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Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement thrashed in regional elections
Times Online ^ | March 22, 2010 | Charles Bremner

Posted on 03/21/2010 5:42:55 PM PDT by Cincinna

A chastened Nicolas Sarkozy will attempt this week to relaunch his presidency after voters yesterday vented their unhappiness by thrashing his centre-right party in elections for regional councils.

The Socialist opposition and its Green allies won an estimated 55 per cent of the vote compared with about 37 per cent for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), according to exit polls. However, they failed to score the clean sweep that they had hoped against Mr Sarkozy's camp in the voting for the 22 regional councils of mainland France and Corsica.

UMP supporters who abstained in the first round of the elections on March 14 returned to the polls and saved Alsace, a right-wing stronghold and the only mainland region that the party already controlled. The Socialists captured Corsica from the Right, but lost La Réunion, the Indian Ocean island that is one of France's four overseas regions.

Senior UMP figures acknowledged that their party had been punished by voters in a test of the Sarkozy administration.

François Fillon, the Prime Minister, acknowledged that France had rebuffed the governing party. “The French are worried. They fear the loss of a way of life that is European. Our welfare protection is threatened, they say. But it is not threatened by our reforms. Without the reforms we can no longer pay for our way of life.”

"This is a real defeat for us. That's reality," Jean-François Copé, the UMP parliamentary leader, said. The far-right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen took an impressive 17.5 per cent, eating mainly into the UMP's votes in the 12 regions where it was competing against the two big blocs. This confirmed that FN supporters who had backed Mr Sarkozy for his tough law-and-order line in the 2007 presidential election, had returned to the hardline, anti-immigrant fold.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: france; frenchelections; lepen; sarkozy

1 posted on 03/21/2010 5:42:55 PM PDT by Cincinna
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To: Cincinna; nctexan; MassachusettsGOP; paudio; ronnie raygun; Minette; fieldmarshaldj; untenured; ...

*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***

Isn’t this what always happens when you betray your own conservative principles?

To be fair, Sarko has attempted to pull the French screaming and yelling out of a top heavy 19th century bureaucratic relic of a government. The French do not like change.

The winners: Martine Aubry leading the PS Socialist Party and allies with 55% to victory, but not the clean sweep she hoped for.

Nicolas Sarkozy and parties on the Right with 37%.

Jean-Marie le Pen, leader of the extreme far Right National Front, neo-fascist,anti-semitic, and extremely anti-American party. The FN got 17%.


2 posted on 03/21/2010 5:51:35 PM PDT by Cincinna (TIME TO REBUILD * DANIELS * RYAN * 2012)
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To: Cincinna

So that is a total of 72% for the anti-American parties? Bring back ‘freedom fries’.


3 posted on 03/21/2010 6:03:48 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.-- Idylls of the King)
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To: Cincinna
The far-right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen took an impressive 17.5 per cent, eating mainly into the UMP's votes in the 12 regions where it was competing against the two big blocs. This confirmed that FN supporters who had backed Mr Sarkozy for his tough law-and-order line in the 2007 presidential election, had returned to the hardline, anti-immigrant fold.

Immigration and the preservation of French culture and history will increasingly be the issue. And not only in France but all over Europe.

4 posted on 03/21/2010 8:24:42 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Cincinna

Come again? 55% + 37% + 17% = 109%
Did they vote in Chicago?


5 posted on 03/21/2010 10:17:38 PM PDT by monkeyshine
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To: kabar

The problem with France and Europe is that such things aren’t fit for polite parties. Hence the fascist parties benefit from the unwillingness to address them.


6 posted on 03/21/2010 10:20:52 PM PDT by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for, it matters who takes office.)
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To: AmishDude

The same thing is happening here. Anyone who questions why we continue to bring in 1.2 million legal immigrants a year, the vast majority of whom are poor and undeducated are called racists, bigots, and nativists. Who benefits? The facist Democrats who are using this never ending supply of voters to make them the permanent majority. Demography is destiny.


7 posted on 03/22/2010 5:42:23 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Cincinna

Sarko pushed his Carbon tax, fortunately it didn’t get passed. The French were in shock! A new tax!
Sarko pushed controls on downloading which was passed. Does he really think the French are idiots? Does he really think that any young person in France will ever vote for him again? What are they supposed to do? Watch French TV! LoL
Sarko is a 19th century bureaucratic relic.


8 posted on 03/22/2010 11:06:02 AM PDT by paristwelve (Feeling sorry for things is just an excuse for not celebrating your own happiness.)
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To: Cincinna; AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...

Thanks Cincinna. And well put.


9 posted on 03/22/2010 4:41:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt." [Otto von Bismarck])
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