With the local elections now behind him, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has an opportunity to relaunch his faltering reform agenda. It is impossible to underestimate the significance of such an effort, or its failure, to the Sarkozy presidency and the future of the French economy.

The combination of Mr Sarkozy's protectionism and his support for domestic economic reforms has puzzled many observers. In his first nine months in office, he produced a few noteworthy reforms. Universities were given more autonomy. He tackled pension reform in the railway sector. And he tried to pry open the 35-hour week, although he botched the implementation. There was a modest but important agreement between employers and trade unions to make it a little easier to dismiss workers, and to increase the number of temporary jobs. But taken together, the first blitz of reforms was clearly not the rupture he had promised.