The Croydonian (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Our French chums are chafing at the latest price hikes for cigarettes - base line for a pack of 20 is €5.10, and €5.60 for a packet of Marlboros. If memory serves, the average smoking Briton would think a fiver for a packet of Phillip Morris's finest quite the bargain, and doubtless the tabacs and grand surfaces of Calais and thereabouts prove that. Anyway, estimates from BAT have some 22%...
French Politics (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
So, what to make of a presidential poll that gives François Bayrou 14%, Marine Le Pen 11, Olivier Besancenot 10, and Dominique de Villepin 8? If we read those numbers as expressing some kind of dissatisfaction with the current regime, and add Martine Aubry's 20%, we get the usual conundrum of French presidential politics: the vast majority of voters are unhappy with what they've got, but there's...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
Jean Sarkozy says any victory to become chief of public agency would have been 'stained with suspicion' Jean Sarkozy, son of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has won a seat on the board of the management committee of Paris's business district after he abandoned his campaign to head the organisation following accusations of nepotism . The 23-year-old was until last night the leading candidate...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
Outcry forces 23-year-old law student to withdraw candidacy to run Paris business district La Défense The 23-year-old son of Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, announced last night that he would no longer seek election as the head of the management committee of the capital's business district, La Défense, as any "victory" might be "stained with suspicion" of nepotism....
French Politics (Free subscription) | 10/11/2009
Since it seems unlikely that the opposition can defeat Sarkozy on its own, he will have to defeat himself. Might he have overreached in pushing his son forward to take over EPAD? Ségolène Royal, Cécile Duflot, and François Bayrou have seized the opportunity , and not much has brought this much unity to the opposition in some time. Some are comparing Sarko's hubris to Berlusconi's....
French Politics (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
François Bayrou refuses to stay down on the mat. He was pretty well wiped out in the last (European) elections, yet over the weekend he was attempting to resurrect himself as leader of the opposition, making a "public offer of dialogue" to the PS. (Eric Dupin wittily compares this "OPD" to an OPA.) He brings little to the dialogue other than his pretension to be the most...
France24 (Free subscription) | 09/04/2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party begins it annual summer meeting in the Landes region, while François Bayrou will address his MoDem centrists at their own gathering in the Grande-Motte.
Social media (re)loaded (Free subscription) | 08/04/2009
Source Little thought after having read this French article suggested by Palpitt, called " sur le net, les jeunes militants des différents partis débordent de stratégies" : "C'est le cas, ainsi, des Jeunes démocrates (affiliés au Modem de François Bayrou). Web TV, achat en ligne de l'incontournable tee-shirt orange, partage des articles sur...
GalliaWatch (Free subscription) | 07/07/2009
I was going to put together a post on the election in the northern city of Hénin-Beaumont, where, last Sunday June 28, Marine Le Pen (above) won the first round of voting in the mayoral election - an election held because the duly elected Socialist mayor is in jail. Steeve Briois, who headed the Front National slate, and Marine who was second on the list, won easily, and were poised to win the...
Le Monde diplomatique (Free subscription) | 07/06/2009
The gains of the far right in the European elections mean a revival not of fascism, but of populism – which is unable to transform people's anger and mistrust into a new political vision What do the results of the European elections really mean? And beyond a memorable bust-up on French television between green '68er Daniel Cohn-Bendit and centrist presidential hopeful, François Bayrou,...
GalliaWatch (Free subscription) | 06/10/2009
A few days before the election 8 million French viewers watched Home , a television documentary on saving the planet. Minister of Culture Christine Albanel praised the "historic success" of the documentary. Many feel that the impact of the film influenced the vote on Sunday to the advantage of Cohn-Bendit. Cohn-Bendit received 2,802,950 votes from French voters. Well ahead of Bayrou's 1,455,225...
GalliaWatch (Free subscription) | 06/08/2009
Bad bad news for the sovereigntists. the Front National received (as of now) 7.3% of the vote and will send only 3 deputies to Strasbourg. Libertas received only 5% and will send one deputy. In all the sovereigntists will have a mere 4 deputies. Nicolas Sarkozy wins hands down and hands up. His UMP received 28.3% of the votes, followed by the Socialists (17.5%), the Europe Ecologie list, headed by...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 06/07/2009
First time since 1979 that a sitting French president's party has won a European election Two parties claimed victory in the French European elections last night: Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP topped the poll, and the new green coalition, Europe Ecologie, won a surprise high score, forcing climate change back onto the agenda for all French politicians. Sarkozy's party increased its seats...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 06/07/2009
French president expected to receive boost to personal standing Nicolas Sarkozy was hoping for a much-needed boost tonight as his ruling centre-right party was expected to win the biggest share of the vote in the European elections in France. If the predictions prove correct, it would be the first time in years that a French incumbent government has won an interim election. The French president deliberately...
MSNBC.com: Newsweek World News (Free subscription) | 06/06/2009
Paging all turncoats: Nicolas Sarkozy is reshuffling his cabinet again. Over the past two years, the conservative French president has offered high-profile jobs to leading Socialists and other prominent lefties, and five of them now hold seats in his cabinet, including Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Minister of Immigration Eric Besson. While Sarko's base resents the lost patronage opportunities...
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