Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

FRENCH ELECTION UPDATE : Washington appeals to french president to leave troops in Afghanistan
Le Figaro English Edition ^ | May 18 2007 | Alain Barluet

Posted on 05/18/2007 9:45:11 PM PDT by Cincinna

Officially, it is "not a message" addressed to the new French authorities. But stated by the number two person in the State Department, in Paris, the same day as the inauguration of Nicolas Sarkozy, these comments inevitably sound like a warning addressed to the new French president.

John Negroponte appealed to France to keep its troops in Afghanistan, thus responding to Nicolas Sarkozy's statements that had implicitly advocated their eventual withdrawal.

"It is important that all our allies, including France, recognize the importance of staying together and united in Afghanistan. Each country makes a decisive contribution to our ability to succeed," emphasized the former US representative to the UN and in Iraq, appointed on 13 February to assist Condoleezza Rice.  

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has 37,000 men from 37 countries under NATO command. The French contingent in Afghanistan has a thousand soldiers, stationed in the Kabul region that is largely spared the fighting. The 200 French commandos of the Special Operations Command (COS) left Afghanistan at the end of the winter.

Until the summer of 2006 they had been deployed in the Spin Boldak region southeast of Kandahar, the theatre of frequent clashes with the Taleban.

Under the restrictions governing the engagement of ISAF participants, the French ground forces restrict themselves to stabilization actions. This posture has often provoked complaints from countries whose troops are more exposed.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 911truthers; afghanistan; christineboutin; europeanunion; france; homosexualagenda; sarkozy; wot
Also from Le Figaro : Fillon and Kouchner received well by public opinion

by Claire Bommelaer

http://www.lefigaro.fr/english/20070518.WWW000000981_fillon_and_kouchner_received_well_by_public_opinion.html

According to OpinionWay, 61 per cent of the French approve the appointment of Francois Fillon. He is brave (68 per cent), competent, likable, and able to carry out reforms: the 19th Politoscopie Le Figaro-LCI-OpinionWay poll finds that the French had a good image of Francois Fillon even before he was named.   For 61 per cent of them, "it is a good thing" that he is at Matignon. More than a fourth of the voters of the non-socialist left and 30 per cent of Royal's voters also approved of his arrival beforehand, as well as 60 per cent of Bayrou's voters.   Francois Fillon will have 15 ministers in his government and OpinionWay sounded out the French on the appointment of two of them, the former prime minister Alain Juppe and the socialist Bernard Kouchner.   For the former, only 43 per cent of those questioned feel his appointment to the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Rransportation, and Regional Management would be a good thing.   The voters of the left in particular are not very favourable about the arrival of the former prime minister, who in 1995 tried to reform the special retirement systems and drew more than a million people into the streets. But that is not the key point, because 65 per cent of Nicolas Sarkozy's voters approved the presence of this heavyweight Chirac supporter who rallied to the future president on behalf of the unity of the right and avoided "sound bites" in recent months.  

  Symbol of Opening   Opinions are largely favourable to the appointment of the highly popular Bernard Kouchner to Foreign Affairs, at 71 per cent, and it is approved by 55 per cent of those who voted for Royal in the first round. If Kouchner's participation in the Fillon government is a symbol of opening for the right, it is also a sign of a weakening of the left, as the Socialist leaders bitterly observed.   Last of all, OpinionWay questioned the French about the legislative elections. On 10 May, more than half of those questioned wanted Nicolas Sarkozy to have a majority when the elections are over. Six days later this proportion had risen, as if the French people wanted to firmly turn their back on a power-sharing government and consolidate the gains of 6 May.

1 posted on 05/18/2007 9:45:14 PM PDT by Cincinna
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nctexan; MassachusettsGOP; paudio; ronnie raygun; Minette; fieldmarshaldj; BillyBoy; untenured; ...

The FRENCH ELECTION PING LIST will continue to report on the Sarkozy government as it takes effect.

The Legislative Elections are in June. Two rounds, same as for the Presidential.

Instead of multiple threads, I will be posting one thread a day that will link to other important developments.

Please FReepMail me to get on or off the LIST

Many thanks to all for your enthusiastic participation.

We all have great hopes and expectations for Sarko and France.

À votre santé !


2 posted on 05/18/2007 9:52:20 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

Next month shall be interesting.


3 posted on 05/18/2007 10:02:33 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: All

This just in from The Financial Times UK

SARKOZY HIJACKS THE LEFT AND CENTER

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/dd6e4ec0-0571-11dc-b151-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e17a8288-890f-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

By Peggy Hollinger and Adam Jones in Paris

May 18 2007

Valérie Pécresse was a bit flustered when she arrived to take up her new job as France’s minister for higher education and research on Friday. Summoned to her new ministry with just a few minutes’ warning, the 39-year-old mother of three was forced to hitch a ride from a stranger to get there on time.

Nothing illustrates better the sense of urgency that is besetting this new French government, which for the first time brings together 15 ministers from across the political spectrum despite a clear parliamentary majority for the right.

Unemployment, the labour market, the tax system, justice, and higher education – all these are targeted for significant reform, many even before the summer is out. So it was important that President Sarkozy’s new government not only got moving but was made up of individuals capable of delivering on his campaign pledges. For despite his firm majority in the presidential elections, Mr Sarkozy will know the risk he runs from France’s traditional street protests.

Naming a centrist and socialist as ministers and three others from the left as secretaries of state – including Jean-Pierre Jouyet, a close friend of Socialist party leader François Hollande – was “a hijacking of the left and the centre,” says Dominique Moisi, a political commentator. “It is shrewd political manoeuvring.”

Shrewd indeed, as Mr Sarkozy appears to have saved his political peace-making appointments for posts where either he or Prime Minister François Fillon will exert the greatest direct control. Bernard Kouchner, a former Socialist minister, becomes foreign minister. Hervé Morin, who was head of the centrist UDF’s parliamentary party, is defence minister, an area where Mr Fillon is expected to take great interest.

Meanwhile his desire for successful reform is equally evident in the decision to restructure certain ministries and to appoint either close allies or politicians well versed in delicate social issues to run them.

Mr Borloo, who won popularity as the dishevelled but effective social cohesion minister, will take charge of a revamped economy and finance ministry. He shares responsibility for employment with Xavier Bertrand, the former health minister and a Sarkoziste, who becomes labour and social relations minister. It is Mr Bertrand who will be charged with the difficult task of winning over unions to the liberalisation of France’s notoriously rigid labour market, reforming pensions and introducing a minimum service in the transport sector in the event of strikes.

Meanwhile another loyalist, Eric Woerth, will take on the uphill task of managing France’s public debt and finances.

Elsewhere Brice Hortefeux, Mr Sarkozy’s closest ally and longest supporter, takes charge of the sensitive ministry for immigration and national identity, while campaign spokeswoman Rachdia Dati will lead reform of the penal code as justice minister. Christine Lagarde, former foreign trade boss, will become agriculture minister, while Chirac supporter and former defence minister Michèle Alliot-Marie was rewarded with the interior ministry.

Finally Mr Sarkozy’s closeness to several media moguls – and its effect on journalistic independence – has long been a source of controversy in France. But this has not stopped him from appointing Catherine Pégard, a journalist who wrote articles about his campaign for Le Point magazine, as a presidential communications adviser.

Her appointment and that of Miriam Lévy, a reporter at the Figaro, to advise Prime Minister Fillon is a clear signal that the new government knows its biggest risk is in the domain of public opinion. If that battle is lost, the frenetic energy of these early days will all have been for nothing.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007


4 posted on 05/18/2007 10:13:36 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Army Air Corps

I certainly agree!

The earliest polls are showing that Sarko’s Party, UMP, along with the pro-UMP members of UDF, with gain a very large majority.

IIRC, the numbers are 56-44 .


5 posted on 05/18/2007 10:17:06 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordian.


6 posted on 05/18/2007 10:19:21 PM PDT by sirdudly
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
FRENCH ELECTION UPDATE :: ECONOMICS

Also from the Financial Times UK :

Politics of a split finance ministry

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/acbc886a-0570-11dc-b151-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e17a8288-890f-11db-a876-0000779e2340.html

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu in London

May 18 2007


The desire to splice and dice the “money” ministry usually reflects a country’s national priorities or political imperatives at a given time in history. Nicolas Sarkozy’s splitting of the main functions of the finance ministry and expanding its remit, is partially aimed at making state spending more transparent at a time when public debt is under particular scrutiny.

The new overarching ministry for economy, employment and finance is to have the reach of Japan’s Miti, encompassing trade as well as the economy. When the ministry of international trade and industry was created in Japan in 1949 the nation was recovering from the economic disaster of the second world war. It helped strengthen the country’s industrial base and export competitiveness.


Germany has separate ministries of finance and economy while in the UK, the functions of the Treasury were briefly split in the 1965, when Harold Wilson, Labour prime minister, set up a department of economic affairs. It was wound up in 1969 after conflicts within government.

More recently advisers to Tony Blair, UK prime minister, suggested that the Treasury be split – partly as a means of constraining Gordon Brown, the powerful chancellor of the exchequer and future prime minister.

The success of a split depends on the objectives, according to Professor Roger Middleton of Bristol University. If they are principally political, as was the case with the UK’s department of economic affairs, then “not much can be expected”. But if they are largely economic “then much depends on whether a ministry of economic affairs is motivated by more or less interventionist industrial policies [as Britain suffered from in the 1970s] or genuine market-liberalising supply side policies”.

Martin Weale, director of the UK’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: “In Germany, the economics ministry is the junior department to the finance ministry because being in charge of the money is what makes you important. Nevertheless, splitting up rather than having a big super-ministry, favours the development and maintenance of specialist skills, so long as it is headed by a good minister.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

7 posted on 05/18/2007 10:22:29 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Message from our friend Boz at French Election 2007 :

Boz has a new site to cover French Politics :

http://frenchpolitique.blogspot.com/

“Welcome to Politique. Here you will find the latest news and analysis of French politics. This is the successor to the site French Election 2007, which covered the French election from November 2006 through May 2007. Enjoy! “


8 posted on 05/18/2007 10:40:36 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

Doyou think his Party can win an absolute majority?


9 posted on 05/18/2007 11:50:18 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: RobbyS

According to the latest polls, which I will attempt to translate over the weekend, all indications are an absolute majority for Sarko’s Party UMP.

The first round is predicted at Right 56 Left 44.

The second round will show more seats going to UMP and to pro-UMP members of UDF, and big losses for the Socialists.

The National Front of Jean-Marie le Pen is not expected to gain many seats, far less than the ones he has now.


10 posted on 05/19/2007 12:07:01 AM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna
“- Please FReepMail me to get on or off the LIST”

- Why would anyone wish to get OFF the list?

Thanks to this continuous flow of good news from France, several Conservatives in Europe, America and elsewhere daily gain faith in the possibility of improving not only France, not only the true essence of Europe, but also the relations between the millions of Europeans and Americans who are honorable and moral inhabitants of their respective continents.

Of course, these single moments of French progress are, in themselves, no revolutions.

But phrases like ‘a minori ad majus’ and ‘a parte ad totum’ (’from the lesser to the greater’ and ‘from the part to the whole.’) somehow continues to leap to mind.

Sarkozy has already provided millions of Europeans, even outside of France, with something of vital importance for common progress:

Hope.

Just like the countries of Europe are close neighbors, hope is next door neighbor to progress.

Like Churchill put it to a population beginning to realize there is no future in despondency and disbelief:

“Come then let us go forward together in our united strength”

Une nouvelle Europe? - Je te jure que c’est vrai!!

11 posted on 05/19/2007 1:33:39 AM PDT by WesternCulture
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: WesternCulture

I really appreciate your perspective.

I see in Sarkozy that rare quality of a leader. A man who has a strong vision of his goals, and the intelligence and political ability to carry it out. He also has that rare quality, the ability to inspire hope and confidence in the future. Someone who can bring people together to focus on what is truly important.

Churchill and Reagan come to mind. Only History will tell.

Now all we need is someone like that right here at home.


12 posted on 05/19/2007 2:17:22 AM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

Christine Boutin, who become minister for housing yesterday, is a pro-life defender and strongly oppose to the PACS (Civil Union for Homosexuals). And in the same governement we have Kouchner, who is for euthanazia...


13 posted on 05/19/2007 2:35:21 AM PDT by Tintin chez les soviets (t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: sirdudly

Apparently the White House thinks diffrently.


14 posted on 05/19/2007 2:37:31 AM PDT by Atlantic Friend
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

I made a quick search on Altavista and Google in Swedish using the phrase “Sarkozy är”, meaning “Sarkozy is”.

Very few of the hits proved to contain negative judgements about Sarkozy. In fact, there were a lot more POSITIVE than NEUTRAL statements about him. Seems like many other people in my part of the world share my impression.

Like you said “Only History will tell.”

Let’s not expect too much.

But sometimes ‘gut feelings’ are right. My instant ‘gut feeling’ about Sarko was that of a guy who is open, friendly, determined, intelligent and not afraid to speak his mind or to be a leader.

“Now all we need is someone like that right here at home.”

- No doubt leadership is important. However, I’m convinced there are so many things that are great about The US of today that the country will continue to prosper and produce good citizens even under a comparatively weak president.

Best of regards.


15 posted on 05/19/2007 3:20:40 AM PDT by WesternCulture
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: sirdudly

That is pretty untrue by far. One thing I do find scary is that France, Canada, Germany is heading more conservative than we are. We are definitely going the direction to the left....ugh!!!!


16 posted on 05/19/2007 3:23:17 AM PDT by napscoordinator (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Tintin chez les soviets

This is France. it is not ging to change overnight.


17 posted on 05/19/2007 12:37:19 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: WesternCulture

I have known Nicolas Sarkozy and have been following his career for more than 20 years. He is quite impressive. They call him the most gifted and smartest politician of his generation. I agree.

The Sarko hatred, which I call SDS, similar to BDS, (Bush Derangement Syndrome) is rampant on the Net.


18 posted on 05/19/2007 12:40:15 PM PDT by Cincinna (HILLARY & HER HINO :: Keep the Arkansas Grifters out of the White house.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna

“The Sarko hatred, which I call SDS, similar to BDS, (Bush Derangement Syndrome) is rampant on the Net.”

I see. I’m glad few Swedish internet users seem to participate in it.


19 posted on 05/20/2007 3:36:50 AM PDT by WesternCulture
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Cincinna; AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fedora; ...

Thanks Cincinna. Pakistan and India are the new areas of expansion for al-Qaeda activity.


20 posted on 05/20/2007 5:40:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Time heals all wounds, particularly when they're not yours. Profile updated May 18, 2007.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson