Arc de truculence

The French are at it again: transit strikes and student barricades this week; work stoppages for teachers, hospital workers, and judges next week. Oh yes, the French are all for the reform agenda of their feisty new president, Nicolas Sarkozy 8212; as long as it doesn8217;t affect them personally. French voters knew what they were getting with Mr Sarkozy. From the day he started campaigning last year to his election in May, he8217;s talked about 8220;rupture8221; with an inflexible workforce and overburdened social system.

And who would want more of the same 8212; more decades of unemployment hovering at 10 percent, for instance? More years of ballooning deficits to float a weighty welfare state where 1 in 4 people work for the government? The French don8217;t really want that, and that8217;s why voters gave Sarkozy a strong mandate8230;

Sarkozy is experiencing push back on all fronts because he8217;s pushing on all fronts8230; To overcome resistance, he8217;s compromising. Instead of scrapping the inflexible 35-hour workweek, which he decried in his campaign, he8217;s encouraging longer hours by no longer taxing overtime pay. Instead of replacing 1 of every 2 retiring government workers, as he promised, it will be 1 out of 3.

Sarkozy, a lawyer, has an instinct toward compromise, and this endangers serious reform. Will he give away the store in negotiations with this week8217;s strikers, for instance? In truth, he isn8217;t asking for much. But politics is about the art of compromise8230; Sarkozy may have to be satisfied with a series of smaller steps 8212; which is certainly preferable to no steps at all.

Excerpted from a comment in the Christian Science Monitor