Oft elitist French elections try a town-hall style

A spate of new television programs feature 'real people,' rather than journalists or experts, interrogating presidential candidates.

By Susan Sachs | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the March 19, 2007 edition

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PARIS - The "judges" – among them a factory worker, a businessman, and a job-hunting college student – were seated under a canopy of television lights. At exactly 8:50 p.m., a throbbing soundtrack filled the studio.

Everyone sat up straighter. Cameras rolled. From stage left, the petitioner – aka presidential candidate Ségolène Royal – strode to a podium.

She smiled and squared her shoulders. And for the next two hours, live on French television last Thursday night, she fielded questions from citizen-judges. Power to the people! Here was direct democracy in action.

That, at least, was the idea of the show, called "For You to Judge," on the state-owned channel France 2. It is one of a spate of new programs that feature "real people," rather than journalists or experts, interrogating candidates running in next month's presidential election.

While such broadcasts have proved immensely popular, drawing up to 9 million viewers, critics say the town-hall format has trivialized what should be a sober, profound debate on weighty national issues.

"This is participatory democracy," enthused Ms. Royal, who was adept at maneuvering around the audience's questions and shrugging off appeals from the moderator to speak concisely. "It brings the candidates and the people closer."

But in a campaign already widely criticized as superficial and media-driven, the tendency of ordinary folk featured on the new political shows to focus on their personal problems has drawn criticism. More often than not, they use their air time to complain about the size of their pensions rather than grill the politicians about the national debt.

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