Anybody interested?

The French President is elected for a five-year term, directly by the citizens.

The voters are French citizens over the age of 18 registered on the electoral rolls.

France does not have a full-fledged two-party system; that is, a system where, though many political parties exist, only two parties have a chance of getting elected to major positions. However French politics display some tendencies characterizing a two-party system, in which power alternates between relatively stable coalitions, each being led by a major party: on the left, the French Socialist Party, on the right, the UMP and its predecessors.

First round on April 22nd, the candidates are:

Nicolas SARKOZY - Union de la Majorité Présidentielle (right)
Ségolène ROYAL - Parti Socialiste (left)
François BAYROU - Union pour la Démocratie Française (center/right)
Jean-Marie LE PEN - Front National (far right)
Arlette LAGUILLER - Lutte Ouvrière (far left)
Dominique VOYNET - Les Verts (ecologists - usually left)
Olivier BESANCENOT - Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (far left)
Marie-Georges BUFFET - Parti Communiste Français (left -rather extreme)
Philippe DE VILLIERS - Mouvement pour la France (far right)
José BOVE - Anti-mondialiste (far left)
Gérard SCHIVARDI - Parti des travailleurs (left)
Frédéric NIHOUS - Chasse et pêche (right)

Second round on May 6th, the two favorites are Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal but François Bayrou is nicknamed the "third man". He could be a surprise.
Le Pen was the bad surprise in 2002.

Speaking of Le Pen, do you think this year will see continued momentum towards nationalism or some other right-wing ideological touchstone? Has the political mood in the country continued to move in that direction since 2002 or has there been a backlash against Le Pen and his ideology?

Ty Webb wrote:Speaking of Le Pen, do you think this year will see continued momentum towards nationalism or some other right-wing ideological touchstone? Has the political mood in the country continued to move in that direction since 2002 or has there been a backlash against Le Pen and his ideology?

It's definitely moving to the right.

EDIT: Right wing nationalism, I should say

But is it a move to the populist, isolationist Pat Buchanan right or the neoconservative, corporations-will-save-us right?

I'm just curious what Le Pen's 2007 legacy is.

Royal has def. moved to the right recently, but considering she's pretty much the only option of keeping the asshat Sarkozy out of office, my vote would be for her.

Ty Webb wrote:Speaking of Le Pen, do you think this year will see continued momentum towards nationalism or some other right-wing ideological touchstone? Has the political mood in the country continued to move in that direction since 2002 or has there been a backlash against Le Pen and his ideology?

I hope not.

In 1995 and 2002, almost the same number of people voted for Le Pen. The differences were that fewer people voted in 2002 than in 1995 and there were too many candidates on the left, dividing the votes of the left.

I think a lot of French people have taken the result of 2002 like a punch in the face and more of them will vote this time.

I still think there are too many left candidates but I think left people will tend to vote for the bigger parties. That's what Ségolène Royal invited people to do.

Can Segolene Royal defeat Sarkozy?
An earlier thread.

Sly Bug wrote: the two favorites are Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal but François Bayrou is nicknamed the "third man". He could be a surprise.

all I read about Sarkozy sounds pretty bad. what about Ségolène Royal? the opinions about her seem to be divergent even for the left. who's your favorite?

Sly Bug wrote:Le Pen was the bad surprise in 2002.

I've seen his press conference in the banlieue on tv. what a moron!

clocker bob wrote:Can Segolene Royal defeat Sarkozy?
An earlier thread.

At the time of this earlier thread, I would have voted for Ségolène Royal... Not anymore.

bassdriver wrote:
all I read about Sarkozy sounds pretty bad. what about Ségolène Royal? the opinions about her seem to be divergent even for the left. who's your favorite?

About a year ago, Ségolène Royal became a potential candidate and a lot of people believed in her. I was one of them. I would have been very proud to have a woman President.

Now, I think she belongs to the Socialist Party by opportunism, because of her husband in 1981. I don't believe she is a woman of left by conviction. It is now obvious to me that she is one of the worst king of demagogues.
The worst was when she said very stupid things about the Independance of Québec, her position in the middle east and her "appreciation" of the Chinese justice.
I think she is incompetent and dangerous for France.

Bayrou has made a move to the left. Unlike Sarkozy and Royal, he hasn't made too many promises.

I like the ideas of Besancenot but I don't believe it would be possible to apply them. It's the communist utopia.

Sly Bug wrote:

clocker bob wrote:Can Segolene Royal defeat Sarkozy?
An earlier thread.

At the time of this earlier thread, I would have voted for Ségolène Royal... Not anymore.

Is Bayrou more likely to take center-left votes away from Royal, or center-right votes away from Sarkozy? I guess anything would be better than a Chirac-Le Pen choice.

I don't want to Americanize the thread and make the Anti-mondialistes come bulldoze it -- but by the way, I really wish we had runoff elections in the U.S. I think it would have saved us a little trouble in 2000.