~Devil Trigger~ said:

De Villepin is still alive in politics?

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Computer said:

By the way, I never knew what Cheminade looked like before I re-made the OP. Is it just me or does he look like Richard Dawkins?

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G.O.O. said:

OK, so now Christian Vanneste (UMP deputy, notoriously homophobic) is saying that no homosexuals were deported in France during WWII.

http://lelab.europe1.fr/t/christian...legende-de-la-deportation-des-homosexuels-871

And I was laughing at the republicans . How can someone like this have any power whatsoever ?

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Computer said:

Perhaps he did a good job as a mayor or whatever, which led his constituency to elect him as a MP? That's how the late Georges Frêche gained influence in the Socialist Party despite never being interested in national issues.

Also, I think people are making too much of a fuss about gay marriage and so on. It's a relatively minor political issue and it won't make a big difference in the election. People worry more about not losing their jobs and purchasing power so that's what candidates should try to solve first and foremost if they want more votes (if anything, campaigning on gay rights is an unnecessary risk for candidates given how polarizing the issue is) . As long as gays aren't harassed or physically attacked I see nothing wrong with the current state of French law (and I vote neither UMP nor FN, I consider myself a libertarian)

But yeah, even for a social conservative Christian Vanneste is annoying and deserves to be ignored.

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As long as gays aren't harassed or physically attacked I see nothing wrong with the current state of French law

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G.O.O. said:

As you said earlier, to me it's about these rules dictating how to live your daily life.

Sure, there are more important things to discuss right now, but it wouldn't cost anything and some people are asking for it. It's a matter of recognition, saying "you deserve to have the same rights as other couples, and people have no right to blame you about it". In that case, it's not delaying the issue, it's blatantly dismissing it => "if you want the same rights as others, you'll have to be like them".

I'm not a LGBT activist, but hearing this from a representative and knowing he probably won't have any penalty from his party, the same that is ruling the country, really gets on my nerves. That's how backward they can be...

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G.O.O. said:

Copé said he would be punished, so I was wrong anyway.

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Computer said:

- China pretty much laughs at us at every occasion
- Our troops are still in Afghanistan and Africa, where whe should never have gone in the first place
- We shouldn't have sent planes over Libya and now the country is on the verge of chaos (I don't even want to know how much taxpayer's money that cost).
- Former foreign minister Michèle Alliot-Marie had ties with the former Ben Ali regime in Tunisia
- Our current foreign minister (Alain Juppé) had been declared guilty of abuse of public funds but Sarkozy appointed him anyway
- Mexico hates us (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cassez)
- Turkey hates us (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-france-turkey-genocide-idUSTRE80M28G20120123)
- Several French hostages were executed by Al Qaeda in Africa
- We struggle to even sell one Rafale jet fighter

Also:

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Moundir&Tony>you said:

WELL HELLO THERE

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Kurtofan said:

He doesn't give a shit, some cold nerves!

If people vote Sarko again, then they deserve every shit they get, the fucker lied about everything he said and he lived the high life during the crisis.

When was the last time a French leader received support from a German leader?(joke)


Edit: Poutou's name means "kiss" by the way, this is a most important information.

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WARCOCK said:

Francois hollande is like god tier material imo. You lucky bastards have someone like that to vote for

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Mael said:

PFAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Next you'll tell me that Frédéric Mittérand is a good duy too.

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Mael said:

They came a long way to the pre PACS days where they nearly took it to the streets...

How come I didn't notice this thread before?
(although to be fair it's looking to be the worst election yet....)



You're very funny if you think that the right is to blame for everything and the left is full of angels or that there's any difference as far as foreign affairs go between the left and the right.



huh, this is guy is really someone from the right highjacking the left...



You're saying that while the left nearly chosed DSK, is full of corrupted officials and only wins an election when the other side is hated like Satan in a conclave?
I'm all for shitting on the current president but let's not act like it's vastly better elsewhere either.



PFAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Next you'll tell me that Frédéric Mittérand is a good duy too.

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WARCOCK said:

Eh, i was trying to highlight that the french electoral process is somewhat varied and multi-faceted which is indicative of a healthier democratic system. I have the choice between the far right and the center-right that parades itself as leftist during the election. So yes given these choices, and my political leanings which are to the left, hollande sounds great to me.

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Computer said:

I never said the left was any better in terms of foreign policy, corruption or moral integrity.

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RÉACTIONS - La majorité se désolidarise du député UMP du Nord...

La majorité est en train de lâcher le député Vanneste. Jean-François Copé a réclamé des «sanctions» à l'encontre de l'élu du Nord, qui a qualifié de «légende» la déportation des homosexuels pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale.Le secrétaire général de l'UMP a assuré qu'il ne se «déroberait pas» et que le cas du député de la Droite populaire serait étudié lors du burau national du parti, mercredi prohain.

Nadine Morano a elle indiqué ce mercredi matin sur Twitter qu’elle «condamnait fermement» les propos de l’élu du Nord. «Il ne peut pas porter ni nos couleurs ni nos valeurs», écrit encore la ministre de l’Apprentissage.

Nadine Morano
@nadine__morano

Je condamne fermement les propos de Christian Vaneste. Il ne peut pas porter ni nos couleurs ni nos valeurs

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«Propos ridicule de ce député malheureusement UMP!», avait réagi avant elle le ministre du Logement Benoist Apparu, également sur Twitter. «Il faut le virer de l'UMP», ajoute-t-il dans un autre tweet.

Eric Ciotti, lui aussi membre du très droitier collectif de la Droite populaire, assure sur Twitter «avoir demandé son exclusion de l'UMP en bureau politique», après ces propos «honteux».

«S’opposer à l’ouverture du mariage et de l’adoption aux couples de même sexe est une position politique que je partage mais s’en prendre aux homosexuels est injustifiable et incompatible avec les valeurs de notre famille politique», a renchéri Thierry Mariani, ministre des Transports et co-fondateur de la Droite populaire.

«Une vraie bêtise», selon le FN

Le député-maire UMP Franck Riester, qui a fait son coming out en décembre dernier a de son côté jugé que les propos de Christian Vanneste étaient «inadmissibles». «Une provocation de plus, une provocation de trop!» écrit l’élu sur son compte Twitter.

Interrogé sur BFMTV, la ministre des Solidarités Roselyne Bachelot a aussi «condamné» la sortie du député du Nord, mais ne s'est pas prononcée sur une exclusion de l'élu, jugeant que «ce n'était pas à (elle)» de le faire.

Le Front national a réagi par la voix de son n°2: «Je pense qu'il faut que monsieur Vanneste relise un peu ses livres d'histoire», a jugé Louis Aliot sur le plateau de France 2, jugeant que le député du Nord avait dit «une vraie bêtise».

«Des affirmations abjectes» pour Martine Aubry

Delphine Batho, la porte parole de François Hollande, juge que les popos de Christian Vanneste sont «non seulement homophobes mais aussi négationnistes». Dans un communiqué, elle demande à l’UMP «d’immédiatement exclure ce député si elle ne veut pas être implicitement complice de propos aussi odieux». Le PS attend, poursuit Delphine Batho, «que le candidat de l’UMP condamne très clairement ce qui n'est hélas pas un dérapage, mais une idéologie nauséabonde».

Dans un communiqué, Martine Aubry «condamne avec la plus grande sévérité» les propos de Christian Vanneste. «Ce sont une fois de plus des affirmations abjectes, marquées par une homophobie insupportable, qui l’excluent définitivement du cercle des élus républicains», s’indigne la première secrétaire du Parti socialiste.

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G.O.O. said:

@Mael : we can't really guess what the left would have done instead of Sarkozy. On the top of my head, I can think of four things they can do to improve things
- fiscal reform (Jospin's tax cuts really sent our debt through the roof)
- not having the same immigration policy, which deprives us of foreign brains since no one wants to become French anymore and will still cost us years from now
- have an actual interest into new technologies, instead of putting us on the list of the enemies of the Internet and crippling the digital economy
- stop Germany from trying to rule the EU. Seriously, it's a disaster.

If Hollande is elected, he'll probably pull an Obama and disappoint everyone within a year. But if we keep the other one, we're seriously fucked. And I'm not even talking about what we'll look like as a one party democracy.

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CAMPAIGN CHRONICLES

... and they're (finally) off!

President Sarkozy makes his big leap into the campaign fray, announcing he's standing for a second term today. We have a look at the key figures in his campaign team, and his strategy for winning back the French.

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Mael said:

Yeah on the bold I think you're absolutely wrong.
The fiscal reform is extremely complicated, heck Holland had to back down on this BECAUSE his proposition had too many holes in it and he was getting sniped on this.
Heck they don't have access to Bercy's current numbers at all so whatever they propose that is out of left field is basically a fairy tale.

And stopping Germany's rule? Are you for real? the difference between the serious preparation the left and the right did in 2007 was actually that the right prepared themselves in working with the europeans partners while the left was left doing stupid declamations in China.
And now we see that Holland has not even met with Merkel or anyone at all.
If he's put into power, he'll make a demand and have a blunt refusal which he won't be able to do anything about because he doesn't have the means anyway.
The interest in new tech is not something the left have a monopole on, and it's looking like Holland is as inept as any depute here. He doesn't want HADOPI closed for example, he wants it reallocated, which goes to show how stupid one can be.

The immigration policy on the other hand is a serious problem and the one we have now could be worse (look at lepen) but seriously needs improvement, no question here.

And we'll be way more fucked if we don't get the spending under control rather than keep the status quo.

And the worst outcome is without a question any dream peddler that base his policy on getting out of the Euro.

edit : Whoa I totally didn't understand the Vaneste affair it seems. He should be out of any parti ASAP.

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The fiscal reform is extremely complicated, heck Holland had to back down on this BECAUSE his proposition had too many holes in it and he was getting sniped on this.
Heck they don't have access to Bercy's current numbers at all so whatever they propose that is out of left field is basically a fairy tale.

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And stopping Germany's rule? Are you for real? the difference between the serious preparation the left and the right did in 2007 was actually that the right prepared themselves in working with the europeans partners while the left was left doing stupid declamations in China.
And now we see that Holland has not even met with Merkel or anyone at all.

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And we'll be way more fucked if we don't get the spending under control rather than keep the status quo.

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L'UMP exclura Vanneste après ses propos sur les homosexuels

PARIS (Reuters) - L'UMP a annoncé mercredi l'expulsion prochaine du député du Nord Christian Vanneste pour avoir tenu des propos "intolérables" niant la déportation d'homosexuels en France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

Lors de sa traditionnelle réunion du mercredi, le bureau politique de l'UMP "à l'unanimité, a condamné avec la plus grande force ces propos profondément choquants et intolérables, a déclaré le secrétaire général Jean-François Copé.

Il a ajouté que l'exclusion de Christian Vanneste de l'UMP serait à l'ordre du jour de la prochaine réunion du bureau politique, le 22 février, "et naturellement, cela va de soi, la suspension immédiate de son investiture pour les législatives".

Un candidat de l'UMP sera investi dans sa circonscription pour qu'il n'y ait "aucune ambiguïté", a-t-il dit.

Christian Vanneste a dit ne voir "aucun motif d'exclusion", affirmant n'avoir fait que "citer des faits". "Je condamne évidemment fermement la déportation des homosexuels", a-t-il dit sur Europe 1, dénonçant la pression d'un "lobby".

Le député s'est emporté contre ses collègues de l'UMP. "Je commence à en avoir assez de leurs manières de parler d'exclusion à tout propos, sans jamais engager de dialogue pour essayer de comprendre ce que j'ai dit."

Membre de la Droite populaire, l'aile "dure" de l'UMP, Christian Vanneste avait fait l'objet de poursuites en 2006 et 2007 pour des propos homophobes, mais sa condamnation a été annulée par la cour de cassation. Cette décision avait provoqué la consternation des associations à l'origine des poursuites.

Il s'est exprimé cette fois dans une vidéo diffusée par le site internet Liberté Politique, animé par une association chrétienne.

Interrogé sur les sondages indiquant qu'une majorité de Français est favorable au mariage homosexuel, il répond que ce résultat est le fruit d'un "bourrage de crânes" dû au fait que les homosexuels sont surreprésentés dans le monde médiatique, ce qui leur permet de faire progresser leurs idées avec un "art consommé de la déformation systématique des faits".

62 DÉPORTÉS EN FRANCE

Qualifiant l'homosexualité de "refus de l'autre", Christian Vanneste cite à titre d'exemple "la fameuse légende de la déportation des homosexuels".

"En Allemagne, il y a eu une répression des homosexuels et la déportation qui a conduit à peu près à 30.000 déportés. Et il n'y en a pas eu ailleurs (...) Il n'y a pas eu de déportation homosexuelle en France", dit-il.

GayLib, mouvement de défense des homosexuels associé à l'UMP, a été le premier à réclamer son exclusion.

"On ne peut que s'indigner, on ne peut qu'être choqués", a réagi Catherine Michaud, secrétaire générale de GayLib, assimilant les propos de Christian Vanneste à ceux de Jean-Marie Le Pen qualifiant les chambres à gaz de "point de détail".

D'autres personnalités de l'UMP ont condamné le député du Nord, dont la ministre chargée de l'apprentissage, Nadine Morano, qui a déclaré en bureau politique : "Il faut le virer ! Ce n'est pas possible qu'il porte nos couleurs".

Chef de file de la Droite populaire, le ministre des Transports Thierry Mariani a lui aussi pris ses distances avec l'élu, déclarant: "Je ne peux me résoudre à le laisser continuer à s'engager, s'agissant de la question de l'homosexualité et des homosexuels, sur le terrain de la provocation permanente et, désormais, sur celui du négationnisme."

Louis Aliot, le numéro deux du Front national, a lui aussi désapprouvé le député.

"Je pense qu'il faut que Monsieur Vanneste relise un peu ses livres d'Histoire", a-t-il dit sur France 2.

Pour Delphine Batho, porte-parole du candidat socialiste François Hollande, les propos de Christian Vanneste "sont non seulement homophobes mais aussi négationnistes."

L'historien Mickaël Bertrand, qui a dirigé un ouvrage collectif sur la déportation pour motif d'homosexualité, estime à 62 en France le nombre de "déportés qui ont été envoyés dans des prisons et des camps allemands en raison de leur homosexualité".

"Cela ne signifie pas pour autant que des centaines d'homosexuels français n'ont pas été déportés en tant que juifs, communistes et/ou résistants", écrit-il sur son blog.

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Sickboy007 said:

Do you expect Hollande to meet with Merkel when she's out doing electoral campaign for Sarkozy? This is clearly not the time for this, Hollande should meet and i'm sure he does with the SPD.

And you can't make history with ifs, but a united front and more pressure from its key allies would have probably made a difference with Germany. Sarko had basically a cameo appearance when he should have led the bloc with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th EU economy.

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G.O.O. said:

That might be a problem if you can't propose anything of the basis that you need to be in charge to have the data...

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G.O.O. said:

I think the programs are just here to give indications about what they'll want to do once they win. Hollande is blamed for not being precise enough but 95% of the economic program of any party is generally thrown out of the window because the economic context moves too quickly for it to mean anything.

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G.O.O. said:

According to what i've read, it's not that he didn't try. Merkel doesn't want to see him. And the crisis wasn't the same in 2007...

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G.O.O. said:

Spending is a whole other beast. We need growth. If we cut spendings that would have helped growth, we're just making things worse.

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Problem being that the economic program is the basis of the whole program, they can't propose anything at all if they can't fund it. If they can't fund it then they need to get a loan for that and that's how we got in this fucking debt hole.

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Crisis or not it doesn't explain the lack of vision Holland have for Europe.

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There's spending and spending.

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G.O.O. said:

My point was that a fiscal reform is needed and that's something I expect more from the left than the right, especially if Sarkozy wins.

Hollande has competent economists around him. Sarkozy might aswell, but as a finance minister Baroin is a joke.

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G.O.O. said:

No one has a vision, except those who want to leave it.

We need more integration, but people want to keep their sovereignty. No one wants to make the first step in this direction.

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G.O.O. said:

Spending for education seems like a good priority to me.

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G.O.O. said:

Also, he said finance was his adversary, which isn't the same thing as a declaration of war. Even the government pulled that one. Doesn't mean everyone will become Mélenchon from one day to the other.

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A fiscal reform was less needed than a retirement reform anyway.
And as it is whether or not we get a fiscal reform from the left or right is not important.
What we need is quite clearly a simplification of the overhead of the administration and that will never come from the left.

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We all know that it won't stay at that.

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Everyone talked about how Finance was getting overboard and all that (even Obama) but Holland is the only one to make a U turn about it for no reasons.

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G.O.O. said:

A fiscal reform would have an important psychological impact. That's also why it's important. The retirement reform completely forgot this aspect, and the fact that it won't even save anything will just make it a failure in the end.

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G.O.O. said:

No, but as I said earlier, it gives an indication.

I won't pretend that I know what he'll do or not.

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G.O.O. said:

There is a reason. The fact that everyone was starting to panic because of what he said two weeks earlier. Which wouldn't be a problem if he was a right-winger, but when a socialist says the same everyone pictures him in a russian tank rolling over banks.

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Actually the retirement system would gone belly up by now if not for the multiple reforms the left never wanted to pass.
We've lost something like 10 years in useless bickering because the system is not sustainable anyway.
Heck the Juppe reform of the late 90's have been made by Fillon 10 years later.
the fiscal system is less important to reform because we don't really want retired people to have to work again because the entitlement program ran out of money.

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If Mitterand is any indication (and the left LOOOOOOOVE to use him) our spending wil basically double if not more.
that's even why we imposed the 3% deficit in the EU.

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I'm ok with him if he says that he's against Finance and go all out or if he says he doesn't care or something.
What I care about is that he's taking us for saps as far as his intentions.
If he's of that mind about this, he's not to be trusted about more trivial matters. or even about anything in his program.

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G.O.O. said:

My argument wasn't that it shouldn't have been done. It's that the way it was done will make it harder to do it again next time we'll need it - and I'm pretty confident we will.

Also I don't think blaming the left for not passing it during the five years they were in charge while Chirac wouldn't do it either after 2002 is relevant. They criticized it, but the governement cutting out every discussion didn't help.

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G.O.O. said:

I really don't think he'll be an inspiration for something else than his popularity and aura. He's like De Gaulle, someone who'll have a free pass for all the shit he's done because history wants to keep a good image of him.

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G.O.O. said:

Come on, that's overreacting.

The whole point of this is that finance and speculation gone wrong can start crises and put a country on its knees (like it did with Greece, along with their incompetent state), not that we should kill teh dragon. In its program, that could just be equivalent of his proposal to separate investment banking from retail banking, what could be useful (but not wanted by major banks).

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DeGaulle actually did stuffs that were really good

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Yeah considering that he's been passed as the inspiration everyone on the left must have I'm not so sure.

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This is BS and you know it, his declaration was nothing more than a rally call for the left to vote for him.

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He won't separate investment banking from retail banking because really he has ties too with the banking world or even worse that could have an unseen negative impact on the economy.

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The fact that his interview with the Guardian is soo different with his campaign speech is pretty telling IMO that he's not telling everything.
If he didn't want to be held accountable for this speech he shouldn't have made it.

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G.O.O. said:

Not questioning this. He took the country during harsh times. Then again, the fifth republic needs to go, yet no one wants to touch it because it was the General's work.


There's a pretty obvious reason for that.


But I agree. I'm just saying that it doesn't contradict him, at least on the paper.


Not sure about the negative impact. There are pros and cons.

http://www.liberation.fr/politiques...r-banque-de-detail-et-banque-d-investissement

However the article also mentions that there are pretty big obstacles. Again, not going to predict anything here.


Yes, he said what they wanted to hear. That's politics, but then again I don't think it's contradictory with his program.

He has to please the left to win and not scare the financial world if he's elected. Plus the fact that he has to convince that he's not the soft-left everyone knows he is. I can see how this could get problematic.

At least Sarkozy never had to work with this gap.

On other news, the domain name lafranceforte.com has been bought by a guy working at the Elysée.

http://www.gandi.net/whois/details?search=lafranceforte.com

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G.O.O. said:

Not questioning this. He took the country during harsh times. Then again, the fifth republic needs to go, yet no one wants to touch it because it was the General's work.

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G.O.O. said:

There's a pretty obvious reason for that.

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G.O.O. said:

But I agree. I'm just saying that it doesn't contradict him, at least on the paper.

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G.O.O. said:

Not sure about the negative impact. There are pros and cons.

http://www.liberation.fr/politiques...r-banque-de-detail-et-banque-d-investissement

However the article also mentions that there are pretty big obstacles. Again, not going to predict anything here.

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G.O.O. said:

Yes, he said what they wanted to hear. That's politics, but then again I don't think it's contradictory with his program.

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G.O.O. said:

He has to please the left to win and not scare the financial world if he's elected. Plus the fact that he has to convince that he's not the soft-left everyone knows he is. I can see how this could get problematic.

At least Sarkozy never had to work with this gap.

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G.O.O. said:

On other news, the domain name lafranceforte.com has been bought by a guy working at the Elysée.

http://www.gandi.net/whois/details?search=lafranceforte.com

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Computer said:

Sarkozy did (and still does) try hard to seduce far-right voters.

Also, who's watching Sarkozy annonce his candidacy on TF1 tonight?

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Computer said:

Also, who's watching Sarkozy annonce his candidacy on TF1 tonight?

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Again that's his problem, if he can't be elected based on his project and if he's too weak to have any conviction he shouldn't be in the race in the 1rst place.

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French historian Mickaël Bertrand, who led a team of researchers who produced a report on the question, suggests that 62 people were deported from France to German camps or prisons, because of their homosexuality.

French Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld says that he has never seen a document relating to the deportation of homosexuals in France. He says that German law on the arrest of homosexuals was never introduced in France, except in parts of France which at the time were German, such as Alsace.

The French group Les oublié(e)s de la mémoire (Forgotten by history) campaigns for greater recognition of the homosexual victims of the Nazi holocaust.

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EXCLUSIF. Le slogan du candidat Sarkozy : "La France forte !"

"La France forte !" Voici donc le slogan de campagne de Nicolas Sarkozy, qui sera dévoilé pour la première fois, demain soir, lors d'un meeting à Annecy. Après moult hésitations, les communicants de l'Élysée ont tranché en faveur de cette formule censée incarner une France qui, malgré la crise et l'enlisement de nombreux pays européens, n'a pas ployé durant le quinquennat. Le mot "courage", un temps envisagé, a été abandonné, l'Élysée préférant axer le slogan davantage sur le pays que sur la personne du candidat.

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Facebook accused of helping Sarkozy's online makeover

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has a brand new Facebook profile. On Wednesday afternoon, before he had even announced his candidacy, some of his opponents were openly accusing Facebook of deliberately helping him boost his online image.
On Wednesday afternoon French President Nicolas Sarkozy had yet to announce his official candidacy for the forthcoming presidential election.

But his online campaign profile was shaping up nicely. His brand new Twitter feed @NicolasSarkozy confirmed that he will appear live on TF1 television at 8pm Paris time (GMT+1) on Wednesday.
Until now, the president’s aides had used the Elysée presidential palace Twitter account exclusively. His new Twitter feed is just one more confirmation – if that were needed - that he is on the cusp of launching himself as Sarkozy the candidate alongside Sarkozy the president.

The president also has an all-new Facebook profile and has the distinction of being the only French politician to use the social networking site’s new “Timeline” format, which was introduced in September 2011 and allows web users to trace users’ history on the site.
Sarkozy’s Facebook Timeline is extensive and exhaustive. It includes some 700 pictures that date back all the way to his birth. And while giving him a more modern look than his opponents, it is also revealing in what the president has chosen to omit from his online history.

Gone is all mention of a controversial 2007 state visit from then-Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, as well as a notorious Dakar speech in July 2007 in which he asserted that “the African man has never really entered history.”

Much of the president’s controversial private life has also been excised. His ex-wife Cecelia Attias, who was Sarkozy’s “special councillor” while he was interior minister, is nowhere to be found. Neither is there any mention of his whirlwind romance and marriage to Italian singer and former model Carla Bruni.
Also missing are his more controversial outbursts, including a 2006 promise to “sand-blast” France’s restive suburbs, and a vulgar and widely publicised comment at a 2008 agricultural show when he told a heckler “casse toi pauvre con”, which essentially means “get lost jerk” in the mildest of translations.

Facebook accused of helping out

It is perfectly normal that a presidential candidate would only want the electorate to only see his “best bits”, although the new Sarkozy image is still a far cry from his 2007 campaign, in which his private life was placed centre stage.

But Facebook itself is facing accusations that it sent a dedicated team to meet with the president’s men in order to perfect his online image.

Soon after Sarkozy’s Timeline went live on February 10, Facebook’s content director for France Julien Codorniou tweeted that the presidential Timeline was “quite impressive”.

Weekly news magazine L’Express picked up on this to speculate that Facebook was hoping to gain attention for the new Timeline function by advising the president. The new Facebook tool is being rolled out to all the site’s users and is not universally popular.

“The sheer amount of work that has gone into [Sarkozy’s] Facebook profile is even more surprising than the quality of the work,” Benoit Thielin told L’Express (Thielin is an online image expert who managed the 2007 web campaign of failed presidential candidate Segolene Royal). “It can only have been done over a period of months by a team of dedicated professionals.”

The main opposition Socialists were more direct. The party’s digital campaign manager Fleur Peulin said in an email obtained by L’Express, that Julien Codorniou had “informally assisted Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign team so as to create a Timeline on his fan page” and that she "can not approve of a company taking sides in a presidential campaign.”
Facebook has denied all accusations of being politically partisan.

“We are regularly in contact with numerous public figures, including politicians, for information and advice on how to use our products and services,” a company spokesman said in an email. “We give them that help but we remain completely impartial.”

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Sarkozy officially declares re-election bid

French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially declared he will run for re-election in the country’s upcoming presidential elections in a televised appearance on Wednesday.

After months of “will he” or “won’t he”, French President Nicolas Sarkozy officially announced his intention to run for a second term in the country’s upcoming presidential elections during an appearance on prime-time television Wednesday.

When asked point-blank if he planned to run for the presidency, Sarkozy responded bluntly, “Yes, I am [a] candidate for the presidential election”.

Sarkozy has teased the French public with his reluctance to declare his bid for re-election ahead of the country’s first round of voting on April 22, causing widespread speculation as to when and where he would finally do it. Wednesday’s announcement on French television TF1’s evening news means that the centre-right president has formally entered the race against rival Socialist Party (PS) candidate François Hollande.

“Now the real campaign starts”, French Foreign Minister and Sarkozy ally Alain Juppé told French radio station France Info earlier on Wednesday. “We will have a real debate and see the weaknesses of the Socialist candidate”.

‘It’s just another mundane event’, says PS

To all appearances, the PS has thus far treated Sarkozy’s long-awaited declaration with tepid interest.

“It’s going to be a routine announcement,” PS party spokesman Benoit Hamon said in a press conference on Monday. “When Nicolas Sarkozy speaks, there are no flashing red lights, it’s just another mundane event.”

Hamon also took the opportunity to accuse Sarkozy of “playing games of suspense” with the public, and manipulating his undeclared status over the last few months to promote himself using public financing. As an official candidate, Sarkozy is now subject to limited air time and funds for his campaign.

Yet behind closed doors, the PS apparently holds a very different view of the potential consequences of Sarkozy’s candidacy. In an interview on Tuesday with Europe 1 radio, a PS insider said “Nicolas Sarkozy’s declaration is going to have a very big impact”, adding that the party was working hard to come up with a coordinated and measured response.

Coming up from behind

Sarkozy’s re-election bid comes at a critical moment, as France grapples with the fallout from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and struggles to shore up its own economy. For the last several months, polls have consistently put Sarkozy behind Hollande, even forecasting he would lose to the socialist candidate in the country’s May 6 runoff.

Yet it looks as though the incumbent’s tidings are possibly changing. According to a February 13 study by French polling centre IPSOS, Sarkozy’s popularity has inched upwards by two points, while Hollande’s has ebbed by four, narrowing the gap between the two candidates.

Sarkozy is expected to reveal his campaign platform in France’s port city of Marseille on Sunday.

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Kurtofan said:

"La France forte" :lol the cheesiest slogan.

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el retorno de los sapos said:

Can france-gaf fill me in on the two main candidates imigration policies? The french imigration debate has always interested me ever since the riots in i think it was 2005.

Spoiler

and maybe for some laughs Le Pen's

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Sarkozy enters the race

Way behind in the polls, Nicolas Sarkozy touts "a strong France" as he officially declares his candidacy for a second term. But will the race be about values, the economy or a personality that's earned him the nickname of 'Speedy Sarko'?

Guests :

Hélène CONWAY MOURET, Socialist Senator
Charles GIVADINOVICH, UMP
Patrick JARREAU, Politics Desk Editor, Le Monde newspaper
From Brussels, Nicolas BAYGERT, Communications Consultant
From Salford, England Jocelyn Evans, Professor of Politics, University of Salford

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el retorno de los sapos said:

Can france-gaf fill me in on the two main candidates imigration policies? The french imigration debate has always interested me ever since the riots in i think it was 2005.

Spoiler

and maybe for some laughs Le Pen's

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Computer said:

I wish I could vote Cthulhu 2012.

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G.O.O. said:

- Guéant was proud to say not so long ago that for the first time in years, France has been less attractive to strangers. Gives you an idea about the immigration policy.

- Hollande and the PS think this is bad

- Le Pen : SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING.

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Computer said:

I wish I could vote Cthulhu 2012.

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Mael said:

Well that was pretty shitty.

Still better than the show we had last time with 3 journalists getting spanked by Sarkozy.
I swear we have such shitty interviewer it's unreal.



For the Cyclops daughter that's a step up from the usual position of :
If you're not of French ancestry from the nth generation you're out



That's actually the best candidate we have now...

Oh and this debate looks to be a vast improvment over the one with Golnish or whatever.

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Computer said:

The member of the UMP Youth movement is painful to listen to (just like the last one I heard in another debate on the same channel).

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Computer said:

The member of the UMP Youth movement is painful to listen to (just like the last one I heard in another debate on the same channel).

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G.O.O. said:

Was it Benji Lancar ?

This guy is amazing !

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Kurtofan said:

"Amazing" as in "it's amazing nobody kicked his ass yet"?

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Computer said:

Hervé Morin confirmed his dropping out and his official support to Nicolas Sarkozy: http://www.jeanmarcmorandini.com/ar...-renonce-et-qu-il-va-soutenir-nicolas-sarkozy

Sarkozy's official campaign website: http://lafranceforte.fr/

Sarkozy's official campaign poster:

Fun fact: "Il faut une France forte" was the slogan of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing for his re-election campaign in 1981 (which he lost to François Mitterrand):

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‘Flawed Sarkozy still best candidate’
16 February | 08:46

French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a daunting battle following the announcement he will seek another term, but his removal would be a loss to world politics, Britain's press said on Thursday.

Britain's newspapers tore into the French leader late last year over his handling of the eurozone crisis and his calls for a Europe-wide financial transactions tax, but on Thursday focused on his decisive actions on the world stage.

“Britain has had many disputes with President Sarkozy, not least his obsession with the introduction of a financial transactions tax that could do serious damage to the City of London,” said The Times leading article.

“Yet in many ways he has been an impressive leader both for France and for the rest of the world.”

The right-of-centre broadsheet praised Sarkozy's swift response to the Arab Spring uprisings and heralded his leading role in bringing about the downfall of veteran Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

However, the paper also criticised Sarkozy's “disappointing” record on reforming France's “bloated” public sector, saying it highlighted that his achievements often fell short of his promises.

“For all his flaws, Mr Sarkozy would be a loss from the world stage,” the article concluded.

Fellow broadsheet The Daily Telegraph (Conservative) warned that Sarkozy faced “a taller order than any of his predecessors” to secure a second five-year term.

The left-of-centre Independent agreed that despite being “a powerful campaigner”, Sarkozy faced “the greatest uphill battle of any incumbent French leader of recent times”.

“Sarkozy is seen as having behaved erratically and selfishly in office, governing for his family and friends,” the paper added.

Sarkozy said on Wednesday he was the man to defend a “strong France” as he announced his re-election bid with 10 weeks to the vote and his Socialist rival Francois Hollande leading in opinion polls.

Stephen Glover of the eurosceptic Daily Mail was less generous in his assessment of the French leader, accusing him of conveying the “detestable bounciness and self-confidence that one associates with Napoleon.”

“It seems a good bet that Sarkozy's vision of a united Europe will unravel as almost 200 years ago Bonaparte's admittedly very different version did,” he added before predicting a chastening defeat when voting begins on April 22. - Sapa-AFP

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