Sarkozy: France's Political Superman
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Three polling agencies predicted the right would win 401-463 seats and the left would have 106-174 seats.
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.
Sarkozy appears to recognize how skewed his majority looks and has appointed Socialists and centrists to his government as part of an "openness" campaign.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"This system could turn against him very violently," said Dominique Reynie of the Institute for Political Sciences.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The field is much more bipartisan than usual. The new Modem party of Francois Bayrou, a middle-ground 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.
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.