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As industrial action cripples transportation for a second day across France, it is interesting to note that une seule pluralité n’est pas un mandat. As Tom Peters pointed out back in May, Nicolas Sarkozy’s supposedly decisive electoral win came almost entirely from votes in the sixty and up demographic.

In the 18-59 demographic (otherwise known as the entire workforce), Ségolène Royal handily bested Sarkozy, and lost the election because of unheard of margins that were above 2-1 in the 60+ group. As Peters put it:

The actual story is that the 60+ geezers have ordered the wee 60 minus crew to get the hell to work and stay the hell at work … so the Six Zero Plussers can get their hands on the loot they need to spend their remaining winters in Nice, or some such.

Sarkozy may still become France’s Margaret Thatcher, as many believe (and a few hope) that he will, but as Bernard Thibault, the head of the 711,000-strong CGT union warned in May:

Nobody contests the fact that Nicholas Sarkozy was elected president of the Republic with a very sizeable turnout of 85 per cent. This does not signify that voters agreed with all the measures he proposed. f he does what he said he would do, we could have a battle and strikes against his proposals.

Twice before, in 1995 and 2003, French governments have attempted to break the unions under the guise of railway “modernization” and pension “rationalization”. Both attempts have been met with huge strikes and protests, the 1995 strikes paralyzing the country for almost a month.

Only time will tell if this latter-day Bonaparte will achieve his goals of a reascendant France full of former glory and at the center of Europe and the World, but no amount of spin concerning his divorce from Cécilia / Josephine can distract from the fact that no matter how Sarkozy or Le Figaro try to spin his election victory, une seule pluralité n’est pas un mandat.