France 2012: the official thread

[MaxQue]

Hard to believe, but it seems than candidate Sarkozy manages to be more incompetent than president Sarkozy.

[MaxQue]

Bottom line : it is impossible for any sound person not to loath such a pathetic, petty, shameless politician. Any right-winger with a minimum of principles should seriously start consider other voting options in 2007.

Oh, I hear about that even here. I'm following French politics, you know.
And, I know a French right-centrist which is considering other options since a while.

[MaxQue]

His position on gay marriage is obvious.

In exchange, Boutin (the French Santorum) endorsed her.

[MaxQue]

I never read the news, but this headline was hilarious:

Le candidat Sarkozy défendra le gouvernement « du peuple, par le peuple et pour le peuple »

I see he's gonna full-blast populist on us.

Oh, if true, it would be a welcome change of the 5 last years, where it was more exact to say:

« des riches, par les riches et pour les riches », « des banques, par les banques et pour les banques » and more recently « de Merkel, par Merkel et pour Merkel ».

[MaxQue]

How is an idiot like Sarkozy the president of anywhere? Would basically anyone but Sego have won in 2007?

Segolène was a pretty loosy and bad candidate. I wanted Bayrou to win that year (as he could beat Sarkozy, unlike Ségolène.)

[MaxQue]

Well, if France is like Quebec, both the left and the rght destroyed the education system.

[MaxQue]

And here's one Twitter account that I won't be following: https://twitter.com/#!/NicolasSarkozy

Is he really using "A Strong France" as a slogan? Talk about original...

"My opponent has never run anything except his parliamentary office" would be another good slogan...

Well, he ran the Socialist Party for more than 10 years...

[MaxQue]

Doesn't Giscard lost that year?

[MaxQue]

Just a comment on productivity causd by big businesses.

It's wrong. In Canada, I remember reading than 70% of the GNP is created by small businesses.

Small businesses are way more productive than the big ones.

[MaxQue]

...Montebourg for PM though ofc

If you're being serious I must say it's always very enjoyable to see how comments from abroad can be exotic.

I was joking

How about for finance minister? And no, that's not a joke.  Though it would probably be a great way to PO Merkel, Lagarde, and the banks.

I doubt he wants to annoy them.
But, sure, he has almost no choice, he has to find a office for Montebourg.

[MaxQue]

Actually, in this video, Hollande answers that question directly:
"I hadn't requested to meet with David Cameron, today my priority was to meet my fellow friends from the Labour party, and maybe one day - if I manage to convince the French on May 6th - then I will meet Cameron. But for now, as you know, Cameron and Merkel and the Spanish conservative leader Rajoy are all backing Sarkozy."

Why should Hollande meet Cameron? He's not president, so, it's only a politician and is supposed to meet just his fellows of Labour party.
I'm comforted by the fact that 52% of Europeans is governed by who has signed the letter for a bigger european market and reforms for growth, basically Cameron, Monti, Rajoy.

A wonderful panel.
A guy which has to rely on another party to have a majority, some guy who wasn't elected and lack legitimacy and a guy who got elected by refusing to say what he will do.

[MaxQue]

New poll from TNS:
First round:
Hollande: 30,00
Sarkozy: 26,00
Le Pen: 16,00
Bayrou: 11,50
Melenchon: 10,00
Joly: 3,00
Villepin: 1,00
Arthaud: 0,50
Poutou: 0,50

Second round
Hollande: 58,00
Sarkozy: 42,00

Thank god, Sarkozy's bounce appears to have been a brief phenomenon.  Hopefully.  Please, France don't screw this up.  Just please keep these numbers like this just for 3 more months, please!

Either it was an outlier, or the level of uncertainty is raising dramatically. Having a 4 points difference in two polls published within a couple days is pretty rare.

@Iannis : Yes, but why now and not before ? There's nothing singificantly new from Sarko's side this week. I could understand the bounce with his candidacy declaration, but why now ?

Sarkonuts are convinced than Villepinte is a key moment of the campaign.

[MaxQue]

We need a strong Left Front in the Legislative, to force Hollande to really rule from left, not to be some awful centre-leftist.

[MaxQue]

Unemployment rate's fallen! SARKOMENTUM!

I pretty sure I read yesterday than unemployment raised for the tenth month in a row in France.

[MaxQue]

Is that really appropriate here?

[MaxQue]

I hope than the current trend continue and than Hollande pass in front or Sarkozy again.

[MaxQue]

Who would win in a hypothetical second round between Mélenchon and Le Pen?

Mélenchon, I think.

[MaxQue]

Sarko is going nuts... Even more than expected.

Well, I think he may be destroing the UMP in the process. I don't see how people like Jouanno and Luca and NKM will be able to stay in the same party than Luca, for example.

[MaxQue]

What?
Bayrou isn't pronounced Beh-rou?