France’s Sarkozy defiant on reforms after blistering election loss for his conservative party

Sarkozy: Reform to continue despite electoral loss

PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy reached out to his core supporters Wednesday in a bid to keep his plans for reform on track after a bruising regional election for his fellow conservatives.

The outcome of Sunday’s vote led him to alter his Cabinet and jettison plans for an eco-friendly tax on fossil fuels.

But Sarkozy sought to show a firm hand on the tiller of state after the electoral drubbing, which exposed doubts about his political prospects before he heads to Brussels on Thursday for an EU summit, and the U.S. next week.

In his first public remarks since the vote, Sarkozy reached out primarily to conservative constituencies like farmers, business leaders and the extreme right, while softening his tone — if not his goal — about planned pensions reform that he says is needed but has enflamed many on the left.

“You have often the feeling that these reforms haven’t changed your daily lives,” Sarkozy said, insisting that the economic crisis had masked the impact of his government’s reforms.

But he acknowledged the anxieties of the French.

“I understand your impatience, I owe you a response,” he said after the first meeting of his reshuffled Cabinet. “But nothing would be worse than to change tack on everything by giving in to the agitation of an electoral period.”

More than halfway into his five-year term, the near-sweep by the Socialist-led opposition fanned talk of who could challenge Sarkozy if he bids for a new mandate in 2012 — and put a spotlight on his low poll numbers.

Sarkozy, meanwhile, called for a ban on full-face Islamic veils, saying they were “contrary to the dignity of women.” And for his countrymen often suspicious about decrees from policymakers in Brussels, he vowed to fight tooth-and-nail to defend EU agricultural subsidies that benefit French farmers.

“I say it clearly: I am ready to go to a crisis in (the European Union) before I accept the dismantling of the Common Agricultural Policy,” Sarkozy said of the 27-nation bloc’s farms policy. “I will not let our agriculture die.”

Sarkozy’s words were a far cry from his winning campaign in 2007, when he vowed a “rupture” from the policies of his conservative predecessor Jacques Chirac.

“The president’s role is ensure stability, continuity and set a line and avoid jolts,” Sarkozy said. “We must show constancy on some choices — we must continue the reforms. To stop now would ruin our achievements.

“The crisis must not drive us to slow down.”

Sarkozy defended state support for industry, vowed continued investment in research and higher education, and decried the “plague” of absenteeism in French schools.

Socialist Party spokesman Benoit Hamon said Sarkozy “landed several blows to the chin” in a “particularly virile speech” — one that sought to make “scapegoats” out of others like the EU.

“The country is in a crisis, but the president is only worried about the crisis in the UMP,” Hamon told reporters, referring to the abbreviation for Sarkozy’s party.

On Tuesday, the government backed down from a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions that had been a major plank of Sarkozy’s push for a more prominent role in the global fight against climate change. Polls indicated most French opposed the measure, fearful in part of higher gasoline prices and an unfair, self-imposed disadvantage for French businesses and consumers.

Now, France plans to request that the European Commission to accelerate plans to harmonize environmental taxation across the continent.

“It would be absurd to burden French companies by giving a competitive edge to companies in polluter countries,” Sarkozy said. “I confirm — without ambiguity — our choice of government spending for ecology.

“But I place the creation of a domestic carbon tax second to a border tax that will protect our farms and industry from disloyal competition that pollutes unabashedly,” he added.

The Socialist-led opposition won 21 of 22 regions up for grabs in mainland France in Sunday’s vote, which was dominated by worries about jobs, paychecks and pensions.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in a poll released Monday said they would rather not see Sarkozy run in 2012, while 33 percent said they would. The rest had no opinion. The poll of 952 adults was conducted for magazine Le Point on March 19-20 by Ipsos agency. No margin of error was provided.