WHEN Christine Lagarde, France’s first female finance minister, returned to
Paris in 2005 after a six-year stint at an American law firm, she was
bewildered by the change that had come over her countrymen. Nobody seemed
that keen on working.
“They were more interested in chatting about their holidays, about their long
weekends,” said Lagarde, a willowy figure of 51 in an elegant suit. “Doing
nothing was very much the mantra and work was disregarded.”
Since then Lagarde, former head of Baker & McKenzie, the world’s largest
law firm, has set an example: her diligence has helped to turn her into the
most powerful woman in France, the key general in President Nicolas
Sarkozy’s campaign to get the country working again.
A former French synchronised swimming champion, she has been at his side in
the assault on the 35-hour week and recently told the French to “roll up
your sleeves” and work more.
In an interview last week in her office overlooking the Seine, she said that
the worst thing about the 35-hour week was that “it has changed people’s
psyche in relation to work”. She wants to restore the French love of labour:
“We’re saying, ‘You know what? It’s not bad to work harder because you can
get more money’.”
In French terms it is revolutionary. But recent legislation allowing those who
want to work more than 35 hours the freedom to do so without paying taxes is
only “a first step”, said Lagarde: “The president wants to go further. I am
delighted.”
Whether or not they end up doing away with the 35-hour week altogether – those
who want to work only 35 hours are still free to do so – remains to be seen.
“Clearly it is at the back of the president’s mind,” she said, “and should
be at the top of the agenda. I’m not sure how we’re going to address that
but we’re going to address it.”
Lagarde had come to the attention of “Sarko”, as the energetic
“hyper-president” is known, when she was a minister of trade in the previous
government of President Jacques Chirac.
She was appointed agriculture minister in Sarkozy’s first government before
being promoted to finance in June. The admiration that Sarkozy feels for
Lagarde, who towers over the pint-sized president, is mutual.
“I don’t want to let him down,” she said, “because I think he has been
extremely courageous and brave to deliver on his promise to have half men
and half women in his government.”
She was working in her office in Chicago when she received a call from
Dominque de Villepin, Chirac’s prime minister, at 7am one day two years ago.
She was “flattered” to be offered the trade portfolio and boarded a plane
for Paris the same day.
Halfway across the Atlantic, she got cold feet. She was giving up a salary of
£400,000 a year. She was not exactly sure why.
“I thought to myself, you’re completely nuts,” she recalled. “You don’t know
the people you’re going to join. You’re giving up a fantastic working
environment. A place where you’re the boss . . . to join a team in which
you’ll be one single, little individual.”
When she got to Paris she was amazed to find a welcoming committee waiting for
her.
“There was the head of the local jurisdiction in his uniform, the head of the
local police in his uniform. And my newly appointed bodyguards. And I
thought, what is this?”
She had joined the pampered ranks of the French governing elite.
“It’s extremely comfortable when you are located at the top, so to speak,
because things are organised for you,” she said. “I was used to making
telephone calls myself, you know, doing things on the go. The civil servants
could not believe that I was dialling the numbers.”
She had to change some habits. The French secret service believed her beloved
BlackBerry to be a security risk because the hand-held device uses American
and British internet servers, meaning her e-mails could be intercepted by
foreign powers.
She believes that Sarkozy’s impressive election majority and communication
skills could save him from the antireform street protests that have been the
scourge of many a French government in recent years.
“When in negotiations you have people saying, ‘No you can’t do that . . . you
can’t touch my accrued rights’, sorry, it was announced, the French
population had a chance to say yes or no,” said Lagarde. “It said yes.”
Already the government had managed to slaughter various holy cows, said
Lagarde, adding that “the measures we voted in this summer are amazing . . .
they will have a big impact”.
They included a guaranteed minimum service in public transport in the event of
strikes, more autonomy for the universities and the abolition of most
inheritance tax. Personal tax was capped at 50% and a generous tax credit
for new home-buyers was introduced.
Efforts, meanwhile, have begun to streamline the bloated French bureaucracy
and Sarkozy has promised to scrap half of the most senior posts in the civil
service as part of the sweeping reform. Two agencies in Lagarde’s ministry
which assess and collect taxes will be merged, as will the two agencies to
help the unemployed.
A law to modernise the economy will be presented to parliament in March and is
expected to include further reductions in taxes as well as provisions for
Sunday shopping. Changes to the pension system, perhaps the most difficult
of all the reforms envisaged by Sarkozy, are also expected to be presented
to parliament for approval next year, including a possible increase in the
official retirement age from 60 to 62.
“The French public wants to go through this process (of reforms),” said
Lagarde, pointing to Sarkozy’s approval rating of more than 70%, which makes
him the most popular French president since General Charles de Gaulle.
The indefatigable Sarkozy sets an arduous pace for his ministers and Lagarde
shares his interest in fitness, even if she no longer practices synchronised
swimming, a sport she had enjoyed in her youth as a member of the French
team. “Legs up in the pool is not the expected behaviour of the minister of
economy and finance,” she joked. However, she tries to do a few lengths in
the pool at least once a week.
Although she lacks political experience, it does not seem to matter under
Sarkozy: a former finance minister himself, the president is a whirling
dervish of initiatives and very much in the driving seat when it comes to
making policy. He took the unprecedented step of accompanying Lagarde to a
European Union finance ministers’ meeting in Brussels in July.
Lagarde, a mother of two grown-up children, is quite happy to let him take the
lead. “I’m blossoming in the shade,” she said. “So that’s fine.”
End of easy street
2000 A Socialist government adopts 35-hour week to improve quality of
life and cut unemployment by sharing out jobs. The measure fails
2004 Maximum number of overtime hours per year extended from 180 to 220
2007 President Nicolas Sarkozy makes time worked above 35 hours
tax-free
See facts and figures on France's economy and society at www.insee.fr/en/home/home_page.asp
Well there's something you don't see on the same line in France, three words ' can do' & ' working ' !!!
Maggie Millington, Brittany , France
and another thing!
The current time necessary in France for a young person, graduating from high school, or university to find a steady, full time job under a CDI contract is 10 years. One million young are now working abroad as there are no jobs in France and France pays wages much lower, in many instances that Canada or England. The Socialists, Chirac, and Sarkozy have acted in a unified manner for a number of years to sell the nation to Big Business. Everything has been Privatized and therefore costs 3 times as much and provides 1/3 the level of original services. Like America and England, the Rape of the Poor continues in France and conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly.
victor compton, Cherbourg, France
N'importe quoi ,Victor !
Philippe de Jong, cherbourg, france
The French economy is NOT going to function well again soon. I have lived and worked here since 1981, and I have never seen it worse. Sarkozy is exacerbating the problem. The introduction of the Euro without wage and price controls was a disaster, and raised the cost of energy, food, plumbers, carpenters, etc. by up to 300% in MANY cases. Sarkozy immediately increased the financial burden on the Poor by giving away 12 Billion Euros in DEFICIT SPENDING to the Rich in tax breaks! That money will now, NOT be spent on the poor. Want to buy a house in France? They are for sale all over my little village, and no one is buying them! There is no money available for anything but necessities. Until the pockets of the Poor and the lower middle class are refilled, the economy will remain stagnant. And, 60% of the French voted against Sarkozy by voting for Royal or by refusing to vote. There is no majority behind Sarkozy other than the one his media friends have created.
victor compton, Cherbourg, France