Sarkozy, the American

French people will start voting for the new President in a couple of hours and it is a classical left vs. right fight. On the right of the center is Nicolas Sarkozy and to the left of the center is Segolene Royal. Dividing the two are two key issues, what should France do with Globalization and Immigration?

First round elections threw up a strong contender right in the center called Francois Bayrou. He got 18% of the total vote casted and did not qualify for the 2nd round but does look like a very interesting prospect for the future. Now is the time for the tough choice for a lot of people who did not vote for either Sarkozy or Royal in the 1st round, As they say, first round is to vote for the person you like and the second round is to vote for someone you dislike the least.

The election might very well be decided by where Bayrou's supporters will vote and it seems that Sarkozy is holding on to his lead.He has to deal with some pretty tough problems. France has a 35 hour week with 210 maximum working days in a year. Compare this with US: 40 hour(minimum) week with at least 230 days in a year( this includes every conceivable leave you can think of). In a world with no competition amongst nation states, this would probably work( I am sure a lot of us at some point of time or the other have wished for the quality of life that can be afforded with a 35 hour week) but the problem is that things are much more complex. Economic problems for France have a cascading effect. Life expectancy like most of the developed world is at an all time high and the people who are living longer are covered by one of the most comprehensive medical system around the world. This system is paid for by the ever decreasing working population that has to bear the burden of one of the highest tax rates in Europe. Mainstream manufacturing migrated to Asian countries long time back, the concern is that any industry in general finds it very difficult to work out of France. Also, when France is not performing, it screws the report card of the whole of EU.

Europe in general has not done a great job on the immigration front. Some of the home grown terror in countries like Britain, as opposed to US, is blamed on the isolation of immigrant communities in European countries: Algerians in France, Turks in Germany and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Britain. I have no doubt that America has to be the role model for all countires on how to manage immigration( recent illegal immigration problem is an exception). No wonder that despite everything that has happened in last 4 years, there has not been a single home grown terrorist in America. Immigrants get the opportunity to assimilate and intergrate here. While some Scandinavian countries have slowly stopped immigration altogether, France inherited a huge population that came to France after Algeria got its freedom. All time high unemployement in France is hitting the immigrant youth specially hard. Sarkozy, who was also the interior minister under Chirac at the time of riots last year, is proposing a relaxed policy toward skilled foreign workers while tightening the laws for existing immigrants towards naturalization.

Sarkozy, as against all his predecessors, is running on a very clear policy platform. He has conveyed in no uncertain terms that it is time to make painful choices to make France better. And it seems that people seem to be listening. France will decide by Monday and we will know in which direction it is going to go.And by the way, Sarkozy is good news for America as well. His policies are so much influenced/inspired by American economic and foreign policies that some actually call him Sarkozy, the American!!