Posted on 06/11/2007 10:59:46 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Paris -- The bitter rivalry between France’s leftwing power couple was today directly blamed by Socialists for the party’s disastrous showing in key elections. France’s Left was forced to contemplate the prospect of parliamentary obscurity as voters fuelled the success of President Nicolas Sarkozy. With the Socialists facing a possible record defeat in next Sunday’s final round, giving Mr Sarkozy a virtual free hand for his radical programme of reforms, Ségolene Royal and Francois Hollande responded by sparring in public.
The latest spat between Ms Royal, who lost the presidency to Mr Sarkozy last month, and Mr Hollande, her party leader and father of their four children, was too much for some Socialists who blamed them both for the party’s electoral misery. “I have had enough of political life and especially that of my party hinging on the life of one couple,” Manuel Valls, one of the Socialists’ rising stars, complained.
The couple disagreed on how to handle François Bayrou, the third-placed candidate in the spring presidential race. The Democratic Movement (MoDem), Mr Bayrou’s new centrist party, crashed in the first-round vote for France’s new parliament on Sunday, setting the scene for a landslide for Mr Sarkozy’s conservative Union for a Popular Movement. However the MoDem’s 7.6 per cent of the vote gives Mr Bayrou influence over the outcome in over a dozen seats.
Ms Royal, 53, said in a radio interview that she was telephoning Mr Bayrou to propose an alliance to maximise opposition to what she called the dangerous steamroller of the Sarkozy administration.
Mr Hollande, who wants to remain party leader for another 15 months, mocked the idea, saying that the Socialists should not seek favours from Mr Bayrou. “Everyone can phone whom they want. We’re in a democracy,” said Mr Hollande. “I don’t have to make any calls.”
The rivalry between Mr Hollande and the partner who wants his job, mirrors the disarray across the feuding Socialist party as it strives to convince voters who abstained on Sunday to come to its rescue in the run-off. The Socialists are expected to reap a mere 60 to 185 seats in the 577-member Parliament, with between 380-500 for Mr Sarkozy’s UMP. The leftwing party that was forged in the 1960s by the late François Mitterrand now faces the possibility of its biggest defeat since he led it to power in 1981.
Among 111 MPs who won election outright on Sunday, 110 are from the UMP and only one is a Socialist. Only one Minister faces possible defeat in the run-off. Alain Juppé, the head of an Environment super-ministry and number two to François Fillon, the Prime Minister, is being given a close run by a Socialist challenger in Bordeaux, where he is Mayor. ..
I like it when the left gets things screwed up like this. When they lose an election in the US, it is “We didn’t get our message across to the voters” when in reality they did get the message across and not enough voters agreed with them. This sets up future failure (ex: Gore, then Kerry)...
sacre bleu...lasez les bon temps rouler!
I never thought I’d see the day when I would envy the political situation in France.
(Although I still say, our immigrant invasion is more survivable than their immigrant invasion.)
No slant here folks.
/s
Time for Bill & Hillary to have a good knock down drag out.
SWEET!
In other words, a range from just shy of a two-thirds majority to an 87% majority - unfathomable in American politics.
In any case, French law allows 60% of the legislature to put any measure to a referendum in order to change France's law code.
Basically, Sarkozy can - in theory - rule by plebiscite if he so desires.
It is true, his plans ARE radical, that is what is needed.
Go, Sarko. Not only has he emasculated, in several senses of the word, the Socialists, but the Communists, the Greens and Le Pen are all feasting on bitter crumbs as well. The French finally got fed up.
He stated while the French tolerate a certain level of street drama, they are basically very conservative.
Then when the French police officer was killed while handling a disturbance by those disaffected yutes, he flat out predicted this will change France forever.
I believe last Sunday's vote proved his point.
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