AM - Tuesday, 8 May , 2007 08:16:00 Reporter: Barney Porter TONY EASTLEY: A day after electing right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy to be the country's next president, France is preparing for a new political era.



Mr Sarkozy has pledged to boost the economy by creating jobs, liberalising industrial relations laws, and cracking down on crime and illegal immigration.



More than 700 cars have been set alight and 600 people arrested in violence that hit cities across France, after it was announced he'd won office.



Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse were among the cities hit by violence.



Mr Sarkozy takes over the Presidency from Jacques Chirac on May the 16th.



Barney Porter has more.



(Glass breaking, people calling out, banging)



BARNEY PORTER: Several hundred people went on a rampage in the Bastille area of eastern Paris, toppling motorbikes and smashing shop windows.



Running fights with police first broke out soon after the announcement that Nicolas Sarkozy had beaten Segolene Royal with 53 percent of the vote to her 47.



She had warned a Sarkozy victory could see the country slide into violence and unrest.



That unrest continued last night, with some of the worst violence in the third-biggest city of Lyon, where officers fired tear gas to clear a window-smashing mob of around 200.



The situation was reminiscent of the three weeks of rioting that flared in poor French suburbs in late 2005. Nicolas Sarkozy was then a hardline Interior Minister who described youths in such areas as "rabble".



But the president-elect wasn't in France to monitor last night's violence. He's on the Mediterranean island of Malta for three days of seclusion before he takes office next week.



Back home, France is in economic decline. One in every five young people is unemployed. Of the big economies, it has the most sluggish growth in mainland Europe, the public sector soaks up half of the country's output and it has the fastest rising public debt in Western Europe.



French MP Herve Mariton.



HERVE MARITON: The expectation is enormous and victory and the score of the victory make that our responsibility is great. So action will have to start quickly. Today is a day for victory and tomorrow is a day for action.



BARNEY PORTER: On foreign policy, he's off to a good start.



Mr Sarkozy's victory has been welcomed by European leaders, including the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.



TONY BLAIR: Nicolas Sarkozy is somebody I know well, I like him very much, I respect him. He's a strong leader and I know he'll want to forge a good and close partnership between Britain and France for the good of our two countries for Europe and for the wider world.



BARNEY PORTER: There's also relief in Washington.



US State Department Spokesman, Sean McCormack.



SEAN MCCORMACK: Colin Powell had the great, had, had the best line on this. You know, 'the US and France have had a marriage of 200 years and we've been in marriage counselling for much of that.'



There have been ups and downs in the relationship and there was a difficult moment, the frictions over whether or not to overthrow Saddam Hussein.



BARNEY PORTER: But Mr McCormack says he's confident about future relations.



SEAN MCCORMACK: We have great cooperation on issues from Lebanon, to Iran, to dealing with the combat against terrorism, to finding nuclear non-proliferation around the world, to dealing with Afghanistan and the issue of missile defence. So there are a wide variety of areas in which we are cooperating very well with the French Government and it goes without saying that the US and France have deep cultural ties as well.



Tony Blair agrees.



TONY BLAIR: Today, for countries like ours, it's also through alliances with others that we exert influence, between Britain and France, in Europe, and of course with the United States of America.



TONY EASTLEY: British Prime Minister Tony Blair ending that report from Barney Porter