Posted on 03/02/2007 9:50:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Who would you vote for in the presidential election? Feb. 28 Feb. 24 Feb. 17 Nicolas Sarkozy 32% 31% 33% Segolene Royal 25% 26% 23% Francois Bayrou 18% 17.5% 16% Jean-Marie Le Pen 12.5% 13% 13% Olivier Besancenot 2.5% 3% 4% Marie-George Buffet 2% 2% 2.5% Arlette Laguiller 2% 1% 1.5% Dominique Voynet 1.5% 1% 1% Jose Bove 1.5% 2% 2% Philippe de Villiers 1% 1.5% 1.5% Frederic Nihous 0.5% 0.5% 1% Corinne Lepage 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% Gerard Schivardi 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% Run-Off Scenario Feb. 28 Feb. 24 Feb. 17 Nicolas Sarkozy 53.5% 53% 54% Segolene Royal 46.5% 47% 46% Source: Ipsos / SFR / Le Point
(Excerpt) Read more at angus-reid.com ...
On Feb. 26, Le Pen appealed to low-income voters, saying, "I call on France's seven million poor people to wake up to the global tragedy caused by planetary financial capitalism led by a few predators whose only target is double-digit profit in a nation called Money. (...) We shouldn't blame immigrants for these policies. Those who bear the exclusive responsibility are French politicians who are today represented by the candidates Royal, Sarkozy and Bayrou, disguised in their First Communion outfits."
Sarkozy against US backing for EU bidAt a news conference held on Wednesday to outline his foreign policy plans, French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy said he was against U.S. President George W. Bush's call for the European Union to offer membership to Turkey, reported the Associated Press news agency. Turkey did not have the capacity to enter into EU since it was an Asian country, added Sarkozy at the news conference.
Turkish Daily News
Friday, March 2, 2007
Sarkozy says press smearing electionThe weekly Le Canard Enchaine accused Sarkozy this week of getting a discount of "at least" 300,000 euros ($396,500) when he bought an apartment from a property developer in 1997. Sarkozy, ahead in opinion polls, has denied the report and in a campaign speech vowed not to be put off. "No lie, no calumny will make me hesitate, let alone step back," he said in a rally in the western city of Bordeaux. "Those behind these base manoeuvres are wasting their time," he said. "I will not let myself get drawn into the swamp they want to drag the whole campaign into." The left-wing daily Liberation published the headline "Suspicion" over a front-page picture of Sarkozy with a long article on his personal assets and an editorial defending the right of the press to investigate his finances... France's main opposition Socialist party has stayed surprisingly quiet over the affair. Le Canard Enchaine was reported to be preparing to publish an investigation into the property dealings of the Socialist election candidate, Segolene Royal... The media have already suggested that a villa in the fashionable French Riviera that she owns with her partner, Socialist party chief Francois Hollande, was deliberately undervalued on her tax returns to avoid fiscal penalties.
by Crispian Balmer
1 Mar 2007
The Scotsman
Is Sarkozy the right-leaning candidate?
Right you are. :')
I thought it said "Sarkozy Leads by Seven Points in French Ballet" ...
Bayrou is getting dangerously close to second place. I'm holding out hope that Royal will be second, because she is easier to beat for Sarkozy.
When is the election?
Does France still exist?? (sic)
The interesting thing about Sarkozy's rejection of Turkish membership in the EU is, it is framed as a rejection of a US position -- and yet, it serves US interests very well that Turkey be denied membership. What will the Turks do instead? Form an economic combine with the Russians? ;') This Sarkozy statement will help him in the French election.
Also, the main reason given for French voters' rejection of the EU constitution was fear that Turkey will be made a member -- and Sarkozy's party (like most of those in France) support ratification.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1787549/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1780836/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1767578/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1770355/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1723304/posts
http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/8719
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=44059
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1624751/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780092/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1780836/posts
If he won, I think Bayrou wouldn't be able to hang on for long.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6410955.stm
"French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen says rivals are making a concerted effort to block his candidacy in the presidential election... FN spokesman Julien Sanchez... accused other parties of ganging up against Mr Le Pen's candidacy and said the FN was taking legal action. 'We have lodged a complaint against Philippe de Villiers (another right wing candidate) for trying to influence officials into refusing to sign for Jean-Marie Le Pen,' he said, adding that the FN had taken the same action against 14 others."
I hope you're right, but I've seen claims that polls show Bayrou comfortably beating both Sarkozy and Royal in the second round. Makes sense for a centrist.
The first round, in which neither Sarkozy nor Royal will get the required 50% in a crowded field of candidates, will be on April 22.
After that, the top two (again, most likely Sarko and Sego) will likely go head to head in a second round, on May 6.
For now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_presidential_election%2C_2007
Calendar
• February 22, 2007 - Publishing in the Journal officiel de la République française of the decree convocating the election[1]
• March 16, 2007 - Deadline for sending the endorsements (500 required)
• March 20, 2007 - Official candidate list announced
• April 9, 2007 - Official campaign starts
• April 20, 2007 - Official campaign ends
• April 21, 2007 - First round of vote in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Saint Pierre et Miquelon and in voting offices in embassies and consulates on the American continent
• April 22, 2007 - First round of vote
• April 25, 2007 - Official results announced — winner might be announced
• April 27, 2007 - Official candidate list for second round announced
• May 5, 2007 - Second round of vote in Guadeloupe etc.
• May 6, 2007 - Second round of vote
• May 10, 2007 - Official results announced
• May 17, 2007 - Expiration of the term of Jacques Chirac - latest possible date for handover
The white line down the middle of the road. :')
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Bayrou
"François Bayrou rejected the complete merger of the UDF and the RPR to form the UMP. As a consequence, much of the UDF left for the UMP, while the remainder stayed with Bayrou inside UDF. However, UMP governments under Prime Ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin have included one UDF minister, Gilles de Robien, an opponent of Bayrou. François Bayrou has been increasingly critical of the course taken by the UMP-led government, which he deems to be out of touch with the average Frenchman. He denounces the de facto two-party system, in which the Socialist Party and the RPR (later UMP) have alternated and, if in the majority, have voted for the laws proposed by the executive. Instead he advocates a system where other voices can be heard."
The old EEC "Common Market" (also referred to in British politics of the 60s and 70s as "Europe") was dangled in front of Turkey way back in the early 1960s. Mostly this has been opposed by Greece and supported by the US. Turkey has provided a big pro-western wedge between the Middle East and Europe, and the USSR/Russia and the Arab states, as well as sites for US nukes pointed at the Evil Empire.
Had the Euros brought the Turks into the EEC, the issue of Turkish membership in the EU would probably be a dead one, because either it would have gone without a hitch, thus depriving the Islamofascists of another field of play, or because the EEC wouldn't have been transformed into the EU.
The US supports Turkish membership because Turkey has been a strong ally of the US (other than the recent rejection of US use of Turkish sites for the liberation of Iraq), and because the US isn't 100 per cent on board with European unification. The specter of Turkey in the EU undermines the eagerness or willingness of various European states and populations to submerge national sovereignty.
It's bad enough that France would have a say in what goes on all over Europe, and in what would pass for the European unified foreign policy.
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