FRANCE:The French parliament concluded its extraordinary summer session on Thursday night having adopted four major packages of legislation in a frantic burst of political activity.
However, despite such remarkable activism, Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president, is facing criticism from some supporters that his government is not reforming as boldly as promised.
Boasting a clear parliamentary majority, Mr Sarkozy has found it easy to push through legislation cutting taxes on overtime and mortgage interest payments, granting more autonomy to universities, toughening sentences for repeat offenders, and mandating minimum service levels on public transport during strikes.
The president has made it clear he is pushing full speed ahead with his promise to bring about a "rupture" with the failed policies of the past and revitalise the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
Wishing his ministers a good holiday following the last cabinet meeting of the summer on Wednesday, Mr Sarkozy told them to keep their mobile phones on and to prepare for even more intense work in September.
But some deputies from Mr Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, who have already been grumbling about how many Socialist ministers have been included in his government, are complaining that he has not been aggressive enough in tackling the sprawling civil service or in getting a grip on public finances.
Even though they faced little parliamentary opposition, ministers shied away from some of the more controversial proposals, which could have provoked confrontation with the unions.
On Tuesday French prime minister François Fillon outlined measures to cut civil service numbers next year by not replacing 22,700 retiring staff, and to trim the projected budget deficit from 2.4 per cent this year to 2.3 per cent next year.
However, his reforms fell well short of Mr Sarkozy's campaign promises not to replace half those retiring from the civil service and to revolutionise public finances.
Mr Fillon argued that reforms would acquire a momentum of their own, making it easier to move faster later to meet Mr Sarkozy's promises over the course of his five-year term. The government's tax cuts would also stimulate economic growth, which would enable the deficit to be cut more aggressively later.
Finance minister Christine Lagarde estimated that the €13.8 billioin tax cuts approved by parliament this week could add at least 0.3 of a percentage point to economic growth in 2008.
With the unemployment rate having fallen to a 25-year low of 8 per cent, the economy would enter a cycle of higher growth, falling unemployment and shrinking deficits, ministers hope.
But in a biting editorial, the left-leaning Le Mondegoaded Mr Sarkozy for not going further in his first three months in office.
It said Mr Fillon, who has seemed almost invisible at times in the Sarkozy administration, had finally found a role: announcing the government's retreats on its most controversial measures. "These evolutions show that the 'hyper-president' is not Superman: like his predecessors he must pull back on his campaign promises," it said.