It is going to be a tough slog regardless for Sarko. The Socialists will be trotting out all the boogeymen. Sego favors raising the minimum wage by 19.6%. She still supports many of the socialist party policies that make it difficult to fire people. I am sure she will try to scare the elederly about social benefits. Sarko is by far the more polished candidate, the more experienced, and the better speaker, but the socialists are like the Dems in the way they can play the politics of personal destruction. It is going to get very dirty over the next two weeks.
Agree, it will get very ugly on the left.
Yes, and she also says she will cut the work week from 35 to 32 hours. It will be interesting to see just how much further these French Democrats will go in order to buy this election. French Democrats are exactly the same as American Democrats, so you can be assured there is no "bottom of the toilet" as far as they are concerned. Dirt and lies will fall like black snow.
The numbers are not reassuring. There was a real choice for the French between “the Swedish solution” and the rough and tumble involved in reversing that fatal trend in France. A five percent lead does not augur well for Sarkozy.
The Socialists’ and the extreme Left’s drive to register “ethnic minorities” (read “Muslims”) has been successful beyond expectations.
The Socialist base, the elderly and those close to pension age, the massive bureaucracy that feeds and grows on the expansion of government, the young who have been taught to hate America throughout their school years, and the far Left, combined with a Muslim population that is much larger than the official number, will deliver France to the point of no return.
Royal delivered Hollande’s rallying cry to the French. She “will not kneel to George Bush.” I think this appeal will work, disgusting and deceptive as it is.
The provincial French are frightened of the increasing numbers of immigrants in their midst, immigrants who do not work, who fill the public spaces of the old French villages and towns, and do not acknowledge the existence of the indigenous French who pass by them.
But Sarkozy has visited Bush; he might try to do something, make the immigrants mad, start a war. The immigrants in the provinces are just sitting around. It’s annoying, but — we must say “no” to racisme. But what are the immigrants waiting for? Why are they here?
Simon Heffer’s article “Anger and Resentment Mar a Slice of Paradise’ printed yesterday in the Telegraph signals something not considered by the polltakers.
http:www.telegraph.co.uk
Under Sarkozy France is not going to weaken worker protections or Social Security anyway, so Royal is not going to be able to make much headway in that regard. If Sarkozy is a damned fool he will try to cut away worker protections during his 100 Days, which will provoke a general strike, hand Parliament to the Socialists in July, and end his Presidency before it begins. He’s not going to do that.
There is a joke about the 35 hours, which goes something like this: “What? 35 hours? Why not 12?” Even the left-leaning are not idiots. They know that there is a point at which the economy does not function, and that the 35 hours is about the limit of it. Promising to take the economy further left is actually a weakness in Royal’s platform. Truth is, people like it about where it is: growing, prosperous, and protected. They will resist pulling it further right, but they know it can’t go further left.
When I say “people” I do not refer to every college child in a Paris cafe. I mean the majority of thinking adults. I don’t think Sarkozy is going to have nearly as tough a time as you do.
I think law and order is on the mind of many, many.
My fear is that Sarkozy will win on law and order but then implement the two worst parts of his program at once: Affirmative Action and trying to chop down worker protections. The second will end the Right’s control of Parliament and throw Sarkozy into cohabitation will the Socialists. It would be better if he restrained his native elan and focused on crime and national discipline. I think he will be given the chance to do so.