Posted on 05/02/2007 3:47:23 PM PDT by Cincinna
FRENCH CANDIDATES WRANGLE OVER JOB CRISIS IN TELEVISION DEBATE
May 2, 2007 (AFP)
Right winger Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist Segolene Royal held tense exchanges over employment and the 35-hour working week in a televised debate Wednesday seen as crucial for the French presidential campaign.
Seated on either side of a two-metre (six foot) table, disagreements between Sarkozy, who finished first in the opening round, and Royal repeatedly flared into moments of ill-restrained hostility.
Four days before the election, more than half the country's adult population was estimated to be watching the two hour confrontation which was dominated by the economy.
Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Sarkozy repeated his promise to cut the number of public employees -- prompting accusations from Royal that he would endanger health, education and the police.
He said he would ensure full employment in France in five years by "freeing the forces of labour", and said the 35-hour week -- introduced by the last socialist government -- was killing employment. France currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in western Europe.
"She (Royal) still thinks that you have to share out the work like pieces of a cake. Not a single country in the world accepts this logic, which is a monumental mistake," he said.
Royal, wearing a black jacket and white blouse, countered with a promise to create 500,000 youth jobs, funded from existing training and unemployment budgets. She questioned Sarkozy's citation of an economic think-tank that said his programme would benefit the economy more than Royal's.
This prompted Sarkozy to ask: "Why do you treat anyone who is not of your opinion with irony, even with contempt?".
On several occasions, to Sarkozy's proposals, Royal retorted with the remark: "What a pity you didn't do that during your five years in government".
Televised debates have been held between the finalists in every French election since 1974 -- except in 2002 when Jacques Chirac refused to meet far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Both the Sarkozy and Royal camps know that their encounter could be crucial in determining the choice of millions of uncommitted voters.
Nearly seven million people chose defeated centrist Francois Bayrou in the first round on April 22, and the second-round campaign has focussed on capturing his electorate.
The debate was watched in screens in cafes and bars across the country -- though there was competition from an important European cup football match.
"Everything she says touches me, it's all true," said David Zeymour, a 43-year-old grocer at a bar in central Paris. "I voted Sarkozy in the first round, but now frankly I've changed my mind. I'm 100-percent behind Segolene. Sarkozy is scary."
"He's staying cool. She's more aggressive, she's trying to block him, but lucky for him he's giving good answers," said Jean-Philippe Girbal, the 35-year-old cafe owner.
The pair have faced each other only once before in a debate. Just before the 1993 legislative elections they had an ill-tempered exchange in a television studio, a clip of which has been circulating on the Internet.
Campaigning for the second round ends on Friday at midnight. On Thursday the two candidates hold their last rallies, Royal in the northern city of Lille and Sarkozy in Montpellier in the south.
The latest opinion poll released by IPSOS on Tuesday gave Sarkozy 53.5 percent of the vote against 46.5 percent for Royal. A total of 87 percent said they had made up their mind.
In the first round, Sarkozy got 31.2 percent of the vote and Royal 25.9 percent. Le Pen got 10.4 percent.
On Tuesday Le Pen urged his 3.8 million voters not to vote for Sarkozy or Royal. Bayrou has not issued an endorsement for either candidate.
Giscard d'Estaing, who took part in two televised debates with Mitterrand in 1974 and 1981, said the head-to-head between Sarkozy and Royal would be the "decisive ... high-point of the campaign".
In the 1974 debate Giscard d'Estaing coined the phrase "You do not have a monopoly on the heart", which was seen as giving him the edge. He went on to win by a very small majority.
FRANCE'S ROYAL ACCUSES SARKOZY OF 'POLITICAL IMMORALITY'
French Socialist Segolene Royal launched a stinging attack on right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in a crucial presidential debate on Wednesday, accusing him of "political immorality."
Reacting to comments in which Sarkozy called for handicapped children to be guaranteed a place in school, Royal said that he had "reached a pinnacle of political immorality".
Royal accused his governnent of dismantling Socialist education measures on handicapped children, accusing him of exploiting the issue, "with a tear in your eye."
Sarkozy, who remained calm throughout the attack, retorted sharply: "I would never have spoken to you this way" -- to which Royal fired back: "Because I don't lie."
Wrapping up the explosive exchange, Sarkozy said: "I don't question your sincerity, don't question my morality... You lose your temper very easily."
Four days before the election, more than half the country's adult population was estimated to be watching the televised confrontation, seen as crucial to the outcome of the election.
ROFLMHO!!!
I am sure that if you shake the numbers enough, you can come up with a 17% figure. Perhaps nuclear energy is only 17% of France's peak projected capacity after completion of the great Socialist Pie-In-The-Sky Solar Programme.
The technique is to twist the figures enough to give you a certain narrowly construed answer that you like, followed by three pages of explainatory footnotes about why that figure is not ridiculous on it's face. One then consistently cites that figure without any reference to the footnotes, and pretends to believe it is true.
See "Global Warming" or "Gore Won in Florida 2000" for US examples of same...
Yes, I think the big unspoken fact here is that Royal is Hollande’s sock puppet, because he is too toxic even for French voters.
Fashion wise? Her blouse looked like it came from a waiter’s uniform. And white is not a good color to wear if you’re going to be on TV. Too harsh under the lights. You saw her blouse before you saw her face. Should have been a pale, pale blue.
I wasn’t talking about Segolene...just in general about Euro women.
Well your experiences may be different. I related what I had heard from non French men and what they say about French women.
This is going back about 20 years...they may be shaving and using deodorant now ;>)
>>Well your experiences may be different. I related what I had heard from non French men and what they say about French women.
This is going back about 20 years...they may be shaving and using deodorant now ;>)<<
I actually dated a French girl for 2 years and very nearly married the girl a few years ago. She was definitely up to and beyond day-to-day hygiene standards you see of most girls here in the US.
So a bit different experience. But I’m kind of biased. ;)
Kind of sad/tragic how that one ended, but that’s another story...
I haven’t had time to go and look at the actual transcripts, but I doubt Sarkozy said “unhinged”.
My bet is he said “derange”, which the translator translated as “deranged” or “unhinged”, while it really means “irritated”.
“Unhinged” is too strong. “Irritated”, “angry”, “agitated” perhaps.
It’s probably asking to much, but do you happen to have the actual text where Sarkozy is alleged to have said to Royal that she comes “unhinged” too easily? I doubt it.
Royal With Cheese is treading on dangerous ground if she throws her lot in with the anti-nuke kooks. Mitterand toyed with that idea when he was running and the trade unions literally b*tch-slapped him. He never uttered an anti-nuke word for the rest of his career.
My guess is, "cervelle une merde".
It looks like Sarko is countering painting her the “over emotional woman”. I was skeptical before, but now am beginning to believe he could actually pull this off.
Thanks for your post and for your analysis. Both very cogent, and very coherent.
In a Le Figaro poll, 53% thought Sarkozy was more convincing compared to 31% for Royal. That's going to leave a mark! Sego had better get working hard on manufacturing a scandal. She only has a couple more days to do it.
You must have known a lot of American female students majoring in Women's Studies then...
Scandal?
The only scandals that work in France are proving that you stole money. French hate financial hanky-panky. We already know that Sarkozy has a mistress. Nobody cares. If he didn’t, considering he and his wife are estranged, everyone would wonder what was wrong with him. The French like their leader to be a chaud lapin. It shows that he is in good health and vigor, and that he likes people.
I seriously doubt that Sarkozy is involved in any economic hanky-panky. Why? Because Chirac and Villepin have hated him for a long time. If they could have destroyed him, they would have, and they had the investigative arms of the French government at their command. They investigated him thorougly, discovered his liaisons and his bad temper and his dictatorial style. And the latter two things are on public display, and nobody in France gives a damn about sexual affairs (so long as they are heterosexual)...so what does that leave them with? Nothing. There’s no scandal one can pull out on Sarkozy. He’s not corrupt in the French sense. All she and the Left can do is screech that he’s a dictator-in-waiting. That convinces the Left, and nobody else. Sarkozy is an asshole. So what? That is hardly a disqualifier in French politics. So long as what he proposes is what most French want, and they have confidence in him, he wins.
I think he wins. There is no scandal to be raised.
The price action of InTrade, that I’ve just now seen, indicates that nearly all those who are “betting” with real money on this race believe that Sarkozy made a huge gain during the last 24hrs as far as his chances to beat Royal.
Even more important: if you look at the numbers at the web site, the underlying structure of the bids that are outstanding demonstrate that very few people believe Royal has any chance to get some of boost in the next couple days, and come out the winner.
Right now people aren’t willing to bet $100 on Royal unless they are being given a return of over $1000 if she were to win. Those are pretty tempting odds, but in order to get anyone willing to buy, they want 1:16 or even 1:20 odds.
The traders are saying that something VERY major would have to change for Royal to win.
The underlying structure of Royal’s numbers on InTrade are pretty similar to those expecting President Bush will be impeached... but the odds of that, according to InTrade, are almost twice the odds that Royal will win.
“Analysts said neither candidate had scored a decisive victory.”
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—
The traders on InTrade pretty much disagree with this statement.
She HAS to have misunderstood that question, or that wasn’t actually the question.
If she has the nuclear power in France that wrong, Sarokzy and his staff will really make hay about this the next two days. That 17% sounds more like the US numbers, or maybe Europe in general.
I just watched the analysis of this on France 24. They had a four-member panel, three of whom hate Sarko and love Royal, the fourth wasn’t really enthused about either. I don’t know why they bother.
Just checked:
From http://www.iea.org/dbtw-wpd/Textbase/nppdf/free/2006/key2006.pdf
Says France nuke electricity = 78% of total production
US nuke electricity = 20% of total
World nuke electricity = 16% of total
Other sources show Europe as a whole ~ 30% of total production.
Weird that these two have the French numbers so far away from the truth.
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