Posted on 04/22/2007 11:01:22 AM PDT by Philistone
First official results in French first round presidential elections (my translation from the live feed):
Estimation from SOFRES (French pollsters).
Sarkozy: 30% Royal: 25.2 % ------------- Bayrou: 18.3% Le Pen: 11.5%
If I hadn't been there through a US-run program, it would have been a lost year. But, luckily for our group, the professor who ran the program told us to write a single paper for each class we took (back then, nobody used typewriters for papers, so we they were all handwritten and didn't have to be overly long). If the professor for that class refused to take said paper, he (the US professor) would grade it. We had to save them because those of us who were not students at the sponsoring college had to show them to our professors back home.
I was never in any real danger of losing credits, but it was tough going for a while.
I can't remember the exact reason the students gave for their strike, but I do remember that it made no sense (and, believe me, I had debates with several strikers on the subject). Our program was made up of Americans and Canadians, and we all surmised that part of the reason was that they didn't feel like taking their exams. Nobody paid tuition, so it seemed to us that they could easily get away with remaining students for a very long time.
Needless to say, the non-French Europeans who were also foreign students at Grenoble agreed with the strikers.
So, what was I doing? I was poor, so I couldn't travel as much as I wanted, so I did some day trips by bus and train, went to a lot of museums, a lot of movies and hung out with friends. I probably learned more French by not being in class than I would have in class, so all in all, it was still a fabulous experience.
Oh okay
I think I be scared or bore if I didn’t attend any classes
MAN they strike at anything the French ROFL
Sarkozy + Le Pen = 42% (assuming all Le Pen votes go to Sarkozy). Royal + the far-left = 36%.
The Bayrou vote reallocation is critical; Royal has to get the bulk of it to win. That is unpredictable as he is a libertarian; they may want Sarkozy on economic policies but Royal on social and foreign policies...
I wish I was that confident, all the left wingnuts will rally behind the empty suit woman now.
Why would you be scared? And, as I said, visited museums, took day trips, etc. so I certainly wasn’t bored. All in all, it was one of the best years of my life. I don’t regret a minute of it.
Congratulations to Sarko for finally ridding the French political scene of le Pen. Le Pen got only 10-11% of the vote. He is finished.
Not all of Le Pen’s votes will go Sarko. Although certainly more will vote Sarko than Royal, I suspect many will choose to abstain.
The election rests on Bayrou’s voters. Bayrou is a curious dude - it remains to be seen who he decides to endorse if anyone.
Results on France 2 website from first round presidential election.
Sarkozy: 31.01 %
Royal: 25.64 %
Bayrou 18.54 %
LePen 10.63 %
Besancenot 4.15 %
Results based on 94.46 % of vote counted.
http://elections.france2.fr/presidentielles/2007/premier-tour/
I went country dancing Sat night in Austin, and there was a mostly french group of tourists there on a sidetrip from a symposium to UT.
They were recognized by the band sometime during the middle and I added “Yay Sarkozy!”
This guy came over from the group, kinda confused....said, “Well no! Not sarkozy....how is it that you know about politics in france?!”
I answered in my hickest tone, “Well, we got newspapers here in Texas, too, now!”
I asked him if he liked that socialist sargolene chick just ‘cuz she’s hot. He demurred!
Yep, I do remember it.
“Nobody paid tuition, so it seemed to us that they could easily get away with remaining students for a very long time.”
I had a German roommate in the US in the 80’s and he said he liked the US system better than the German one, where the state paid for all the tuition. He said the US students worked very hard, but the German ones goofed off.
How about last year when those Muslum kids were hiding in electric tower they got elecutrated HELLOOOO they not too smart French muslum kids RIGHT LOL!
As we on the Right know, the more something is subsidized, the more we get of it.
The rioters “scum” are already to threatening do it again if Sarko wins.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1690098.ece
So what does this all mean... Salozky is a conservative?
I fear things will have to get much worse (and they will) before any real reform is politically possible.
Germany liberated, and this time France. Let’s hope Italy and Spain will be next. It’s fun to see leftist government fall.
You posted pictures of Skankzilla and The Human Vagina. No wonder they can’t figure out who shot Liberty Valance: Too many suspects.
(That is in no way meant to be even the slightest bit of a threat; just joking about inspiring irrational reactions.)
MAINSTREAM CANDIDATES:
Nicholas Sarkozy, Reagan Republican (in French terms, Union pour la mouvement populaire), 31.09%
Segolene Royal, Pelosi Democrat (Socialist), 25.78%
Francois Bayrou, Bloomberg Republican (Union pour la Democratie Francaise), 18.53%
REDS AND GREENS:
Olivier Bescanscot, 4.12% (Trotskyite)
Marie-George Buffet, 1.94% (Bolshevik)
Gerard Schivardi, 0.34% (Trotskyite)
Arlette Laguiler, 1.34% (Trotskyite)
Dominique Voynet, 1.57% (Green)
TOTAL: 7.31%
TRADITIONALIST AND NATIONALIST:
Jean-Marie Le Pen, Buchananite (Front National), 10.55%
Jose Bove, Perotist, anti-E.U., 1.32%
Frederic Nihaus, conservationist/traditionalist, 1.17%
Phillipe DeVillier, (Think Constitutional Party) Catholic traditionalist, 2.25%
Total: 15.3%
Presumably, Royal will gain the communists, for a base of about 33%. Sarkozy will pick up DeViller’s and Nihaus’ for a base of 35%. My presumption is Sarkozy also picks up more of Le Pen’s (although Le Pen is a leftist in many ways, and very nationalistic, while Sarkozy is considered a foreigner), and Bayrou’s (although Bayrou is considerably left of Sarkozy, and may have picked up many socialists who were uncomfortable with Royal’s purposely conspicuous shows of patriotism.)
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