Word: fillon
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...visit to Germany on Monday, Sarkozy voiced even steelier determination when declaring, "We were elected to transform France, and will apply these reforms because they must be applied." Aware of union promises to employ bare-knuckled defense of the "special regime" pensions, French Prime Minister François Fillon advised his parliamentary backers to "fasten your seat belts" ahead of tomorrow's turbulence...
...midst of this bleak news - and as Sarkozy was in the U.S. thrilling observers with a speech to the United Nations on September 25 - French Prime Minister François Fillon described the nation's financial and economic state as "bankrupt", and indicated serious belt-tightening would be required to address the situation. Fillon soon regretted the public concern the term provoked: as Sarkozy returned from New York with assurances that "there are no austerity plans" for France, Fillon found himself obliged to explain his use of "bankrupt" as glib and non-literal. A French public groggy with weeks...
...urged the world to prepare for war against Iran. He later insisted that he meant simply that war was the worst possible outcome but that the failure of diplomatic pressure to dissuade Iran from enriching uranium would make war inevitable. To underscore the point, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon added Monday, "The Iranians must understand that tension has reached an extreme point ... in the relationship [with] its neighbors...
...France, of course, is not one of Iran's neighbors, and most of those countries would read the French comments as part of an effort to fabricate a sense of crisis over Iran's nuclear program. Indeed, even as Fillon spoke, the Gulf Cooperation Council - which includes such key U.S. allies as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait - was moving to open trade talks with Tehran despite U.S. calls for Iran?s isolation. And Egypt was hosting a high-level Iranian diplomatic delegation in talks aimed at normalizing relations, rejecting talk of confrontation and instead demanding...
...lose 46 of its outgoing seats to the Socialists, who surprisingly boosted their ranks from 148 to 186 seats. Though other leftist parties like the Greens and Communists wilted to around a collective 23, the overall result handed the opposition 227 seats. Sarkozy's Prime Minister Francois Fillon sought to put the Socialists' good showing in perspective. "The choice of voters has been clear and coherent in supporting the President and his application of reforms. Success of one side isn't defeat of the other, and we are obliged to take into account the wishes of voters who didn...