cigalechanta

of kissing babies and cows-politics, The Ny Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/op...mp;oref=slogin

schuba

LOL ! Do the French really think that monogamy for politicians is overrated?

PatrickLondon

A lot of their politicians do. And they're not the only ones.

PatrickLondon

And for a rather more detailed view try

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/blog/franceprofonde/

They're all manoeuvring around precisely how much change to risk advocating, and how to appear one thing without actually promising it. At least one of Royal's speeches went out of its way to appeal to small business owners who might otherwise vote to the extreme right; Bayrou stood in the middle of a meeting of farmers to tell them the Common Agricultural Policy had to change; Sarkozy just loves telling everyone everything's got to change (he's the nominal conservative, by the way).

PalenQ

In France they have the First Lady (or in Royal's case first significant other) and the First Mistress.

kerouac

Trivial articles like this are not a service to anyone, inside or outside of France.

traveller1959

kerouac:

This is not an article about France, it is an article about USA.

kismetchimera

Actually the article was quite interesting..

kerouac

But did you notice that 75% of the information contained in it is completely untrue, or did you believe what you read?

Toupary

Is this supposed to be funny? What drivel!

Anoukaimee

Segolene or rather her husband Hollande are in the news again. After saying "je n'aime pas les riches" (I do not like the rich) apparently it was found out that they have a house with swimming pool in the village of Mougins, Cote d'Azur, where Picasso also had a house. Talk about socialism!

kerouac

Why don't you say in which year it was bought and how much they paid for it?

Anoukaimee

They bought it years ago, but the scandal arouse when they had to declare its value for tax purposes and they quoted a sum that was like a quarter of its current value. How could one be so naive?

cigalechanta

Anouk , so glad to see you , as you haven't made a film in a long time

kerouac

The value of something that you have no intention of selling is virtual. I personally have no idea how much my apartment in Paris would fetch, although the real estate market is rising at about 20% a year again.

In any case, nobody has spoken of it being a "scandal" in France, just an underestimation. It takes a lot to create a scandal in France. I would have thought that Nicolas Sarkozy's real estate deal was better scandal material. As mayor of Neuilly, he sold a piece of municipal property to a builder for far less than market value and then purchased one of the apartments that was built there for far less than market value. Two years later, he sold the apartment and doubled his money. Has this created a scandal? Not at all!

Pvoyageuse

"The value of something that you have no intention of selling is virtual".

Unfortunately this is not the case with ISF or"Impôt de Solicarité sur la Fortune". If you are taxable, it does not matter whether you are planning to sell you house or not. The tax is very real !

kerouac

Yes, of course, but the value can therefore be quite variable, c.f. Sarkozy.

Pvoyageuse

"es, of course, but the value can therefore be quite variable, c.f. Sarkozy"

The trick is that it is up to the owner and not the tax people to evaluate the house. In both cases I agree that it is a gross underestimation.