Perfect example of the pettiness and stupidity of the Left: Socialist paper attacks Royal for not being Left enough, against neo-con Warmonger

Weazl officially says this article contains many stupid points of view

Sarkozy’s electoral victory and the bankruptcy of the French “left”

By Peter Schwarz

The election of right-wing Gaullist politician Nicolas Sarkozy as French president has shocked many people in France and Europe.

One recalls the mood of euphoria two years ago when French voters rejected the European constitution. The same population forced the withdrawal of the unpopular “First Job Contract” (CPE) through a series of protests and demonstrations just one year ago.

At the time various petty bourgeois “left” organisations declared that these movements had rendered the policies of the Chirac government “illegitimate and disavowed.” Now was the time to develop “a common movement which is able to take on the employers directly and question the entire neo-liberal policy” (Statement by the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire [LCR—Revolutionary Communist League])

Now, less than a year later, a man is taking over as president whose right-wing convictions are beyond dispute—he is an ideological ally of US president George W. Bush and the former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar. Sarkozy wants to revive the values of order, performance and reward, and regards himself as the man to deal once and for all with the heritage of the 1968 protest generation. The international business press has enthusiastically welcomed his election. They expect him to finally dismantle the French welfare state, slash the jobs of many of the country’s five million civil servants, cut pensions, make the labor market more ‘flexible’—and contrary to his predecessors—not give way to pressure from the streets.

How was it possible for this noxious politician to collect 19 million votes and emerge as the victor in an election characterized by an extraordinarily high voter turnout?

For the Socialist Party (PS) and media the answer is clear: French voters are to blame. The latter, so goes the argument, have moved to the right and Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal did not follow them fast and far enough. As former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn put it on the evening of the election, the Socialist Party had so far missed its chance to carry out a “social-democratic renewal” along the lines of the German Social Democratic Party at its notorious Bad Godesberg conference. In particular, the PS had neglected voters from the “centre”

This explanation ignores social reality and fails to identify the profound social contradictions behind the election result. The “voters of the centre” are an abstraction. The middle classes in France, as elsewhere, are enormously polarized. For a long time they constituted the social glue which bound together social extremes. However, under the effects of the globalization a majority has descended into the proletariat, while a small minority has been able to climb its way upward.

The classic member of the middle class—the craftsmen, farmer, landlord and little businessmen—confronts many of the same problems today as the average worker. The same applies to the urban middle class. The days when a university degree guaranteed a career and a regular income are long gone. Now it is common in France to encounter the temporary worker with a university degree, or the academic who moves from a work placement center to a part-time job and then a short-term contract.

There is no reflection of this social polarization in official politics. While broad sections of workers and young people have been radicalized and have protested time and time against social ills, the Socialist Party and its allies have intervened to sabotage their struggles, spread disappointment and demoralization and thereby paved the way for Sarkozy. His success has far less to do with his own strengths than it does with the bankruptcy of the “left,” its abject inability to present a progressive social alternative.

Strauss-Kahn notwithstanding, the French Socialist Party has long since put its ‘Bad Godesberg conversion’ behind it. It is a bourgeois party, which defends the capitalist order. Into the 1970s, it did this through the means of social compromise, or rather, the promise of social compromise.

Since then, however, pressure from international financial markets and the effects of globalization have wiped out the basis for any policy based on social compromise. Under the presidency of François Mitterrand and the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin one promise after another was broken Social gains were slashed, unemployment stagnated at around ten percent, incomes sank and living conditions in the suburbs became increasingly intolerable.

The first to profit was the extreme right National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen. With the help of an electoral reform introduced by Mitterrand, his party was regularly able to notch up two-digit election results.

The recent election campaign of Ségolène Royals represented a new low-point for the Socialist Party. Groomed by her public relations advisors, the PS candidate posed as a mixture of a female version of Sarkozy and Alice in Wonderland. She competed with Sarkozy when it came to professions of loyalty to national identity and tough action against juvenile offenders, while at the same time making all sorts of windy promises. She began every second sentence of her speeches with the words “I want”: “I want France tomorrow to be calm country, which believes in itself, where all Frenchmen have a place, and love it,” “I want to take the best from each epoch, to reinvent the France of tomorrow,” and so on.

Royal did not care to explain how her wishes were to be fulfilled. Why should anyone have believed her? 1.6 million unfilled voting cards from a total of 36 million voters indicates that many took part in the election, though they doubtless found it hard to decide between the candidates Some chose to elect Sarkozy, whose program was not attractive, but at least promised change.

According to election analyses Sarkozy received the same number of votes from workers as Royal, with 53 percent of workers in the private sector voting for the Gaullist candidate. He also won 57 percent of those between 25 to 34 years. He had the support of 77 percent of all self-employed, as well as 68 percent of pensioners over the age of 70.

Royal, on the other hand, was only able to win a majority amongst young voters under 24 (60 percent) and those voters who will be directly affected by Sarkozy’s election. In the public sector, where Sarkozy has announced plans for substantial job cuts, 57 percent voted for Royal, who also had the support of 75 percent of unemployed persons. Some 58 percent of students also voted for the SP candidate.

Do the millions of votes from workers and young voters for Sarkozy mean agreement with his program? It would be absurd to draw this conclusion. The election was characterized by a fundamental contradiction. On the hand, there is a broad interest and urge to participate in political life—expressed in the well-attended election meetings and the high voter turnout. On the other hand, the electorate was confronted with two candidates with right-wing bourgeois programs, who differed from one another much more in style than in substance.

The bankruptcy of the official “left” has created a dangerous situation. Sarkozy is the most reactionary politician to assume the post of French president since the end of the Vichy regime in World War II. There can be no doubt that he takes the threats he has made seriously. This is not just bound up with his notorious fiery temperament, but also the enormous pressure being exerted by the employer’s federations and financial circles.

Sarkozy has already announced that he intends to reintroduce the rejected European constitution in a slightly modified form and without a new referendum. On May 17 he is expected to name the former labor minister François Fillon as his prime minister. Fillon’s attempts to ‘reform’ the French pension system four years ago brought millions of public and private sector workers into the streets in protest. Two years later, in his role as education minister, Fillon provoked renewed protests from students.

According to the head of his election campaign team, Claude Guéant, Sarkozy is also contemplating bringing “left” ministers into his cabinet to draw the Socialist Party into his attacks on the working class.

For its part, the working class must prepare for inevitable clashes with Sarkozy and his government by drawing the lessons from the bankruptcy of the Socialist Party and its allies. It must take up the struggle against Sarkosy on the basis of an international socialist program, which proceeds from the incompatibility of the existing forms of capitalist relations with the basic needs and requirements of working people. To this end workers require a new independent socialist party.

The French left radical parties—the LCR and Lutte Ouvrière—systematically seek to prevent such a development. Both organizations called for a vote for Royal in the second round and have now reacted to her defeat in the manner of shocked opportunists. Both act as if nothing significant has happened, refuse to make a political balance sheet of the elections and return to business as usual.

In her statement on the election result, Arlette Laguiller of Lutte Ouvrière blithely declares, “For the next five years the broad masses will have to put up with the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy and one or more governments, which carry out social policies in line with those of the government of the last five years.” She does not dream of questioning the legitimacy of a presidency who owes his post entirely too the bankruptcy of the official left.

She calls upon her supporters to “Keep their heads up,” and comforts them with the thought that “we would have had to fight if Ségolène Royal had been elected, to ensure that things perhaps changed even a little in our favor. It will be the same with Nicolas Sarkozy and the struggle will be the same.”

On election night Olivier Besancenot (LCR) made the call for a “united front of all social and democratic forces” In the name of unity such an alliance—in reality, the LCR in a pact with the Communist Party, the trade unions and other reliable props of the bourgeois order—would sabotage any struggle against Sarkozy and his government. Any serious confrontation would inevitably develop into a struggle for power and such a struggle is firmly rejected by both LO, LCR and the trade union bureaucracies they support.

Original article posted here.

weazl's lady resorting to fearmongering. A sign of desperation, not a way to win voters (in this case) and not the moral highground

France's Royal warns of violence if Sarkozy wins

By Anna Willard and Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS (Reuters) - Socialist candidate Segolene Royal said on Friday France risked plunging into brutality and violence if right-wing frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday's presidential election.

With opinion polls showing Sarkozy increasing his lead ahead of the second round run-off, Royal sought to raise the stakes on the last day of official campaigning, accusing her opponent of lying and manipulating the media.

"I think that choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice. I do not want France to shift towards a system of brutality," Royal told RTL radio.

Opinion polls have shown Sarkozy building a commanding lead against Royal following a fiery television debate between the two on Wednesday night, when he questioned whether she had the right temperament to become president.

A TNS Sofres poll published on Friday showed him at 54.5 percent, compared to 45.5 percent for the Socialist, while an IPSOS poll put him on 54 percent against 46 percent for Royal.

Refusing to concede defeat, Royal warned of potential violence in the suburbs if her rival won, accusing him of polarizing France during his time as interior minister in the outgoing conservative government.

Sarkozy has presented himself as a tough crime-buster, but she said street violence had risen in recent years, adding her opponent could no longer set foot in some high-rise suburbs for fear of provoking a riot.

"When a candidate has so much nerve to tell lies and counter-truths and cannot even go everywhere in the country, then yes, I think this candidature is a risk."

Sarkozy laughed off her comments.

"She's not in a good mood this morning. It must be the opinion polls," he told Europe 1 radio, sounding relaxed but refusing to cry victory ahead of Sunday evening when voting stations close.

Campaigning must end at midnight on Friday ahead of voting in some of France's overseas territories on Saturday. The rest of the nation will vote on Sunday.

Both candidates have tried to appeal to voters of other parties to boost their scores ahead of the ballot.

Royal is to spend Friday in Brittany, in western France, where she will be hoping to win over any undecided voters who could help her close the gap with her rival and make her France's first woman president.

Sarkozy, who has topped every opinion poll since leading in the first round vote on April 22, will visit the Alps.

Original article posted here.

weazl's suspicions confirmed: Debate did not help Sego, but Sarko

Sarkozy stays ahead after TV presidential debate

By James Mackenzie

PARIS (Reuters) - French conservative Nicolas Sarkozy outshone his Socialist rival Segolene Royal in a televised debate, boosting his position as clear favorite to win Sunday's presidential election, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.

Socialists attacked the Opinionway poll for the conservative daily Le Figaro and most media judged Wednesday's debate a draw.

The poll showed 53 percent of viewers found Sarkozy more convincing in the debate against 31 percent for Royal.

In a sometimes fiery exchange, Royal was surprisingly pugnacious in taking on a generally restrained Sarkozy but neither candidate delivered any of the kind of lethal oneliners or gaffes likely to sway voters decisively.

"Each camp will celebrate its champion and deride the adversary," said the daily Le Parisien.

The influential daily Le Monde said the debate was unlikely to turn the campaign round and said the "disappointing" exchange gave little sense of the way forward for France.

But it gave a cautious endorsement of Royal, saying victory would give her the authority to renew the left in France. "It's a gamble. For the country, it's worth trying," Le Monde's editor Jean-Marie Colombani wrote.

Sarkozy, who has led in more than 100 opinion polls since the start of the year, said he did not believe the debate would change the pattern of the campaign.

"I don't think everything is decided by a debate, however much of a media event it may be," he told RTL radio.

An opinion poll published late on Wednesday put Sarkozy's support at 53.5 percent against 46.5 for Royal, with 86 percent saying they will not change their minds before the May 6 vote.

Royal denied the race was as good as over. "Opinion polls don't decide elections," she told France Inter radio.

The directors of her campaign team issued a statement, denouncing the Opinionway poll, the first issued on the debate, and asked "Who profits from a survey like this?"

PEAK AUDIENCE

The first and only debate in the election race was watched by a peak audience of 23.1 million viewers, more than half of France's 44.5 million voters.

One important viewer, centrist Francois Bayrou, who took third place in the first round of the election and whose 7 million voters could play a key role, appeared to favor Royal.

"I will not vote for Sarkozy," Le Monde quoted him saying.

Royal, often seen as a stilted speaker, attacked Sarkozy from the start, while the often abrasive former interior minister was at pains to restrain his gladiatorial instincts which delight his supporters but often alienate neutrals.

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, one of the two journalists who moderated the debate, said Sarkozy was visibly holding back and left "not annoyed, a bit disappointed perhaps."

The Opinionway survey found Royal had done better on the environment and social issues, but on most others, ranging from the economy to jobs, security and foreign policy, Sarkozy was judged better by a clear majority.

Polls show that more people consider Sarkozy has the stature to be president, while Royal, seen as nicer and more caring, has faced repeated questions in the media over her competence.

Her combative performance in the debate may have removed some doubts about her ability to take on France's highest office but Sarkozy's lead means she still has a mountain to climb.

"To get back to his level, Segolene Royal would have had to achieve the impossible," conservative daily Le Figaro said. "But we're a long way from that."

Original article posted here.

weazl's French lady loses her cool, Bayrou supports her anyway. The plot thickens.

Candidates spar vigorously as French vote nears


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By Elaine Sciolino

PARIS: He accused her of losing her cool. She accused him of lacking compassion.

Nicolas Sarkozy on the right and Ségolène Royal on the left went after each other Wednesday evening in the kind of vivid confrontation that has disappeared from the American scene, where the candidates avoid one another as much as possible.

The two-and-a-half-hour televised debate could determine the outcome of the French presidential election on Sunday.

At times, the candidates seemed like they were more in a local race than vying for the presidency of a nuclear power with the sixth-largest economy. Iraq and France's relationship with the United States, for example, never came up. Domestic issues, like the wisdom of the 35-hour workweek, public spending for the police and hospitals, and fighting crime took up more time than how to shape the identity of France.

Sarkozy, 52, the son of a Hungarian immigrant with minor aristocratic roots, and Royal, 53, the daughter of a career army officer, faced different challenges. Sarkozy had to avoid looking like a sexist bully; Royal had to prove herself presidential.

Sarkozy, the former interior and finance minister, had to fight off the demon that has tormented him: his image as an authoritarian figure with a volatile temper. For Royal, the debate was her last chance to turn around polls that consistently put Sarkozy in the lead.

The two candidates are competing for the nearly seven million voters who chose the centrist third-place candidate, François Bayrou, in the first round. Bayrou has refused to endorse either candidate.

Another variable is whether the nearly four million voters who voted for the far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the first round will heed his call to "abstain en masse," a move that could pull votes away from Sarkozy.

Royal, aware that this was her chance to prove that she is of greater substance than her critics paint her, was on the offensive from the start, repeatedly interrupting Sarkozy with the line, "Let me finish."

Sarkozy kept his temper in check, speaking more slowly and in a more modulated voice than usual.

Toward the end of the debate, Royal became agitated during a discussion of educating disabled children. She argued that the right had undone the good work that the left had been trying to do, and cast Sarkozy's position as "the height of political immorality."

She accused him of playing the compassion card even though his government had not delivered needed services, indignantly telling him he had described the plight of handicapped children "with a tear in your eye."

Sarkozy grabbed the opportunity to bore in on his point that she could not lead France in such a temperamental fashion.

"Calm down," he told her.

"No, I will not calm down," she replied.

"Do not point at me with this finger, with this——" he said.

"No. Yes," she said.

"With this index finger pointed, because frankly——"

"No, I will not calm down," she said. "No, I will not calm down. I will not calm down."

"To be president of the republic, you have to be calm," he said.

She responded: "Not when there are injustices. There are angers that are perfectly healthy because they correspond to people's suffering. There are angers I will have——"

He said, "Madame Royal, would you allow me to say one word?"

She finished her sentence: "Even when I am president of the republic."

His voice took on a patronizing tone. "I don't know why the usually calm Madame Royal has lost her nerve," he said.

Sarkozy repeatedly tried to paint Royal as uninformed. She tried to paint him as overbearing. There was equal-time interruption.

Making this race even more compelling, political analysts were divided on who had "won" the debate, Ségo or Sarko, as they call them here.

Sarkozy got points for not losing his temper. But Royal's losing her temper caused different reactions. Some found it exhilarating, a sign that the left would not be complacent. Others found it unnerving. No one found it boring.

"Sarkozy has lost," said Dominique Reynié, a professor of political science at Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. "He didn't dominate the debate even though he's been the super-favorite since the beginning."

Nicole Bacharan, a political analyst at the same institute, said: "For me the winner is Sarkozy, it's clear. Ségolène was the challenger. She had more to prove. She was strong but Sarkozy invoked precise facts, in a more pragmatic and less ideological manner."

Royal repeatedly interrupted Sarkozy to get him to stop interrupting her, saying, "Let me finish," and things like, "Please stop interrupting me because I know your strategy really well."

But Sarkozy was also stopped short in mid-sentence over and over.

"Will you let me finish?" he asked at one point.

"No," Royal said.

"Ah," Sarkozy replied.

By midway, Royal's perpetual smile disappeared from her face. Their tone was reminiscent of a couple bickering at the breakfast table, with the husband barely restraining his sense of superiority and the wife attacking him for not listening to her.

"You understand me perfectly but you pretend you don't understand," Royal told her rival.

Even though she has a reputation of being condescending in meetings, she accused him of being condescending. Even though he has the reputation of losing his temper, she was the one who lost her temper during the debate.

During an argument about nuclear power, for example, Royal played schoolteacher, asking Sarkozy, "Do you know how much of electricity consumption in France comes from nuclear power?"

When Sarkozy said it was 50 percent, Royal corrected him, saying it was 17 percent. To that, Sarkozy replied, "No, Madame, that is not correct."

She lectured him "Go do your homework."

He argued back, "I may not be very informed about the issue, but I'm consistent."

Indeed, both were wrong: the answer is close to 80 percent.

Even though her attempt to appeal directly to women has not resonated, Royal pressed many women's issues throughout the debate.

She raised the case of a police officer who was raped recently in a Paris suburb because, Royal said, the money had been cut for her to have a partner.

She proposed retirement benefits for stay-at-home mothers. She described "choosing to raise one's children as, after all, the most beautiful profession."

Royal, who has often been accused of making factual errors, struggled to prove she was right.

"Let's go to the bitter end on every issue," she said. She also said, "I know all the topics well."

While they were speaking about the economy, she summed up her philosophy of leadership, saying, with a little smile, "I will be the president of what works."

Sarkozy replied, caustically, "People don't vote for us to go complicate what works, but on the contrary, to fix what doesn't."

Still, Sarkozy was gracious at the end, expressing his respect for Royal's "talent and competence." But she kept her distance, saying, "I abstain from personal judgments."

Original article posted here.

GOOD NEWS, however, Bayrou says "I will not vote for Sarkozy"

François Bayrou, à l'issue du duel télévisé : "Je ne voterai pas pour Sarkozy"

Ce débat, il aurait tant aimé en être un des deux protagonistes. Il s'était tellement persuadé que lui seul aurait été en mesure de prendre le dessus sur Nicolas Sarkozy. Alors, à l'issue du duel télévisé qu'il a regardé dans son bureau en compagnie d'une dizaine de proches, François Bayrou préfère s'abstenir de tout commentaire. Tout juste consentira-t-il – "en triple off" – qu'"elle s'en est plutôt bien sortie".


Le candidat centriste, qui a recueilli 18,57 % des suffrages au premier tour, s'était refusé, lors de sa conférence de presse du 25 avril, à donner toute consigne de vote entre les deux finalistes. Sur son propre choix, il était resté allusif : "A l'heure qu'il est, je ne sais pas ce que je ferai, mais je commence à savoir ce que je ne ferai pas", s'était-il contenté d'indiquer, tout en se laissant la possibilité de dire, "à titre personnel", pour qui il voterait, en fonction de l'évolution de la campagne électorale.

Sollicité par Le Monde, mercredi soir, M. Bayrou a assuré qu'il ne ferait "probablement pas" de déclaration avant le second tour. Il précisait toutefois : "Je ne voterai pas pour Sarkozy."

Cette fois-ci, il exprime donc explicitement son refus d'apporter son soutien à celui dont il considère qu'"il risque d'aggraver les déchirures du tissu social". Une position qui va à l'encontre du choix exprimé par la majeure partie des élus de l'UDF, notamment ses députés, qui se sont prononcés en faveur du candidat de la droite.

Seul Gilles Artigues, député (UDF) de la Loire, qui a annoncé qu'il voterait blanc au second tour, avait réagi dès l'issue du débat entre les deux finalistes. "On nous avait tellement dit que Nicolas Sarkozy dominerait le débat de la tête et des épaules que la prestation de Ségolène Royal constitue une réelle surprise", note l'adjoint au maire de Saint-Etienne, qui se félicite de "la reprise, par les deux candidats, de nombreux thèmes soutenus par François Bayrou". Pour M.Artigues, "ce débat a fait réapparaître l'affrontement stérile entre la droite et la gauche" et "renforcé [son] choix de vote blanc, malgré les pressions et les risques".

"L'UDF n'est pas un culbuto"

Jeudi matin, Anne-Marie Comparini, députée (UDF) du Rhône, interrogée sur RCF Lyon, a adopté une position identique. "Ce que j'ai entendu hier soir me confirme dans l'idée qu'il faut une troisième force libre et ni de droite ni de gauche, a estimé l'ancienne présidente de la région Rhône-Alpes. L'UDF n'est pas un culbuto qui va d'un côté ou de l'autre. Vous le savez, à l'UDF nous n'avons pas de consignes de vote. Mon vote sera donc strictement personnel. C'est un vote blanc qui signifie que ce n'est pas dans l'affrontement mais dans le rassemblement que la France se remettra d'aplomb."

Maigre consolation pour M. Bayrou, qui ne décolère pas du soutien apporté par la plupart des députés UDF à M.Sarkozy pour le second tour. Un ralliement dont le candidat de l'UMP n'a pas manqué de se prévaloir, mercredi, au cours du débat télévisé, assurant que, "dans la majorité, nos amis de l'UDF ont toute leur place". "D'ailleurs j'observe avec beaucoup de plaisir que la quasi-totalité des parlementaires et des élus de l'UDF m'ont rejoint", s'est-il félicité.

M. Bayrou, plus encore que du "lâchage" de ses élus, s'exaspère des "manœuvres de débauchage" entreprises par le président de l'UMP et ses "affidés". Au lendemain de son élimination au premier tour, il espérait tout à la fois peser sur un processus de recomposition politique et renforcer son groupe parlementaire. Les 6,8 millions de voix qu'il avait recueillies devaient suffire, à ses yeux, à lui assurer la reconnaissance de ses élus.

Si chacun jure de sa "fidélité" au président de l'UDF et de son soutien à la constitution d'un Parti démocrate, M. Bayrou a mal digéré les "effusions" avec lesquelles certains d'entre eux ont accompagné leur ralliement de second tour. "Ils n'étaient pas obligés", observe un proche du candidat centriste.

Après une semaine pendant laquelle il a continué à occuper le devant de la scène, ces défections massives ont renvoyé M. Bayrou à un isolement dont il pensait être sorti. Mercredi soir, il n'y avait pas un seul député dans son bureau pour suivre le débat

Original article posted here.

Flashback to days gone by -- 14 years ago Sarkozy - Royal debate

Exclusive Debate Preview

Tomorrow night at 9:00pm (3:00pm EST) Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal will debate on live French television; the International Herald Tribune has a preview. But this won't be the first time these two candidates have come face to face on TV:

When they debated in a TV studio in 1993 they were both political youngsters. The resulting "don't speak to me like that!" outburst from Royal can now be watched on the Internet. She compared him to a "steamroller" and said, "All the television viewers can see that what you are saying is completely off-base!"

But both are formidable talkers, equally combative and prone to override television interviewers who try to butt in. But it would likely require a complete loss of cool, major mistakes or a blatantly misogynistic attack by Sarkozy — which all seem very unlikely from a now seasoned, media-savvy campaigner — for Wednesday's debate to significantly boost Royal's chances of being elected the first woman president of France. (...)

Aides of Royal and Sarkozy organized Wednesday's debate down to the smallest detail. The candidates will face off for two hours, seated at a wooden table and filmed by at least eight cameras. They drew lots to see who will sit where. Fittingly, chance put Royal on the left of the TV screen, and Sarkozy on the right

Original article posted here.

It may be an uphill battle for weazl's French choice

TV debate last chance for desperate Royal

(But she definitely is winning the award for best use of internet technology)

SEGOLENE Royal, the left-wing finalist for the French presidency, has appeared to acknowledge that she needed a near-miracle from a debate on Wednesday to save her from defeat next Sunday by the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.

As opinion polls showed Mr Sarkozy maintaining a five-point lead over the 53-year-old Socialist, Ms Royal threw caution to the winds and said that she could appoint François Bayrou, the centrist who was eliminated on April 22, as her prime minister.

Ms Royal needs most of Mr Bayrou’s seven million voters from the first round if she is to have a chance of defeating Mr Sarkozy, leader of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, on May 6.

On Saturday she held a friendly televised debate with the defeated candidate in which she appealed across party lines. She recognised the challenge facing her yesterday as Mr Sarkozy rallied 40,000 supporters in a show of strength at a Paris stadium.

"It is difficult, because I think there have been 200 polls saying that Nicolas Sarkozy is going to win, but voters are free," she said on Canal+ television.

:He is going to have to accept debate and especially account for his past actions," she added.

The pair are to meet in their only debate of the campaign on Wednesday evening. About 20 million people are expected to watch.

French presidential debates, staged since 1974 in the days before the run-off, have a history of turning the tide.

Ms Royal’s team are hoping that as a woman she can unsettle Mr Sarkozy, 52, whose weak point is a hot temper and a tendency to bully.

Mr Sarkozy said on television that he rejected the male chauvinist idea that debating with a woman was different from a man.

"You should not reduce Mme Royal to her femininity – as great as hers is," he said. "She is a politician. The question for the French is not whether to have a man or a woman but to have someone who measures up to the job."

While Mr Sarkozy avoids personal attacks on Ms Royal, his women aides are ridiculing her.

Warming up Mr Sarkozy’s crowd in the Berçy stadium in Paris, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, said: “France does not need someone who changes her ideas as often as she changes skirts," she said.

"She is someone who does not even know who is governing in Afghanistan, has no idea of defence and who sets national energy policy on the back of an envelope."

A CSA poll for Le Parisien reported that 57 per cent believed that Ms Royal was sympathique (likeable) while only 29 per cent held this opinion of Mr Sarkozy.

Meanwhile, 65 per cent found Mr Sarkozy "solid” while only 24 per cent attributed the quality to Ms Royal.

Original article posted here.

A kinda nice Sunday chat

Good moon rising for Sego. Looks like those poll numbers will be shifting quite soon towards the left

Sarkozy in furor over axed debate

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- France's conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to defend himself in a free speech row on Friday after a defeated candidate accused him of stifling a televised election debate.

Francois Bayrou said Sarkozy had subverted basic democratic freedoms of free speech by using his media and business contacts to pull the plug on Saturday's scheduled debate on Canal+ television between him and Socialist challenger Segolene Royal.

Sarkozy retaliated, saying voters were interested in a debate between the two finalists -- him and Royal -- and brushed off Bayrou's comments as sour grapes.

"I think Francois Bayrou must be very disappointed and I put it down to bitterness" at being eliminated on Sunday. "It's pretty insulting towards me, but I don't hold it against him," he told reporters.

Sarkozy's campaign director Claude Gueant gave a more heated response, saying the accusations were a baseless slander and denouncing what he said were "Stalinist tactics" by the centrist Bayrou.

Socialist sources later said Saturday's debate would now be carried by the independent BFMTV channel and its sister radio station RMC radio, though neither broadcaster immediately confirmed the report.

Royal is keen to use the debate to flag shared values between herself and Bayrou, and draw away moderates attracted to Sarkozy's energy and drive but worried by his hardliner image and perceived overarching ambition.

Kingmaker Bayrou

Since his strong showing on Sunday Bayrou has sought to impose himself as a power-broker in the presidential elections and parliamentary polls due in June.

Royal and Sarkozy are scrambling to win over his almost 7 million voters. Royal proposed the debate to assess possible points of convergence with the leader of the small centrist UDF party.

Asked on RTL radio if he was accusing Sarkozy of asking Canal+ television to cancel the debate, Bayrou said: "I don't have the proof but I am certain of it."

Bayrou said he based his accusations on testimony from people inside Canal+ and "all those who were interested in the debate and intended to broadcast it."

"I say with certainty that we have before our eyes today the proof of this propensity or choice of Nicolas Sarkozy to control the news and debate, and this is harmful for France," he said.

Bayrou's accusations could scare off moderate voters drawn to Sarkozy's energy and drive but worried by the former interior minister's strident image and hardline views on crime, immigration and national identity.

Concerned by a gathering "Anyone But Sarkozy" campaign marshalled by leftwing opponents and already stung by Bayrou's sustained attack on their candidate, Sarkozy's camp responded angrily to the centrist's latest salvo.

"It's slander, a slanderous insinuation," said Sarkozy's normally restrained campaign director Gueant. "It is extremely serious to make such remarks. These are Stalinist tactics. To assert things without proof is extremely serious," he told Reuters.

Bayrou has so far ruled out endorsing either candidate, but his criticism of Royal's economic program was soft compared to his withering attacks on Sarkozy.

"I am not here to say how I am going to vote. I said that I would do so, if I had to, later," Bayrou said on RTL.

Sarkozy censorship?

The row began when on Thursday when Canal+ pulled out of a plan to broadcast the Royal-Bayrou debate citing election rules governing equal airtime for candidates ahead of a May 6 run-off between Royal and Sarkozy.

Bayrou campaigned loudly against Sarkozy's links to big business and media groups, notably the main TF1 TV station owned by Martin Bouygues, a close Sarkozy friend who runs the media, construction and telecommunications conglomerate Bouygues.

"I think all the pressures that have taken place, notably within a media-financial system to which Nicolas Sarkozy is very linked, have no reason to exist in a democratic country where freedom of speech and debate is very important," said Royal.

Michel Boyon, chairman of France's broadcasting watchdog said he was outraged by the suggestion his CSA had put pressure on Canal+ to axe the debate and told the parties involved to stop blaming it for their problems.

A statement issued by the watchdog denied it had ordered Canal+ and two other broadcasters to drop the debate.

"There is Sarkozy censorship in this affair, I'm deeply convinced of it. We know that Sarkozy always operates like that, through intimidation," senior Socialist Jean-Marc Ayrault said on LCI television.

Around half of the deputies from Bayrou's UDF party have rallied to Sarkozy's cause, but Ayrault said that was because Sarkozy's UMP party had threatened to run candidates against them in June parliamentary polls unless they backed the UMP leader.

Polls give Sarkozy the edge over Royal but she has narrowed the gap in recent surveys. A TNS Sofres poll this week showed 46 percent of Bayrou's voters support Royal, against 25 percent for Sarkozy and 29 percent who have yet to make up their minds, although other polls have showed support roughly evenly split.

Original article posted here.

Ségolène Royal shines and gains with her debate with Francois Bayrou

Satisfaction unanime au PS après le débat entre Ségolène Royal et François Bayrou

Alors que certaines déclarations de Ségolène Royal en direction des électeurs centristes avaient provoqué des tensions au sein du PS, l'unanimité semble revenu parmi les socialistes, samedi 28 avril, après le débat inédit avec François Bayrou. "Les présents ont tiré avantage de ce dialogue. L'absent aura été le seul perdant", a résumé le premier secrétaire François Hollande, désignant Nicolas Sarkozy.



Alain Krivine entre critique et discipline

Alain Krivine, porte-parole de la LCR, a été critique, voyant dans le débat "un grand compromis entre une partie de la droite et une partie de la gauche, avec un porte-parole du centre-droit et une porte-parole du centre gauche, pour développer des programmes qui sont tout à fait solubles l'un dans l'autre". Interrogé sur France Info, le proche d'Olivier Besancenot a précisé que la LCR ne remettait pas en cause son soutien : "Cela ne change rien à notre consigne de vote qui est de transformer le second tour en un référendum contre Sarkozy." - (Avec AFP)
[-] fermer

"C'était serein et en même temps sans concession", selon Elisabeth Guigou. Très proche de Ségolène Royal, Julien Dray a vu dans le débat avec M. Bayrou "un booster considérable pour la dernière semaine", alors que "l'énervement" domine, selon lui, chez le candidat UMP.

Plus à gauche du PS, le satisfecit est similaire, chez le sénateur Jean-Luc Mélenchon, qui s'était élevé contre l'idée d'une alliance PS-UDF. "Pugnace et convaincante, Ségolène Royal n'a rien cédé sur ses propositions. Il n'a pas été question des ministres UDF et c'est parfait." La candidate PS a démontré "qu'elle avait raison de vouloir ce débat avec François Bayrou", a-t-il ajouté.
"UN MOUVEMENT QUI INVERSE LA PENTE"

Les socialistes se sont aussi réjouis que Ségolène Royal n'ait de nouveau évoqué pendant le débat la possibilité de "ministres UDF". "Elle a clos l'épisode, évité le piège de la confusion, est revenue aux fondamentaux de son pacte, a tenu bon sur ses valeurs économiques et sociales", s'est félicité le fabiusien Claude Bartolone. "Ceux qui auraient voulu mener des procès en sorcellerie sur ce thème en seront pour leurs frais", a dit Julien Dray.

Les membres du PS ont surtout souligné que le débat Royal-Bayrou était défavorable à Nicolas Sarkozy, qui n'a pas mâché ses mots vendredi et samedi, dénonçant les "petits combines" de ses rivaux, occupés à "bavasser" dans un "grand hôtel".

"Il est dans une démarche politique traditionnelle : exclusives, intimidations et débauchages individuels", a estimé François Hollande, fustigeant le "mépris déplacé" de M. Sarkozy. Le candidat UMP "a montré sa vraie nature, toute sa morgue", a renchéri le député strauss-kahnien Jean-Marie Le Guen.

"Non seulement le débat a eu lieu en dépit de lui, non seulement ce débat permet un mouvement qui inverse la pente dans le sens de Ségolène Royal mais de surcroît la candidate socialiste a gagné en crédibilité aux yeux de tous", s'est réjoui Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

VOTRE AVIS

A qui a profité la tenue du débat entre Mme Royal et M. Bayrou ?

Ségolène Royal.	71.9 %
Nicolas Sarkozy.	16.4 %
Ni l'un ni l'autre.	11.7 %

Nombre de votants : 17926

Original article posted here.

Unbelievable Stand Taken by Italian Prime Minister Prodi Supporting Segolene Royal

Romano Prodi : message a Segolene
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For those who understand French, and for those who want to see the media actually asking a candidate relevent questions

Bold move by Romano Prodi; Elections are not just domestic anymore

Prodi To Join France's Royal At Campaign Rally

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi will support France's Segolene Royal at a major rally this week.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi will support France's Segolene Royal at a major rally this week, the presidential candidate said on Tuesday, bringing in the second European leader in a week to bolster her bid.

Socialist Royal, who is lagging her rightist rival Nicolas Sarkozy in polls ahead of the run-off on May 6, said Prodi had offered to join her in the southeastern city of Lyon on Friday.

"It's a very important contribution because we may have to rebuild Europe on a new basis," Royal said of Prodi, who heads a centre-left government in Italy.

Both Sarkozy and Royal need to woo supporters of the centrist candidate who came third in Sunday's first round poll, Francois Bayrou, if they want to triumph in the run-off.

Prodi had praised Bayrou as a "courageous European" ahead of the first round vote. On Monday, he urged Royal to forge an alliance with the centrist, saying: "This would give some clarity and order to the French political scene."

Royal reiterated an offer to Bayrou on Tuesday to take part in a public debate to see if they shared common ground on core policy. Bayrou is due to hold a news conference on Wednesday but allies say he is unlikely to back either candidate.

Prodi's trip to Lyon comes just a week after Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised Royal's qualities at a campaign event in the southern town of Toulouse.

Original article posted here.

Let's go, Ségo

Segolene - Allocution 1er tour Melle
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May the Best Woman Win

France Propels Royal, Sarkozy to Run-Off

By JOHN LEICESTER

PARIS (AP) - Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal appeared headed Sunday to a presidential runoff, preliminary results showed, setting up a stark choice between one of France's most intensely ambitious politicians and a liberal who would be the country's first female leader.

Sarkozy appeared to hold a clear advantage. Preliminary results from the Interior Ministry, based on a count of 21 million votes - or more than 50 percent - had him leading with 30 percent, followed by Royal with 24 percent.

In the May 6 runoff, Sarkozy should be able to count on votes from the far right, whose champion, Jean-Marie Le Pen, suffered one of his worst showings in the five presidential elections he has contested. Preliminary results had him at 11 percent.

Royal can expect support from parties to her left, which swung behind her after their candidates were eliminated.

But the scramble is now on for voters in the middle ground of French politics and others who deserted the left and right in favor of Francois Bayrou, the farmer's son and lawmaker who was one of the campaign's big surprises.

He placed third on Sunday, with 18 percent of the vote, according to the preliminary results. Given Sarkozy's apparent strength, Royal would have to pick up a strong majority of Bayrou's supporters to win.

Either way, France gets its first president born after World War II.

Both Sarkozy, a Hungarian immigrant's son, and Royal, a military officer's daughter who beat Socialist heavyweights to win her party's nomination, have worked hard to get to this point - one step away from taking over one of Europe's biggest economic, military and diplomatic powers.

But France also is a nation deeply troubled, still haunted by riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighborhoods in 2005. Decades of high unemployment, increasing competition from more dynamic economies like China's, and a sense that France is losing influence in the world made this a passionate campaign.

Sarkozy, who last week cited Martin Luther King, told a cheering crowd of supporters Sunday night that he wants to unite the nation around ``a French dream.''

By choosing him and Royal, voters ``clearly marked their wish to go to the very end of the debate between two ideas of the nation, two programs for society, two value systems, two concepts of politics,'' said Sarkozy, a former interior minister.

Royal also said the May 6 vote offered ``a clear choice between two very different paths.''

``France is going to choose its destiny and its face,'' she said. ``I invite you to invent a new France.''

Outside Socialist Party headquarters in Paris, supporters reacted to the result with joy and chants of ``We're going to win!''

``They said 'Sarko' was unbeatable. With a result like that, he's totally beatable,'' said Claude Dorey, a teacher.

The turnout rate was heading over 80 percent, nearing the record of 84.8 percent set for a first round in 1965. The intense interest testified to the high stakes for France and the personalities - inspiring for some, divisive for others - involved in an election that was wrapped in surprises and suspense.

Voters seized on the election as an opportunity to steer their nuclear-armed but anxious nation on a new course, after 12 years under Jacques Chirac, 74, who declined to run.

Many voters also were determined to avoid a repeat of the shame they felt in 2002, when a record low turnout helped Le Pen, an extreme-right nationalist with repeat convictions for anti-Semitic and racist comments, slip through into the runoff. Even voters on the left rallied around the conservative Chirac to keep Le Pen from power in that vote, and he was trounced.

On Sunday, many were determined not to make the same mistake.

``If the French people didn't learn the lesson from last time, then we really are jerks,'' said Corinne Keuter, a 46-year-old secretary who lined up for a half-hour to cast her ballot for Royal in northwest Paris. She said she could not remember having waited so long to vote since Socialist Francois Mitterrand was elected in 1981.

Whatever the final outcome, ``I think this election is going to change things for the better,'' she said. ``In 2002, people didn't seem to care.''

A dejected Le Pen, who accuses both the left and right of leading France toward ruin, reacted to the result with sarcasm.

``I thought the French were rather unhappy ... I was mistaken,'' he said. ``The French are very content. The proof is that they have just re-elected the parties that were in power and that are responsible for the situation of France.''

Original article posted here.