LONDON - French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy must not waste any time in enacting his programme of tough economic and social reforms after winning a clear mandate for change, British newspapers said on Monday.
Right-winger Sarkozy trounced his Socialist rival Segolene Royal, taking 53 percent of the vote against Royal's 47 percent, according to official results that did not include votes from French expatriates.
According to the left-of-centre Guardian daily, "France has voted in a president it feels it needs."
"It has unequivocally decided that the cure for 12 years of drift is a sharp swing to the right, and this is exactly what it is going to get ... For Mr Sarkozy, the time for speechifying is over.
"Having acquired a reputation as the man who gets things done, the president-elect will storm into action."
The Times, a right-of-centre paper, described Sarkozy's victory in its editorial on the subject as "the most important political change in France for a generation" and warned French citizens to brace themselves for "the Gallic equivalent of Thatcherism."
"France turned out in huge numbers to vote for change. President Sarkozy now has to move fast to deliver it."
The right-wing Daily Telegraph, which backed Sarkozy before the election, declared that the 52-year-old former interior minister "now has an unarguable mandate for radical change."
"Will he now enact his manifesto? Will he restore temperance to France's spending, balance to her employment law, sanity to her immigration policy, order to her suburbs?
"The new president represents his country's last, best chance to join the 21st century."
In the eyes of the Financial Times business daily, "torn between the desire for security and realisation of the need for reform, they (French voters) have opted for reform."
It implored Sarkozy to "put populism behind him" after his attacks on excessive immigration and on the European Central Bank, the central bank of the 13-nation eurozone.
"Mr Sarkozy now has a mandate to offer hope: to shake up the system, with a clear message of confidence in change."
The Daily Mail, a right-wing paper, backed Sarkozy's selection, comparing him favourably to another divisive former leader on this side of the English Channel.
"Like Margaret Thatcher, it is his ability to rouse passions and confront vested interests that makes him a winner," the paper's editorial read.
"Like her, he doesn't mind alienating people to achieve what he believes in."
"There is no doubt that the right candidate has won ... He (Sarkozy) wants the French economy to thrive as ours did once the old restrictive barriers were removed."
"He deserves to succeed."
For The Sun, Britain's best-read daily, the critical point of Sunday's election was the turnout -- about 85 percent, the highest since 1981, reflecting the widespread interest in the election of a new generation of French leaders.
"One reason the French take politics more seriously is that the two candidates went head to head in a TV debate -- watched by a huge audience," the paper's "The Sun Says" editorial column read.
"Britain's leaders must be forced to do the same at the next election."
05/06/2007 23:57 GMT