When The Left Loses….

…..They cheerfully set to work to undermine whoever beat them at the polls. Most recent example: France. Despite what appear to be landslide-level acquisition of seats in Parliament and the election of Nicolas Sarkozy himself, the socialists are warning that there will be riots. Oh, and that mandate he just won: just a fluke because they gave up rather than fight . Yeesh.

PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy appears to have won a mandate for change after his party swept first-round parliamentary elections, and he is picking up speed in his plans to overhaul France's welfare state. But rivals say he should watch out.

Sarkozy's expected parliamentary majority is inflated by French election rules and because many opponents threw up their hands and did not vote in Sunday's first round. Immigrant-heavy suburbs are still seething after 2005 riots, and students are dead-set against some of Sarkozy's reforms.

A major misstep, critics warn, and the streets again could explode in anger.

Sarkozy's conservative UMP party dominated Sunday's vote, the opposition Socialists fared poorly and fringe parties all but disappeared _ leaving the UMP well-placed to expand its majority in the National Assembly in Sunday's decisive second-round vote.

Sarkozy, well aware of the risk of resistance to his plans, has reached out to the people most threatened by them: negotiating with unions, bringing a leading Socialist into his government and naming a woman of North African descent as justice minister. On Monday, he bowed to labor union demands and scrapped longer hours for teachers.

So far, the strategy appears to be working. Anti-Sarkozy protests after last month's elections left hundreds of cars burned nationwide but quickly fizzled, and no other major resistance has been mounted.

Sarkozy has an uphill battle to change the massive welfare state that France has become. His enemies are telegraphing that they fully intend to make it worse. Unfortunately, that is exactly how the left are representing themselves, as enemies, not as the opposition. And even the American press is willing to give cover for it. The WaPo calls the warnings of riots "facing dissent". One cannot help but speculate what the headlines would have been if Segolene Royal had eked out a victory by a single vote. It is very likely that would have been described as a mandate in glowing terms.