By claiming that he's limiting the size of his government to 15 ministers, half of whom will be women, Sarkozy is clearly also saying that he's challenging the upper-crust of the bureaucracy, which in other words means, he's challenging the Chirac party machine he conquered to become president - a party, like any other, consisting of men and women who expect plunder when their side wins.
Like a modern-day Jacobin, Sarkozy is apparently taking principals (this time government efficiency and gender equality) and using them to turn on interest groups that until now had not only felt themselves untouchable, but closely associated to the man branding the principals. Men like Patrick Devedjian and Brice Hortefeux (in photo with Sarko), who've been at Sarkozy's side for at least a decade, are apparently being sidelined or left with meagre portfolios.
Is this betrayal for real? Le Monde reported Saturday that Sarkozy was also aggressively slicing and dicing traditional ministries so that departments that duplicate missions (like civil servants at the Ministry of Cooperation and aid bureaucrats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) are confronted with each other and somehow shamed (?) into efficiency. Thus, the newspaper claimed, Sarkozy was aggressively planning to knock down walls in France's much decried Kafka castle.
But is Sarkozy really so strong that he can cut off a pound of flesh, just like that, or is this claimed renovation just part of the parliamentary election campaign, which officially begins later this week?
The fact that he's also adorning his governing prequel with overtures to wavering left-ish emblems like Bernard Kouchner and Herbert Vedrine, (which, according to l'Express, is all politics, no policy) leads to believe that Sarkozy is in pure political campaigning here. All the signals we're getting for now, are to ensure the repeat of the right's big May results in June.
To many observers, the real Sarkozy presidency begins after the parliamentary elections that will end, if today's polls are to be believed, with a crushing presidential majority.
In other words, to see where the UMP machine and the intended direction of the Sarko era really stand, wait till summer.
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