And of course there is Sarko's secret weapon:
Posted on 01/12/2012 10:40:42 PM PST by Cincinna
What kind of country would France be if it abandoned its 35-hour work week (it actually kills jobs), set up an affirmative action program for its Muslim immigrants (featuring a zero-tolerance framework for their assimilation), and scaled back its ambitions for Europe as a global political force to more attainable goals? Answer: An imaginary one. There are no signs of it happening.
Roughly 100 days before voting in an elimination round April 22, and then in a final ballot on May 6, the French presidential election campaign so far involves back and forth on possible variations in French comfort — tinkering with, adjusting and applying new coats of paint to familiar and nonthreatening aspects of national life.
There’s something surreal here. Neither Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been a brash president for the last five years, or the presumedly bland François Hollande, named Socialist candidate on Oct. 16, is talking about the perspective for painful change.
You can’t argue about its necessity. In 2012, France lives with:
•An unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, a looming recession, and a likely loss of its triple-AAA credit rating.
•A report last year that detailed the emergence of Muslim immigrant communities resembling parallel societies, while a Le Monde poll showed that 61 percent of the French regard Muslim integration as failed because of its refusal by the immigrants themselves.
•A hardened notion among the French that, with the E.U. debt crisis, their country has clearly become a subordinate player to Germany.
For all of France’s accomplishments and uniqueness, a sense of lost identity and decline resonates.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
SARKOZY 26% HOLLANDE 28% MLP 17.5% BAYROU 12%
Stay informed about the French elections in detail.
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST ***
*** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***
Muslims need to be purged from western society and sent back to the desert hells which spawned them.
Coming this Nov to a nation near you: bigger government, more socialism - just like France. :)
François Bayrou describes himself as “Clintonian”, as in Bill Clinton:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3D61531F93BA35750C0A9619C8B63&pagewanted=all
“”’I am a democrat, I am a Clintonian,’’ he said. ‘’I am a man of the ‘third way,’””
If Sarkozy as the incumbent can barely at this point scrape 26%, he is toast. That suggests a ceiling and the others will work somehow to remove him.
Sarkozy now in deep trouble...could possibly not make the run off. Now that would put a smile on my face.
Sarkozy Just Ahead of Le Pen in French Presidency Election Poll
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is just two percentage points ahead of anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen less than four months before the presidential election, an Ifop poll for Paris Match showed.
In the first round, to be held April 22, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande would finish first with 27 percent, followed by Sarkozy with 23.5 percent and National Front candidate Le Pen on 21.5 percent, the poll published today showed today.
The top two vote getters then go to a decisive run-off on May 6, in which Hollande would beat Sarkozy 57 percent to 43 percent, according to the poll. Ifop polled 943 voters Jan. 9- 12. No margin of error was given.
The polls will change dramatically before the election. Sarkozy is not perfect, but his main socialist and facist opponents are all to the left of him.
with a bit of luck, another challenger will happen, De Villepin says he’s going to run. That will knockout Sarkozy in one go.
“If Sarkozy as the incumbent can barely at this point scrape 26%, he is toast.”
I’m not sure; France has a true multi-party system.
Last time around he got 31% in the first round and 53% in the general.
The Socialist that time got 26% in the first round and 47% in the general.
Right now he's effectively running about even with the Socialist.
Hilarious! Bruni is so Botoxed she looks like a freak!
I have to disagree. There were 12 candidates on the ballot in 2007. In the first round Sarko got 31%, Royal 27%. This year I think there are even more.
If he gets through to the 2nd round, it is a whole new ball game: Sarko, center right v Hollande, Socialist. ,
Bayou is a centrist, a Social Democrat. He has a lot of appeal, a genial personality, an inner force, and he is a traditional Catholic with a large family.
Far too left for me politically, but likeable on a personal level.
Marine le Pen is no answer for France. The French have flirted with fascism before, and it never turns out well.
She isn’t anti-illegal immigration, as we conservatives understand it, she is just xenophobic, and racist. She believes in big state corporatism, the marriage between big government & business- AKA fascism.
She has absolutely no governing experience. No foreign policy experience, and more importantly these days, no economic experience, knowledge or competence.
MLP, who claims to be on the Right, is twice divorced, living with a man who is not her husband.
She is her father, noted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie le Pen, in drag.
Excellent point! Everyone believed that Hollande was a shoe-in. Not so fast! The more people see him, his elitism, coldness, distance, as just another elitist technocrat with no leadership experience, his numbers are dropping.
MLP is no alternative. See my post above.
Villein is odious, even to the French.
As to MLP, she isn’t right wing at all. She shares almost all her positions on givernment’s role with the far Left. No surprise that most of her support is coming from assorted Communists, Trotskyites, and othe big government totalitarian Statists.
Thanks, Wideawake for stating the facts concisely and better than I could.
Bunny, the pic of Carla above was taken a few years ago, before she had any cosmetic enhancements. She was 40 in the picture, and has always been a very beautiful women.
The Botox is more recent, and looks terrible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.