Sarkozy: I have mandate for change

Story Highlights

• Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins France's presidential election
• Sarkozy takes 53 percent of the vote, according to early results
• In a victory speech, he promises to be "president of all the French people"
• Conceding defeat, Socialist Segolene Royal vows to "keep on fighting"

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PARIS, France (CNN) -- France's new leader Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday to implement a program of swift change to make his country more business-friendly, tougher on crime and less attractive to would-be immigrants.

The conservative victor in Sunday's presidential election promised a series of reforms in his first 100 days in office, including plans to undermine the 35-hour work week by cutting taxes on overtime, curbs onunion powers and tightened sentencing for repeat offenders, Reuters reported.

Sarkozy's promised reforms are aimed at shaking up France's labor market to revive the country's flagging economy.

But Sarkozy's first presidential battle will be to secure a majority for his conservative party in next month's parliamentary elections that will decide the future of the next national assembly.

A Sunday poll put Sarkozy's UMP party ahead of the Socialists, with 34 percent to 29 percent, for the June election.

Union leaders criticized Sarkozy's proposals and France could face crippling strikes in the autumn of the sort that tripped Chirac when he took office in 1995 and tried to impose change, the report added.

Over the next few days, Sarkozy "will retire to somewhere in France to unwind a little ... and to start organizing and preparing his teams," said Francois Fillon, an adviser often cited as the leading candidate for prime minister, The Associated Press said.

Making changes

In a surprising turn of events, 46 percent of blue-collar workers -- traditionally leftist voters -- chose Sarkozy, according to an Ipsos/Dell poll, AP said.

Forty-four percent of people of modest means voted for him, along with 32 percent of green voters and 14 percent of far left supporters. The poll surveyed 3,609 voters and has a margin of error of about 2 percent.

"The president of the republic must love and respect all the French," Sarkozy told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "I will be the president of all the French people."

"The French people have called for change. I will carry out that change, because that's the mandate I have received from the French people."

Violence was reported after the election outcome. Youths clashed with police in Paris and Lyon on Sunday, and security forces fired tear gas at 2,000 protesters in the French capital. (Full story)

'American friends'

In his victory speech, Sarkozy said he wanted to tell his "American friends that they can rely on our friendship ... France will always be next to them when they need us."

But, he added, "Friends can think differently."

Sarkozy also urged the United States to take the lead on climate change and said the issue would be a priority for France, an AP report said.

He then called on the United States "not to impede" in the fight against global warming. "On the contrary, they must lead this fight because humanity's fate is at stake here." (Watch Sarkozy's victory speech )

"We are working very closely on issues related to climate change," said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the U.S. state department, according to an AP report.

McCormack said France was a good friend and ally and that the U.S. looked forward to working with Sarkozy's government. He also said the American government was working closely with France on developing technology to help combat dependence on hydrocarbons.

President George W. Bush called Sarkozy to congratulate him on his victory, a White House spokesman said in a written statement. (Watch how the White House responded )

While Sarkozy, who is largely untested in foreign policy, expressed a desire to maintain France's independence, mentioning the U.S. in his victory speech showed his desire to break from the trans-Atlantic tension of the Chirac era.

Sarkozy said he would also work to form a link between Europe and Africa. "We have to overcome hatred to give way to the great dreams of peace and civilization," he said. "It's time to build a great Mediterranean union."

Sarkozy said he would put in place an immigration policy "that is going to be controlled" and a development policy "that is going to be ambitious."

But he said that France would "stand next to" those who are persecuted by tyrants, dictatorships."

"We are going to write together a new page of our history. This page, my dear fellow citizens, I am sure it will be great."

Socialist defeat

Royal, a 53-year-old mother of four, acknowledged her defeat in a speech to supporters moments after the polls closed at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET).

"Keep the faith, keep intact your enthusiasm," she said at her party's headquarters. "I will keep on fighting the fight that we have started today." (Watch Royal's speech )

If she had won, Royal would have been France's first female president. The defeat at the polls could throw the Socialist party into disarray, revealing fractures within the party between those who say it must remain firm to its leftist traditions and others who want a shift to the political center like other socialist groups around Europe, an AP report said.

A high-ranking Socialist and former health minister who co-founded Doctors Without Borders, Bernard Kouchner, said the party should shift gears and foster ties with centrists instead of reaching out to the far-left, the report added.

"We have to change our formatting, our ways of thinking, on the left," he told TF1.

First French president born after WWII

Sarkozy, a former interior minister, and Royal were in a runoff after emerging as the top candidates from the first round of voting on April 22.

Sarkozy will replace Jacques Chirac, a conservative who has been France's president since 1995. His election makes him the first French president born after World War II.

Voting in the presidential election was brisk. According to official figures, more than 75 percent of registered voters had been to the polls by 5 p.m. (11 a.m. ET).

Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results issued by the French Interior Ministry. Socialist Segolene Royal took 47 percent of the vote.

Sarkozy voted in the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine where he lives, while Royal cast her vote in the western Poitou Charentes region, where she is regional president.

The campaign had been dominated by a debate over how to improve economic growth and reduce unemployment among the young, but its most explosive moments focused on immigration.

Appealing to right-wing voters, Sarkozy said France could not provide "a home for all the world's miseries."

On Friday, Royal said a Sarkozy presidency could trigger violence and brutalities in suburbs with high immigrant populations, prompting Sarkozy to condemn her "threatening comments."

During the 2005 Paris riots, Sarkozy inflamed immigrant communities with French-born children living in impoverished suburban housing projects as "scum." In his victory speech, he reached out to those he alienated in the past, promising to be president "of all the French, without exception."

There are no official figures on the number of North African immigrants and their French-born descendants in France. Unofficially, the number is estimated at between 3 million and 6 million.

Surprisingly, Sarkozy took 43 percent of the votes in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris, the epicenter of the 2005 rioting, an area with a large immigrant population and high unemployment, an AP report said.

Prior to the election results being made public, Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said a Sarkozy victory would be favorable to the United States.

"Clearly, his views are more in line with ours," Lugar told CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, concurred: "I do. I do," he told CNN. "I mean, it would be nice to have someone who is head of France who doesn't almost have a knee-jerk reaction against the United States."

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