IT'S PRESIDENT SARKOZY -- IN A CLEAR-CUT VICTORY

UNCLAS PARIS 001791 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/WE, DRL/IL, INR/EUC, EUR/ERA, EUR/PPD, AND EB DEPT OF COMMERCE FOR ITA DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ELAB EU FR PINR SOCI ECON SUBJECT: IT'S PRESIDENT SARKOZY -- IN A CLEAR-CUT VICTORY OVER SEGOLENE ROYAL REF: A. (A) PARIS 1784 AND PREVIOUS ¶B. (B) EMBASSY PARIS DAILY SIPRNET REPORT FOR MAY 4 ¶C. 2007 AND PREVIOUS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- HANDLE ACCORDINGLY SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Nicolas Sarkozy has won France's presidency by a clear cut, 53 percent majority. Official results -- 53 percent of the vote for Sarkozy and 47 percent for Socialist Segolene Royal -- were announced by France's Interior Ministry 8 P.M. Paris time on Sunday May 6. President Bush called president-elect Sarkozy at 8:05 P.M. Paris time to congratulate him. A record turn-out of 85 percent of registered voters confirms the intense interest this election has generated among the French, just as Sarkozy's convincing victory confirms their collective decision to endorse the market-oriented reform platform that he ran on. END SUMMARY A CLEAR-CUT, CONVINCING VICTORY -------------- ¶2. Former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's second-round win over Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal in France's 2007 presidential election is, by any measure, a clear-cut, convincing victory. Official, if preliminary, results announced by France's Interior Ministry at 8 P.M. Paris time on Sunday May 6 show that Sarkozy got 53 percent of the 38 million votes cast and Royal got 47 percent. Final, official vote tallies will be posted as they come in on the French Interior Ministry's website at http://www.interieur.gouv.fr. The participation rate in this election is the highest for a second-round presidential contest in France since the election of 1981. Of France's 44.5 million registered voters, 85.5 percent cast ballots on May 6 for either Sarkozy or Royal, or cast null ballots. THAT GIVES SARKOZY A MANDATE -------------- ¶3. (U) In electing -- by a clear-cut majority -- the activist, mold-breaking Sarkozy the French have clearly endorsed the largely market-oriented reform agenda that Sarkozy ran on. They have also given him a vote of confidence, betting that he will grow in office -- and that his unsettling, often divisive, personality traits that put off so many will be attenuated by the responsibilities of office. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT -------------- ¶4. (U) Sarkozy has said that he expects to be inaugurated shortly before the end of President Chirac's term, probably on Wednesday May 16 (Chirac's five-year term ends at midnight on the 16). Sarkozy and Chirac might agree to transfer power earlier, possibly as early as May 14. In the interim, between his election and inauguration, Sarkozy has promised that, accompanied by a small group of advisors, he will take some days off to "reflect on the heavy responsibilities ahead." Something more than speculation about who will head the Sarkozy administration's first government should emerge from this "retreat" led by the president-elect. Sarkozy has promised that he will try to achieve gender parity in his administration's first cabinet. Former Education Minister Francois Fillon and current Minister of Social Solidarity Jean-Louis Borloo are generally viewed as the two leading candidates for the prime minister's slot. In coming days president-elect Sarkozy's statements should confirm how, and how quickly, he plans to proceed with his reform agenda, and we will report accordingly. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON