This victory also means that France has taken a definite step to the right, as Sarkozy had campaigned on a platform based on restoration of national identity and rigor, pledging tough policing and anti-immigration measures, lower taxes and trimming of welfare benefits, less bureaucracy and better work ethics. Royal fought hard on the basis of traditional socialist proposals but she could hardly offer anything new to solve France's economic woes.

Consequently, the voters of the ultra-right parties, National Front and the strongly anti-Muslim MFP (Movement for France) and nearly half the voters of centrist candidate Bayrou's UDF, voted for Sarkozy. Even last week's television debate had little impact on Sunday's vote.

It was the third consecutive defeat for the Socialists in the French Presidential elections and their main challenge should be to avoid recriminations. Some leadership changes are already in the offing. Former finance minister Dominique Strauss Kahn wants to take the party closer to the centre and he has already challenged party boss Holland and presidential candidate Segolene Royal. Perhaps the real leadership tussle would take place after the next month's parliament elections.

Centrist Bayrou's UDF would also like to capitalize their unexpected success at the first round of Presidential elections, by distancing themselves from the rightists to give a new image to their party.

Currently, Sarkozy's conservative party UMP has an overwhelming majority in the French Parliament and nothing can deter him from pushing through some of his sweeping economic and political reform programs through it. But experts believe that the wiser course would be to wait for the new Assembly as French voters traditionally give a strong parliamentary majority to newly-elect Presidents.

Sarkozy's first priority will be to form a new cabinet. It is expected to include not only his center right party stalwarts, but also some of the centrist and socialist bigwigs who had sided with him at the hard fought presidential race. It seems he has already selected his senior political adviser, and a former labour minister, François Fillion as the new French prime minister.

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, had presented himself as a tough economic manager promising sweeping economic reforms in his first 100 days, starting with loosening of the 35-hour week by offering tax breaks on overtime, severely trimming fat from public service, cutting down taxes and bringing down current unemployment rate from 8.3% to about 5% by 2012. He also aims at curbing union powers and tightening the country's immigration policies, favouring arrival of only qualified workers.

Sarkozy has also declared that he would be tough on crime and illegal immigration and has proposed the creation of a controversial new Ministry for immigration and national identity. He also stands for tougher sentences for juveniles.

Foreign policy issues were of secondary importance in the campaign, but Sarkozy's has been quite unabashedly pro-American. He openly expresses his admiration for the latter's work ethics and its belief on upward mobility. Naturally Washington was mighty pleased at his elections and President Bush was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate him. Sarkozy is surely a welcome relief for them after Chirac who had openly opposed the US-led Iraq invasion.

Sarkozy, however, has made it abundantly clear that while America can count on the French support in hours of need, it must also acknowledge the fact that friends "can think differently." No major change in the French Iraq policy is likely; nonetheless, both sides would make a determined effort to improve their strained bilateral ties. Sarkozy, however, is a strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol on Global warming which Bush continues to oppose and is firmly opposed to American ally Turkey's admission to the European Union.

Sarkozy is also a strong supporter of Israel. He has already declared that as president one of his foreign policy priorities would be to forge closer relationship with Tel Aviv, and that he would be far tougher on Hezbollah. France, due to historical reasons, enjoys special ties with the Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and it seems their existing policy would undergo significant adjustments.

France's most important European Union partners have warmly congratulated Sarkozy who promised to put France back into the driving seat of Europe after the country voted down the EU constitution in a referendum in 2005.

Sarkozy has been one of the most polarizing figures in the French politics and has been called arrogant, brutal and authoritarian by his opponents. His tough talks and no-nonsense approach inspire hope and fear. Hope, as he is prepared to take tough economic reforms which others were afraid to touch; fear as he might overstep his limits and thus invite a virulent backlash of the powerful workers' union and consequent civil unrest.

Sarkozy is definitely an outsider in French politics. He is the first son of an immigrant who has risen to the highest post of Presidency in a country still finding it difficult to integrate second generation immigrants. He is the grandson a Sephardic Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism in a country still beset with anti-Semitic feelings. He is a graduate from France's state university system in a country traditionally ruled by technocrats trained in a handful small, elite prestigious school.

The biggest challenge for him is to unite the French people under his banner as he embarks on his important reform mission. He has a historic mandate and sweeping powers. Sarkozy's hitherto centrist opponent Bayrou has cautioned him that "absolute power can be a comfort ... as no one is there to oppose you," but "it also means no one is there to stop you from making mistakes -- when absolute power is mistaken, it is absolutely mistaken." Will Sarkozy heed to these words of caution and proceed with care and circumspection? Well, only time will tell.

Syed Muazzem Ali, a former Foreign Secretary, served as Bangladesh Ambassador to France from 1998-2001.