Via the BBC: Sarkozy announces huge job cuts

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced more than 22,000 job cuts in the civil service in order to reform the country’s bulging public sector.

[…]

“I want a public service that is smaller, better paid and with better career prospects,” he said.

“What I am proposing is a cultural revolution, a revolution for changing the way we think, for changing behaviour.”

Mr Sarkozy’s announcement means that next year one in three retiring public sector workers will not be replaced. That figure could rise in the future.

Well, Sarkozy did come to office promising to make major changes to the state’s approach to the economy and specifically to work. One wonders how well such moves will go over, however.