KEY POINTS:
President Nicolas Sarkozy took a leaf from the Edith Piaf and Margaret Thatcher song books yesterday. Je ne regrette rien. There is no turning back.
Faced with the first signs of public resistance to his reforms, and quiet fury in his own camp at his "rainbow" Government of different races, genders and ideologies, the French President said that there would be no changing course.
"The door to a change of direction is closed," he told his centre-right party, the Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire.
"Everything I have promised to change, I will change. Everything that I have promised to reform, I will reform."
Only five weeks after taking office, Sarkozy faces a serious outbreak of grumbling in his own ranks. The parliamentary elections last weekend were not the sweeping triumph the centre-right had been promised. Sarkozy's reshuffled and expanded Government has cast itself open more than ever to the left and to the centre, to women and to racial minorities.
One in three of all the posts in the Government have gone to politicians associated with other parties. Three of the top five posts in government - finance, defence and interior - have gone to women. The Economics Minister is a woman for the first time, Christine Lagarde.
Two high profile junior ministerial posts have gone to young women of immigrant origin. One of them, Senegalese-born Rama Yade, 30, has already been dubbed "Sarkozy's Condoleezza Rice". She has become Minister of State for Human Rights at the Foreign Ministry.
All of this may be brilliant public relations - and a long overdue opening up of French Government to women and minorities - but it, nonetheless, leaves a bitter taste with young, male, white centre-right politicians who have been denied jobs.
Sarkozy said he had gone out of his way "to seek out such different personalities for the Government" because he wanted "rupture with the past. I cannot stand the idea that France, such a diverse country at its grass roots, does not reflect this diversity at the top."
He refused to back down on his vague plans to increase VAT to relieve the tax burden on business, saying it would be introduced "experimentally" to take on some of the cost of health care and unemployment pay.
If this succeeded, it would be made more permanent. The alternative was to "stand by and watch" as high social charges wrecked the competitiveness of French industry.
Talk of a so-called "social VAT" - while other taxes were cut - was largely responsible for the poorer-than-expected performances of Sarkozy's party last weekend when it won an overall majority but lost 50 seats compared with the last Parliament.
Sarkozy also gave two other signs that he did not intend to play by the old rules; inviting far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to come to the Elysee Palace as part of talks with party leaders on the proposed EU treaty. Other presidents have refused to talk to Le Pen.
Sarkozy also plans to go along with the new Finance Minister to the next meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels to outline moves to reduce France's national debt.
- INDEPENDENT
