Name the next three French Presidents

[Thomas216]

Where does the certainty in Sarkozy's defeat come from?
Sure he's not very popular right now but the last president losing his reelection bid was Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1981 and the only socialist president in the last dozens of years (if I recall correctly) was Mitterrand 'til 1995.
Until 2012 there's plenty of time for Sarkozy to rebuild his image, I don't say he will but he could.

And Antonio, why Strauss and where does he stand compared to others, like Royal and Delanoe?

[Thomas216]

I'm sure of nothing. It's a possibility. Sarkozy is now a very unpopular president and people has a lot of reasons not to vote for him. Strauss-Khan is the only socialist who today has an image of economical and international competence. Soialist will necessarily have to chose a candidate, and they have interst to take the best one. Copé has the political craftiness and cynism of Sarkozy. If Sarkozy hates him, it's because he knows that when he will want to take his place, he will treat him as Sarkozy treated Chirac.

Anyways, where are your own lists ?

The truth is I'm not a big expert in French politics and for an expert it would be virtually impossible to succeed in predicting the next two presidents but I'll have a go at it.
I think that Sarko will survive his reelection bid in 2012, in 2017 a petty UMP politician will succeed him and in 2022 the socialists will rise.
Who will they be? I don't know, maybe a current minister in Fillon's government (what about Lagarde? Morin?) or a current mayor or, most likely, a current nobody.

Thank you Hashemite, you would be consider a centrist in french politics, wouldn't you?

[Thomas216]

I'm sure of nothing. It's a possibility. Sarkozy is now a very unpopular president and people has a lot of reasons not to vote for him. Strauss-Khan is the only socialist who today has an image of economical and international competence. Soialist will necessarily have to chose a candidate, and they have interst to take the best one. Copé has the political craftiness and cynism of Sarkozy. If Sarkozy hates him, it's because he knows that when he will want to take his place, he will treat him as Sarkozy treated Chirac.

Anyways, where are your own lists ?

The truth is I'm not a big expert in French politics and for an expert it would be virtually impossible to succeed in predicting the next two presidents but I'll have a go at it.
I think that Sarko will survive his reelection bid in 2012, in 2017 a petty UMP politician will succeed him and in 2022 the socialists will rise.
Who will they be? I don't know, maybe a current minister in Fillon's government (what about Lagarde? Morin?) or a current mayor or, most likely, a current nobody.

Thank you Hashemite, you would be consider a centrist in french politics, wouldn't you?

Jean-François Copé (President of the UMP group in the National Assembly, and a rival of Sarkozy/Xavier Bertrand) seems to be really interested in 2017, though 2017 is an awful long time and nobody can predict what will happen by then.

Xavier Bertrand, the General Secretary of the UMP and a close Sarkozyste could be interested.

Hervé Morin probably won't run since he doesn't have the UMP behind him (just the NC, barely) and his name recognition is zero.

Christine Lagarde? Probably not. She doesn't seem like a career politician/party politician to me.

Forgot about Morin though it's weird to imagine a defence minister with no name recognition.