French Elections

[tgwbs]

If you have no interest in French elections, do look away now...

Firstly, and most importantly, Ségolène Royal made it to the second round!

Sarkozy (Right) - 31.18%
Royal (Left) - 25.87%

The next two candidates were François Bayrou, the centrist who astonishingly managed to make it to third place with 18.57%, followed by Le Pen, the far-right

Comments

[rikae311]

What are "altermondialists"?

We don't even have such a thing as a "anti-liberal left"; & to call oneself a communist in the US is considered only slightly less disreputable than calling oneself a Satanist (though both my dad & brother are communists anyway.)

Politicians over there can get away with calling people scum? Haha...

[tgwbs]

Alter is Latin for other, and monde is French for World. An altermondialist is therefore somebody wanting another world. They seem to be a fusion of communist and green.

The UK is the same with the anti-liberal left and the reputation of communism. One of the reasons I like France.

Hurray for communists in America! :D As for you... a socialist is just a communist who hasn't come to terms with it yet. :P

Well... we have yet to see if Sarkozy got away with it. I sincerely hope the "scum" go out and vote in force against him.

[lalwendeboggart]

Well now thanks to your posts I'm taking a real interest in the elections in France now!

To me it looks as though the spectre of fascism is dead now in France - le Pen cannot be long for this world and he was a 'personality' leader. Without him, the NF will fail. Plus such loons tend to underestimate just how much the silent majority (i.e. the ordinary people with seemingly no interest in politics) despise racists and will turn out to vote against them when they look like having a success. I've been telling this to some of the loony BNP supporters in Sheffield (they infect our local forum) but they won't have it. Especially the over 60s remember the war and what Hitler threatened and do not want that to happen ever again.

I'm rambling! Anyway, I hope your analysis on Royal is correct! About time there was a good woman politician who took control!

[tgwbs]

Le Pen is incredibly charismatic - even I like to listen to him, despite hating him. He's just got that gift... the same gift Hitler had, I suppose. I'm not sure if the FN will collapse though; they still have a large share of the French vote, and Le Pen's daughter is meant to be even more charismatic than him.

Ordinary people despising racists... I think France and Britain are culturally divided over this. Racism does seem to be a lot more acceptable to the Right in France. Sarkozy seems to be quite racist for one thing. They also take the whole separation of Church and State thing a bit too far, banning the Hijab in school and all that. Anti-racism is strongly connected to the Left in France.

[lalwendeboggart]

Here's something interesting for you:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2064079,00.html

[tgwbs]

I already read this today at school! :D