Sarkozy Leading in French Polls

[gurey25]

Nikolai Sarkosy is leading at 30%
followed by Royal at 25%

Predicatble results.

I believe the next round will be very tight.

[michael_ital]

They're forseeing a run off on May 6. But it's funny how if you wanna get elected, just threaten to kick immigrant ass, and tell people you're gonna cut off immigration.

[gurey25]

Its a proven formula.

John Howard mastered this technique during the Tampa incident (look it up).
Used the fear of immigrants to get votes, and 9/11 came along handliy just in time.
He used the same trick twice to get relected.

fortunatley Politics in Australia is swinging to the Left, Labour party is getting back its bearings, and will win this years election.

The Socialists are also enegized in France, becuase they want to get revenge for thier disastrous defeat 5 years ago.

[michael_ital]

I hope, because it seems this neo con nut has motivated a record turnout at the polls, in the hope to NOT get him elected.

[gurey25]

Doesnt look very good Mike.

The far right Le pen got 11.5 of the votes, i think they will vote for sarcozy in the next round.
Bayrout the centerist got a good 18%.

Thats why this will be a very tight race.

Sarkozy will represent the Right, and the introduction of neo-liberalism into france,
while the Socialists with Royal represent the Left that traditionaly dominated france.


am anti sarkozy becuase he is likely to remove frances traditional balanced role in the Middle east and wider world,
and he has the potential to become another US lapdog, and Isreals bitch.

[michael_ital]

Race tight as France votes

PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/REUTERS
Trappist monks from Abbaye du Mont des Cats in northern France cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential elections April 22, 2007. Email story
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French vote closely watched in T.O. I hope I won't cry on Sunday," says Daniel Brignoli.Apr 22, 2007 03:45 PM
Swaha Pattanaik Reuters
Reuters

PARIS – Segolene Royal remains on course to become France's first woman president after reaching the second round of an election to which she has brought glamour and a steely demeanour that has confounded her critics.

Hardly known to most French voters only three years ago, the 53-year old Socialist finished second in Sunday's first-round presidential poll and will face right-wing rival Nicolas Sarkozy in a run-off on May 6.

Royal has fascinated a country where men have long dominated politics. Since pictures of her in a bikini fronted a magazine last summer, she has worked hard to deflect jibes that she does not have the gravity to launch a serious bid for the presidency.

The nation sat transfixed as Royal saw off more experienced male politicians, including the father of her four children, to be elected the Socialists' presidential candidate.

She sailed through the first weeks of her campaign but later made several gaffes and came under attack from former colleagues who said an authoritarian lurked behind her ever present smile.

Royal hit back by highlighting her left-wing credentials and accusing Sarkozy of playing with voters' fears. She attacked critics of male chauvinism, a strategy that could make it hard for Sarkozy to avoid being called a sexist if he criticises her.

Royal has proved her fighting skills repeatedly since breaking away from her authoritarian father.

She has sought to win over voters by projecting herself as a caring leader, proposing policies she says she would want for her own children, and often breaking with the left's traditions.

"I'm a free woman!" has become Royal's battle cry to justify "un-Socialist" policies such as suggestions people should keep a French flag to fly from their balconies and a plan to send young offenders to military boot camps.

She has critics even in her own ranks.

"Her smile only appeared when it proved useful. She had no sense of humour," said former Education Minister Claude Allegre, who picked Royal to be his schools minister in 1997.

Royal has also had to explain her way out of gaffes, such as not knowing how many nuclear submarines France has and seeming to praise China's justice system.

Some voters deplore her lack of force and spontaneity. At a recent rally, supporters broke into a made-up hymn during her speech and Royal responded in a schoolmarmish tone: "We will listen for a bit and then we will applaud."

FIGHTING BACK

Born in Senegal in 1953, Royal and her seven siblings grew up in rural eastern France under an army colonel father.

The head-strong Royal studied politics against her father's wishes. When her parents' marriage fell apart, she helped sue her father to gain maintenance payments for one of her brothers.

At the elite ENA school for high-flying civil servants, she fell in love with student activist Francois Hollande. Both were recruited to work for Socialist President Francois Mitterrand.

Hollande – now Socialist Party leader – introduced her to politics, but Royal carved out her own career path.

She led the environment, schools and family ministries and in 2004 was elected leader of the Poitou-Charentes region that had been the power base of the then conservative prime minister.

Asked what she would put into her own obituary, Royal said: "That's a terribly immodest and not easy exercise. Why not: 'She understood the French and served France with courage'?"