ira

Hi all,

I thought that this comment from http://tinyurl.com/22pajz
was interesting:

"Sarkozy and Royal .... infiltrated the political system from the outside — Royal as a woman, Sarkozy as the son of a Hungarian immigrant".

Two outsiders, eh?

Sarkozy was born in Paris. His mother's ancestry is decidedly French. He was first elected to public office 30 years ago. He was appointed Budget Minister in 1993. He has been a member of the Cabinet since 2002.

Royal is a graduate of the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA). She went to work for Mitterand in 1982. She was first elected to Parliament in 1988, and has been an MP for 12 years, ans is a former Cabinet Minister. She is currently a Regional President. Her long-time partner (civil union) is head of the Socialist Party.

PatrickLondon

A bit of loose journalism, but they both won their nomination rather against the apparent wishes of their parties' official leaderships.

ira

Hi PL,

>they both won their nomination rather against the apparent wishes of their parties' official leaderships. <

Possibly.

However, R lives with her party's chairman and S was the heir apparent until Chirac got mad at him.

Toupary

But it was years ago that Chirac got angr y with him, after the "histoire" between him and Chirac's daughter. On the other hand, Mme Chirac has come out in support of him.

PalenQ

ttt

NorthShore

Sarkozy is France's only hope. If Royal gets in power, the game is up - a slow decline into chaos.

robjame

" the game is up - a slow decline into chaos"

Isn't that statement just a little extreme. At best it could do with a little explanation.

kerouac

I remember hearing that in 1981. I therefore wonder why the stock market has always done better under Socialist governments than when the Gaullists (ha! what an inappropriate term!) were in power.

NorthShore

France has low economic growth, high, rising unemployment and massive social welfare benefits to maintain.

Its losing jobs to cheaper labor markets. Unions will not allow changes to hiring practices.

Need I say more? The word "decline" does come to mind. Its a fantasy to think a timid leftist will change all that mess.

Christina

I don't think you understand France if you don't believe that one can be an "outsider", even though born in Paris and having one French parent. Try telling that to all the North African immigrants. Same for being a woman in high political office. France was one of the very last European countries to give women the vote, for one thing due to societal views and pressure against women having the right to vote from the Catholic church which used to meddle a lot in French politics (as well as many other countries, of course) and had a lot of influence on that country. They still have many Catholic holidays as official national holidays, for example. It took WWII to give them the vote.

Michael

NorthShore,

So Germany must really be in the dumps because according to the yesterday's NYTimes' Business Section, France's economic growth was better than Germany's, but not as good as England's. A previous report of a couple months ago stated that France attracted more foreign investments than any other EU country.

kerouac

Swiss TV:

18h15, de Paris. Information sourcée. Le score des quatre premiers candidats s'inscrirait dans les fourchettes suivantes:
N. Sarkozy: 26 à 30%
S. Royal: 23 à 27%
F. Bayrou: 16 à 20%
J.-M. Le Pen: 11 à 14%
ATTENTION, CE NE SONT QUE DES TENDANCES ISSUES DE SONDAGES ET NON DU DEPOUILLEMENT DES BULLETINS!

NorthShore

Not good enough to counter 10% unemployment (22% in young workers), reverse budget deficits and still pay high welfare benefits. Don't mix apples and oranges unless you are making a fruit salad. Which might be the case if Royal wins and its more of the same.

I think opinion polls also show the majority of the french people hink France is in a decline. Ask the depressed people living in the high rise slums outside of Paris what they think?

Michael

According to the article, the unemployment rate is at 7.6% (25 to 49 year old), but for those under 25 it still is above 21%.

kerouac

Nicolas Sarkozy opposé à Ségolène Royal au 2e tour de la présidentielle, selon les premiers sondages

Le 2e tour de l'élection présidentielle française devrait opposer Nicolas Sarkozy et Ségolène Royal, selon des sondages réalisés à la sortie des urnes. Selon l'institut CSA, ils sont à égalité, récoltant tous deux 26% des voix. Le candidat de l'extrême droite JeanMarie Le Pen (Front national) recueillerait 17% des suffrages, contre 16% au centriste François Bayrou (UDF). Selon l'Institut Ipsos, Nicolas Sarkozy arrive en tête avec 27,5%, contre 26% à Ségolène Royal. J-M.Le Pen récolterait lui 17% contre 16% à F.Bayrou. Les médias français n'ont pas le droit de diffuser ces chiffres avant 20h00. (SWISS TXT)

robjame

Speaking of fruit salads - NS - France might actually fare quite well if compared to the US using the same calculation for unemployment rates. You are well-aware of the spin done there.

kerouac

You mean like the fact that 2% of the US population is in prison and therefore not unemployed?

Michael

Not only not unemployed, but providing a lot of jobs (the California Correctional Officer's Union is <b>very</b> powerful).

NorthShore

Maybe all those cars and busses might not get torched every night if a few of your french bad boys were behind bars, no?

Still, add the 2% in prison to our 4% unemployment rate and its still 2-4% less than France's.

Go ahead and point away at other countries if it makes you feel better, but that distraction still doesn't mean France is not in big trouble.

kerouac

I hadn't even thought of that angle. In any case, the more people you throw in jail, the less unemployment. That's sensational. No wonder China is doing so well economically.