What to expect? 
Employment: making 35 hours a week a minimum but not maximum amount of time allowed to be worked; reduce unemployment, currently one of the highest in Europe at 8.3%, to below 5% by 2012.
Taxes: in keeping with the his overhaul of the 35-hour week, removing taxes and social charges (cotisations in French) from income earned when working more than 35 hours; abolish inheritance tax for everyone bar the top 10% of France's richest people; and cut income tax for all.
Civil Service: he will replace only one in two retirees from the civil service – there are currently five million employees who together account for almost half the state budget.
Labour law: as well as the introduction of measures that force state workers who work in monopoly companies to provide a minimum level of public service during strikes, for a strike lasting more than one week, there will have to be a secret ballot of workers.
Pensions: reform of the state pension system – currently people can retire at 55 years old with a full state pension. Sarkozy wants to raise the age limit.
Education: maximum class size of 15 in poor areas. A 'Marshall Plan' to provide training for unskilled youth, especially in the 'banlieues' (suburbs in English); a civic national service for school-leavers to replace the obligatory national service that was abolished 10 years ago.
Law and order: the cutting of child allowances to delinquents' families; repeat offender aged 16-18 to be tried and adults; and minimum sentences for repeat offenders. US-style affirmative action to tackle discrimination against ethnic minorities.
Immigration: no blanket amnesty for France's estimated 200,000-400,000 illegal immigrants; the introduction of a ministry for immigration and national identity to implement a skills-based selection for legal migrants, tighter rules on rules of entry for family members, and the obligation to speak and read French.
Environment: cut VAT on green products and services. Keep nuclear power at its current level.
Housing: the sale of 40,000 council homes to tenants.
Europe: replaced the abandoned EU Constitution with a scaled-down treaty and a refusal to allow Turkey into the EU.
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