Maybe so, Paving, but one thing is for sure. Sarkozy likes power and does not like to be challenged. He may not be all that interested in governing, as Jerome pointed out above, but he certainly will not like to see his power questioned, that might trigger interesting reactions.

As I linked in the other thread, it seems the riot police  that is 3000 of them have already been alerted for tonight. So this is not a joyful victory it seems.

Thanks for the reminder.  You have your finger on the big question.  In so many countries, the working middle classes wound up accepting HUGE declines in living standards with barely a fuss.  It is important for the greedheads that this job goes smoothly.  Typical tactics will ensue--famous "economists" will explain how their agenda is as natural as sunrise, schools of economics will quickly get rid of all staff that may suggest alternatives, pundits in major papers will be selected for their faithfulness to neoliberalism, etc.

The big triumph of neoliberalism comes when the folks who manage pension funds suddenly discover they can make a LOT more money investing in hedge funds.  Even union pension managers and folks managing funds for retired clergymen and teachers fall prey to the siren call of magic profits.

Meanwhile, the real economy and the folks who run it get hammered.  I would LIKE to think that the French productive classes will riot where the Americans, Brits, Swedes, and Germans caved.  If they can thwart neoliberalism, then the French will have performed another service to humanity.  

This is important--so long as economic thinking is controlled by people who believe geometric profit extraction is possible in a finite biosphere, we are doomed.  It is that simple!!

Good LUCK!

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"

Oh, I don't know, if he can push through reforms limiting the ability of unions to strike, as this Guardian article suggests he wishes to do, he might be able to prevail. We've seen this in the US, first in the 1940s and then in the 1980s; and of course in the UK under Thatcher - use the law to limit unions' options and the state can probably outlast anything.

The one thing going in France's favor is that there seems to have been a rising trend of activism and political organizing, whereas Reagan and Thatcher took power amidst a backdrop of declining political mobilization. The victory over the CPE may prove to have been a major precedent. However, if protest turns to rioting, then it will simply make Sarkozy's position that much stronger. And I would expect Sarkozy sat and watched Villepin and Chirac cave on the CPE and thought to himself "when I am in the Elysée I won't give in."

While the PS clearly has its work cut out for it, so does French civil society, which has to begin finding a way to challenge protest away from aimless rioting and toward something with a clear political focus.

And the world will live as one

And this is probably good.  The PS willingly lost this election for their own candidate.  That said I expect nobody today is as sad as Jacques Chirac for he knows that his multi-polar world and the triumphant stand he made against Iraq, lifting the French back into a leading international position, will be fading.

The good news with Sarkozy kissing-up to the US is that the Republicans are very much on their way out in the US.  He will be licking the boots of a Democrat very soon.  They already control the Legislature.

 

will the civil society be able to stand up to Sarkozy?

I'll play the advocatus diaboli and ask: which civil society? The one which just elected him by a safe margin? At a huge turnout?

I think you guys should just accept the result and refrain from treating the winner as a tyrant, to whom the civil society should 'stand up'.

Royal was the simply less attractive candidate to the decisive 6% of voters and you should discuss the reasons why.