On May 6 conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidential election defeating socialist Segolene Royal and taking over from Jacques Chirac who had held the positon for 12 years. The election drew a very high 85% turnout which many saw as a sign that French voters recognize the need to get out from under their economic stagnation and social unrest. Sarkozy is depicted as a friend but also a critic of the U.S.; as a supporter to some degree of the European Union; and as a reformer bent on changing France’s burdensome labor laws but also willing to meet with union leaders. Knowledge at Wharton asked Jeff Weintraub a visiting scholar with the University of Pennsylvania’s political science department to give us his views on the possible consequences of Sarkozy’s election.