April 23, 2007
Sarkozy and Royal in Runoff
France had an election yesterday, and I thought whomever came out on top would win the whole enchilada, but apparently there will now be a runoff between the two top contenders, since it was a multi-party race. From WaPo:
PARIS (Reuters) - French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal went back to the campaign trail on Monday as they battled for votes from the undecided centre ground that will be key to their May 6 runoff.
Sunday's first round ballot set up a classic race between left and right in France after Sarkozy, the conservative former interior minister, scored a resounding win with 31.2 percent against 25.9 percent for the Socialist candidate Royal.
Opinion polls give Sarkozy a firm edge heading into the decisive second round, with between 52-54 percent support against 46-48 percent for Royal.
But the result had both candidates eyeing supporters of centrist Francois Bayrou, who captured 18.6 percent of the vote after a dynamic campaign based on a pledge to sweep aside the ruling elite and overcome traditional political divides.
From everything I've seen, Segolene Royal seems a lot like Mrs. Bill Clinton: looking to be her country's first woman president, big on socialism, big ego...pretty much a nightmare.
Sarkozy will, in my opinion, be the kick in the pants France needs. He "was unapologetic when one of Royal's fellow socialists called him an ''American neo-conservative with a French passport.''' He is also proposing tough immigration law, both by cracking down on illegal immigrants and by setting higher standards for those admitted legally. (Are you listening Mr. Bush?)
Here's what I like best about him:
Unlike most of the French ruling class, Mr Sarkozy did not go to the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, but trained as a lawyer.
See, most of the people who end up in positions of power in France go to the school mentioned above for the sole purpose of entering government, and so don't have any clue as to what the real world and real people are like. It makes me wonder why the French bothered overthrowing their royalty -- it seems as though today's governing group is royalty, but without the fancy titles and crowns to go with it.
But France will get the president it deserves, which means it probably won't be the president I think it should have. I'll be very interested to see who is the final winner on May 6.
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