French Presidential Election; 2nd round thread

[Rob]

Sarko vs. Ségo in France

Faced with all this, rather than move to the left, where she felt support for her was assured, Ségo joined the nationalist and conservative clamor. Having initially voiced her admiration for the New Labour politics of Tony Blair, she began to defend the flag, arguing that each French home should display one, and played "La Marseillaise" rather than the traditional Socialist "Internationale" at each of her tricolor rallies. Her campaign seemed carefully based on Hillary Clinton's, following the latter's caution and conservatism. Ségo's social proposals evoked her past as a military daughter, as when she argued that delinquent teenagers, understood to be largely of immigrant stock, should be retrained by the army.

Her most daring economic promise, raising the minimum monthly wage by 250 euros over five years, would not even keep up with inflation, as was pointed out by her young Trotskyist opponent, Olivier Besancenot, whose postman's salary was not much higher and who polled an impressive 4 percent in the first round, more than twice that of the ever-declining Communists.

In a way, it's comforting that the US Democrats aren't the only sell-outs on the "left"...

[Rob]

This result is what I expected, unlike the first round (where I predicted Le Pen to beat Bayrou for third place ). Check out this hilariously biased AP article. One of many gems within:

The 52-year-old former interior minister inherits a nation losing faith in itself, paralyzed by worries over globalization, bitter at American dominance and saddled with social tensions.