French left wins 21 out of 22 regions

[dj-chefron]

There was another vote today - the second round of French regional elections. After a first round last week which gave a strong showing of the left last week, this week's vote confirmed the massive anti-Sarkozy results of the first round.

The left, following a strong anti-right vote in 2004, already controlled 20 out of 22 regions (regions have responsibilities for education, transport and local economic development). Tonight, they managed not only to hold on to all these gains, but to gain another region, leaving just one held by the right.

This is a very real message against the hard-right campaign by Sarkozy (the right played on the usual cards: insecurity, immigration, national identity), and a vote of confidence for local leadership by the socialists and allies - the greens had a very strong showing in the first round and allied with the left for the second round.

Sarkozy still has all the tools to govern (he's still president for 2 years, and he still has a majority in the national assembly), but he's been weakened - and hopefully defanged - by an unambiguous message against him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...elections.html

[the crackhouse]

There was another vote today - the second round of French regional elections. After a first round last week which gave a strong showing of the left last week, this week's vote confirmed the massive anti-Sarkozy results of the first round.

The left, following a strong anti-right vote in 2004, already controlled 20 out of 22 regions (regions have responsibilities for education, transport and local economic development). Tonight, they managed not only to hold on to all these gains, but to gain another region, leaving just one held by the right.

This is a very real message against the hard-right campaign by Sarkozy (the right played on the usual cards: insecurity, immigration, national identity), and a vote of confidence for local leadership by the socialists and allies - the greens had a very strong showing in the first round and allied with the left for the second round.

Sarkozy still has all the tools to govern (he's still president for 2 years, and he still has a majority in the national assembly), but he's been weakened - and hopefully defanged - by an unambiguous message against him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...elections.html

Thanks for posting, I thought I'll add some details:
This regional election won an all time record in numbers of vote abstention on the first round : 53.6% of the French didn't vote.
That's a strong message too, the French have never been a lot to vote with an usual 30% of abstention for the regional elections. But now half of them thought the effort wasn't due to politicians of any party.

Fortunatly the second round/turn's abstention lowered to gather 49.5% of non-voters. This is still a big problem and deflects the fracture between the French citizens and their leaders.

There's a high probability to see Sarkozy running (and winning) a second mandate in 2012, because even if he's low in the sympathy polls he still has a lot of followers who will vote.

The left is totally split, the ecologist are gaining ground but they are still under the 10% of voters' choice, while the racist extreme-right power is increasing everywhere (humanity's memory is always very short), in direct response to the dissatisfaction of the French about the choices and public image of their politicians.

I'm glad to live in Belgium right now.

Idance

[MarkK]

man who am i going to vote for in 2012??

[Kemmot]

It took all this time for the french to realize this sarko was bad for business??

[MarkK]

It took all this time for the french to realize this sarko was bad for business??

How is he bad for business??

[the crackhouse]

It took all this time for the french to realize this sarko was bad for business??

You know, the average French is not a clever person, some promises and they'll buy it.

Idance

[MarkK]

Seriously Math, how is he bad for business...I mean isn't he trying to reform some of the more restrictive laws that really slow down job creation in France?