New French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been labeled a free-market fan, a shameless interventionist and a spendthrift opportunist. So which of the labels fit? All of them. Sarkozy's economics are nothing if not eclectic. But in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, the new president has a better chance of galvanizing growth than any leader in decades. With a 65 percent approval rating, Sarkozy neared war hero Gen. Charles de Gaulle's record Inaugural score. Consumer confidence leapt to a five-year high in May. And Sunday's impressive win in lower-house elections gives him plenty of lawmakers to back his program of economic reform.

But what, exactly, is Sarkonomics? His mix of free-enterprise friendliness and state-coddling can seem erratic. But it's a pragmatic way to get results from the globalization-leery French, who need to be reassured as much as they need to get moving. The president has won kudos from economists by promising supply-side reforms like the end of the 35-hour workweek, a curtailing of union power and more-flexible work contracts that would make firing easier. But his first steps have been muddled with some gratuitous spending, and they've tended toward demand-side change, boosting purchasing power via things like a too-generous mortgage-rate cut, instead of fixing French firms' competition problems.

A look back at his history does little to clear up the picture "as Finance minister in 2004, he privatized key state-owned businesses but bailed out others; he strong-armed supermarkets even as he tried to increase competition in the retail sector. Still, Sarkozy's brand of fair-weather laissez faire has the backing of the people (67 percent of voters say they are ready for major reform all at once), a crucial first step. Sarkozy was Finance minister for a mere 235 days, but he made them count. One of his most famous moves was the rescue of the near bankrupt engineering giant Alstom. German arch rival Siemens was circling for the spoils. But Sarkozy took up the torch of "national champions," and cut a rescue deal with Brussels' competition chief. The state took on 21 percent of the firm in a debt-equity swap, and Sarkozy got credit for saving 25,000 French jobs.

Was it only six weeks ago that political suspense reigned in Paris cafes? Could conservative Nicolas Sarkozy really win the nation's highest office? People wondered if he might be thwarted by the Socialists' comely comer, Segolene Royal. Or perhaps even trumped by the engaging centrist François Bayrou? Well, no. And since Sarko's triumph on May 6, this take-charge kind of guy has, yes, taken charge. In the first round of legislative elections yesterday, his UMP party steamrollered much of the opposition and it looks very likely to finish the job in runoffs next Sunday. So here's a prediction for the next five years of French politics: all-Sarko all the time.

Of the 577-member National Assembly, a record 110 candidates were elected outright last night by winning more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. Of those, 98 are from Sarkozy's UMP party. Only one is a Socialist. Projections for next Sunday are wide-ranging, but all forecast a Sarko landslide. With between 383 and 501 seats for the right (compared to 60 to 185 for the left), this will be the first time since 1978 that power in parliament won't have changed hands from one election to the next.

As Sarkozy racked up incredibly high poll numbers over the past month (a run of proposed tax breaks apparently expunging memories of the polarizing, riot-inspiring figure he'd been portrayed as only weeks before), his parliamentary victory took on the air of fait accompli. Indeed, while last month's presidential elections set a record for voter turnout (nearly 84 percent), many registered voters took yesterday off like any other sunny Sunday in June "setting a record for voter abstention (39.5 percent).

In fairness to those absentees, the Socialists looked like they'd taken a hike, too. Acrimonious squabbling among contenders for party leadership began live on television minutes after Sarkozy's election was announced, and the current Party SecretaryFrançois Hollande soon stopped talking victory and started warning against the dangers if the left faced a "crushing" defeat.

In the event, the Socialists themselves might have done worse yesterday. The party's 24.7 percent of the vote is actually better than it did in the first rounds of the two previous legislative elections. But the minor left-wing parties that used to fall into line behind the Socialists did miserably, so the left as a whole is likely to be insignificant on the floor of the National Assembly.

It's official: France now has the hairiest government in recent memory. While previous government leaders have tended to grayness and baldness, President Nicolas Sarkozy has brought change on the follicular as well as the political front. It's not that Sarkozy, 52, has the thickest coif on the planet. Long gone are the lengthy hippy-era locks of his youth, replaced first by a curly little '70s nest and more recently by a more efficient and candidate-like Brillo wave. That said, by France's thin and pasted-back presidential standards (set during World War II), Sarkozy might as well be Samson himself.

His Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, 53, also has an acceptable little broom of hair. (No, he can't compare with the heroic salt-and-pepper-mane-in-the-breeze of his predecessor Dominique de Villepin, but who can?) Unfortunately, Fillon decided to trim down his traditionally side-parted flop into a schoolboy snip, circa 1954, upon being named to his new gig. But they are just the starting point in a government of 15 mostly next-generation ministers, many of whom came of age in the late 1960s.