Legitimacy flows only one way

The Associated Press reports on the large majority that Sarkozy's party has picked up against the socialist coalition and seems to suggest it poses a danger to France.

President Nicolas Sarkozy appears to have won a mandate for change after his party swept first-round parliamentary elections, and he is picking up speed in his plans to overhaul France's welfare state. But rivals say he should watch out.Sarkozy's expected parliamentary majority is inflated by French election rules and because many opponents threw up their hands and did not vote in Sunday's first round. Immigrant-heavy suburbs are still seething after 2005 riots, and students are dead-set against some of Sarkozy's reforms.

A major misstep, critics warn, and the streets again could explode in anger. ...

"For us, Sarkozy's reforms will not be defeated through the ballot boxes, but by organizing the students in force," student organizer Celine Coat said. ... The far-left Workers' Struggle party predicted a "yes-man" parliament, and said it was up to the working classes to "put sticks in (Sarkozy's) wheels" through strikes and other protests.

If Segolene Royale had won even a small majority she would probably have been described as winning a "mandate" from the French people, if not from history itself. But since it's Sarkozy the real chore is to limit, restrict and otherwise circumscribe his electoral victory.