"ATLANTIST", "GAULLIST" AND SIMPLY "THATCHERIST"

Most observers had predicted a "photo finish" in the presidential elections which have just ended in France. Although opinion polls showed that the majority was in favour of Nicolas Sarkozy, experts also said that a lot might change in the last minute. The candidate from the Union for a People's Movement was expected to win, of course, but not with such a "knock-out" score.

According to the results of the counting of 100 per cent of ballot papers, Sarkozy gained 53.06 per cent of votes, while his rival - the candidate from the Socialist Party, Segolene Royal - gained 46.94 per cent. On the whole, the turnout in France was 83.97 per cent, however, only 42.13 per cent of registered voters cast their votes abroad in the second tour.

Voting was also held at the French embassy in Azerbaijan. The press service of the French diplomatic mission reports that out of the 72 French voters registered in Baku, 52 people turned out to vote. Twenty-nine of them voted for Sarkozy and 23 for Royal.

The Socialists expected a lot from the current election race. They have already lost the battle for the Elysee Palace twice, and what is more, last time in 2002, their candidate could not even get through to the second tour and lost to the far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. In this race, the Socialists were quite annoyed by centrist Francois Bayrou.

However, the first tour of the elections was not sensational. In the run-up to the elections, Le Monde said that a woman might soon lead the country where the fair sex was given an opportunity to "elect and be elected on the same conditions as men" only in 1944 (whereas women in New Zealand had been voting since 1893, in Australia since 1902, in Finland since 1906 and in Denmark since 1915). For our part, we should add the following: In Azerbaijan, general and equal voting rights, including for women, were introduced by the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. After WWI, Britain, Germany and Austria granted women the right to vote in recognition of their services during the war. In 1924, Mongolia became the first Asian country where women were given the right to vote in elections. The pioneers in the period between the two world wars were also joined by Lebanon, Turkey, Spain, Brazil and Uruguay.

Even now France takes 88th place by the number of women in the parliament after Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Senegal. Parties were happier to pay fines rather than nominate women. In 2005, failure to ensure equality cost the Union for a People's Movement 4.2m euros and the Union for French Democracy - 660,000 euros.

However, without even trying to be gallant, Sarkozy did not make way for a lady in the elections. Addressing his supporters on Concord Square in Paris, he spoke as president-elect, saying that he is thinking about all citizens of France, including those who did not vote for him. "I want to tell them that I am far from the political struggle and a difference of opinion, for me there is only one France. I will be president for all French people. I will speak for everyone," France Presse quoted Sarkozy as saying.

Nevertheless, reaction to elections in France has never been so tough and stormy as to Sarkozy's victory. Street fights are still continuing in Paris, especially in immigrant suburbs, where the new president, formerly interior minister, has not been forgiven yet for tough police actions and his statements that it is necessary to send useless youth from the problem suburbs into a "washing machine" (he was talking about people with dark skin), as well as for publicly calling the participants in the disturbances "scumbags".

However, something different is a lot more important. According to many analysts, with Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, serious and deep reforms are expected in France. First of all, he is in favour of neo-liberal reforms in the economy. Specifically, Sarkozy intends to "curb" French trade unions and considerably reduce social programmes. In other words, he wants to make people work. Moreover, the new president is planning to toughen the immigration law, although he himself is French only by 25 per cent and is a second generation immigrant.

In an article entitled "France braces itself for a stiff dose of Thatcherism", The Financial Times writes that Nicolas Sarkozy's election as French president was met with disturbances in many parts of the country. Sarkozy knows that this is probably just the start of it. There is a real danger of popular unrest when the new French president tries to keep his promise and "finish" with the past.

Sarkozy knows that the three prime ministers of the Chirac government - Alain Juppe, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin - were forced to renounce their economic reforms after people took to the streets. But Sarkozy is determined that this time this will fail. Someone from his close circle supposes that the previous attempts to carry out reforms failed because President Chirac lacked resolve. When Nicolas comes to the Elysee Palace, everything will be different.

For this reason, the newspaper warns that the new president is definitely going to need iron nerves, because the reforms he hopes to carry out in the first 100 days of his presidency seem to have been deliberately drawn up to spite the strata of society that like to take to the streets so much.

No less serious changes are also expected in France's foreign policy. Many analysts suppose that the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy, who is called an "Atlantist", might imply an end to the "anti-Americanism" fashion in Europe. Last year when he was only a minister, Sarkozy was received at the White House. When his victory was announced, George Bush called Sarkozy and was one of the first to congratulate him.

"The United States and France are historical allies and partners. President Bush is looking forward to working wih the newly-elected President Sarkozy, and we will continue our firm alliance," US National Security Council press secretary Gordon Johndroe said.

Le Monde points out that without rejecting the legacy of De Gaulle, Sarkozy does not have any irritation or hostility towards Washington as did Jacques Chirac in recent years. The United States "can count on friendship" with France, he said on the day of his victory. Describing the war in Iraq as "a historical mistake", Sarkozy is nonetheless trying not to turn the disagreemens with Washington into emotional disputes and outbreaks of "arrogance" (this is how Sarkozy described France's policy in the UN in 2003).

Sarkozy favours Ukraine and Georgia's rapprochement with NATO, which we could not say for Chirac. He intends to pay more attention than the previous president to potential future members of the EU. During his news conference on international policy issues on 28 February, he called these countries situated in the east "European brothers". Sarkozy also said that Europe has "re-unified" rather than expanded.

This makes the Moscow leaders seriously nervous. The Russian capital has already recalled that Sarkozy is a personal friend of Mikheil Saakashvili and has always criticized Russia for the actions of the federal forces in Chechnya. Of course, Sarkozy is a pragmatic politician, but relations with him might not be as warm as with Chirac.

It is also obvious that relations between France and Turkey, which are far from being brilliant, might get even "colder" after Sarkozy's rise to power. During his election campaign, he was categorically against Turkey's accession to the EU. However, this does not mean that Segolene Royal's rise to power would have been more preferable. In any case, the independent French journalist of Armenian descent, Jean Ekian, pointed out that Segolene Royal was supported by the French cell of the traditionally left-wing Dashnaktsutyun party, while Nicolas Sarkozy forged an alliance with another Armenian "traditional party" - Ramkavar Azatakan which has right-wing positions. In other words, the sympathies of Armenian organizations during the past elections split on the basis of the "classical political principle": alas, there was no special difference in the candidates' approach to the "Armenian question".