Like almost every French, I followed the presidential elections closely. It was an interesting election, with a lot of good debates. Finally there is a new generation coming in French politics. And I was happy with the final result too.

The fantastic participation numbers (around 85%) and the fall of the extreme-right party gave us again good reasons to be proud of being French. With the riots, the European constitution referendum, strikes and in general France falling back, the last years have been tough.

What made me also happy is not only that Nicolas Sarkozy won, but that he won with a liberal program. France needs to be more competitive in this global world, be realistic. By having said clearly what he will do and by winning with an important lead, Sarkozy may be able to execute the reforms France needs.

Indeed, the first days of his government gave good hope I think. I appreciated especially having an experienced man like Alain Juppé and second in the government after the Prime Minister in charge of the environment.

Finally, I have hope in Sarkozy because he’s an ambitious man. Think about it: A country in its history has countless presidents, but only a handful will be remembered. My grandchildren will know who de Gaulle was, but they will probably have no clue about Chirac. The only way to enter into history is to accomplish great things, and to do great things you have to take great risks. I think Sarkozy doesn’t see being president as the achievement: The real achievement for him as a man will be to have been a president that is remembered. I hope he will take the risks it requires to become one. Maybe he will fail, but at least he will have tried, unlike Chirac who hasn’t done much in his two terms.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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