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[ComputerMKII]

I'm remaking the OP so as not to have one huge PNG load every time (every candidate and title will have its own picture). It should be lighter and cleaner from now on. I also removed Frédéric Nihous from the list.

 

[Kurtofan]

That's the idea. I still don't know who. Maybe Hollande-UMP.

Honestly I'd rather have Sarkozy-PS, since the president in a cohabitation can't do much beyond foreign policy and defense.
I don't remember the Jospin years, so I'm not sure what role Chirac had in them.(I just remember aspirin jokes ha)

 

[ComputerMKII]

I think kosher is even more restrictive. Food that is kosher is automatically halal, the opposite is not always true.

Shouldn't animals be killed while facing Mecca, in the islamic tradition? I'm not sure why Jews would do that, but whatever, I'm getting off-topic.

 

[G.O.O.]

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/po...les-propos-nauseabonds-de-gueant_1089275.html

Now Gueant says that foreigners will make Halal food compulsory in kids' cafeterias.
Jesus the UMP doesn't even try to cover their tracks while sucking the far right votes now.
They just don't give a shit anymore.

Next time they will ally with the FN, Berlusconi style.

He also called Correze (Hollande is the president of the general council of Correze) "the Greece of France".

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/po...e-vraiment-la-grece-de-la-france_1082427.html

The article says the Correzian debt went from 35 millions to 300 millions under a right wing presidency, so Gluant is full of bullshit.

Guéant is just being himself and successfully trolling the left. I'm not even sure he believes this shit.

Also the UMP seems pretty desperate since the Bayonne trip. This week really sucked for them.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Sarkozy isn't fooling anyone:

Propos de Guéant : le FN moque une "énième sortie electoraliste sans lendemain"
Pour Florian Philippot, directeur stratégique et porte-parole de Marine Le Pen, "le camp Sarkozy tente désespéremment de récupérer quelques voix par une énième sortie électoraliste sans lendemain".

"La sortie de Claude Guéant sur le halal a en outre cette fois-ci quelque chose de comique quand on constate que depuis deux semaines, l'UMP, en harmonie parfaite avec le PS, balaie d'un revers de la main le débat qu'a lancé Marine Le Pen sur le halal, affirmant qu'il n'y a sur ce sujet aucun problème", a-t-il déclaré dans un communiqué.

http://lci.tf1.fr/filnews/politique...-une-enieme-sortie-electoraliste-7035324.html

 

[ComputerMKII]

Carl Lang announces 380 signatures, "it will be very hard"

Far right presidential candidate Carl Lang (former National Front member), said on Saturday that he had only 380 signatures of elected officials, recognizing that it would be "very hard" to pass the obstacle of the 500 needed to compete at the Elysée Palace.

"It will be very hard. It's an accomplishment to be where we are," he said after a public meeting in Paris of the Union of the National Right (UDN), which federates several extreme right movements (NDP, MNR, PDF) and of which he is the candidate. "We're not too far from the goal" he shouted a little earlier to his supporters, calling for "continuing" the harvest until the deadline, March 16.

He suspected Marine Le Pen to have "already gathered the 500 signatures" but to maintain the suspense to harvest even more and thereby depriving him of precious key signatures, to "keep the electoral monopoly, in addition to the media monopoly."

http://lci.tf1.fr/filnews/politique/carl-lang-annonce-380-parrainages-ce-sera-tres-dur-7035424.html

 

[ComputerMKII]

Minister under fire for 'halal' comment on immigrant vote

French Interior Minister Claude Guéant was under fire again Saturday for condemning a Socialist Party proposal to allow immigrants to vote in local elections, saying he didn't want regional officials "making halal food obligatory in canteen meals".
By News Wires (text)

AFP - French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, a hardliner close to President Nicolas Sarkozy, came under fire again Saturday for the second time in a month for comments deemed racist by liberals.

At a meeting late Friday in support of Sarkozy's bid for a new term as president, Gueant condemned proposals by the president's socialist opponent Francois Hollande to give the vote in local elections to immigrants.

"We don't want foreign town councillors making halal food obligatory in canteen meals .... or regulating mixed bathing in swimming pools," Gueant told an audience near Nancy in eastern France.

Hollande's spokesman Manuel Valls Saturday called the comments "nauseating", while centrist candidate Francois Bayrou accused Gueant of scaremongering.

The immigrant aid group France Terre d'Asile condemned "the pathetic quest of a minister who forgets his official duties in the hope of adding the votes of a few extremists to his side."

Gueant, who is responsible for immigration, sparked a storm a month before when he told a gathering of right-wing students that "for us all civilisations are not of equal value."

"Those which defend humanity seem to us to be more advanced than those that do not," he said, stressing the need to "protect our civilisation".

The left denounced his speech as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy to woo supporters of the far-right National Front (FN) ahead of the two-round presidential election in April and May.

Gueant has repeatedly linked immigration with crime in France and in January claimed the delinquency rate among immigrants was "two to three times higher" than the national average.

Last April, he declared that an increase in the number of Muslim faithful in France posed a "problem".

He has also said that he wants to reduce the number of legal immigrants entering France, including those coming to work legally or to join their families.

His latest comments came as the FN's presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is credited with between 16 and 20 percent support in opinion polls.

An aide to Gueant said Saturday that he had said virtually the same thing in the French Senate last year in a debate on an unsuccessful socialist bill for widening the local vote to foreigners apart from EU expatriates, who already have the right.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120303...ing-gueant-france-local-elections-sarkozy-ump

 

[G.O.O.]

According to "Der Spiegel", conservative European leaders agreed to not meet Hollande during the campaign.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/art...e-hollande_1651598_823448.html#ens_id=1590109

Existe-t-il une fronde anti-Hollande dans certaines capitales européennes ? C'est en tout cas ce qu'affirme Der Spiegel. A en croire le magazine allemand, la chancelière allemande, Angela Merkel, et ses homologues conservateurs italien, espagnol et britannique se sont entendus pour boycotter le candidat socialiste, qui a décliné samedi sa conception de la présidence lors d'un meeting à Dijon.

Mme Merkel, le président du Conseil italien, Mario Monti, et le chef du gouvernement espagnol, Mariano Rajoy, se seraient ainsi "engagés verbalement" à ne pas recevoir François Hollande, que les sondages donnent vainqueur de la présidentielle, affirme Der Spiegel. Une promesse à laquelle se serait joint le premier ministre britannique, David Cameron.

D'après l'hebdomadaire, les dirigeants conservateurs sont "scandalisés" par la volonté affichée du candidat socialiste de renégocier le pacte fiscal, une pièce centrale du sauvetage de la zone euro. La motivation de David Cameron, dont le pays n'a pas signé le pacte fiscal, serait plus idéologique.

Berlin a démenti l'information dimanche, quand un porte-parole d'Angela Merkel a déclaré : "Chaque chef de gouvernement européen choisit indépendamment si et comment il souhaite recevoir M. Hollande. En Allemagne, il n'y a pour le moment aucun rendez-vous de prévu."

Source (in German) : http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,819095,00.html

 

[TheDrowningMan]

According to "Der Spiegel", conservative European leaders agreed to not meet Hollande during the campaign.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/art...e-hollande_1651598_823448.html#ens_id=1590109


Source (in German) : http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,819095,00.html

Shouldn't that help him? I can't imagine too many French people desperately craving the endorsement of putty faced, inbred flim-flam man Cam or frumpy scarecrow Merkel.

 

[G.O.O.]

I don't know how good it is for Hollande, but that can't help Sarkozy who's trying to be "the people's candidate" once again. It looks like a technocratic Europe coalition.

 

[G.O.O.]

Sarkozy : "Halal food is the first concern for the French"

This just in : he doesn't want to get reelected.

 

[Jb]

Sarkozy : "Halal food is the first concern for the French"

This just in : he doesn't want to get reelected.

That's an incredibly stupid thing for him to say, but I'd like to know the context around it. The article is pretty bad in that regard.

 

[G.O.O.]

Le Monde has a better one : http://www.lemonde.fr/election-pres...ion-erronee-de-m-sarkozy_1652325_1471069.html

He says "according to a poll". But it's... unclear, to say the least.

 

[Karakand]

I'm remaking the OP so as not to have one huge PNG load every time (every candidate and title will have its own picture). It should be lighter and cleaner from now on. I also removed Frédéric Nihous from the list.

Whenever I read the "extreme left" in your Arthaud bio I picture her doing a kickflip over a burning bus with LATE CAPITALISM spray painted on the side while flashing a hang loose hand gesture.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Good God. Using the same strategy twice won't get him reelected. "First tragedy, then farce" comes to mind.

 

[Magni]

So who watched Le Pen and Mélenchon last night? MLP is as bad as always, and Mélenchon, while a smooth talker and probably a nice guy, is too crazy for me to want him at l'Elysée.

 

[ComputerMKII]

So who watched Le Pen and Mélenchon last night? MLP is as bad as always, and Mélenchon, while a smooth talker and probably a nice guy, is too crazy for me to want him at l'Elysée.

I would have watched if it were Jean-Marie Le Pen, but I'm not interested in whatever Marine has to say.

 

[Kurtofan]

Sarkozy : "Halal food is the first concern for the French"

This just in : he doesn't want to get reelected.

Jesus Christ.

 

[ComputerMKII]

'We have too many foreigners': Sarkozy outrages minorities in France

• 'Our system of integration is getting worse and worse,' says increasingly desperate President, seeking re-election
  [*]Calls for better labelling of kosher and halal products interpreted as a specific attack on Jews and Muslims
  [*]Wife Carla Bruni causes fury by insisting: 'We are modest people'

By Peter Allen In Paris
Last updated at 1:30 PM on 7th March 2012

Nicolas Sarkozy has infuriated ethnic minorities by claiming that there are ‘too many immigrants in France’ and that the number arriving should be reduced by almost half.

The outspoken claims were made on live TV as the increasingly desperate President tried to persuade people to re-elect him in May.

‘Our system of integration is getting worse and worse,’ said Mr Sarkozy.

The conservative President, who is trailing badly in all opinion polls to his Socialist rival Francois Hollande, said he wanted to reduce the number of immigrants from some 180,000 a year to 100,000.

His controversial comments came as his wife Carla Bruni caused fury across France by referring to the couple as 'modest people'.

The 44-year-old heiress, who is regularly compared to the French queen Marie Antoinette because of her pampered lifestyle, made the claim as she watched her husband take part in a live TV debate.

Speaking about immigration, Mr Sarkozy said: ‘Over the five year term, I think that to restart the process of integration in the right way, we must divide by two the number of people that we welcome, that is to say to pass from 180,000 per year to 100,000.’

Mr Sarkozy said he also wanted to limit the amount of welfare benefits paid to immigrant workers so that only those had lived in the country for 10 years, and worked for at least five, received them.

In what appeared to be a specific attack on Jews and Muslims – who make up a community of around 5 million in France and are the largest ethnic minority – Mr Sarkozy had earlier called for all kosher and halal products to be labelled properly.

He said that all consumers needed to know whether food had been prepared in accordance with Islamic and Jewish law,as they might object to eating it.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Muslim faith council, said Islam should ‘not become a target in the election campaign’.

Richard Prasquier, president of the representative council of Jewish institutions, has also expressed ‘shock’ at the ‘stupefying’ claims being made by Mr Sarkozy and his colleagues.

Mr Sarkozy was also attacked for ‘scape-goating and stigmatizing’ Muslims by Manuel Valls, communications chief for Mr Hollande’s campaign.

Mr Sarkozy is hoping he can win over those who currently vote for Marine Le Pen’ s National Front (FN), but his increasingly right-wing agenda is not making him any more popular.

Before his TV appearance on Tuesday night, a CSA poll suggested Mr Sarkozy would gain 46 per cent of the vote in a second round run-off, compared to 54 per cent for Mr Hollande.

An editorial in Liberation, the Paris daily newspaper, said the French had ‘solidly and profoundly fallen out of love with the outgoing President’.

Miss Bruni did not help matters when she leapt to her husband's defence as he watched him face searching questions during the TV debate.

When Mr Sarkozy was criticised for celebrating his election success in 2007 with rich businessmen friends in an upmarket restaurant on the Champs Elysee, she told journalists: 'We are modest people.'

The comment, which was published in a number of Paris newspapers today, was described ironically by the Nouvel Observateur as 'a shock argument'.

Italian-born Miss Bruni is not only the benefactor of a multi-million pounds fortune built up by her industrialist father, but also made a fortune as a supermodel during the 1990s.

She is frequently likened to Marie Antoinette - the royal who was infamously said to have advised poor people without bread to 'eat cake'.

Mr Sarkozy, meanwhile, increased his presidential salary by 140 per cent as soon as he came to power, and then took a holiday on a yacht belonging to a billionaire friend.

He and Miss Bruni, who married followed a whirlwind romance in 2008, have since spent millions in taxpayers' money on everything from refurbishing their presidential plane to lavish parties.

Two years ago it emerged that they were spending more than £650 a day on fresh flowers for the Elysee Palace alone.

The couple also used taxpayers' money to settle £3,000 worth of fines for late payment of electricity and gas bills.

Their regular holidays have included staying in a £2,000-plus hotel suite in Mexico, as well as spending the whole of August at Miss Bruni's villa on the French Riviera.

Internet news sites were today crammed with comments about Miss Bruni's 'modest' claim, with a poster called 'Jambon' from Nice saying: 'The couple have always taken us for imbeciles.'

Marc, from Aubervilliers, added: 'Frankly, which planet does she live on? The hour of democratic judgement is coming.'

Despite once describing herself as a Socialist supporter, Miss Bruni has been campaigning on behalf of her husband in recent weeks, describing his policies as 'fabulous'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111501/Sarkozy-claims-foreigners-France.html

 

[Kurtofan]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111501/Sarkozy-claims-foreigners-France.html

Lol if he wants to reform the system, what the hell was he doing those past five years?

 

[ComputerMKII]

Lol if he wants to reform the system, what the hell was he doing those past five years?

Precisely.

 

[G.O.O.]

Lol if he wants to reform the system, what the hell was he doing those past five years?

Have you watched des paroles et des actes yesterday night ? It was pretty much a 3 hour long apology, with Fabius acting as a sleepwalking punching-bag near the end.

 

[Kurtofan]

Have you watched des paroles et des actes yesterday night ? It was pretty much a 3 hour long apology, with Fabius acting as a sleepwalking punching-bag near the end.

I read an article on it, but I didn't watch it.

In other news Sarko said he will quit politics if he isn't reelected, oh yesyesyes

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Seriously, all this talk and commotion because of a way of slaughtering cattle ?
It would be nice if that was the only major problem in France, ha ha.


Oh and I'm calling bullshit on Sarko quitting politics if he doesn't get reelected.

 

[Moundir&Tony>you]

I read an article on it, but I didn't watch it.

In other news Sarko said he will quit politics if he isn't reelected, oh yesyesyes

Not the first time he says that.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Nathalie Arthaud and Jacques Cheminade have given their signatures to the Constitutional Council, reports say. Cheminade just said on France Info that he had 538 of them.

 

[G.O.O.]

Where the fuck did he get them. Seriously.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Parrainages : une trentaine de signatures à trouver pour Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen, candidate du Front national à l'Elysée, a indiqué jeudi qu'il lui manquait encore "une trentaine" de parrainages d'élus pour pouvoir se présenter à la présidentielle. Interrogée sur sa collecte des parrainages en marge d'un point de presse consacré à la journée internationale des femmes, Mme Le Pen a répondu : "Je cherche, je trouve difficilement", en faisant remarquer qu'il ne restait que "6 jours ouvrables" pour rassembler les 500 signatures nécessaires. Comme on lui demandait combien il lui en manquait, la candidate a répondu: "Une trentaine". Elle a précisé que "27 maires s'étaient rétractés". La veille, la présidente du FN s'était dit "inquiète" sur son compte Twitter, en expliquant qu'elle venait de passer "3 heures au téléphone" avec des maires. Mercredi, le ministre de l'Intérieur Claude Guéant avait jugé qu'il serait "normal" qu'elle soit "présente dans la compétition"."Je trouve qu'il serait anormal pour notre jeu démocratique que la candidate d'une frange de l'opinion que l'on situe autour de 17% ne soit pas présente", avait-il dit. La clôture des recueils de parrainages est fixée au 16 mars. Nathalie Arthaud, candidate de Lutte ouvrière, qui obtient environ 1% des intentions de vote, a été la première à déposer, mercredi, ses parrainages. Jeudi, c'est Jacques Cheminade, déjà candidat en 1995, qui a déposé au Conseil constitutionnel les précieux sésames.

http://lci.tf1.fr/filnews/politique...signatures-a-trouver-pour-marine-7047080.html

 

[Meadows]

Is Hollande likely to win then?

 

[G.O.O.]

Is Hollande likely to win then?

Very.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Is Hollande likely to win then?

I'd be shocked if he doesn't.

 

[Blimblim]

I'd be shocked if he doesn't.

Never underestimate the French left, they always find a way to fuck up.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Never underestimate the French left, they always find a way to fuck up.

True enough.

Also:

Sarkozy to quit politics if he loses re-election bid

By News Wires the 08/03/2012 - 12:06

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that he would leave politics if he loses his re-election bid, and pointed out that his Socialist challenger, who leads in polls, has a worrying "dearth of experience" for such troubled times.
REUTERS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he would fight with everything he has to win a second term but will bow out of politics if he loses an April-May election.

Sarkozy, who is badly lagging Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls six weeks before the first round of voting, said Hollande's lack of ministerial or international experience was a problem at a time of economic turmoil.

"I worry when I look at the Socialist candidate's programme ... and I worry about this dearth of experience in such a troubled period. But if the French people do not put their faith in me, do you really think I would carry on in politics? The answer is no," Sarkozy told RMC radio.

Hollande widened his lead slightly this week, advancing 2 points to 30 percent support for the April 22 first round, while Sarkozy gained only 1 point to 28 percent. The survey, by pollster CSA, saw Hollande beating Sarkozy by 56 percent to 44 percent in a May 6 runoff.

"I will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out, that's the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics," he said.

Sarkozy said on a three-hour televised debate on Tuesday that he was not discouraged by his weak poll scores and that one his characteristics is that he never gives up.

But French media are reporting that his campaign team is starting to worry that Sarkozy's efforts to overcome a widespread dislike of his personal style and anger over three years of economic gloom are not working.

Campaign spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet - who was lambasted as out of touch after she was unable to tell a radio presenter the price of a Paris metro ticket - lamented this week that the race had descended into distracting polemic.

Presidential spokesman Frank Louvrier has been quoted by the daily Les Echos as saying that if Sarkozy's camp did not keep the focus squarely on debating ideas they were "sure to lose".

Setbacks

Sarkozy launched his campaign in mid-February, several weeks after Hollande, and has opted for a strategy of unveiling his ideas - such as a new minimum tax on company profits, making the unemployed sign up to training to get their benefits and holding policy referendums - week by week.

After a strong start that saw him trim the gap with Hollande by a few points, he suffered setbacks in his second week, including being jostled by left-wing militants while out on the campaign trail, and has now lost his initial bounce.

Meanwhile Hollande has consolidated his lead position after announcing a surprise 75 percent tax rate on annual income above 1 million euros, a move nearly two in three voters support.

On Thursday's radio show, Sarkozy proposed a new household fund for women abandoned by fathers of their children, a new renovation programme for city suburbs and said he would cut the number of lawmakers by 10 to 15 percent to trim public spending.

Sarkozy, whose main focus is on structural reform and tighter immigration rules, is expected to give his first real campaign overview at a big campaign rally on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120308...election-hollande-interview-france-presidency

 

[Kurtofan]

Where the fuck did he get them. Seriously.

It's Schivardi all over again.

I'm guessing they have a lot of mayor friends who spread the word "hey man give him your support, he's cool."
Also he has an "anti finance world" programme and that's popular these days.

 

[G.O.O.]

Well, Schivardi wasn't suspected of being a cult leader.

Oh, and I just read that Cheminade said that Obama's politics were the same that created Hitler. o_o

http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/ele...re-obama-et-hitler-09-03-2012-1439540_324.php

I don't even...

 

[Kurtofan]

Well, Schivardi wasn't suspected of being a cult leader.

Oh, and I just read that Cheminade said that Obama's politics were the same that created Hitler. o_o

http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/ele...re-obama-et-hitler-09-03-2012-1439540_324.php

I don't even...

I was going to post that yeah.

I meant in terms of results, Cheminade will be dead last once again.Schivardi wasn't as crazy as Cheminade.

 

[G.O.O.]

Yeah, no comparison here.

He also wants to start colonizing Mars. Newt Gingrich am cry

 

[Magni]

Did anyone watch Bayrou on DPEDA on F2 last night? They talked a lot about how people like him and think him to be "présidentiable" but end up not voting for him, and that's pretty much me.

My ranking of the top 5 right now is:

Bayrou (but does he even have a chance?)
Sarkozy (hate the man but I'd rather have him than Hollande, politics-wise)
Hollande (meh, just meh)
Mélenchon (better him than Le Pen, but still nightmare fuel)
Le Pen (lol)

Should I vote Bayrou or Sarkozy? I'm just scare of an Hollande-Mélenchon or Hollande-Le Pen second round

 

[ComputerMKII]

Did anyone watch Bayrou on DPEDA on F2 last night? They talked a lot about how people like him and think him to be "présidentiable" but end up not voting for him, and that's pretty much me.

My ranking of the top 5 right now is:

Bayrou (but does he even have a chance?)
Sarkozy (hate the man but I'd rather have him than Hollande, politics-wise)
Hollande (meh, just meh)
Mélenchon (better him than Le Pen, but still nightmare fuel)
Le Pen (lol)

Should I vote Bayrou or Sarkozy? I'm just scare of an Hollande-Mélenchon or Hollande-Le Pen second round

Do as I plan to do on election day: stay at home and play a video game.

 

[G.O.O.]

Since you're asking here, a lot of people will tell you to go with Bayrou. Re-electing Sarkozy would be like reserving the presidency to the UMP, and that might get pretty ugly (hell, I might just move to Belgium).

I'm just scare of an Hollande-Mélenchon or Hollande-Le Pen second round

For now, getting Sarkozy on round 2 is pretty much putting Hollande on the throne. I'm pretty sure Bayrou would do better by draining all the UMP and a bit of the "anti-system" extremist vote.

And if you get Hollande-Mélenchon... well, enjoy your inverted april 21st.

 

[ComputerMKII]

New debate:

Sarkozy fights the clock: is there still time to reverse the tide?

It’s not the policies but the person that’s the problem. So say François Picard’s guests of Nicolas Sarkozy who now faces longer and longer odds in his battle for re-election.

With:

Anne-Elisabeth MOUTET, Columnist, The Sunday Telegraph
Gilles DELAFON, Journalist, Author of Le règne du mépris (Editions du Toucan). March 2012
John GAFFNEY, Professor of Politics, Co-Director, Aston, Centre for Europe Aston University (Author of Political Leadership in France. From Charles de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy. Eds Palgrave Macmillan. 2012).

Part 1 (18 min. 14): http://www.france24.com/en/20120308-debate-part-1-sarkozy-campaign-election-mandate-poll-popularity
Part 2 (17 min. 45): http://www.france24.com/en/20120308-debate-part-2-sarkozy-campaign-election-mandate-poll-popularity

 

[Magni]

Do as I plan to do on election day: stay at home and play a video game.

This would be my first presidential election though (and first French election since I missed the deadline for the last ones), I can't not vote.

Since you're asking here, a lot of people will tell you to go with Bayrou. Re-electing Sarkozy would be like reserving the presidency to the UMP, and that might get pretty ugly (hell, I might just move to Belgium).


For now, getting Sarkozy on round 2 is pretty much putting Hollande on the throne. I'm pretty sure Bayrou would do better by draining all the UMP and a bit of the "anti-system" extremist vote.

And if you get Hollande-Mélenchon... well, enjoy your inverted april 21st.

I'll probably decide at the last moment anyways, depending on what happens over the next few weeks. this election shouldn't effect me too much because I will be leaving France soon-ish, but I still want the country to do well even with me abroad!

 

[G.O.O.]

It’s not the policies but the person that’s the problem.

I'm tired of reading this.

 

[Alx]

Did anyone watch Bayrou on DPEDA on F2 last night? They talked a lot about how people like him and think him to be "présidentiable" but end up not voting for him, and that's pretty much me.

I would have liked to, but I was away during the show. But yeah, this situation is kind of ridiculous ; the logic behind the elections is quite simple, vote for the candidate you trust most on each turn, and in the end the winner should best represent the population choice.
But because people try to be clever, they won't vote for the candidate they want, but for the one they think has better chances of winning. In doing so they not only forget to defend their opinions, but get entrapped in a two parties system that tell them what to think (basically you're either left or right, and that should decide who to vote for).
The "vote utile" is bad for democracy and creates self-fulfilling prophecies. I'm sure someone like Bayrou would easily be elected if people weren't so sure that he has no chance.

Bayrou (but does he even have a chance?)
Sarkozy (hate the man but I'd rather have him than Hollande, politics-wise)
Hollande (meh, just meh)
Mélenchon (better him than Le Pen, but still nightmare fuel)
Le Pen (lol)

That would be my ranking too, with similar comments (I'm not quite sure who would be worse between Mélenchon and Lepen, but fortunately none of them should be elected)

 

[G.O.O.]

The "vote utile" is bad for democracy and creates self-fulfilling prophecies.

It does, but I'm really not sure Bayrou's low scores boil down to this. Apart from his ideas, he's a terrible communicant, and the fact that his party was almost dead one year from now makes him look like a poor leader aswell.

Now, I know that in a perfect world, people would vote for ideas rather than for talking skills... but here, Le Pen is above Bayrou in polls. <_<

 

[ComputerMKII]

It does, but I'm really not sure Bayrou's low scores boil down to this. Apart from his ideas, he's a terrible communicant, and the fact that his party was almost dead one year from now makes him look like a poor leader aswell.

Now, I know that in a perfect world, people would vote for ideas rather than for talking skills... but here, Le Pen is above Bayrou in polls. <_<

And yet Flamby's about to win the election.

 

[G.O.O.]

He's a poor speaker but his communication has been almost flawless since the beginning of his candidacy. And even when it comes to giving speeches, he got better with time (post-diet confidence effect ?).

On the other hand, Sarkozy looks like he doesn't control anything anymore. As of now, it's like he stopped caring.

 

[UnluckyKate]

I'd be shocked if he doesn't.

I'm shocked by the lack of interest I had for this election. I feel he did nothing expect to be just a name against Sarkozy at a point when french people where fed up with him.

So much for hopes, program, changes, etc...

He better burry Hadopi then.

 

[ComputerMKII]

I'm shocked by the lack of interest I had for this election.

True. This election sucks on all levels imaginable. I knew politicians were liars and could act like children but I didn't expect it to be THIS bad.

The previous election had Ségolène Royal (for fuck's sake!) but the current campaign has already sunk to even lower levels of stupidity.

 

[Wazzim]

I'm happy with the fact that the left will get back in power again (hopefully) in France and the rest of Europe. The post-crisis victories of conservatives all around Europe didn't help the economy at all.