French reaction: Similarities between the French and German economies and domestic politics are so strong that French politicians took the results of the German election almost personally.
Angela Merkel's poorer than expected performance at the polls was perceived here as a lesson for Nicolas Sarkozy, the reforming economic liberal, interior minister and president of the right-wing UMP who intends to be France's next president.
Mr Sarkozy often says: "French people are not afraid of change; they expect it." He advocates a clean break with the French social model of high taxation and a wide social safety net. Until very recently, British diplomats here gloated at the probability that three like-minded politicians - Sarkozy, Merkel and Blair - would lead Europe's three most powerful countries from 2007.
But Ms Merkel's predicament may make Mr Sarkozy more cautious. Despite his high popularity ratings, commentators yesterday asked whether French voters, like their Germans counterparts, actually fear change and are attached to their social model.
Patrick Devedjian, Mr Sarkozy's political adviser, attempted to minimise the damage in an interview with Libération. Ms Merkel's fiscal measures "were much distorted by [ her economic adviser and would-be finance minister] Paul Kirchof", who failed to "educate" people properly, Mr Devedjian said. The lesson for the UMP was more "one of method than of substance".
Michèle Alliot-Marie, the defence minister and a Chirac loyalist, said: "The Germans responded in a way that certainly doesn't make it possible to establish a totally liberal economic model."