh.
3) "We must agree on two things at Pittsburgh, we must make sure that the fragile economy does recover and take all steps necessary for that to happen," Brown told reporters after dinner.
4) "We have to have a strategy for longer term growth, especially in jobs," he said. Sarkozy said, "We have to work hand in hand to find solutions to the crisis."
5) Following Sarkozy's conversation with Obama, the French president's office said the men wanted summit "decisions to ensure durable and balanced growth, reinforce the international financial system and reform international financial institutions and make them more effective."
6) Sarkozy's office said the conversation with Obama also touched on Mideast peace efforts and Iran.


Sarkozy gives Iran December deadline
(APW_ENG_20090925.0640)
1) French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy says Iran faces possible new international sanctions if it doesn't come clean on its nuclear program by December.
2) Sarkozy said that Iran was in clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions in building a second plant to manufacture nuclear fuel and trying to hide if from the world for years.
3) Echoing comments by President Barack Obama, Sarkozy said the new crisis threatens the entire international community.
4) If there is no change in Iran's stance "sanctions will have to be taken" by December, Sarkozy said.


Sarkozy ' s son targeted over bid for powerful job
(APW_ENG_20091012.0310)
1) Critics are questioning a bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son for a job overseeing France's premier business district.
2) Jean Sarkozy, a municipal official, is the key candidate to become chairman of EPAD, the agency that oversees billions of euros in contracts and business at La Defense on the western outskirts of Paris.
3) Former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal says she is shocked by his nomination and asks "if he did not have the name he has, would he be where he is today?"
4) Sarkozy's backers insisted Monday that he's qualified even though he's only part-way through law school.
5) Conservative mayor and Sarkozy ally Patrick Balkany says the nomination "has nothing to do with the fact that he is his father's son."


Sarkozy ' s son, 23, ignites uproar over job bid
(APW_ENG_20091012.0839)
1) He's 23 and has no college degree, and he's angling for a plum job overseeing France's premier business district. Jean Sarkozy, whose papa is the nation's president, is likely to get what he wants.
2) Outraged critics are crying nepotism, and say the brash bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy's son is an affront to France's egalitarian values. Leftists are decrying the prospect of the wealthy "Sarkozy clan" intertwining itself even more intimately with the realm of big business.
3) Jean Sarkozy's conservative backers insisted Monday that he's qualified to chair EPAD, the quasi-governmental agency that manages the La Defense financial district on the western outskirts of Paris. Some 150,000 people commute to work in the sprawling complex of skyscrapers that houses the headquarters of some of Europe's biggest companies, such as oil giant Total and bank Societe Generale.
4) Sarkozy, whose sound bites, expansive mannerisms and on-the-stump charm recall those of his dad, is studying law at the Sorbonne. He is also the main candidate for the EPAD chairmanship. It's a job Nicolas Sarkozy once held himself.
5) "If he did not have the name he has, would he be where he is today?" asked Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 elections for the French presidency. Speaking on RTL radio, she said she was "shocked" by the bid.
6) Socialist lawmaker Arnaud Montebourg lamented: "There is no longer any limit, anything is allowed, there are no more principles, no more rules."
7) Plenty of voters are aghast, too. More than 31,000 people had added their names to an online "petition" as of Monday evening urging Jean Sarkozy to drop his designs on the job.
8) "Presiding such an institution requires competence and experience," reads the appeal, launched by Christophe Grebert, a centrist politician from a neighboring town, Puteaux. "We urge you to finish your law studies and do a few internships in companies ... before, perhaps, one day, who knows, re-bidding for this job."
9) It's an unusual post, highly visible yet largely symbolic. The 18 members of EPAD's board are volunteers who give the final "yes" or "no" to investors who want building permits or administrative favors in La Defense. The only job requirement is being a member of federal or local government.
10) In addition to studying law, Jean Sarkozy was elected last year to a regional council representing part of the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where his father served as mayor for 19 years and launched his political career.
11) Responding to the attacks about his candidacy, Jean Sarkozy said that whatever he accomplishes in life, "My legitimacy will always be on trial."
12) Asked by Le Parisien newspaper if he had talked with his father about his plans, he said, "Of course I informed those who are close to me, that's normal. That said, I'm following my own path."
13) While elected officials in France often hold multiple jobs, it's quite rare for a politician to be elected while still in school.
14) Many French 23-year-olds are living with their parents and either studying or looking for a job. Unemployment is particularly high among youth, who often spend years doing internships before landing a steady job. President Sarkozy has tried to boost opportunities for young people, and has several government ministers in their 30s.
15) Nicolas Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, is also unusually open for left-friendly France about his appreciation for wealth. He wants the country to be more pro-business, and counts French industry tycoons and media executives among his close friends. Jean Sarkozy last year married the daughter of the head of major French electronics maker Darty.
16) Having a powerful voice from the presidential family at La Defense is seen as another blow to France's struggling leftist opposition. Socialist Royal said it could sway future elections in the Sarkozy family's favor.
17) "These are very big financial stakes. That could always help, ahead of a future presidential elections, if you see what I'm saying, to hold the keys and toss around millions of euros," she said.
18) The president hasn't commented publicly on the political uproar, nor has Jean Sarkozy, the second of his three sons. The EPAD board chooses its next chairman Dec. 4.
19) Conservative mayor and Sarkozy ally Patrick Balkany says the nomination "has nothing to do with the fact that he is his father's son." Balkany said Jean Sarkozy has "perhaps even more talent than his father had at that age."
20) EPAD's outgoing chairman, 65-year-old Patrick Devedjian, must step down because he has reached the mandatory retirement age.
21) He had faint praise for his likely successor. Speaking on Radio Classique, Devedjian said, "He's an intelligent boy, he is capable of learning."


French Prosecutor: Convict ex-PM in slander trial
(APW_ENG_20091020.0596)
1) A French prosecutor recommended Tuesday that former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin be convicted for his alleged role in a smear campaign against President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing he should have put an end to rumors swirling about his rival.
2) Prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin called for an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of ⁈ ($67,370) for Villepin, one of several defendants in the complex slander trial that has rocked the country's political establishment.
3) A date for a verdict has not yet been set.
4) The Paris court has been probing who was behind an alleged campaign to discredit Sarkozy in 2004, while he was still a rising government minister with his sights on France's highest office.
5) Sarkozy says the smear campaign was intended to thwart his bid for the 2007 presidential election, and he filed suit saying he believed Villepin was "the primary instigator" behind it.
6) Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, said the prosecution demonstrated that Villepin, "through his own inaction, let the fraudulent action continue."
7) Villepin, also a government minister at the time, has denied orchestrating any plot and says Sarkozy was using the trial as a political weapon.
8) Villepin -- famed for an eloquent 2003 speech at the United Nations arguing against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq -- said the prosecutor's arguments did not convey "the reality of what happened."
9) "Nicolas Sarkozy promised to hang me from a meat hook, I see that he kept his promise," Villepin said, echoing a widely reported comment attributed to Sarkozy.
10) Sarkozy is one of some 40 plaintiffs in the trial. Villepin, one of several defendants for whom prosecutors recommended convictions, is accused of complicity in slander and complicity in forgery.
11) The affair dates back to 2004, when both Sarkozy and Villepin were leading conservative hopefuls to succeed then-President Jacques Chirac.
12) The case began with a mysterious list purporting to show clients who held secret accounts with Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream, including Sarkozy and other leading French political and business figures. The accounts were purportedly created to hold bribes from a 1991 sale of warships to Taiwan, among other shady income.
13) Villepin was given the list, and he asked a retired general to investigate it. It turned out to be a hoax, but was by then already circulating among political and legal circles.


Sarkozy ' s son wins board post after scandal
(APW_ENG_20091023.0897)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's son was elected to the board of the organization that runs France's most important business district Friday, after a dramatic withdrawal of his bid for the top spot amid accusations of favoritism that carried political risks for his father.
2) The president maintained an official silence, then turned to Facebook to say he was proud of his 23-year-old son.
3) Jean Sarkozy had been the leading candidate to head EPAD, a quasi-governmental organization overseeing real estate and the administration of La Defense, the neighborhood of skyscrapers west of Paris that is home to top companies and the workplace of 150,000 people. He withdrew that bid Thursday night after two weeks of cries of favoritism -- and vows not to back down.
4) The 45-member board -- 30 of whom hail from the French president's conservative UMP party or its allies -- voted, as expected, to give him a spot on the board of directors. He will fill the seat of a member who stepped down in October.
5) Current EPAD President Patrick Devedjian, forced to retire at 65, saluted the "responsible and dignified decision" of Jean Sarkozy, who has not yet finished law school, to withdraw from the running to replace him.
6) The young Sarkozy's surprise announcement not to seek the job in a Dec. 4 vote drew salutes of "courage" from the president's right and sighs of relief from detractors.
7) President Sarkozy said on a Facebook posting that his son "made a wise and courageous decision. I'm proud of him."
8) "This week Jean proved himself in the face of a difficult choice in a context larger than himself," the president's posting said.
9) The whiff of nepotism was threatening to damage Jean's powerful father, and it was not immediately clear whether the affair would leave the French president unscathed. Even within Sarkozy's party, voices of dissent had risen.
10) "I think it's a trial for the son and the father, a failure that will follow them for a long time to come," said Jean-Paul Huchon, Socialist president of the Ile de France region that includes Paris and its environs, including La Defense.
11) There was widespread speculation that the French president had a hand in his son's resignation, reflected in the headline of the leftist daily Liberation "The Sacrifice of the Son."
12) Sarkozy, whose ratings have slipped in the past two weeks, kept an official low profile Friday, his office responding with a "no comment" to queries about his son and his only reaction coming later on Facebook.
13) A ministerial meeting in an unusually lean presidential schedule, about a plan to create a museum of the history of France, was closed to the media. A reception for soccer officials looking to a 2016 candidacy for France to host Euro championships was followed with a simple communique rather than comments for reporters.
14) Critics had maintained that Jean Sarkozy was simply unqualified to head EPAD, which his father is looking to expand. Even during his address to board members ahead of the vote, he fended off dissension.
15) "Amid all the attacks that have been voiced, that I have heard, there is clearly at least one thing you cannot contest," he said. "It is that we have put the question of La Defense at the heart of the public debate."


France ' s Sarkozy pledges aid for farmers
(APW_ENG_20091027.0544)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the goverment will provide ⁈ion ($1.5 billion) in loans for cash-strapped farmers suffering through the worst agricultural crisis in 30 years.
2) Sarkozy, facing falling support in polls ahead of upcoming regional elections, says the "unprecedented" aid package is in response to an equally unprecedented crisis in French farming, which has seen prices for production shrink 20 percent over the last year as demand has decreased.
3) Sarkozy spoke Tuesday at a meeting with farmers in eastern France. Beside loans, Sarkozy also pledged ⁈llion in other aid for the country's farmers, one of the conservative president's core groups of supporters in the last election.


Sarkozy Berlin Wall claims raise questions
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1) Where was Nicolas Sarkozy when the Berlin Wall fell?
2) The French president suggests -- in a casual post on his Facebook page -- that he was at Checkpoint Charlie, chipping away at the Cold War with a pickax alonside throngs of Berliners on Nov. 9, 1989.
3) French journalists aren't so sure. They question his account of the epochal event and suggest he only went a day or even a week later. They are asking why Sarkozy didn't speak of it earlier, posting his account only Sunday, the night before leaving for Berlin to mark Monday's 20th anniversary of the Wall's demise with other world leaders.
4) French Web sites and airwaves Monday obsessed about Sarkozy's whereabouts in 1989. The debate threatened to overshadow a costly concert and light show in central Paris Monday night celebrating the anniversary.
5) Beyond the dithering over dates, the affair renewed criticism of a leader critics say is untouchable even when he makes mistakes, and oft-dubbed an "omnipresident" for dominating French politics and media.
6) The Facebook post is entitled "Memories of the fall of the Berlin wall, Nov. 9, 1989" and is topped by a picture of Sarkozy chipping into a graffiti-covered wall.
7) At the time, Sarkozy was a 34-year-old top official in the conservative RPR party, serving under Alain Juppe, who later became prime minister.
8) "The morning of November 9th, we were interested by information coming from Berlin, seeming to announce a change in Germany's divided capital. Alain Juppe and I decided to leave Paris to participate in the event that was shaping up," the Facebook post says.
9) Alain Auffray of the left-leaning daily Liberation, who reported from Berlin that day, says Sarkozy couldn't have arrived so quickly, because the events unfolded late in the day Nov. 9.
10) "No one knew that morning what would happen," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Berlin on Monday. The press conference that opened the border was in the evening, and the crowds began arriving well after nightfall.
11) Auffray suggested the dates were fudged and that Sarkozy was there a few days later.
12) "For me it's not an illustration of a megalomaniacal president, but of the pressure on his aides to tell nice stories" about the president, he said.
13) Conservative French daily Le Figaro published archived articles showing that Juppe was at an event in rural France -- far from Checkpoint Charlie -- on Nov. 9 and that he went to Berlin on Nov. 16.
14) German newspaper Web sites Monday questioned a "PR legend" and a "dubious sounding story about the Berlin wall."
15) "Is Nicolas Sarkozy rewriting history?" asked the Web site of French newsmagazine Le Point.
16) A former finance minister called Sarkozy's claim "a joke," according to Le Point. Alain Madelin was reported to have seen Sarkozy at the Wall, but insisted he wasn't there the 9th.
17) Sarkozy's then-boss, Juppe, has waffled. He has said the Berlin jaunt was the 10th or 11th, or the 16th, or that he couldn't remember. Finally, in a blog post Monday, he settled on the 9th.
18) Presidential spokesman Franck Louvrier insisted Sarkozy was at the wall on the 9th.
19) The man pictured with Sarkozy on Facebook backs the president's version of events.
20) Jean-Jacques de Peretti, then an official with the RPR party and now a mayor, says they went to Berlin in a private jet based on information from a German senator who said "things were starting to move."


Officials deny nepotism claims about Sarkozy ' s son
(APW_ENG_20091110.0875)
1) French officials have denied reports suggesting that President Nicolas Sarkozy's office used its clout to try to help one of his sons win a grant for hip-hop music projects.
2) The allegations about Pierre Sarkozy -- the president's oldest son, a rap producer -- are the latest claims of nepotism to target the president's family, following a recent scandal involving middle son Jean. Both are in their 20s.
3) A technology and culture Web site, Electron Libre, ran an article claiming that Sarkozy's office put pressure on the SCPP, a society of music producers, after it turned down a grant request from Minds Corporation, a company Pierre Sarkozy is affiliated with.
4) Officials in Nicolas Sarkozy's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
5) The SCPP said it received a call from a presidential aide, Eric Garandeau, who wanted to find out why the grant request was turned down. Marc Guez, the SCPP's director, stressed Monday that Garandeau did not put any pressure on the group to award a grant.
6) The SCPP did not change its decision after the call from Sarkozy's office.
7) Last month, a public outcry forced Jean Sarkozy, an undergraduate law student and local politician, to drop his bid to run the board of the organization overseeing France's most important business district. Instead he ran for a seat on the board and won. The president wrote on Facebook in late October that he was proud of his son for his "wise and courageous decision."
8) The spokesman for Sarkozy's UMP party, Frederic Lefebvre, said members of Sarkozy's family are being systematically targeted for "low blows."
9) "I imagine this won't stop there, and next time it will be the (family) dog," he said.


Sarkozy urges Abbas to renew Mideast peace talks
(APW_ENG_20091112.0824)
1) France's President Nicolas Sarkozy is urging Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew talks with Israel.
2) Sarkozy appears to be positioning himself as a Mideast peace mediator and called Abbas on Thursday after meeting the night before with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris.
3) A statement from Sarkozy's office says the French president underlined to Abbas "the urgency of a resumption of the Mideast peace process."
4) It says Sarkozy laid out "in light of his recent international contacts, the conditions that would allow a quick return to negotiations." The statement did not say what those conditions would be.
5) The Palestinians want Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements before talks can resume.


Sarkozy: No place for burqas in France
(APW_ENG_20091112.0945)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no place for full face and body veils such as the burqa, or for the debasement of women, in France.
2) Sarkozy says all beliefs will be respected in France but says "becoming French means adhering to a form of civilization, to values, to morals."
3) Sarkozy said Thursday during a speech on national identity that "France is a country where there is no place for the burqa." France has a large Muslim community but only a small minority of French Muslim women wear burqas, common in Afghanistan, or other face-covering veils.
4) Sarkozy said in June that burqas would not be welcome in France. Since then a parliamentary panel has been looking into the possibility of banning them in public.


Sarkozy: French troops to stay in Afghanistan
(APW_ENG_20091130.0839)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that French troops will stay in Afghanistan "as long as necessary" to stabilize the country.
2) Sarkozy, speaking at a military ceremony in Paris, said France has no intention of staying in Afghanistan "indefinitely" but that abandoning the fight now would "open the road to terrorism and the violence of fanatics."
3) Later Monday, President Barack Obama called Sarkozy, and the two men spoke for 40 minutes about subjects including Afghanistan -- a day before Obama is to announce a revised American strategy for the war there, Sarkozy's office said.
4) France has more than 3,000 soldiers among the multinational forces working to stabilize Afghanistan and root out terror groups. Sarkozy has said France has no plans to increase those troop levels.
5) However, French newspaper Le Monde's Web site reported that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last week if France could send 1,500 additional troops to Afghanistan.
6) The report quoted an unnamed source as saying that France was waiting to see what happens at a London conference Jan. 28 to discuss future strategy for Afghanistan.
7) France's Elysee Palace said it could not comment on the report, while the Foreign Ministry did not immediately return calls.


1 term ' s enough for France ' s Carla Bruni
(APW_ENG_20091214.0391)
1) French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says it's up to her husband to decide whether to run for a second term in office in 2012 but says "one term would satisfy me."
2) In an interview that aired Sunday on TF1 television, Bruni-Sarkozy hailed her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, as "someone who's committed from head to toe." She adds, "it's his business (to decide) whether to run."
3) Asked about a survey in which a majority of respondents said she was not close enough to the French people, Bruni-Sarkozy says "they don't see me as I really am."
4) Bruni-Sarkozy, a former supermodel-turned-singer, was interviewed in her apartment in western Paris.


Sarkozy unveils ' Big Loan ' plan
(APW_ENG_20091214.0568)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday unveiled details of a euro35 billion ($52 billion) government-backed spending program aimed at boosting France's investments in its universities as well as in fields such as electric cars and renewable energy.
2) Sarkozy said the plan, known as the "Big Loan," was needed to get France ready for the future, although critics contend it will significantly worsen France's already stretched public finances.
3) "Today we must prepare our country for the challenges of the future, so that France can fully profit from the recovery, so that it is stronger, more competitive and that it creates more jobs," Sarkozy said at a news conference in the Elysee palace.
4) The president rejected claims the program amounted to a stimulus plan, saying the investments it will finance "would be necessary even without the crisis."
5) Of the euro35 billion, Sarkozy said euro22 billion will be raised via government borrowing, with the remainder made up by the euro13 billion that French banks have paid back to the government since the state stepped in to shore up their capital last year at the peak of the global financial meltdown.
6) Including private investment that the government aims to attract, the plan will mobilize euro60 billion, Sarkozy said.
7) France's universities are to see the biggest share of the euro35 billion, with euro11 billion earmarked for a plan to create between five and 10 world-class campuses "with the size (and) the links to business that will allow them to rival the best universities in the world," Sarkozy said.
8) The plan also calls for euro8 billion in investment for France's research institutes, with a large share going to research into biotechnologies and health care.
9) The plan also earmarks euro5 billion for renewable energy and euro4.5 billion to develop France's "digital economy," Sarkozy said.
10) Sarkozy said that to limit the effects of the additional spending on France's already stretched finances, budget cuts would be made equivalent to the amount of interest on the new debt.
11) The authors of the 'Big Loan' plan say massive new investments in France's universities, R&D labs and renewable energy sources will pay for themselves by lifting the country's long-term growth. But in the short run, the spending will only serve to worsen France's already dire public finances.
12) It also places France sharply at odds with the European Union and international economic watchdogs like the OECD that say countries need plans to withdraw the billions of euros in stimulus spending they injected into their economies last year, not add to it.
13) Last year, France spent euro55 billion servicing its total debt of euro1.3 trillion. France's Cour des Comptes, the government's audit body, warned in June that it is urgent for France to reduce spending.
14) With France's debt and deficit already at record levels, this new spending has attracted criticism both from the country's opposition Socialist party and from within Sarkozy's governing conservative UMP party.
15) The former head of France's opposition Socialist party criticized the plan, saying it will lead to higher taxes in the long run.
16) "Economists say, and they are correct, that today's loans are tomorrow's taxes, so the Big Loan is going to become the Big Tax," Francois Hollande said on French radio station France-Inter.
17) Saying France was in "a debt spiral," Hollande added "This is a very bad sign that has been sent not only to Europe, but to the rest of the world."


Sarkozy to keep French troops in Afghanistan
(APW_ENG_20100108.0815)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended his country's military force in Afghanistan, saying Friday that now is not the time to pull out.
2) Sarkozy did not say, though, whether France would send more troops, as U.S. allies have urged. The French leader has said he is waiting for an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Jan. 28 before discussing any further troop commitments.
3) "We should continue to help Afghans until they are in a position to assure their own security and development," Sarkozy said in a New Year's speech to the French military at a marine base in western France.
4) He discussed overall military plans for 2010 as he spoke to a unit -- the 3rd marine infantry regiment, based in Vannes in Brittany -- that lost five soldiers in Afghanistan last year.
5) "When circumstances so require, it is my duty as commander in chief to maintain our soldiers in their posts, as is the case in Afghanistan today, where the conditions for a withdrawal have not been met," Sarkozy said.
6) He met Friday with families of troops killed in Afghanistan and reviewed the troops before giving his speech.
7) France has lost 36 troops in Afghanistan, 11 of them last year. About 3,500 French troops are currently serving in the country.
8) French authorities are working quietly for the release of two French television journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan last week.
9) Sarkozy said he hoped to pull French troops out of other deployments, including in Kosovo and Ivory Coast. France is reducing its troop strength in Kosovo on Friday from 1,300 to 800 as part of a reorganization of the international force.
10) Sarkozy defended his shifting defense strategies, meant to focus more on fighting terrorism and more mobile modern threats while cutting back on spending on conventional forces and shutting down little-used bases.
11) He insisted on the importance of France's participation in NATO. France rejoined NATO's integrated military command in 2009, more than 40 years after quitting it and kicking American military bases off French soil.


Frence President Sarkozy becomes a grandfather
(APW_ENG_20100113.0516)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy has become a grandfather.
2) Two people close to the president say the wife of Sarkozy's 23-year-old son Jean gave birth to a baby boy in the posh western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The baby's name was not immediately released.
3) An official close the presidency and one of Sarkozy's good friends confirmed the birth of the 54-year-old Sarkozy's first grandchild Wednesday. They declined to be cited by name because no official announcement has been made.
4) Jean is a law student and regional councilor west of Paris. He married former high-school classmate Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, an heiress of a French electronics-vending empire, in 2008.
5) Jean is the second of President Sarkozy's three sons.


Sarkozy: Reporters held in Afghanistan are alive
(APW_ENG_20100125.1001)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy says two French journalists being held hostage in Afghanistan are alive and healthy.
2) Sarkozy says he and France's soldiers in Afghanistan are doing everything possible to secure their release. He says the France-3 TV reporters are "alive, they are in good health, but the situation is very difficult, extremely dangerous."
3) Sarkozy spoke Monday during an interview on France's TF1 television. He did not say who is holding the reporters or explain where his information came from.
4) The two journalists disappeared Dec. 30 along with two or three Afghan employees while traveling in Kapisa province east of Kabul. French soldiers in the region are fighting Taliban and other insurgents as part of a NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.


Sarkozy calls for tighter regulation at Davos
(APW_ENG_20100127.1283)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a broad riposte to free-market capitalism, told a room full of international bankers and CEOs on Wednesday just what they didn't want to hear: Brace for bonus curbs, tighter banking regulations and new bookkeeping rules.
2) It was a brazen posture for the World Economic Forum, a gathering of business and political elite at a Swiss ski resort that in many ways embodies the globalized economy. Many in the crowd -- including those whose companies are starting to recover after a crushing year -- bristled at Sarkozy's keynote speech, calling it simplistic and populist.
3) Indeed, it echoed rallying cries of workers from the United States to Europe and Asia. And it was prescient, coming just hours before President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address, where he is expected to address reforming Wall Street.
4) "There are remuneration packages that will no longer be tolerated because they bear no relationship to merit," Sarkozy said, calling it "morally indefensible" when companies that "contribute to destroying jobs and wealth also earn a lot of money."
5) The comment drew a lone clap, while the rest of the hall stayed silent.
6) Little escaped Sarkozy's anti-market wrath: free trade, currency manipulation, failure to tackle climate change.
7) "By placing free trade above all else we have weakened democracy, because citizens expect from democracy that it should protect them," Sarkozy said.
8) "From the moment we accepted the idea that the market was always right and that no other opposing factors need to be taken into account, globalization skidded out of control," he said.
9) His words contrasted with much of the tone on the opening day of the five-day conference in Davos.
10) Business leaders resisted the idea of ratios that would govern executive pay. Some argued it would prevent companies from recruiting top talent, while others said a salary limit for a boss would be arbitrary if it was set at 20 or 25 times the earnings of a firm's lowest-paid employee.
11) Bankers warned that a flood of new regulations risked choking off a global economic recovery.
12) "Let's get good regulation, better regulation, but not more regulation," said Peter Levene, chairman of British bank Lloyd's.
13) Peter Sands, the CEO of Britain's Standard Chartered Bank, added that his industry already has been "fundamentally changed" by tighter regulations and supervision, while Deutsche Bank Chairman Josef Ackermann said "we will all be losers" if governments clamp down on markets too zealously.
14) Sarkozy's speech marked a turnaround for a conservative who once espoused freer markets and won France's presidency in 2007 on pledges to loosen up his country's financial and labor rules. The financial crisis sent his rhetoric and policies veering leftward.
15) The CEO of French energy giant GDF Suez, Gerard Mestrallet, told The AP that Sarkozy's address "had good moments, and less good moments" -- namely, the heavy regulatory stress.
16) Sanjeev Nikore, president of Indian information technology company HCL Technologies Ltd., called it "a bit simplistic" and unrealistic. "He is telling business leaders to rein in their desires," he said, with a smile.
17) Sarkozy urged a tax on financial transactions and a tax on imports from countries that don't heed international climate accords.
18) "The signs of recovery that seem to herald the end of the global recession should not encourage us to be less daring," Sarkozy said. "Rather, we must be even bolder," he said, calling for better economic governance, worker protection, public debt reduction and rules against tax evasion.
19) He called for stimulus packages to be withdrawn slowly so they don't alarm jittery markets. Sarkozy also praised Obama's efforts to move banking away from reckless speculation.
20) The Davos gathering of some 2,500 people looked at a host of other problems Wednesday. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with Sarkozy and South African President Jacob Zuma to appeal for support for Haiti after its devastating earthquake.
21) But the most pressing concern was steadying a shaky world economy that is likely to face tough challenges in 2010. Rich world unemployment remains high and governments will be forced to pull back from lavish bailouts and stimulus packages that have propped up banks and other industries.
22) For all his bluster, Sarkozy pulled back from the leftist brink near the end of his speech.
23) "There is no other economy than the market economy," he insisted. "We can only save capitalism by rebuilding it, by restoring its moral dimension."


Sarkozy and Merkel brush off Obama snub
(APW_ENG_20100204.0871)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed off President Barack Obama's decision not to attend an annual summit with European leaders while stressing Thursday the importance of Russia as a European partner.
2) A U.S. State Department deputy briefing reporters made the announcement Monday that Obama would miss the EU-U.S. summit in May that will take place in Spain, which now holds the rotating EU presidency.
3) Since then, European media have been awash with commentary wondering what the White House's snub means for Europe as it struggles to find a united voice in foreign affairs following the creation of the new posts of EU president and foreign minister.
4) "With the United States, I don't understand the debate," Sarkozy told a news conference with Merkel after a joint meeting of the entire French and German governments in Paris.
5) "Where is the drama? Is that our only problem in the world today?" he continued.
6) Obama already had miffed Merkel by skipping the ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, and she was more taciturn. She said that along with Sarkozy and other EU leaders, she would discuss the issue at an informal summit in Brussels next week.
7) Sarkozy indicated that Obama might choose to meet with European leaders in the fall when the U.S. president would be expected to attend the annual NATO leaders summit which this year is in Portugal -- a combined solution the French leader said was a "rather good idea."
8) "If the summit is in November instead of May, it truly doesn't matter. My feeling is that there are too many summits. There are too many trips. There is too much time lost," Sarkozy said.
9) Sarkozy said he was not at all worried by Obama missing the May summit. He noted that Obama had met European leaders on numerous occasions in 2009.
10) The U.S. leader traveled to Europe half a dozen times last year and met European leaders at other international venues, including at the United Nations.
11) "I don't think it demonstrates a lack of interest by President Obama for Europe," Sarkozy said.
12) Sarkozy and Merkel stressed the importance of their relationship with Russia. Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are scheduled to visit France in coming months.
13) The French leader said that he wanted France and Germany to be in total harmony regarding relations with Russia, while Merkel said Russia's relationship with Europe was a "central question."
14) "We have to end the Cold War," she said.
15) Sarkozy and Merkel were meeting for the first time with their entire governments since the German leader's re-election. They outlined a roadmap for bilateral relations until 2020, aiming to strengthen their joint leadership role in Europe.
16) Most of the proposals concerned economy, education, climate change, civil affairs and immigration. The two countries pledged greater cooperation on Afghanistan, fighting nuclear proliferation and transatlantic security.
17) Concerning the biggest issue of the day, however, the fate of the financing of the A400M military transport plane that is over budget and behind schedule, both leaders said only that a solution would be found.


French president in Rwanda in 1st visit in 25 yrs
(APW_ENG_20100225.0967)
1) Nicolas Sarkozy, the first French president to visit Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, said Thursday that those responsible for the killings should be found and punished, including any who might be residing in France.
2) Sarkozy's trip here -- the first by a French head of state in 25 years -- came despite French arrest warrants for eight people close to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who hosted Sarkozy at his residence shortly after he visited the country's main genocide museum.
3) "What happened here is unacceptable. What happened here requires the international community, including France, to reflect on the errors that prevented it from foreseeing and stopping this horrible crime," Sarkozy told a news conference.
4) France and Rwanda have sparred for years over an alleged French role in the genocide, in which 500,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were massacred in frenzied killing led by radical Hutus.
5) A French advocacy group for Rwandan genocide survivors says France is a "haven" for genocidaires, and it has filed 16 lawsuits against people living in France whom it accuses of a role in the killings.
6) "We want those responsible for the genocide to be found and punished. There is no ambiguity about it," Sarkozy said. "Are there any in France? The justice system must decide."
7) Rwanda's government and genocide survivor organizations have often accused France of training and arming the militias and former government troops who led the genocide. In 1998, a French parliamentary panel absolved France of responsibility in the slaughter.
8) Sarkozy reiterated a message he has made in the past about collective responsibility, including that of France. He said there had been "serious errors of judgment" about the killings and that there had been "a form of blindness when we didn't see the genocidal aspect of the government of the president who was assassinated."
9) The trip aims to cement diplomatic ties that were restored in November, three years after they broke down because of arrest warrants that accused nine people close to Kagame of a role in the presidential assassination that sparked the genocide.
10) Eight of the warrants against ranking Rwandans are still active, and Kagame sidestepped a question about them. Sarkozy said that France's justice system is independent and that Kagame understands that.
11) Sarkozy on Wednesday stopped in Gabon, then made an unscheduled stop in Mali, where he met with a French aid worker released by al-Qaida's North Africa offshoot this week after almost three months in captivity.
12) Sarkozy has insisted that he wants a healthier relationship with Africa after years of what is known as the "Francafrique" -- the French nickname for the secretive network between politicians, businessmen and soldiers in France and Africa.
13) But Sarkozy's impromptu stop in Mali raised questions about that intention. There has been speculation that France had put pressure on Mali to free four suspected Islamic militants from jail to guarantee the safety of the French hostage.
14) In Mali, Sarkozy thanked President Amadou Toumani Toure for his efforts to free hostage Pierre Camatte.
15) The Mali court decision to convict the four suspects on arms charges and sentence them to only nine months behind bars -- which they had already served, resulting in their release -- angered Mali's neighbors, Algeria and Mauritania, who worried it would encourage terrorists in the region.
16) Asked whether France had pushed Mali to release the suspected militants, French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet told Europe-1 radio, "It's not that simple, there was a trial."


Papandreou seeks French backing for debt crisis
(APW_ENG_20100307.0665)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says that Europe will show solidarity with Greece and will work with its European partners to fight against speculation against the euro.
2) Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has expressed appreciation for France's support as his government embarks on a severe austerity plan to reduce its massive 12.7 percent budget deficit.
3) However, Papandreou says he is not ruling out going to the International Monetary Fund if a European solution is not found. Sarkozy has not spelled out any new measures to help Greece.
4) Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are seeking to calm markets and bring down Greece's high borrowing costs.
5) Sarkozy and Papandreou met Sunday ahead of the Greek prime minister's trip to Washington.


Sarkozy strategizes after French election rebuff
(APW_ENG_20100322.0643)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy considered a Cabinet shake-up Monday after leftists walloped his conservatives in France's regional elections -- exposing his vulnerability to potential challengers and his inability to convince the public of the need for economic reforms.
2) The blowout Sunday could hand a new opening to Sarkozy's potential presidential rivals -- from IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the Socialist camp to former prime minister Dominique de Villepin on the right. It also puts the onus on Sarkozy to lift public fortunes before the next presidential race in 2012.
3) "Overall, these elections are a serious warning for Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the presidential elections," said Emmanuel Riviere, a pollster at TNS Sofres. "When you lose the mid-term election, you lose either the next presidential or parliamentary election."
4) The election leaves Sarkozy weakened as he heads off on two important trips -- to an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday and a U.S. visit to New York and Washington next week.
5) France and Germany have been at odds over how to handle the Greek debt crisis, with France preferring a European Union solution. But German officials say they can't rule out financial aid from the International Monetary Fund -- a move that could boost Strauss-Kahn's profile. A shake-out could emerge at the EU summit.
6) Meanwhile, de Villepin -- Sarkozy's political archenemy -- was poised to announce a new political party on Thursday, according to conservative lawmaker Francois Goulard, a member of the political group ClubVillepin.
7) Speculation was widespread about what Sarkozy would do to freshen up his ministerial lineup in response to Sunday's election results. Sarkozy chief of staff Claude Gueant told the Catholic newspaper La Croix that a "modest reshuffle" was likely in the Cabinet.
8) Prime Minister Francois Fillon met with Sarkozy at the presidential palace Monday to plot strategy. As Fillon left, former Interior Minister Francois Baroin arrived.
9) Sarkozy, who has emerged from the political doldrums before, could bounce back: His party controls parliament with a big majority, and polls suggest French voters know the country needs reform on testy issues like pensions.
10) The long-flailing French left made a big comeback in Sunday's vote, dominated by worries about jobs, paychecks and pensions in the wake of France's worst recession since World War II.
11) With 99.6 percent of ballots counted, the Socialists and their left-leaning allies won 53.8 percent of the vote nationwide, while Sarkozy's UMP party had 35.5 percent, according to the Interior Ministry. Turnout dropped to record lows in the election, at 51 percent in Sunday's runoff and 46 percent in the first round a week earlier.
12) The vote leaves Sarkozy looking more isolated, squeezed between a resurgent left and resurgent extreme right.
13) His effort two years ago to sap the Socialists by inviting them to his government failed to bring leftist voters to his side and alienated members of his own party.
14) Meanwhile, his bid to draw in far-right voters with a debate on France's national identity and firm stance against Islamic full-face veils backfired, bringing anger at immigrants to the fore and sending more voters to the anti-immigration National Front.
15) The National Front party reversed years of declining support, winning between 13 percent and 22 percent of the vote in the 12 regions where they made it into Sunday's runoff.
16) Nationwide strikes are planned Tuesday by train drivers angry over pension reforms -- the pillar of Sarkozy's presidential policies -- and by teachers angry over job cuts.
17) Sunday's vote left Socialists in control of 23 of France's 26 regions. The conservatives held on to Alsace but lost control of Corsica, and won control of French Guiana in South America, and Reunion in the Indian Ocean.


Sarkozy ' s government firm on reform despite strike
(APW_ENG_20100323.0732)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy's government vowed Tuesday to stay on track with belt-tightening reforms meant to modernize France's economy, despite nationwide strikes and a blistering weekend electoral defeat.
2) Trains, schools and other public services were hobbled by the strike, culminating in around 180 protest marches around France, according to the CGT union. The biggest one was expected in Paris, where police said 31,000 turned out Tuesday afternoon.
3) The CGT union put the number at 60,000 and said 650,000 demonstrated around France.
4) Unions hoped their joint action would put the brakes on retirement reforms and public sector job cuts promised by Sarkozy, who has made making France's economy more globally competitive his priority. Unions say Sarkozy has failed workers, slashing jobs, particularly in education, puncturing purchasing power and now plans to attack the precious but costly pension system.
5) Polls show barely one in three French want Sarkozy to run for a second term in 2012. Yet, the government response was defiant.
6) Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliamentarians the changes were needed, and would continue despite the disastrous showing in Sunday's regional elections for the governing conservative party UMP.
7) "We will not compromise the need to modernize our country," Fillon said without flinching. "Our duty is to adapt our economic and social organization to protect the French way of life."
8) He said France would continue to reduce the number of civil servants, the largest employment roll, by not replacing one employee in two who retires or quits.
9) The brand new labor minister, Eric Woerth, vowed to move ahead with reforming the "extremely fragile" pension system -- the most critical change expected, and Sarkozy's biggest political challenge this year.
10) "We must maintain the goal which is that of reform. The nation needs to be competitive, to (create) the jobs of tomorrow," Woerth said, a day after his appointment in a government reshuffle to account for Sunday's election result.
11) The UMP lost all but three of 26 regions to the Socialists and their ecology allies in the vote.
12) Sarkozy fired his labor minister, Xavier Darcos, as a result and brought in ministers from various tendencies within the conservative movement, itself divided over Sarkozy's policies.
13) An ally of former President Jacques Chirac, Francois Baroin, replaced Woerth as budget minister. An ally of former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, expected to launch his own party Thursday, was also added to the government, lawmaker Georges Tron, as junior minister for civil service.
14) Francois Chereque, head of the CFDT union, said the Cabinet changes were a "bad sign about the government's social commitment.
15) "They zap the labor minister as if it were a technical ministry with less importance," he said on France-Inter radio, noting that France has its fourth labor minister since Sarkozy took office in 2007.
16) In another concession to Sarkozy's conservative base, the government plans to suspend an expected law to tax carbon dioxide emissions, leading UMP legislator Jean-Francois Cope said Tuesday.
17) The carbon tax had been a central plank of Sarkozy's push for a more prominent role in the global fight against climate change. But it was criticized within Sarkozy's own party, with many arguing it would disadvantage French companies compared to European rivals.
18) In Tuesday's strike, the French capital saw only minimal disruptions to the subway system, and fast trains to Britain and Belgium ran normally. But only 65 percent of train traffic was guaranteed within France.
19) An estimated 30 percent of primary school teachers failed to show up for class nationwide, the Education Ministry said, with around 18 percent out in junior high schools and 11 percent out in high schools.
20) Nearly 16 percent of employees of the Finance Ministry also skipped work and a full 37.5 percent were no-shows at the Budget Ministry, according to midday estimates by the Labor Ministry.


France backs down on plans for carbon tax
(APW_ENG_20100323.0818)
1) France backed down Tuesday from a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions that had been a central plank of President Nicolas Sarkozy's push for a more prominent role in the global fight against climate change.
2) The plan, launched by Sarkozy with much fanfare last September, has been on the back burner since being ruled unconstitutional in December. Sarkozy's government had insisted a reworked tax would nonetheless go into force by July.
3) Leading conservative legislator Jean-Francois Cope said after meeting the prime minister that they agreed that any carbon tax "would be Europe-wide or not (exist) at all," instead of being a French-only tax.
4) Prime Minister Francois Fillon's office said in a statement later Tuesday that the government would request that the European Commission accelerate plans to harmonize environmental taxation across the continent.
5) The tax had been part of France's plan to meet its pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions fourfold from 1990 levels by 2050. Some environmental groups criticized the tax as not strict enough.
6) Many within Sarkozy's own conservative party criticized the tax, arguing that it would disadvantage French companies compared to European rivals.
7) The decision to back down on a headline reform that Sarkozy had once compared to decolonization and the repeal of the death penalty comes two days after the president's UMP party suffered a stinging defeat in regional elections.
8) France's business lobby applauded the government's withdrawal of the plan.
9) "We are relieved, especially for all the industries that wouldn't have been able to support this new handicap on their competitiveness," the head of business lobby Medef Laurence Parisot said in a statement.
10) Sarkozy's plan would have made France the largest economy to impose a carbon tax, though other European countries including Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Slovenia already tax household carbon dioxide emissions.
11) Among the French, surveys show around two-thirds of people opposed the measure.
12) Sarkozy himself appeared to back away from the measure in recent weeks. In an interview with Figaro magazine earlier this month Sarkozy for the first time conditioned the tax on the creation of a Europe-wide carbon tax. He also quietly dropped any mention of his previous July deadline.


Sarkozy: Reform to continue despite electoral loss
(APW_ENG_20100324.0710)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy reached out to his core supporters Wednesday in a bid to keep his plans for reform on track after a bruising regional election for his fellow conservatives.
2) The outcome of Sunday's vote led him to alter his Cabinet and jettison plans for an eco-friendly tax on fossil fuels.
3) But Sarkozy sought to show a firm hand on the tiller of state after the electoral drubbing, which exposed doubts about his political prospects before he heads to Brussels on Thursday for an EU summit, and the U.S. next week.
4) In his first public remarks since the vote, Sarkozy reached out primarily to conservative constituencies like farmers, business leaders and the extreme right, while softening his tone -- if not his goal -- about planned pensions reform that he says is needed but has enflamed many on the left.
5) "You have often the feeling that these reforms haven't changed your daily lives," Sarkozy said, insisting that the economic crisis had masked the impact of his government's reforms.
6) But he acknowledged the anxieties of the French.
7) "I understand your impatience, I owe you a response," he said after the first meeting of his reshuffled Cabinet. "But nothing would be worse than to change tack on everything by giving in to the agitation of an electoral period."
8) More than halfway into his five-year term, the near-sweep by the Socialist-led opposition fanned talk of who could challenge Sarkozy if he bids for a new mandate in 2012 -- and put a spotlight on his low poll numbers.
9) Sarkozy, meanwhile, called for a ban on full-face Islamic veils, saying they were "contrary to the dignity of women." And for his countrymen often suspicious about decrees from policymakers in Brussels, he vowed to fight tooth-and-nail to defend EU agricultural subsidies that benefit French farmers.
10) "I say it clearly: I am ready to go to a crisis in (the European Union) before I accept the dismantling of the Common Agricultural Policy," Sarkozy said of the 27-nation bloc's farms policy. "I will not let our agriculture die."
11) Sarkozy's words were a far cry from his winning campaign in 2007, when he vowed a "rupture" from the policies of his conservative predecessor Jacques Chirac.
12) "The president's role is ensure stability, continuity and set a line and avoid jolts," Sarkozy said. "We must show constancy on some choices -- we must continue the reforms. To stop now would ruin our achievements.
13) "The crisis must not drive us to slow down."
14) Sarkozy defended state support for industry, vowed continued investment in research and higher education, and decried the "plague" of absenteeism in French schools.
15) Socialist Party spokesman Benoit Hamon said Sarkozy "landed several blows to the chin" in a "particularly virile speech" -- one that sought to make "scapegoats" out of others like the EU.
16) "The country is in a crisis, but the president is only worried about the crisis in the UMP," Hamon told reporters, referring to the abbreviation for Sarkozy's party.
17) On Tuesday, the government backed down from a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions that had been a major plank of Sarkozy's push for a more prominent role in the global fight against climate change. Polls indicated most French opposed the measure, fearful in part of higher gasoline prices and an unfair, self-imposed disadvantage for French businesses and consumers.
18) Now, France plans to request that the European Commission to accelerate plans to harmonize environmental taxation across the continent.
19) "It would be absurd to burden French companies by giving a competitive edge to companies in polluter countries," Sarkozy said. "I confirm -- without ambiguity -- our choice of government spending for ecology.
20) "But I place the creation of a domestic carbon tax second to a border tax that will protect our farms and industry from disloyal competition that pollutes unabashedly," he added.
21) The Socialist-led opposition won 21 of 22 regions up for grabs in mainland France in Sunday's vote, which was dominated by worries about jobs, paychecks and pensions.
22) Fifty-eight percent of respondents in a poll released Monday said they would rather not see Sarkozy run in 2012, while 33 percent said they would. The rest had no opinion. The poll of 952 adults was conducted for magazine Le Point on March 19-20 by Ipsos agency. No margin of error was provided.


French Ex-PM forms new party; may take on Sarkozy
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1) Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, an eloquent, silver-haired diplomat, launched a new political party Thursday that prepares the way for him to challenge longtime rival Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 presidential elections.
2) Villepin, who caught the world's eye with a forceful 2003 U.N. speech urging the United States not to invade Iraq, assailed Sarkozy's presidency and said he was worried the "French model" is disintegrating.
3) "We need a change in politics," Villepin told a news conference in Paris. He said he wanted "a France that lives up to its difference and originality."
4) Sarkozy's popularity is sinking and his conservative party, the UMP, was trounced by leftists in regional elections last weekend.
5) Villepin, himself a former member of the UMP, did not say where the new party would fit on France's political spectrum. He seems to want to exploit growing fractures in Sarkozy's conservative camp.
6) The former prime minister said the new party, which as yet has no name, would be formally inaugurated June 19. Villepin has never been elected to office.
7) He said Thursday that he was "ill at ease" with government efforts to ban Islamic veils and cut public service jobs. France should not be afraid of raising taxes, especially on the rich, to get through the financial crisis and reduce the huge deficit, he said.
8) The country needs to reduce the gap between rich and poor, and keep social protections while remaining competitive, he said, without laying out how he would do that.
9) Villepin was prime minister under President Jacques Chirac from 2005 to 2007. But he has been on the sidelines since Sarkozy took office.
10) Villepin's popularity plunged in 2006 amid nationwide student protests over a proposal to decrease youth unemployment by allowing employers to fire employees aged under 26 without cause. The proposal was ultimately withdrawn.
11) He has also been mired for years in a legal battle with Sarkozy involving a high-profile slander trial. Villepin was acquitted in January on charges he took part in a smear campaign against Sarkozy, but the prosecutor has appealed. The so-called Clearstream case dated to 2004, when both Villepin and Sarkozy were considered contenders to replace Chirac.
12) Today, Sarkozy is facing challenges from many corners.
13) The Socialist Party is resurgent after Sunday's elections. Socialist candidates for 2012 could include party chief Martine Aubry, author of France's 35-hour workweek; Sarkozy's 2007 challenger, Segolene Royal; and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund.
14) And an apparent effort by Sarkozy to rally hard-core conservative support by staging debates on France's national identity seemed to backfire. Instead, the debates appeared to boost the extreme right National Front party in Sunday's regional elections, allowing it to reverse its electoral decline.
15) On Thursday, several leading centrist politicians appealed to France's disparate centrist movements to come together under one banner for the 2012 election.


Sarkozy goes to US, leaves troubles at home
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1) Nicolas Sarkozy is shedding friends in the French electorate and within his own party, and now his father and wife are nudging him not to run for a second term.
2) Fortunately for the French president, he has a long-awaited White House audience with Barack Obama next week to talk about squeezing Iran and saving Afghanistan, and that could help burnish Sarkozy's ever-bleaker reputation at home.
3) For a French leader hungry for the spotlight and enamored of the United States, the trip will be welcome news.
4) Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will have a private dinner Tuesday with the Obamas in the White House quarters -- something the French presidential palace calls a first under Obama and "a gesture of particular esteem."
5) For Obama, the visit is a chance to ask France to send more gendarmes to Afghanistan, and to show that he is not neglecting American allies as some Europeans fear, said Nicholas Dungan, a senior adviser at France's Institute for International and Strategic Relations.
6) Obama was criticized during his trip to Europe last June, which included a stop at the D-Day beaches in Normandy, for "treating Europe as a tourist destination," Dungan said.
7) Sarkozy says he will complain about the bidding for a $35 billion Air Force refueling tanker contract that Airbus parent EADS says unfairly favors U.S. rival Boeing Corp. Obama may counter by stressing the other potential contracts that France could pursue, from high-speed rail to nuclear power industry, according to a Western diplomat. Both are areas where France is a world industry leader.
8) Much of the trip will be about seeing the two personalities engage, Sarkozy's excitable, frank character and Obama's cool reserve.
9) "Sarkozy measures himself regularly against Barack Obama," said Steven Ekovich of the American University of Paris.
10) The two have also had differences. But a senior French official called them no more than "small irritations" and said relations are "confident. A Western diplomat called the tensions "a manufactured issue." Both officials were not authorized to be named because of their governments' policies.
11) A photo op with Obama is likely to provide a boost to Sarkozy's image, or at least his self-image, during a particularly rocky period that has many talking about France's 2012 presidential elections.
12) Sarkozy's approval ratings are sinking and his conservative party was trounced last weekend in regional elections by resurgent leftists, the last nationwide voting before the 2012 race. A poll released Friday shows that the once-low-profile Socialist Party chief Martine Aubry could even beat Sarkozy if elections were held now.
13) On Friday, Sarkozy's 82-year-old father Pal is quoted in an interview as saying the president "would have a calmer life if he doesn't run again."
14) "It's up to him to decide" about a second term, Pal Sarkozy said, according to the daily Le Parisien. He says he doesn't recommend running again, as a "father who loves his son and wants to see him happy."
15) Sarkozy's father is also releasing an autobiography that describes his own active and turbulent love life and the president's childhood.
16) Passages in the book, called "So Much Life," describe Pal Sarkozy's sexual explorations with servants and his honeymoon with the president's mother, Andree, nicknamed Dadou. He says he felt "betrayed" to find that "she was already a woman."
17) The two divorced when Nicolas Sarkozy was a boy, and the president has described the difficulties of growing up in a broken home. Sarkozy's office did not comment on the book Friday.
18) Meanwhile, the first lady is speaking out about their relationship, closely watched by French and foreign tabloids.
19) Asked about a second term for her husband, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is quoted this week in Madame Figaro magazine as saying: "As a spouse, I don't really want it. Perhaps I'm afraid that he will harm his health, perhaps I want to live what we have left to live in a certain peace?"
20) She said she would support him regardless.
21) "He is someone who protects me from myself and the world. He is someone who calms me. He is perhaps the first man who protects me," he said.
22) The former top model and now singer also says that she will appear in Woody Allen's next film, to be shot in Paris in the summer, and is working on a new album.
23) Sarkozy is not taking any French executives with him on this trip, but is bringing French thinkers and university deans. He gives a speech at Columbia University in New York on Monday about 200 years of Franco-American relations.
24) He'll also meet with Sen. John Kerry to discuss climate change legislation working its way through the American Congress. With Obama, Sarkozy will also discuss the Mideast and raising their cooperation a notch in the Sahel, a region that stretches from Somalia across North Africa.


Sarkozy Sr. ' s tell-all book counters critics
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's father, a self-confessed bon vivant and womanizer, said Sunday he is setting the record on his life straight in an autobiography written above all for his children, and meant to counter claims he was a bad father.
2) Pal Sarkozy wrote "Tant de Vie" -- which translates as "So Much Life" -- after his son, the French president, advised him against filing lawsuits against his disparagers and instead to "answer later ... about all these unjust accusations," the 81-year-old said in an interview with The Associated Press.
3) So the book is above all a family affair, he said. "This wasn't for the world, it was for my family."
4) "I wanted to talk to my children," and a book was "the simplest thing," he said in the interview, given on the sidelines of France's annual Book Fair.
5) A Hungarian immigrant who arrived in France in 1948 penniless, Pal Sarkozy concedes that he hid his past and failed to pass on his heritage to his five children -- four sons and a daughter from two of his four wives -- because "I wanted them to become French."
6) The book gives a rare look into the life of a president's father -- the first modern-day French president with both parents still living.
7) But Pal Sarkozy questioned whether his son, Nicolas, should even want to make a second run for re-election in 2012.
8) "I think for him he will have a lot fewer worries than he has now" if he doesn't seek a second mandate, the father said, looking relaxed in blue jeans and a light blue pullover. "He won't have this enormous burden of 70 million people."
9) He brushed aside his son's growing political troubles -- from a weekend poll giving him only a 30 percent satisfaction rating, to his conservative party's huge loss in regional elections this month -- which led this week's edition of Le Point magazine to run a cover story on the president titled "The Tragedy of Sarkozy."
10) "I see no tragedy anywhere. Perhaps it will help him climb in the polls, which I hope," he said. "Polls, they change every day."
11) As a child, he said, Nicolas was the most "turbulent" among his sons. Today, the president maintains a high-speed agenda, but first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy calms him, his father said.
12) "Each time she enters a room and Nicolas is there, you see right away that Nicolas relaxes. He has a different smile on his lips than when she isn't there."
13) Scores of people, cameras clicking, surrounded Pal Sarkozy when he arrived at the fair to autograph copies of his book, written with Frederique Drouin.
14) "He has more success than his son," laughed 60-year-old Odile Bastard, among the crowd.
15) The book recounts Pal Sarkozy's aristocratic upbringing in Hungary, occupied by the Nazis then the Soviets, and his escape to Paris, with a one-month stint in the Foreign Legion on his way to the capital. He says he arrived penniless and without shoes, and spent his first night sleeping on a sidewalk grate of a Metro at the Etoile, the famous roundabout at the top of the Champs-Elysees Avenue.
16) Once he gained professional success as advertising executive, "France fit me like a Lanvin suit." He admits, "I was without brakes and without limits."
17) The book is peppered with accounts of his prolific love life, from his first experience at age 11 with his nurse in Hungary to the mistresses who dotted his married life.
18) Why tell the world?
19) "All of my family laughed a lot about what I said, and they're not upset with me at all."
20) "Contrary to legend, I never abandoned them (the children), physically or financially, but it is exact that it is their mothers who were in charge of their education," he wrote in his book.
21) In an epilogue, however, Pal Sarkozy concedes "I was not a present father nor a grandfather who gurgles with the babies ...
22) "Today, the arrival at the port is near and I no longer have the strength to move on. This time it is I who needs you. Your presence makes me happy, your absence makes me sad."
23) He said he had not heard from President Sarkozy, who received the first autographed copy of the book, but noted his son was in the United States to meet Monday with President Barack Obama. "Perhaps he hasn't had time to call me."


French president, first lady take on New York
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1) With a lectern flown in from France and his fingers firmly entwined with those of his smiling wife, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a splash Monday even before he opened his mouth for a no-holds-barred speech at Columbia University.
2) Amid blogger reports of strains in their marriage, Sarkozy and ex-supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy made every effort to appear the happy couple, walking closely together and clasping hands as they mounted a staircase into an auditorium packed with students, faculty and other spectators.
3) The French first lady, elegant in a swept-up chignon and form-fitting black top with gray skirt, at times threatened to upstage her husband, who scolded his American hosts about health care and for not paying enough attention to the rest of the world.
4) French Web sites immediately picked up on the message. "Carla Bruni et Nicolas Sarkozy amoureux a New York" read a headline on the online site of entertainment magazine Voici, which mentioned the "electric atmosphere" of the Big Apple and its effects on the French presidential couple.
5) Sarkozy is in hot water at home. His poll ratings are at record lows of around 30 percent and there are widening cracks in his conservative party. In New York, though, he basked in the rapt attention of hundreds of Columbia students and even jettisoned a prepared speech.
6) "Speeches kill off creativity," he said. "I'm going to speak from the heart."
7) And he did.
8) "Welcome to the club of states who don't turn their back on the sick and the poor," Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. health care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama last week.
9) From the European perspective, he said, "when we look at the American debate on reforming health care, it's difficult to believe."
10) "The very fact that there should have been such a violent debate simply on the fact that the poorest of Americans should not be left out in the streets without a cent to look after them ... is something astonishing to us."
11) Then to hearty applause, he added: "If you come to France and something happens to you, you won't be asked for your credit card before you're rushed to the hospital."
12) Despite the strident words, the mood was celebratory -- and Bruni-Sarkozy held the spotlight, with more than 100 members of the media focusing on her every move.
13) Columbia President Lee Bollinger introduced Sarkozy, but before the French leader could utter a single word, Bollinger asked the audience to give the French first lady "a special welcome."
14) Hundreds of students, professors and members of the public obliged, giving Bruni-Sarkozy a rousing ovation, which she acknowledged by rising, turning toward the audience and smiling.
15) She then listened to her husband speak, nodding supportively in the front row as Sarkozy called on the audience to "reflect on what it means to be the world's No. 1 power."
16) "The world needs an open America, a generous America, an America that shows the way, an America that listens," he said, calling on the U.S. to champion firm regulations of financial systems, from tax havens to hedge funds.
17) Columbia organizers said the French provided their own white lectern and light gray rug for the speech, and also requested a special espresso machine.
18) The podium and rug complimented the color-coordinated French first couple -- including his black suit and white tie and her wraparound black top, gray skirt and black-and-white umbrella.
19) In a change from the usual protocol, Sarkozy entered the Low Library by walking up the middle of the grand staircase that faces the Columbia campus, instead of from behind a gold curtain like most other speakers.
20) After arriving in New York on Sunday, the presidential couple left their hotel with arms wrapped around one another, smiling for cameras and kissing before going to lunch at the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park with Sarkozy's son from his second marriage, 12-year-old Louis, who goes to school in New York.
21) Sarkozy met later Monday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, discussing such issues as Iran, Chad, Ivory Coast, the upcoming donors' conference for Haiti, and the follow-up to the Copenhagen climate change conference, the U.N. spokesperson's office said.
22) Sarkozy and the French first lady will join the Obamas for a private dinner in the White House on Tuesday.


Obama set to ask visiting Sarkozy for Afghan help
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1) France's President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves behind a romantic sojourn in New York for an encounter he's long been waiting for: talks Tuesday with President Barack Obama in the White House.
2) The meeting may boil down to one question: Will Obama persuade Sarkozy to buck popular resistance and send more troops to Afghanistan?
3) Fortifying the international force in Afghanistan is a fresh concern for Obama after his first presidential trip to Kabul. And a key aim of Sarkozy's trip to Washington is to show that France is a firm U.S. ally in fighting terrorism, from central Asia to North Africa and beyond.
4) "We will remain by your side in Afghanistan," Sarkozy said in a speech at Columbia University on Monday. "In the face of terrorism, we cannot be divided."
5) In his no-holds-barred speech, Sarkozy criticized the U.S. health care system and scolded the U.S. for not listening closely enough to what the rest of the world has to say.
6) But underlying the criticism was a clear respect for American dynamism and openness, and admiration for Obama. Sarkozy has hosted Obama twice in France, though Tuesday marks his first White House visit.
7) "You are very loved in the world but we expect a lot of you," Sarkozy said Monday to his largely American audience. "In Europe, we are your friends. In Europe, we admire you. You don't have to worry about that."
8) Obama, Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Korean President Lee Myung-bak sent a joint letter to the other leaders of the G-20 group of leading world economies urging them to firm up new global financial rules and stick to pledges for better coordination made at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh last year. The letter was released by Sarkozy's office Tuesday.
9) Obama and Sarkozy agree on wanting new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities and they both want stalled Mideast talks to resume.
10) "France is an invaluable partner and ally of the United States," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Monday.
11) But will that translate into more forces for Afghanistan?
12) France has about 3,750 troops and trainers in Afghanistan, but Sarkozy resisted calls by Obama last year to send many more. Some other NATO allies have also been cautious, even as the U.S. is deploying 30,000 more troops to try to reverse gains made by the Taliban.
13) Two Western diplomats said Obama will ask Sarkozy for more military or police trainers. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.
14) French trainers have been among those killed in Afghanistan this year, and polls show most French voters don't see the point.
15) "It is not easy to explain that French people are dying in Afghanistan," Sarkozy said.
16) A French diplomat said France would make its decision based on what the generals on the ground say is needed, not on political expediency. That diplomat was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
17) Sarkozy may not risk an unpopular decision with his own popularity at record lows, and with his conservative party suffering from fractures and badly beaten in recent regional elections.
18) After a bruising few weeks at home, Sarkozy was basking in the attention at Columbia -- and his wife's front-row gaze. Amid bloggers' speculation about strains in their marriage, Sarkozy and ex-supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy made every effort to appear the happy couple at the university and during outings around New York.
19) Sarkozy later hosted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his hotel Monday for discussions on Iran and the Mideast.
20) In Washington, Sarkozy arrived at the Senate for talks with Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sarkozy brought his son, Louis, along for the meeting. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde also took part. Climate change was expected to be a top topic in the talks with Kerry and later with the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
21) The Sarkozys will join the Obamas for a private dinner in the White House, in what the French presidential palace calls a first-of-its-kind invite and a sign of esteem for America's oldest ally.


Obama, Sarkozy push for UN sanctions against Iran
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1) With the president of France at his side, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday he hopes to have international sanctions against Iran in place "within weeks," not months, because of its continuing nuclear program. He acknowledged he still lacks full support at the United Nations.
2) "Do we have unanimity in the international community? Not yet," Obama said. "And that's something that we have to work on."
3) Obama said he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are "inseparable" in their thinking on the subject.
4) For his part, Sarkozy told reporters, "Iran cannot continue its mad race" toward acquiring nuclear weapons.
5) "The time has come to take decisions," Sarkozy said.
6) Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, not nuclear weapons.
7) On the U.N. Security Council, veto-holding permanent members Russia and China have expressed reservations toward a tougher set of sanctions, as have several of the rotating members who do not have veto powers.
8) Obama said he understands that countries that have business ties with Iran, especially those who depend on Iran for oil, might have reservations.
9) Still, Obama said that, while "the door remains open if the Iranians choose to walk though it," there have been no signs that they are close to moving back from their nuclear program, and patience has all but run out.
10) "My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring. So I'm not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks."
11) Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton predicted new sanctions would be forthcoming, hinting that skeptical nations such as China and Russia eventually would come along. At the conclusion of an international meeting of eight major powers in Quebec, Clinton cited a growing alarm around the world about the consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran.
12) A senior French official said after the White House meeting that major Western players, including France, are ready to consider unilateral sanctions if they cannot get a strong enough U.N. resolution passed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the French president's office rules.
13) Obama said he and the French president discussed a wide range of global issues, including the financial regulatory overhaul and peace negotiations in the Middle East.
14) Sarkozy also said he stands with the United States in condemning recent Israeli settlement activity in east Jerusalem.
15) While his own commitment to Israel's security is well known, Sarkozy said, the settlement activity in lands claimed by the Palestinians "contributes nothing."
16) Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said that the "absence of peace" in the region "is a problem for all of us" that feeds terrorism around the world.
17) On a subject on which the two presidents do not see eye-to-eye, Sarkozy expressed a widespread European contention that the award of a $35 billion U.S. Air Force refueling tanker plane was rigged to favor U.S. aerospace giant Boeing over an alliance of the parent company of Europe's Airbus and the U.S. Lockheed-Martin company.
18) Sarkozy said he believed it would be "fair to share this contract with the Europeans" instead of awarding it solely to Boeing.
19) Obama said that while "the process will be free and fair," the final decision would be made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
20) "The secretary of defense makes procurement decisions. The president does not meddle in these decisions," Obama said.
21) Obama hailed France as one of the United States' oldest and best allies, noting the two countries have fought together on battlefields from Yorktown in the U.S. Revolutionary War to Afghanistan now.
22) However, the two have had clear differences on Afghanistan, with the Obama administration pressing France as well as other European nations to send more troops, and Sarkozy largely resisting such requests.
23) Obama did not go into Tuesday's meeting intending to urge Sarkozy to send more troops, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said ahead of the meeting. "There's no specific `ask' on the table," Gibbs said at his daily news briefing.
24) Instead of troops, France is ready to consider sending more military or police trainers to Afghanistan, according to the French official. He would not elaborate on how many could go or when, saying only, "There is no deadline. There is the certitude that there is a need for trainers."
25) The two presidents discussed the possibility of training Afghan forces outside Afghanistan because infrastructure there is so poor, the official said.
26) Instead of troops, Obama will seek more French military or police trainers, according to two Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the presidential discussions were private.
27) French trainers have been among those killed in Afghanistan this year, and polls show most French voters do not support the effort.
28) Both presidents went to extraordinary lengths to defuse trans-Atlantic speculation of a chilly relationship. Obama repeatedly referred to Sarkozy by his first name and spoke fondly of his trip to Paris last year. "We respect one another and understand one another," Obama said.
29) The private dinner invitation also was a gesture rarely extended to foreign leaders.
30) Just a day earlier in New York, Sarkozy spoke bluntly about the U.S role in foreign affairs, saying the world needed an America that listens. Yet when asked directly whether he thinks Obama listens to him, Sarkozy offered a long defense of his relationship with Obama. He called it candid and productive.
31) "President Obama, when he says something, keeps his word," Sarkozy said. "His word is his bond. And that is so important."


Sarkozy ' s dad unveils exhibit of digital paintings
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy likes his father's paintings more than his tell-all writings, Pal Sarkozy said Friday as he unveiled an exhibit of digital artworks.
2) Theshow at the Espace Pierre Cardin right across the street from the French presidential palace features images of women, religion and life as an immigrant.
3) Pal Sarkozy, 81, suggested that his son is probably more at ease with his father's latest form of artistic expression than with an autobiography he released a month ago.
4) "He appreciates a lot that I am back into paintings ... and I think he likes it," Pal Sarkozy told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "He likes my writings less than my paintings."
5) Pal Sarkozy's autobiography "Tant de Vie," or "So Much Life," recounts much about his personal life, including his first sexual experience at age 11 and various extramarital affairs.
6) His artwork, which combines his sketches and paintings with computer digital enhancement techniques, were created by Sarkozy and co-artist Werner Hornung.
7) "I was always an artist," said Pal Sarkozy, whose career success came as an advertising executive. "Even as a child I drew. When I arrived in France (from Hungary) in 1948 I began right away to work in art."
8) A portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy was left out of the show because its celebrity stature detracted from the other works, Pal Sarkozy said.
9) The French president's image does make two small appearances, however, both in a large canvas dominated by French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
10) Pal Sarkozy said of the top model-turned-singer, "She's an admirable woman. She's an artist herself, in music. I feel very close to her."
11) While Pal Sarkozy agreed that having a powerful son has undoubtedly helped his artistic career, he claims that it has also subjected him to partisan criticism based on his son's conservative politics.
12) When art critics "are from the right wing, criticism is good. When the critics are from the left side, it is systematically very bad," he said.
13) The exhibit was also shown in Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Egypt, and Qatar.


French leader stresses Iran nukes on China visit
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1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy stressed the urgency of ongoing efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program in a meeting with China's leader Wednesday, saying new sanctions must be imposed on Tehran if negotiations fail.
2) Sarkozy hoping to make headway on the nuclear standoff in talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao when the two met privately Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
3) "China hopes to use dialogue to solve this problem. France completely understands China, and we are willing to discuss this problem together at an appropriate time, but if dialogue does not work then we can only use sanctions," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Hu after their meeting at the start of his three-day visit.
4) "Everyone thinks this must be solved right now," he added.
5) Three permanent U.N. Security Council members -- France, Britain and the U.S. -- have been pressing for a fourth round of U.N. penalties on Iran for its refusal to halt a key part of its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. Iran says it only wants the technology to produce nuclear power.
6) China and Russia -- which also have permanent Security Council seats -- have important commercial links to Iran and have been reluctant to support new sanctions.
7) Sarkozy's visit to China is being billed as a return to healthy diplomatic relations between the two countries after spats over Tibet. Relations nose-dived in 2008 after protests by exiled Tibetans and other activists during the Olympic torch's passage through Paris and Sarkozy's talks with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
8) Hu told Sarkozy while reporters were present that he was "willing to further expand China-France relations through a deep exchange of views."
9) Earlier Wednesday, Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, visited the life-size terracotta warriors at the famed ancient tomb of China's first emperor in the western city of Xi'an.
10) Besides Iran, Sarkozy and Hu were expected to discuss Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea and Myanmar, a French official said on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
11) The two leaders said they also discussed reforms of the international financial system, agreeing that instituting more controls was key to preventing another global financial crisis like the one in 2008 that revealed flaws in financial regulation.
12) "China believes the emphasis in the reform of the international financial system should be on strengthening financial controls," Hu said to reporters.
13) "We believe the global financial crisis has not changed the long-term momentum of global economic growth," Hu said. Countries should strengthen coordination among economies and oppose protectionism to maintain the momentum of global economic growth, he said.


New UK PM Cameron offers first invite to Sarkozy
(APW_ENG_20100512.0630)
1) Britain's new Prime Minister David Cameron offered his first invitation for formal talks to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will visit London in June.
2) Cameron's office says the leaders shared a "very warm exchange," in a call. Downing Street says both were "committed to work together on a professional and personal level" to strengthen their bilateral relationship and to "build a Europe that better delivered for its citizens."
3) Sarkozy accepted an invitation to visit the United Kingdom on 18 June, Downing Street said.
4) Cameron and Sarkozy have previously had tensions over the Conservative leader's decision to abandon a grouping of legislators in the European Parliament that includes members of Sarkozy's party.


Sarkozy emerges buoyed from euro rescue effort
(APW_ENG_20100512.0852)
1) The enormous rescue effort for the euro has a distinctly French flavor -- even down to the cookies served in marathon negotiations -- and is a big point scored for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
2) France is loudly claiming credit, with Sarkozy's prime minister saying French doggedness clinched the deal to try to save the currency that ties this continent together, and vowing to "reinvent the European model."
3) In reality, the United States may have played a more pivotal role in the nearly $1 trillion deal. And markets aren't certain that the dirigiste ideals that underpin the plan are sustainable in the long term across the 16 disparate economies that use euros.
4) For now, though, Sarkozy is proclaiming himself Greece's savior and hoping that restores some of his sheen at home.
5) Europe's other powerhouses, while crucial to securing the joint European Union-International Monetary Fund plan, come off looking sidelined: Germany's Angela Merkel was humbled by agreeing to a rescue she long resisted; Britain was rudderless for days after inconclusive elections and in any case has a smaller role because it is outside the eurozone.
6) The resulting plan includes generous government backing for the loan package -- something championed by France, where strong government involvement in the economy dates back to pre-revolutionary times -- and a chastened European Central Bank.
7) In a bit of culinary symbolism, the snacks sustaining European leaders as they worked on the emergency deal were French, almond meringue macaroons at the negotiating table in Brussels.
8) From the start of the Greek debt crisis, Sarkozy was there, pushing since early this year for a robust rescue offer. Sarkozy initially failed to persuade Germany and other eurozone members to commit big funds to help Greece. Germany had hoped strict enforcement of existing EU finance rules would be enough to get through crisis.
9) In the French narrative, at least, when European leaders and their finance ministers met last weekend to try to stem global market panic about the euro, it was France that took control.
10) "We won a massive response from the European Union," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament Tuesday. He said an emergency summit Friday night was held "largely at France's request."
11) The European Central Bank's abrupt decision Monday to intervene to buy government bonds is something Sarkozy, among others, long had sought.
12) French officials said it was Sarkozy who persuaded Merkel to commit to a loan figure. President Barack Obama called both of them Sunday to urge a solution powerful enough to stabilize markets after volatility last week on Wall Street stemming from the euro crisis.
13) Sarkozy's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, did much of the heavy lifting, using her good international contacts and negotiating savvy. She refrained from gloating, however, and said it was a joint effort involving all G-7 members.
14) Lagarde noted that France has plenty of its own work to do to tighten its budget in line with European Union rules. France has racked up heavy debt and has defied EU deficit limits.
15) The Greek crisis is a "wake-up call for all of us as far as? public finances are concerned and I'm sure it will be followed by appropriate review," Lagarde told reporters Tuesday.
16) While the deal was being worked out in Brussels, Sarkozy avoided any public triumphalism and did his best to project a workmanlike image.
17) Back home, though, Sarkozy told aides that "in Greece, they call me a savior, unlike what they call me here," according to French media reports. Sarkozy's approval ratings at home have been in the doldrums for months.
18) While Sarkozy's claims may be exaggerated, many Greeks do view him as having helped the country through the crisis.
19) A recent poll suggested Sarkozy is the most popular foreign leader among Greeks, and Merkel the least popular. The survey found 76.6 percent of respondents had a "positive" or "somewhat positive" view of Sarkozy, compared with 18.4 percent for Merkel. The poll by Kappa Research questioned 1,256 people by telephone April 28-29, and had a 2.59 percent margin of error.
20) Simon Tilford, chief economist at the European Center for Reform, noted that the plan for the euro included "some elements of the French model" such as a greater need for intervention and regulation. But he minimized France's influence in bringing about the historic package.
21) The French "were very quick to recognize how serious the situation was and that does contrast with one or two other governments, notably Germany," he said.
22) But he added, "I find the rhetoric coming out of France, with its attack on the markets as the reason behind the downfall of the eurozone, quite problematic."
23) "The French authorities would make better use of their time in trying to address the lack of policy coordination within the eurozone" and trade imbalances, he said.


Merkel, Sarkozy agree to stabilize the euro
(APW_ENG_20100520.1257)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on the idea of imposing sanctions, including political ones, on eurozone countries that mismanage their economies.
2) Sarkozy told reporters that they agreed that the sanctions should stretch beyond financial measures, and will be discussed with all 16 countries that share the euro currency next month.
3) Sarkozy cited, for example, the possibility that, as one of the possible sanctions, eurozone states that violate common rules might temporarily lose their voting rights .
4) "There's total agreement between the Chancellor and me on the principles of sanctions," Sarkozy told reporters in Paris. He said Germany and France would work on means to improve the eurozone stability pact to establish more criteria on accountability, transparency and efficiency.
5) German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm says Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy held an extensive telephone conversation Thursday during which they agreed to work more closely together on increased stability and other economic issues.
6) Wilhelm says Sarkozy has accepted an invitation to visit Berlin on June 7, ahead of next month's Group of 20 summit in Canada to discuss the two nations' joint stance.


France ' s Sarkozy fights back amid finance scandal
(APW_ENG_20100712.1174)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy went on national television Monday to fight allegations of illegal financing for his 2007 election campaign, claims that have threatened the government's credibility as it pushes through unpopular cost-cutting reforms.
2) The president said Labor Minister Eric Woerth, who is at the heart of the scandal and is in charge of a difficult pension reform, would keep his job in the government. But apparently bowing to public pressure, Sarkozy said he advised Woerth to resign from his contested second job, as the treasurer of their conservative UMP party.
3) Sarkozy, whose poll ratings have slipped to his lowest point in three years in office, described the party financing allegations as a "campaign" against him.
4) Speaking to France 2 television in the garden of the presidential Elysee Palace, he steered the questions away from the scandal toward his efforts to modernize the country, casting himself as a tireless leader willing to put himself on the line to save France from its untenable expectations about government social protections.
5) "When you carry out reforms ... you bother a certain number of people," Sarkozy said. "And the response is often slander."
6) Sarkozy is trying to win back voter support amid worries about a scandal involving the billionaire heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune that has destabilized the government, especially Woerth.
7) Politicians left and right had urged Sarkozy to respond publicly to allegations by a former accountant to L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt that she gave (EURO)150,000 in cash to Woerth, party treasurer, during the 2007 presidential campaign. The alleged sum would greatly exceed legal limits for campaign donations.
8) Sarkozy has denied the claims, which have not been proven. French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation.
9) The president has seen diplomatic successes from Libya to New York but barely a quarter of his compatriots support him, pollsters say. He has less than two years before 2012 presidential elections -- when he could face a surprising threat from the opposition Socialists, who are buoyed by his current troubles.
10) Sarkozy's interview gave him a sort of final word before the Bastille Day national holiday Wednesday and before many French head off on their summer vacations.
11) It also allowed him to explain to the French public why he believes the pension system must be reformed. On Tuesday, his government will formally present the plan, which includes raising the retirement age from 60 to 62.
12) France's government -- like those around Europe -- is trying to rein in runaway debt. Though France would still have one of the lowest retirement ages in the rich world, massive protests are planned for Sept. 7 over the plan. Sarkozy said they wouldn't change his course.
13) "If you have to withdraw projects that are useful for the country every time there is a demonstration, we would never do anything useful for the country," he said.
14) Woerth has denied any wrongdoing in the scandal that ensnared the government, and Sarkozy called him an "honest man." Woerth had told Europe-1 radio earlier Monday that he would consider resigning from the treasurer post.
15) In another facet of the complicated scandal, a French financial inspection agency said in a report Sunday that Woerth did not abuse his position to spare Bettencourt a tax audit when he was budget minister. Woerth's wife worked as a financial adviser to Bettencourt.
16) Though prosecutors are still probing that aspect of the affair, Sarkozy insisted the report showed Woerth was "cleared of any suspicion." He nonetheless said he would set up a commission of all political stripes to propose how to change the law to prevent conflicts of interest.
17) In an aside, Sarkozy said he knew what it felt like to be the victim of personal attacks. He said rumors of infidelity that had swirled months ago around him and his wife, singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were "the worst idle gossip about our private life."
18) When the journalist asked him if he had suffered from the rumors, he responded simply, "yes."


French opposition: Sarkozy scapegoating minorities
(APW_ENG_20100801.0375)
1) French opposition lawmakers and media attacked a host of new government proposals targeting Gypsies and immigrants suspected of crimes, charging Sunday that President Nicolas Sarkozy was pandering to the far-right in a bid to boost his popularity.
2) The interior minister defended the measures, calling them part of France's "war against insecurity."
3) Sarkozy said Friday that he wants to revoke the French citizenship of immigrants who endanger the life of police officers. The speech Friday in the southeastern city of Grenoble -- the site of recent clashes between youth and police -- was a dramatic move to the right even for the conservative leader, who has put forward a law-and-order image.
4) Earlier in the week, Sarkozy pushed for a change in France's immigration law to make it easier to expel Gypsies, or Roma, in the country illegally and pledged to evacuate their camps, which he called a source of trafficking, prostitution and child exploitation.
5) The centrist Journal du Dimanche newspaper suggested that Sarkozy was staking his claim to the anti-immigrant platform that has for decades been a mainstay of the extreme-right National Front party, in a bid to win the support of deeply conservative swaths of the population and the minority far-right.
6) Sarkozy's approval rating has been sliding and a financial scandal has embroiled a top minister. His new moves have angered many, from leftist politicians to French Gypsy, or Roma, leaders to immigrants' rights advocates
7) "This speech is a declaration of war against the (French) Republic," the Journal du Dimanche quoted Mouloud Aounit, the head of the MRAP anti-racism organization, as saying.
8) In a statement Sunday, the Socialist Party said Sarkozy "is trying to distract (the public's) attention by using that old standby -- provocation."
9) The Journal du Dimanche cited Green Party head Noel Mamere as saying in reference to Sarkozy that the National Front's aging leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and his daughter and party vice president Marine Le Pen, "needn't talk anymore, their copy is speaking for them."
10) In an interview in Le Parisien newspaper, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux pledged to begin enforcing the measures announced last week by Sarkozy as soon as possible.
11) Hortefeux brushed off the criticism, saying "when we must adapt to or confront new difficulties, we don't hesitate to do so. We're waging a war against insecurity. We're on the side of the victims and we have but a sole enemy: the crooks."
12) He said the measures outlined by Sarkozy in his Grenoble speech would be included in bills to be presented in the lower house of Parliament in September. Other measures, such as the dismantling of Roma camps around the country, will begin as early as next week, he said.
13) Hortefeux also said he could envisage extending the circumstances in which naturalized French people could be stripped of their citizenship to those involving "female excision, human trafficking or serious acts of delinquency."
14) Sarkozy's address in Grenoble came after nights of rioting outside the southeastern city that pitted local youth against police and saw dozens of cars torched. That violence was triggered by the police killing of a resident fleeing after an armed robbery at a casino. Officials said some youths fired on police in the ensuing unrest.
15) Tensions have simmered in heavily immigrant projects around France since nationwide riots in 2005.
16) Sarkozy's remarks on Roma followed similar clashes last month in the central Loire Valley, triggered by the shooting death of a youth fleeing officers there.


Holiday over for French President Sarkozy
(APW_ENG_20100823.0423)
1) When President Nicolas Sarkozy returns from his Riviera beach vacation this week, it will be a swift return to reality: He will have to answer to criticism about France's crackdown on Gypsies, and to street protesters over plans to raise the retirement age.
2) Sarkozy has spent the traditional August vacation period at the summer home of his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, on the Mediterranean coast, where photographers snapped him sporting a tan and a stubbly beard.
3) Despite his relaxed demeanor, it's a tough time for the 55-year-old conservative president, who is three years into his five-year term.
4) Sarkozy's approval ratings hover above 30 percent, and one of his top ministers has been caught up in scandals over taxes and party financing. And like many European governments, cash-strapped France is trying to push through unpopular cost-cutting measures -- among them, lifting the retirement age to 62 from 60.
5) Amid all the discontent, a poll published Monday in Liberation newspaper suggested that more than half of the French want to see the left win the 2012 presidential race.
6) Before his holiday, Sarkozy, a one-time law-and-order interior minister, tried to win back support by returning to terrain where he feels comfortable -- security.
7) Sarkozy linked Gypsies, or Roma, to crime, calling their camps sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution. He pledged that illegal Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated." Up to 88 camps have been emptied since then, and several hundred Roma have been put on flights home to Romania, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Monday.
8) At home and abroad, criticism has grown, with many arguing that such relentless targeting of a vulnerable minority amounts to racism, and that Sarkozy is pandering to far-right voters and trying to deflect attention away from the economy and other problems. The left has stepped up its attacks.
9) "I'm ashamed for my country," Socialist European parliament member Vincent Peillon told Le Parisien newspaper this weekend.
10) Even Pope Benedict XVI appeared to weigh in Sunday with a subtle message about tolerance. Greeting French pilgrims at the papal summer residence, Benedict urged people to accept "legitimate human diversity" and asked parents to "educate your children about universal brotherhood."
11) Critics have also taken issue with another of Sarkozy's security proposals: revoking the French citizenship of people of foreign origins who endanger the lives of police officers. That proposal is expected to go before parliament in September, as is the hotly debated plan to raise the retirement age to 62.
12) Unions are planning street protests for Sept. 7, the same day parliament debates the pension plans. Already, some 800,000 people took to the streets in June to protest it.
13) Public protests have brought down pension reforms -- and governments -- in the past. In a bid to keep the government somewhat fresh, Sarkozy is planning a Cabinet shuffle in October, but details are still secret.
14) Meanwhile, the 2012 presidential election looms, and though Sarkozy has not stated his intentions, it is assumed he will run for a second term.
15) A telephone poll of 1,003 people carried out last week by the Viavoice agency for Liberation newspaper said 55 percent of respondents want to see the left take the Elysee Palace in 2012. That poll and another published Sunday put Sarkozy's approval ratings in the mid-30s.
16) Sarkozy met for lunch with financial ministers last week at a presidential retreat on the Mediterranean, rounding off summer's final days with an early dose of reality -- the announcement of a half-percentage point dip in the 2011 growth forecast to 2 percent.
17) The president officially returns to work on Wednesday with his first Cabinet meeting and a light schedule that seems designed to burnish his image.
18) Sarkozy outlines France's diplomacy in a speech Wednesday to French ambassadors. Thursday he meets France's national swim team, fresh from its success at the European championships.


Sarkozy looks to limit exchange rate swings
(APW_ENG_20100825.0690)
1) France will push for ways to limit "excessive volatility" in exchange rates during its upcoming leadership of the Group of 20, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday, laying out France's agenda for the club of economic powers.
2) Sarkozy also says he wants to find a way to limit swings in commodity prices, pointing to 2008 riots in Haiti and Africa over food shortages. "Nobody has done anything" since then to address such problems, he said.
3) France takes the rotating presidency of the G-20, which includes developing nations, in November. Starting in January it will also lead the Group of 8 industrialized powers.
4) Sarkozy, giving his annual address to French ambassadors at the Elysee Palace, looked tan and relaxed as he returned from his summer holiday on the French Riviera.
5) Raising the subject of currency fluctuation, Sarkozy proposed a seminar among specialists to address the subject, suggesting it could take place in China.
6) "This is not, of course, about going back to a system of fixed exchange rates," he said. "It's about putting in place instruments that avoid excessive volatility of currencies."
7) Sarkozy pointed to the current spike in wheat prices, as well as recent memories of rapid ups-and-downs of oil and gas prices, as he outlined reasons for finding a way to steady commodities prices.
8) "Who will say the subject is too difficult and it is better to do nothing?" he said.
9) Sarkozy also said the G-20 should discuss a possible international tax on financial transactions, an idea that has divided leaders.
10) The French president is pushing his ideas internationally at a time when his popularity is weak at home. Recent polls put the percentage of his approval ratings in the mid-30s. One of his ministers has been embroiled in scandals involving taxes and party financing.
11) On top of that, as European countries try to slash their deficits, Sarkozy is trying to push through difficult cost-cutting reforms, such as raising the retirement age from 60 to 62.


Thousands protest French crackdown on Gypsies
(APW_ENG_20100904.0330)
1) Thousands of people marched in Paris on Saturday to protest expulsions of Gypsies and other new security measures adopted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
2) Protesters blew whistles and beat drums in the largest demonstration among those in at least 135 cities and towns across France and elsewhere in Europe. Human rights and anti-racism groups, labor unions and leftist political parties were taking part in the protests.
3) They accuse Sarkozy of stigmatizing minority groups like Gypsies and seeking political gain with a security crackdown. They also say he is violating French traditions of welcoming the oppressed, in a country that is one of the world's leading providers of political asylum.
4) The protests mark the first show of public discontent since the conservative Sarkozy, a former hardline interior minister, announced new measures to fight crime in late July.
5) Sarkozy said Gypsy camps would be "systematically evacuated." His interior minister and other officials said last week that about 1,000 Roma have been given small stipends and flown home since then.
6) For years, Sarkozy has used his image as a tough, law-and-order politician to win political support. Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, saying their camps are sources of prostitution and child exploitation. The latest moves by Sarkozy came after violence between police and youth in a suburban Grenoble housing project and other clashes in a traveling community in the Loire Valley.
7) Sarkozy also said naturalized citizens who threaten the lives of police officers should lose their citizenship -- and his leftist critics slammed that proposal as anti-constitutional and evocative of nationalist measures during France's collaborationist past in the Vichy regime during World War II.
8) "Mr. Sarkozy is there to stand for the Constitution, not to trample it," said Jean-Paul Dubois, president of France's Human Rights League. "So we consider this situation extremely dangerous, that's why we are here."
9) Paris police said some 12,000 people took part in the protest in the capital and that no violence took place. Organizers estimated that 100,000 people took part in such marches across the country -- though they did not immediately estimate how many of those attended the largest one, in Paris.
10) Small groups of Gypsies took part, including women in flowered skirts, sandals or wearing looping earrings, and men in jeans and gold caps on teeth in the corners of their smiles. But they were far outnumbered by left-leaning political parties, labor unions, and dozens of activist groups like those supporting illegal immigrants or gays.
11) "It warms the heart to see so many people out here. Fortunately, there are nice people in the world," said Delia Romanes, walking behind a banner of a 17-year-old Gypsy circus that she heads in northeastern Paris. She said the government has recently sought to strip its performers of their work papers.
12) Other Roma without proper residency rights were more fearful.
13) "We are afraid. We aren't prepared for this," said David Anghel, a 24-year-old mason from Romania, who has lived in France for eight years. Holding the banner of a Gypsy-support association, he said his wife had been served with an order to leave their camp in Fleury-Merogis, south of Paris, about 10 days ago. They fear police will come to expel them in the next few days.
14) Similar peaceful protests took place outside French embassies elsewhere in Europe. In Belgrade, Serbia, dozens of Gypsies chanted anti-racist slogans and held banners calling for an end to the expulsions from France.
15) In Rome, Marcello Zuinisi, a Tuscany-based Gypsy leader, sought to remind the French about their "liberte, egalite, fraternite" motto: "We want those values to be respected today."
16) In an open letter to Sarkozy published Saturday in Le Monde daily, celebrated French-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun -- who Sarkozy inducted into France's Legion d'Honneur in 2007 -- said he felt the proposal about stripping citizenship had "threatened a little bit -- or at least weakened -- my French nationality."
17) Polls have shown the French are split about the policy of sending home the Gypsies to eastern Europe -- mainly Romania -- though slightly more favor it than oppose it.
18) France's recent and highly publicized crackdown has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the Vatican, among other institutions, and has exposed dissent within Sarkozy's own government. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he briefly considered resigning in the uproar over the policy.


France ' s Le Monde: Spies used to target source
(APW_ENG_20100913.0458)
1) The French daily Le Monde is filing a lawsuit accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy's office of using counterintelligence services to identify a source leaking information about an investigation into the finances of Europe's richest woman.
2) Sarkozy's office denied the accusations.
3) Le Monde said in a front-page article Monday that it is suing for "violation of the secrecy of sources." The law on protecting sources forms a pillar of French media freedom.
4) Le Monde's suit didn't target anyone in particular, which is common in France. Le Monde says Sarkozy's office asked the DCRI intelligence agency to identify a journalist's source and stop leaks in a scandal surrounding L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
5) A presidential aide said Sarkozy's office had never given instructions to any intelligence agency. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of presidential policy.
6) The scandal around Bettencourt's finances, including allegations of tax evasion, has also embroiled Sarkozy and his labor minister, Eric Woerth. French investigators are probing claims that Bettencourt's financial adviser gave cash illegally to Woerth while he was treasurer of Sarkozy's conservative political party, during Sarkozy's 2007 campaign for the French presidency. Sarkozy and Woerth have denied wrongdoing.


France defies EU criticism on Gypsy expulsions
(APW_ENG_20100916.0916)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy upended a European Union summit to defend his own nation's honor, vowing Thursday to keep clearing out illegal immigrant camps despite accusations that France is being racist and unfairly targets Gypsies.
2) The summit was supposed to be a forum for molding a unifying European foreign policy, but it turned into a drama of discord -- with the outspoken Sarkozy usurping the podium to preach his policies and lash out at his critics.
3) Sarkozy said comments by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding that linked the expulsions to the mass deportations of World War II were "disgusting."
4) "I am head of the French state. I cannot let my nation be insulted," Sarkozy told reporters.
5) The wartime comparison stung many in France and other members of a bloc designed to overcome and prevent the kind of hostilities that divided Europe in the past. France deported some 76,000 Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps, and interned thousands of Gypsies in camps in France during the war.
6) Sarkozy insisted France's expulsions of Gypsies, or Roma, are a matter of security and said France doesn't have to take lessons from anyone, as long as it respects human rights. He called more than 100 Roma camps dismantled in France in recent weeks havens of crime and undignified living conditions.
7) "We will continue to dismantle the illegal camps, whoever is there," Sarkozy said. "Europe cannot close its eyes to illegal camps."
8) Participants at the summit lunch said emotions flared between Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso over the expulsions. Barroso did not want to comment on his exchange with Sarkozy, brushing off "useless rhetoric or unnecessary controversies."
9) "Let's put this behind us, let's work now on substance," he said.
10) Sarkozy downplayed the exchange. "If there is someone who keeps his calm, and abstains from excessive comments, it is surely me," said the French leader -- who has a reputation for having a volatile temper.
11) Britain, so often at loggerheads with France over all issues European, backed Sarkozy.
12) "Members of the Commission have to chose their language carefully as well," said Cameron, a fellow member of the center-right. He added that "you should, of course have the right to remove people from your country if they are there illegally."
13) Reding's office has said she expressed regret over the wartime comparison, but maintained her threat to take France to court for targeting an ethnic group in the expulsions.
14) "All heads of state and government said it was profoundly shocking that one would speak in this way, with historical references that were deeply hurtful to the entirety of our compatriots," Sarkozy said.
15) "It is an insult, an injury, a humiliation and an outrage," Sarkozy said, the kind of comment rarely heard about any of the EU's top officials.
16) The expulsions of more than 1,000 Roma from France in recent weeks, mainly to Romania, have also highlighted persistent divisions between richer, older EU members and poorer, newer ones.
17) Romanian President Traian Basescu accused EU leaders of "hypocrisy" over the Roma expulsions to his country, and warned that those expelled from France may quickly return.
18) "If we are not honestly recognizing this reality, we will not find solutions," he told reporters in Bucharest.
19) While Thursday's tensions centered on the Roma, the EU leaders talked little about them, a group that is among the continent's poorest, most mistreated minorities.
20) "What political power do the Roma have in Europe?" Asked Florin Manole of the Center for Roma Studies at Bucharest University. "I doubt things will change, especially as we have an economic crisis."
21) Beyond the Roma issue, the government leaders did find unity on some other issues.
22) They agreed to temporarily waive World Trade Organization tariffs on key Pakistani imports to help boost the flood-devastated country's economy.
23) The EU already has committed millions of euros in humanitarian aid to help Pakistan recover from the devastation. It also wanted to craft a long-term strategy to help the country get its economy back on track amid fears Islamic extremists could exploit the crisis to strengthen their hold on northwestern regions close to the border with Afghanistan.
24) The EU also agreed Thursday to a free trade pact with South Korea that will slash billions of dollars in industrial and agricultural duties, despite some countries' worries that the auto industry could be hurt by a flood of cheaper cars.
25) The deal -- the first such pact between the EU and an Asian trading partner -- will be signed at an EU-South Korea summit on Oct. 6 and come into force on July 1, 2011, said Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country holds the union's rotating presidency.
26) However, it first has to be approved by the EU and South Korean parliaments and European carmakers are still hoping lawmakers will ensure safeguards for their industry.


U2 ' s Bono says Sarkozy ' vital ' to fighting poverty
(APW_ENG_20100917.0784)
1) U2 frontman Bono is wooing French President Nicolas Sarkozy to get backing in the fight against poverty and AIDS.
2) Bono says Sarkozy's leadership "is vital on all the things that I care about" because he will head the G-8 and the G-20 next year and "France is going to be the most important country on the planet."
3) Bono met with Sarkozy on Friday and left the presidential palace upbeat. He said the president doesn't plan to cut back on development as others are doing. The meeting came ahead of a U.N. summit starting Monday on Millennium Development Goals to fight world poverty.
4) As for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Bono said jokingly that Sarkozy "sleeps with the Global Fund" because first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is a "very effective advocate."


Romania urges Sarkozy to stop Gypsy expulsions
(APW_ENG_20100922.0487)
1) Romania's president says he has asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy himself to stop his country's expulsions of Romanian Gypsies.
2) President Traian Basescu said he urged Sarkozy last week in Brussels to "try and stop the process of expelling Roma."
3) France's deportations of more than 1,000 Gypsies, or Roma, and its destruction of hundreds of their camps in recent weeks has been criticized by the European Union, the United Nations and the Vatican.
4) Basescu said Sarkozy promised to discuss the issue with the Romanian leader when they meet again, likely in coming weeks in Paris. He that denied relations are tense with Sarkozy, saying: "we have a friendly relationship."


Sarkozy wants enlarged forum for Mideast peace
(APW_ENG_20100927.0501)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will host the Israeli and Palestinian leaders next month as he seeks a more active role for European and Mediterranean countries in the Middle East peace process.
2) Sarkozy met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday amid questions about the fate of recently restarted peace talks.
3) Sarkozy said Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will come to Paris in October to prepare a November summit of Mediterranean countries.
4) Sarkozy, speaking alongside Abbas, urged Israel to extend a freeze on settlement building.
5) Sarkozy said, "Ten years after Camp David, we haven't progressed and perhaps we have even regressed."


Sarkozy seeing pope amid Gypsy crackdown fallout
(APW_ENG_20101008.0482)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Friday with the pope and top Vatican officials in a fence-mending visit following France's controversial crackdown on Gypsies, while a top Vatican cardinal urged France to welcome immigrants and those who have been persecuted.
2) Sarkozy's government has linked Gypsies, or Roma, to crime, dismantled hundreds of their shantytowns and expelled more than 1,000 Roma in recent months, sending them home to Romania and Bulgaria.
3) The crackdown has been criticized by many Roman Catholics, and Pope Benedict XVI himself appeared to weigh in on it with a subtle message about tolerance over the summer.
4) Speaking in French to pilgrims gathered at his summer residence Aug. 22, Benedict urged people to accept "legitimate human diversity" and asked parents to "educate your children about universal brotherhood," a statement that was widely interpreted as being directed at France.
5) On Friday, French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who heads the Vatican's office for interreligious dialogue, added his voice to the chorus. He referred to the issue during a private prayer service he celebrated in Sarkozy's honor in a chapel inside St. Peter's Basilica.
6) As Sarkozy and his delegation listened, Tauran asked for prayers for France and its leaders, for the "absolute respect for life," for peace, justice "and that immigrants and those who are persecuted are welcomed."
7) Sarkozy has defended the expulsions, saying they are part of an overall crackdown on illegal immigrants and crime. Most of the Roma in France are from Romania and Bulgaria, and as EU citizens, they have a right to travel to France, but must get permission to work or live there in the long term. The government also says most of the Roma are leaving voluntarily, with a small stipend from France.
8) In an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Friday, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defended the government's position, saying, "like any other government, it is the duty of the French authorities to enforce the law. It is as simple as that."
9) The Vatican made no explicit mention of the matter in its communique issued after Sarkozy's meetings, saying only that there was a shared desire to continue to collaborate "on questions of common interest."
10) Sarkozy arrived for his audience with the pope about 15 minutes late, looking tense. But by the end of the half-hour visit, he appeared relaxed as he presented the pope with a collection of books and received in exchange a ceramic model and print of St. Peter's Basilica.
11) Sarkozy then asked the pope for an extra rosary -- the gift Benedict usually gives delegation members traveling with visiting heads of state. Benedict's personal secretary Monsignor Georg Ganswein fetched one from a drawer and gave it to Sarkozy.
12) After the audience, Sarkozy was to have lunch with the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
13) Le Parisien newspaper said Sarkozy's visit to the Vatican was seen as a chance to repair his image with France's Catholics, many of whom have been disturbed above all by his "'bling-bling' image, his relationship to money, and quite simply his way of being."
14) The Rev. Philippe Verdin, a Dominican priest who published a book of interviews with Sarkozy in 2004, said Sarkozy was engaged in a "great spiritual quest."
15) "He is very intuitive and understands how important prayer is: He's a man who prays," Le Parisien newspaper quoted Verdin as saying. "He is very concerned about giving grace to God. I am sure he thanked God for allowing him to meet Carla Bruni."
16) Bruni, Sarkozy's wife, did not attend the papal audience Friday.
17) Some observers complained that Sarkozy showed a lack of gravitas during his 2007 visit to the Vatican. News reports at the time said he was seen sneaking a peek at a text message on his cell phone while he presented his delegation to the pope.
18) Bizarrely, Sarkozy's delegation that year also included standup comic Jean-Marie Bigard, whose humor is often described as crude.


Sarkozy says he will sign retirement bill
(APW_ENG_20101029.0399)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will sign a bill raising France's retirement age to 62 despite the massive protests and strikes it has sparked.
2) French parliament has passed the bill, which is now set to go before a council that will rule on whether it is constitutional. Sarkozy says he will then sign it.
3) Sarkozy also said at a European Union summit Friday in Brussels that some people's concerns about the legislation are "legitimate." He says he will address those fears, without elaborating.
4) Unions have organized massive street protests and strikes that disrupted transport and shut down oil refineries. Some people have continued to protest even since parliament passed the plan, urging Sarkozy not to sign it into law.


France announces $22.8B in deals with China
(APW_ENG_20101104.1053)
1) France announced (EURO)16 billion ($22.8 billion) in deals Thursday to sell uranium, technology and more than 100 Airbus planes to China, and the two countries also agreed to a sweeping strategic partnership on nuclear power.
2) Chinese President Hu Jintao's three-day state visit to France opened with a red carpet welcome, Chinese flags flying on the streets of Paris and dinner at the Elysee Palace -- as well as a flurry of deals that made clear how much the countries' ties have improved.
3) It was a turnaround from the tense relations of two years ago, when French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics out of anger about China's treatment of Tibet.
4) That stance brought fears that France could lose big business in China, and Sarkozy's tone has changed. To the distress of human rights groups, Sarkozy's advisers say he is avoiding confrontation and going for convergence.
5) Sarkozy said the two countries decided on "strategic cooperation without limits" on nuclear energy, from constructing plants to recycling fuel.
6) The deal expands on 30 years of nuclear cooperation between China and France, which gets about three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear power and has deep knowledge of the field.
7) Sarkozy and Hu looked on as business leaders signed contract after contract. The Airbus deal alone -- which will see airlines including Air China, China Eastern and China Southern buy 102 of the European consortium's A320, A330 and A350 models -- is worth around $14 billion.
8) France's Areva nuclear engineering firm said it would sell China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. 20,000 tons of uranium over a decade. The contract is worth around $3.5 billion dollars.
9) Cooperation is cultural as well: Paris' Louvre Museum and Beijing's Forbidden City agreed to work together on temporary exhibits and to share conservation and restoration techniques.
10) References to human rights have been subtle during the visit.
11) In a toast at a dinner table covered with gold ornaments and Champagne glasses, Sarkozy praised China's staggering recent development, adding: "The world is confidently waiting for (China) to take on all the responsibilities that accompany its rediscovered power."
12) Sarkozy believes China's support is essential as France takes the leadership of the Group of 20 major global economies starting Nov. 12. Sarkozy has ambitious goals, saying France will push for reform of the international monetary system and mechanisms to limit swings in commodity prices.
13) Sarkozy and French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy greeted Hu at the airport on his arrival, an honor the French president rarely grants visitors. Their motorcade rolled down the famous Champs-Elysees avenue, where French and Chinese flags flew from lampposts.
14) At the presidential palace, guards in silver helmets and on horseback awaited Hu as he arrived.
15) Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders released doves from cages to press for the liberation of jailed Chinese dissidents. At another demonstration to support Tibet, the Uighur minority and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, one demonstrator held a sign reading "Welcome, dictator."
16) Many observers have complained that Sarkozy said nothing last month when jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize. Sarkozy's office says he will discuss all subjects "without taboos" during the visit.
17) Asked about human rights, China's Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying told French reporters: "We don't criticize your political system, it's up to you to improve it. Our regime has its own problems. We're not perfect. That's why we are going forward with reform."
18) On Friday, the two leaders head to the French Riviera city of Nice for more talks and dinner at a cozy Provencal restaurant. Hu departs Saturday for Portugal.
19) Sarkozy has often flip-flopped on China. Despite his boycott threat, he did back down and attend the Olympic opening ceremony.
20) Sarkozy again angered China by meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in Poland in late 2008. After that the two countries' high-level contacts were frozen, and France was snubbed during major Chinese purchasing and investment missions to Europe.
21) The two countries reconciled with a fence-mending agreement last year. Sarkozy's conservative UMP party even signed a cooperation agreement with China's ruling Communist Party -- a move that raised eyebrows in France.


Sarkozy: Leaders should avoid currency spats
(APW_ENG_20101105.0905)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office says he wants global leaders to avoid pointing fingers as they seek solutions in the spat over currencies and monetary reform.
2) Sarkozy's office was describing his remarks during a meeting Friday on the French Riviera with Chinese President Hu Jintao. China's undervalued yuan is a frequent target of the United States, which says it gives Beijing an unfair trade boost.
3) Sarkozy is taking a less confrontational tone as his country prepares to take the leadership of the Group of 20 global economies. Sarkozy's office also says a seminar on international monetary reform will take place in China this spring.
4) Hu is on a three-day state visit to France that ends Saturday.


Sarkozy takes non-confrontational tone with Hu
(APW_ENG_20101105.0972)
1) World leaders should avoid playing the blame game in discussions about how currencies such as China's undervalued yuan are affecting trade and the global economy, President Nicolas Sarkozy told his Chinese counterpart Friday during talks on the French Riviera.
2) Sarkozy, welcoming Hu Jintao for a state visit, has taken a non-confrontational tone about sensitive subjects such as the yuan as France prepares to lead the Group of 20 global economies. The United States says Beijing's undervalued currency gives it an unfair trade boost.
3) Hu is receiving a red-carpet welcome in France, a change from the tense relations of two years ago, when Sarkozy threatened to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics out of anger about China's treatment of Tibet.
4) Fearful of losing big business in China's massive market, Sarkozy has softened his tone.
5) The talks came a day after the two men oversaw the signing of billions of euros worth of business deals but avoided public discussion of human rights -- to the dismay of activists and supporters of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
6) Sarkozy said the two leaders did discuss human rights in private at a villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Nice.
7) France "has values to defend, and we are defending them -- but, meanwhile, we respect our partners and understand that they have a different culture, that they have had further to come and that we have to encourage them to embrace openness," Sarkozy told reporters.
8) Earlier Friday in Paris, as Hu's motorcade headed to the Arc de Triomphe, activists opened white umbrellas with stickers bearing the words "Free Liu Xiaobo." Some activists were detained by plainclothes officers.
9) "Unrolling the red carpet for the Chinese president, fine, but behaving like a doormat for the Chinese president, no," said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
10) In Nice, where the focus was on the economy, Sarkozy also said leaders should not "hurl abuse at each other" as they discussed problems with the monetary system. Such issues are to be discussed at a summit of world leaders in South Korea in a week.
11) The French president said the current system hadn't changed since the mid-1940s and that coming up with a 21st-century model would be tough.
12) France's ambition for its G20 leadership starting Nov. 12 "is for everyone to accept to sit down at the table to set up the basis for a new system that will guarantee the world's stability," Sarkozy said.
13) His office said an international monetary seminar was expected to take place in China this spring. Otherwise, Sarkozy has given few hints of his reform ideas.
14) Hu, who did not speak to reporters, departs Saturday for Portugal.
15) One analyst said China was likely seeking allies in France and the European Union because its relations with the United States are suffering. Valerie Niquet, director of Asian affairs at the Foundation for Strategic Research, believes China will support Sarkozy's G20 reform proposals -- but only in word, not in practice.
16) "We can't expect a true revamping of the world financial system that would lead for example to very firm and concrete pressure on China," she said.
17) After the leaders' initial talks Thursday, France announced (EURO)16 billion ($22.8 billion) in deals to sell uranium, technology and more than 100 Airbus planes to China.
18) The overall scale of deals, however, appeared exaggerated. Airbus spokeswoman Anne Galabert said 66 of the 102 plane orders were new, while the rest were previously announced.
19) Hu's visit comes as China is pressuring European governments to avoid the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and not make any statements in support of Liu, according to Western diplomats. France's Foreign Ministry would not comment Friday on whether France will attend the prize ceremony.
20) The People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, stepped up its criticism of the award Friday, saying the Nobel is a Western political tool used to attack a rising China.


Sarkozy signs the law: French retire at 62, not 60
(APW_ENG_20101110.0374)
1) Retiring at 62 became law in France on Wednesday, a victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government and a defeat for the unions that waged massive strikes and street protests to try to stop the austerity measure.
2) The law was published Wednesday in the government's official journal, meaning Sarkozy has signed it and it has gone into effect. The constitutional watchdog had approved the plan Tuesday after France's parliament passed it Oct. 27.
3) The success gives Sarkozy a boost on the international scene as France prepares to take over the leadership of the Group of 20 major economic powers starting Friday.
4) French union workers and others angry over having to work an extra two years had disrupted train and air travel, caused gasoline shortages and allowed garbage to pile up in the southern city of Marseille. More than a million people had repeatedly taken to the streets in protest.
5) Sarkozy said in a statement Wednesday that France's pension system had been "saved."
6) "(I am) fully aware that this is a difficult reform. But I always considered that my duty, and the duty of the government, was to carry it out," he said.
7) Unions had argued that retirement at 60 was a cornerstone of France's generous social benefit system, but the government said the entire pension system would have been jeopardized without the change because French people are living longer -- an average of nearly 85 years for women and 78 for men.
8) France's Socialist opposition, meanwhile, complained that Sarkozy had not taken complaints about the reform seriously. On France Culture radio, Socialist leader Martine Aubry said Sarkozy "thinks that by keeping his head down and not listening to anybody, he's showing courage."
9) Sarkozy's approval ratings are hovering around 35 percent, near their lowest levels since he took office in 2007.
10) He has not yet announced his intention to run in the 2012 presidential election, but with the tricky pension reform behind him, Sarkozy can now try to rebuild his popularity at home by turning to less contested matters.
11) Like many heavily indebted European governments, France is trying to cut back on spending. The pension reform is the latest successful push by a European government to cut back on government spending despite months of anti-austerity strikes and protests.
12) The French reform means that the minimum retirement age is now 62 instead of 60. Those who want to claim full pension benefits must now wait until age 67 instead of 65.


New French government expected under PM Fillon
(APW_ENG_20101114.0652)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy reappointed Francois Fillon as prime minister on Sunday despite often prickly relations between the two, asking him to create a new government -- to be announced Sunday night.
2) The president had been expected for months to make changes to his government before 2012 presidential elections. But the reshuffle turned into a highly unusual 24-hour weekend marathon.
3) Fillon resigned Saturday night -- a required step before any new government can be put in place -- only to be reinstated Sunday morning. But suspense over who would be included in the new government continued throughout the day.
4) Herve Morin, defense minister until Saturday night, lashed out at what he suggested would be a government tailored to Sarkozy's campaign aspirations.
5) "I expected ... a gesture of unity," he told journalists a half-hour before the government was to be announced. Instead, Morin, a centrist, said, "I saw a campaign team" of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party. "I regret this."
6) Fillon held consultations throughout the day in what were clearly tough negotiations, making three trips to the presidential Elysee Palace.
7) Fillon took less time to spell out his priorities, saying in a statement after being reinstated that this "new phase" would focus on strengthening growth to create jobs, promoting solidarity and assuring security for all French.
8) More popular than the president, Fillon nevertheless has been widely seen as the workhorse faithfully carrying out Sarkozy's policies.
9) Another disappointed member of the former government, Jean-Louis Borloo, also a centrist who held the No. 2 post as ecology minister, simply issued a statement saying he chooses not to be part of the new team to better serve his values. Borloo had at one point been seen as a possible choice for prime minister.
10) The conservative Sarkozy said in June that he planned to change the Cabinet once a reform of the pension system was adopted. The reform raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 became law Wednesday after weeks of strikes around France, including at oil refineries and depots that starved the country of fuel.
11) "Since 2007, despite the challenges, resistance, attacks, the president of the Republic has remained faithful to his reformist goals," Fillon said.
12) The strikes battered the image of Sarkozy who has had record low poll ratings despite the broad mandate to reform that he received when elected in 2007. It is assumed that in naming a new government he will try to create a solid base for the 2012 presidential elections, though he has not yet said whether he will seek a second term.
13) The Sarkozy-Fillon team has been marked by sometimes difficult relations between the high-octane president who does not hesitate to speak his mind and the understated Fillon. But the popularity of Fillon, who has led the government since Sarkozy took office in May 2007, has consistently been several notches above that of Sarkozy.
14) The head of the rival Socialist group in the lower house of parliament, Jean-Marc Ayrault, criticized the strung-out process of reshuffling the Cabinet as "this form of indecency by which the president has played on the nerves of each minister who, instead of taking care of the affairs of France, has been taking care of his own fate."
15) Among other high-profile figures expected to leave the government was Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, brought in by Sarkozy from the ranks of the left as part of a bid to reach across the entire political spectrum.
16) France has had several "mini" Cabinet shuffles under Sarkozy, the latest in March. The biggest changes were made in June 2007, a month after the president took office, triggered by legislative election defeats.
17) Sarkozy's popularity has been at a steady low. A poll published Monday gave him a ranking of 35 percent. Fillon garnered a 48 percent positive ranking in the poll of 952 people by the LH2 firm. No margin of error was available but it would normally be plus or minus 3 percentage points for that number polled.


French Cabinet reshuffle puts conservatives at top
(APW_ENG_20101114.0759)
1) French President Nicolas Sarkozy appointed a new government Sunday in a marathon weekend reshuffle with faithful allies taking top posts clearly aimed at pleasing his conservative ranks before 2012 presidential elections.
2) The once-disgraced former prime minister, Alain Juppe, who is mayor of Bordeaux, was put in charge of the Defense Ministry and given the No. 2 spot behind Prime Minister Francois Fillon -- who retained his job after submitting his government's resignation Saturday night.
3) The appointment positions Juppe, a long time standard-bearer of the conservatives, for a political renaissance.
4) The biggest victim was the outreach effort Sarkozy prided himself in when he took office in May 2007, bringing together leftists, centrists and figures representing diversity in an unusual governing coalition.
5) The Foreign Ministry went to Michele Alliot-Marie, previously justice minister. She replaced Bernard Kouchner, a leftist. He was long known to be on his way out.
6) Alliot-Marie was replaced in the Justice Ministry by Michel Mercier, one of two centrists remaining in a government that was streamlined from 37 to 30 ministers and bolstered by rightists.
7) Christine Lagarde kept the critical post of economy minister, an appointment sure to relieve markets and please other G-20 members just as France takes over the reins of the club.
8) Sarkozy had been expected for months to make changes to his government before 2012 presidential elections. But the reshuffle turned into a highly unusual 24-hour marathon marked by clearly tough negotiations.
9) Fillon, always notches above Sarkozy in the polls but long seen as a silent workhorse at the president's side, returned to the prime minister's job clearly strengthened.
10) The new lineup drew criticism from rivals and at least one former collaborator.
11) Outgoing Defense Minister Herve Morin dismissed the new government as a "campaign team" tailored to the aspirations of Sarkozy and his conservative UMP party before the elections.
12) "I expected ... a gesture of unity," he told journalists a half-hour before the government was to be announced. Instead, Morin, a centrist, said, "I saw a campaign team" of Sarkozy's conservative. "I regret this."
13) The head of the rival Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, denounced the reshuffle as "essentially clanic."
14) "Today it's the hard right folding in on the hard core of the UMP-RPR," she said, referring to Sarkozy's UMP party and its predecessor, the RPR.
15) A total of 16 ministers lost their jobs, including centrist Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, former No. 2 in the government, seen until recently as a likely choice for prime minister. He said in a diplomatically-worded statement before the announcement that he chose not to be part of the new team to better serve his values, notably social cohesion.
16) Other personalities the president installed to reach across the political spectrum and bring diversity to the governing team were among those eliminated, from popular black Sports Minister Rama Yade to Fadela Amara, the former urban affairs minister raised in a French ghetto.
17) Juppe, for three decades a loyal member of France's conservative ranks, appeared poised for a political rebirth after his 2004 conviction of party financing irregularities that forced him into the desert for three years.
18) Juppe was named ecology minister in Sarkozy's original government, but had to resign a month later after a failed bid for a parliamentary seat in legislative voting. At the time, Cabinet ministers were encouraged to take on electoral bids to broaden their legitimacy, but Fillon required those who failed to win to resign.
19) Among those eliminated was Budget Minister Eric Woerth, well liked by Sarkozy but ensnared in a conflict of interest scandal over the fortunes of France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, that risked a political disgrace.
20) Longtime Sarkozy collaborator Brice Hortefeux was among survivors, retaining his post as interior minister and taking on the additional job of immigration minister. He had led the emblematic immigration ministry when it was created by Sarkozy after taking office.


Sarkozy faces the French over new government
(APW_ENG_20101116.1134)
1) President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he is aiming for fiscal harmony with neighboring Germany to better protect productivity and jobs, proposing fiscal reform for next spring in a sign that the high-octane president is not slowing down ahead of 2012 presidential elections.
2) Two days after appointing a new government -- and a week after a hotly contested pension reform became law -- Sarkozy said in a 90-minute TV interview that he is not campaigning but working for the French.
3) "The economy will restart" next year, he vowed.
4) "I don't want any more outsourcing. I want to keep our industries in France," Sarkozy said.
5) The interview with three TV stations came two days after Sarkozy, with record low ratings in opinion polls, appointed a slimmed-down government. With old-guard conservatives placed in top ministries, critics charged that he has created a campaign team for 2012 rather than working for the French.
6) Sarkozy, who took office in 2007, denied that -- and said he did not yet know whether he would run for a second term. That decision will likely be made in autumn next year, he said.
7) "It's not a partisan government. It's tightened," he said, the better to tackle fundamental problems, like jobs.
8) He set next spring for a fiscal reform. The key to that is doing away with France's wealth tax and a special tax shield that puts a 50 percent ceiling on taxable revenue -- as Germany has done.
9) "Because we're beside each other, competitors and partners, there is lots of capital that goes to Germany because there is no wealth tax" there, he said.
10) "France cannot be the only country that keeps a fiscal arsenal so that factories leave," he said.
11) Sarkozy said he wants to see a zone where taxes are comparable and conditions competitive because "I cannot accept deficits of competitivity with our main client and our main partner which is Germany."
12) He insisted there would be no tax increases for the French.
13) Sarkozy proposed another, far larger, reform just days after France took over the G20 -- a new international monetary system.
14) "There is a need for a new international monetary system," he said, adding that talks with China are planned.
15) "China in any event has agreed to a first seminar on the matter this spring that I will myself preside over," he said without elaborating.
16) Sarkozy was meeting Wednesday with International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
17) The often feisty Sarkozy was unusually mellow throughout the interview, and even commended unions for avoiding violence in an "eruptive" country during weeks of near-paralyzing strikes to protest his pension reform.
18) The reform raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 -- a centerpiece of Sarkozy's presidency -- became law last week.
19) He said he had to "make a choice about something that I knew very well was the carrier of the bad mood germ. And despite that, I think it had to be done ...
20) "We made this considerable reform without violence. The French can be proud."
21) Prime Minister Francois Fillon, more popular in polls than the president, retained his job in the shakeup, but ministers from the left and center who were emblematic of his earlier bid to reach across the political spectrum disappeared.
22) So did an entire ministry that was Sarkozy's creation -- the controversial Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development. It was discreetly folded into the Interior Ministry.
23) Sarkozy even admitted that he had made a mistake.
24) "It provoked misunderstandings so I got rid of it," he said. "Only the Interior Ministry has the means to regulate the migratory flux."
25) The president reiterated that burqa-style veils, banned by law at his initiative, will never be welcome in France.
26) "We don't want women closed up in textile prisons," he said.


France ' s Sarkozy criticized for ' pedophile ' quip
(APW_ENG_20101124.0790)
1) He was trying to make a point -- and, perhaps, being jocular -- but French President Nicolas Sarkozy may have gotten himself in hot water by slinging around the word "pedophile" in a supposedly off-the-record encounter with journalists.
2) Opponents pounced, saying Sarkozy was unpresidential -- and not for the first time. It underscored how the episode could haunt him if he runs for re-election in 2012.
3) Speaking outside a NATO summit Friday, Sarkozy was asked about allegations of corruption in a 1990s arms deal -- and whether he'd played a role.
4) He urged journalists to be careful about covering what he called baseless allegations.
5) According to a tape, Sarkozy illustrated his point by telling a journalist, "It would seem that you are a pedophile. ... Who told me? I am deeply convinced of it."
6) Later, when Sarkozy mentioned that dinner was waiting, a journalist said, "I hope we didn't ruin your appetite."
7) Replied the president: "Of course not. No hard feelings, pedophile." At that point, laughter can be heard on the tape.
8) It harkened back to a gaffe caught on videotape in 2008, when a loose-tongued Sarkozy, at a Paris trade fair, snapped an insult at a passer-by that -- in a milder translation -- meant "you total jerk."
9) Details of the briefing slipped out bit by bit, and late Tuesday the left-leaning Liberation newspaper published the recording on its Web site.
10) The presidential palace declined comment on the incident.
11) Not so Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential race. She said French law bans public insults and said Sarkozy "should be punished" -- just like any other person.
12) "A president needs to know how to keep his nerve, restrain his unjust anger and keep his cool," she said, according to the Web site of Radio France Internationale. "If he loses his cool to this point, perhaps it is because he has something to feel guilty about."
13) Author Alain Minc, a friend of Sarkozy's, told France-Info radio the comments from were "a joke," adding: "You journalists are all the same. You have the skins of little girls -- pardon the expression."


WikiLeaks memos: Sarkozy surrounded by yes-men
(APW_ENG_20101201.0498)
1) Leaked diplomatic memos from the U.S. ambassador in Paris cast French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "hyperactive" and impulsive, an authoritarian leader surrounded by aides who don't dare challenge him.
2) The once-secret memos, published online Tuesday by WikiLeaks, offer a candid look at how the United States views the leadership skills of the man whose country currently heads the Group of 20 developed and emerging economies, and which also will run the Group of 8 industrialized powers starting in January.
3) The cables by U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin -- though poking fun at Sarkozy's personality in sometimes undiplomatic language -- also describe France under Sarkozy as "unabashedly pro-American" and describe him as a crucial partner willing to break with tradition and innovate.
4) Yet Sarkozy doesn't always follow up on big ideas, one December 2009 memo sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.
5) "His impatience for results and desire to seize the initiative -- with or without the support of international partners and his own advisers -- challenges us to channel his impulsive proposals into constructive directions with an eye to long-term results," the ambassador wrote.
6) Sarkozy's aides avoid provoking him -- last year, they reportedly even rerouted his plane so he wouldn't see the Eiffel Tower lit up in the colors of Turkey's flag, the memo said. Sarkozy opposes Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
7) Sarkozy's aides "demonstrate little independence and appear to have little effect on curbing the hyperactive president, even when he is at his most mercurial," the memo said.
8) At the time the cable was written, there was turnover among Sarkozy's staff, "raising questions as to whether new faces will be any more willing to point out when the emperor is less than fully dressed," the memo said.
9) In response to the leaks, Paul Patin, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, said: "President Sarkozy has proved time and time again that he is a true friend of the U.S. France is one of our closest allies, and our partnership has only gotten stronger during his presidency."
10) France has joined the U.S. in expressing outrage about whistle-blower WikiLeaks, which obtained more than 250,000 leaked American diplomatic files from missions around the world.
11) French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told Europe-1 radio Wednesday that the leaks were "totally irresponsible." Sarkozy's office declined to comment on specifics of the leaks.


France to support India in fight against terrorism
(APW_ENG_20101207.0210)
1) France is committed to fighting international terrorism and will stand by India in its attempts to bring to justice the masterminds of the 2008 attack that killed 166 people in Mumbai, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday.
2) Sarkozy, who is on a four-day official visit to India, was speaking at a hotel that had been attacked in the terror siege two years ago in India's business capital. At least two French nationals were killed by gunmen during the attack.
3) Sarkozy urged authorities in neighboring Pakistan to step up action against terror training camps allegedly operating in its territory.
4) "Terrorism should be outlawed universally. We should have true international cooperation to combat terrorism," Sarkozy told survivors and families of victims of the attacks who gathered at the hotel to meet him.
5) Terrorism also figured prominently during talks between Sarkozy and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday in New Delhi.
6) The two countries decided to speedily process extradition requests for those involved in terror crimes, curb money-laundering used to fund terror activities and enforce international sanctions against terrorist organizations, according to a joint statement issued at the end of the leaders' talks.
7) Earlier on Tuesday, Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, Carla Bruni, and other officials, visited a police memorial in central Mumbai and paid silent tribute to the victims of the November 2008 attacks. Sarkozy also placed a wreath at the memorial for security personnel killed in the three-day siege.
8) Sarkozy was scheduled later Tuesday to address a meeting of Indian business leaders, part of efforts to help French companies tap into India's economic boom. The CEOs of more than 50 French companies are part of a high-profile business delegation that is traveling with Sarkozy.
9) Bilateral trade in the first nine months of this year was $7 billion. France was India's fifth-biggest trading partner in 2009, and the two countries have set an ambitious goal of doubling bilateral trade by 2012.