Big Victory For Sarkozy In France!
Filed under: France
Source: Le Figaro
Rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy, is sailing toward a landslide presidential victory in France. The polls have closed in Paris and foreign exit polls signal that Sarko is taking a 10 point margin of victory over his socialist opponent, Segolene Royal. It's the first victory of a genuine rightwinger in memory. Oh Sarko has roots in the nationalistic command-economy style of the Gaullists, but France has never seen anyone with such radical views about national identity, competitiveness, law and order, and a sustainable economy as Sarkozy. His victory represents a real move toward change.
Not only that, he believes in democratic revolution! Look! From his victory speech, we can see it for ourselves:
Tolerance and tyrannyI want to issue a call to everyone in the world who believes in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, humanism, to all those who are persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships. I want to tell all of the children throughout the world, all of the ill-treated women throughout the world - I want to tell them that it will be France's pride and its duty to be at their side.
France will be at the side of the Libyan nurses [Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya], imprisoned for eight years. France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt [held by Farc rebels in Colombia]. France will not abandon the women condemned to wear the burqa. France will not abandon the women who do not have freedom. France will be on the side of the oppressed of the world. This is France's message, it is France's identity, it is France's history.
I want to blow kisses at him, especially because he blasts the filthy FARC.
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Whodathunk?
After all, isn't France the country that four years ago was branded 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' for its opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq? Wasn't France solidly socialist to the bone? Weren't there a lot of analyses out saying that the French abhorred change, couldn't lift itself from its cafes, hated globalization and definitely didn't want a wild man like Sarkozy as president out wrecking the country? It's just amazing how mistaken so many observers were. There's a whole different country out there that none of them, neither enemy nor familiar, really seemed to know.
Source: Agence France-Presse, via Brisbane Times
There's no doubt Sarko wants change. But he wants it for different reasons than leftists often do. Leftists want to create a New Man. Sarko wants to save France so that it can be France, not turn it into another cookie-cutter Berkeley or Ann Arbor, as has been happening. Sarko's a flag-waver. He's extremely passionate and energetic, and he will make a difference. His proposed economic programs to keep France powerful and competitive, will do just that, as French voters read it, because that's a big issue that resonated.
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Sarko's victory is fascinating because even though he is rightwing and Sego is leftwing, that's not as important as the fact that he ran as the revolutionary, while Sego ran as the conservator. In Latin America, the dynamic might have been the other way around with the rightwinger being the conservator and the leftwinger seeking revolution.
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
But not so France, which has been socialist for decades, at least since the end of World War II. The election of a flaming rightwinger who doesn't even apologize for being 'a man of the right' is rather dramatic news that will knock the left's complacency about its special role in bringing revolutionary change off its axis. In fact, they were the Marie-Antoinettes without even realizing it.
Source: Agence France-Presse, via Yahoo! France
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Not only has France been socialist, it has been stagnant. That it's true is one thing, but that's less important than whether the French believed this. They did. The French are not clueless. They saw unchecked crime, unassimilated immigration, unjobbed youth and the unlovely social results of it all as a problem in itself and decided to fix it instead of crawl under a rock and pretend things would be ok. So, Sarko won.
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Source: Getty Images, via New York Times
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Source: AP, via Yahoo! News
Source: AP, via News24
Source: AP, via Yahoo! News
Source: AP, via Yahoo! News
How do I know this? Well, Sarko kept getting explosive pops in the polls in the last days of the election, and for signficant reasons related to this.
1. The first blow was when French thugs rioted in Gare Du Nord station and said they were smashing shop windows and burning tires because they didn't like Sarkozy (and didn't like paying subway fares either). Like Evo Morales of Bolivia, these thugs hoped to intimidate French voters into voting for someone else by promising violence. Sarko blasted them, said he'd come get them good if he were president. When he was criticized for his tough stance, he refused to back down and won a huge and definitive lead in the polls.
2. Sarko made a dazzling speech at a final campaign rally in France last Sunday, blaming the spirit of 1968 for France's current malaise. In other words he told the French 'Hippies Stink.' His words resonated with the French who must have sensed something gone off the rails over the yeras. Also his words were intriguingly intellectual because he seemed to want to trace the root cause of France's problems straight to its origins. He cited a bunch of philosphers, too, only in France can a politician get away with that, but it impressed the hell out of me. In that speech, Sarko articulated the unspoken thoughts of millions of Frenchmen who'd been smothered with a culture of political correctness for decades and who were told they were racists if they thought anything differently. Net result, another boost for Sarko in the polls.
3. The debate on May 2, really clinched it. Sarko calmly laid out his economic and political plans while his opponent, Segolene Royal, flew off the handle and postured and puffed about starving babies, trying to get an emotional vote. Sarko quietly told her to calm down and act presidential, showing that wonderful Gallic value for logic and sang-froid, one of those reasons the rest of us just love the French. Sarko's lead extended.
4. Finally, there was the Bin Laden Effect. Banlieue thugs (who are neither Muslim nor Islamofascist nor leftist, just pure thugs who deal drugs and act like South Central Los Angeles lowlife) vowed to riot and burn cars if Frnech voters dared elect Sarkozy. It was an echo of Osama Bin Laden's threat to destroy U.S. Red States if their voters dared vote for Bush. In both cases, it backfired. The more they showed their faces, the more French voters wanted the firm hand of Sarko to make things right.
Now, it looks like his lead is approaching ten points above that of Segolene.
What does this say? It says the French want revolution again - against thugs, against political correctness and against stagnant social policy. They want the Louie the Sixteenths out again. Upstart Sarko is a little short guy like Napoleon and vows to restore order. He's so French.
Vive La France!
Source: AFP, via Yahoo! France
Nidra Poller at Pajamas Mediais liveblogging from Paris and has fantastic coverage of what's going on over there - she tells us what she's seeing, the things she smells in the streets, the weird stickers on walls, the illegal posters, the stuff she hears on the radio - cripes, you feel you are there. Her work is a must-read here.
Pajamas Media also has a wonderful straight roundup that's easy to scroll through and read here.
Fausta at Fausta's Blog has some awesome minute-by-minute coverage of all the happenings, and lots of video clips, it's a must-see here.
Daniel at Venezuela News & Views, who is French, has a kickass bunch of posts and a longer analysis of what's going on and why it matters, I really liked it, just click and scroll here.
Political Scientist Matthew Shugart at Fruits and Votes has some observations about distorted media coverage and explains how a government forms in France, with some dates to watch for. He cheers for Sego. Read it here.
Jim at GatewayPundit's got a hilarious photo-filled roundup, naturally, with a strong focus on the babe component, as you might imagine. See it here!
Meanwhile, the FuckFrance site (sorry about the name!) has all the racaille car-burning updates, as you might imagine, here.
Watch the elections results, live, come in Department by Department (that's like counties for us) in this terrific AFP map here. Looks like the departments around Alsace, Languedoc, Corsica, Tahiti, French Guiana, and Normandy are going Sarko. The Caribbean departments, the Rhone river valley, Gascony and Brittany seem to be more solidly Sego.
Bloomberg reports Sarko is victorious and Sego has conceded defeat in a new update.
Yahoo! France says the score is Sarkozy 53.3%, Segolene 46.7% thus far, not sure if it is the final one.
BBC has a video of Sarko's victory speech and written excerpts to the side, here.
The Sarko babes celebrate in the streets - unfortunately, I can't hotlink them on this Le Figaro gallerie, so click here.
Bush has congratulated Sarko, and Sarko has extended his friendship to the U.S. - His first message? Global Warming, he tells us to get on with it. Ralf. I guess that's what we can expect. I hope it wasn't all he had to say to us. Item here.
Buy French champagne! French winemakers, from the already-competitive powerhouse provinces of Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy, were bigtime supporters of Sarko and his freemarket message. No doubt they are celebrating themselves. Buy French wine!
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