Sarkozy to meet Blair

Sarkozy, a tough-talking former interior minister, defeated Socialist Segolene Royal on a platform including calls for tax cuts, free-market reforms, stronger US ties and bold ambitions to bring down entrenched unemployment.

US President George Bush, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, had kind words for Sarkozy, calling him a “very engaging, energetic, smart, capable person.”

“We will have our differences, and we will have our agreements, and I’m looking forward to working with him,” Bush said.

Sarkozy has called for improved French-US relations, but has said he would have kept France out of the Iraq war.

France’s Constitutional Council officially declared Sarkozy the winner yesterday, and he is to take office on May 16.

Aides said he planned to appoint his prime minister the next day – former Education and Labour Minister Francois Fillon is the favourite – and his Cabinet in the following days.

Today, Sarkozy planned to meet in Paris with Blair, although the agenda for the talks was not announced.

Blair, who said yesterday he would step down as Britain’s prime minister on June 27, also planned to meet France’s outgoing President Jacques Chirac.

The National Police said yesterday that attackers had torched nearly 200 cars overnight across the nation, a fourth straight night of unrest following Sarkozy’s victory.

That was down from 296 the night before and the post-election peak of 730 on Sunday.

Sarkozy met politicians from his conservative party at 8.30am yesterday to plan for next month’s parliamentary elections, which will play a crucial role in determining how far he can go with his reform plans.

Sarkozy joined Chirac, with whom he has had tense ties in recent years, at a ceremony in the capital’s Luxembourg Gardens honouring victims of slavery.

Chirac hosted Sarkozy and Saad Hariri, the son of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at the presidential palace. Many expect France’s ties to the Arab world to cool after Chirac leaves.

But Hariri told reporters after the meeting that Sarkozy had pledged to “continue the relations between Lebanon and France in the same manner as in the past with President Chirac.”

He said Sarkozy also supported the idea of an international tribunal to investigate the killings of his father and other anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.

Sarkozy did not speak publicly after the meeting, which conveyed the importance that Chirac places on finding and prosecuting those who were behind the February 2005 assassination of Hariri, a close friend of Chirac.

About 150 anti-Sarkozy protesters occupied a branch of the University of Paris in the south of the capital, said university officials, who decided to temporarily shut down the school.

It was expected to reopen today.

Sarkozy’s abrasive language, tough line on crime and immigration, and proposals to weaken labour protections have angered many on the left and in rundown apartment complexes that erupted in riots two years ago.

Many predict he will face protests and other resistance to his planned reforms.

Sarkozy’s UMP party currently has a large majority in both houses of parliament, but must keep it that way if Sarkozy wants to move ahead with his ambitious plans to reform labour law and minimise fallout from France’s frequent strikes.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, who scored a strong third-place in the presidential elections, warned of Sarkozy’s close ties to French media magnates and industrial tycoons.

“It constitutes a gathering of power like there has never been in France,” said Bayrou, who has been struggling to hold his centre-right party together before the June 10-17 parliamentary race after casting himself as more of a centrist during the presidential campaign.

“Faced with this power, there needs to be a counterweight.”

Sarkozy has defended his relationship with some industrial magnates, saying that they often serve as an example for the French by creating jobs.