French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised yesterday not to slacken the pace of reform after voters inflicted a crushing defeat on his centre-right UMP party in regional elections at the weekend.
"We have to continue with reforms. Stopping now would simply be to ruin what has already been achieved," Sarkozy said in a televised speech after the regular weekly cabinet meeting. In his first public response to the election, in which the centre right achieved one of its worst results since the creation of the Fifth Republic more than 50 years ago, Sarkozy said he understood public impatience but that change was needed.
"Our country has suffered too much from hesitation and incessant changes of course," said Sarkozy, who faces a re-election battle in 2012. An unemployment rate running at more than 10 per cent, worries over security and immigration and disapproval of Sarkozy's own restless style, which may voters judge to be un-presidential, all contributed to the defeat.