In presidential race, French resign themselves to pragmatism
On Sunday, many will vote not for their favorite candidate, but for one who can win in the second round.
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 18, 2007 edition
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PARIS - The French just broke the world high-speed train record, spring weather rests on Paris like paradise, and a dozen prospective presidents are buzzing on the airwaves, promising change for the better.
Yet to hear French on the street tell it, voting in Sunday's national elections is a necessary evil, like dental work or eating your oatmeal – something you don't want to do but feel you must.
In Paris, everyone agrees the elections are a crucial crossroads for France, a choice between very different left and right visions of the future. But frustration with politics and concern about the French position in the world runs deep on the sidewalks. In this election, many French have resigned themselves to the idea that the election may swing not on whom they would like vote for, but on whom they feel they have to vote for; so they are busy strategizing.
"I would normally vote Green [party]," says Michel, who runs a small business in Paris. "But I'm so anti-right, that I will vote for whomever can make it to the second round. I'll have to vote for Ségolène [Royal]," the Socialist candidate.
Indeed, in the curious method of French voting, which involves two rounds – April 22, and a May 6 run-off – many are opting for a vote utile, or practical vote. You may love the ecology candidate or an anti-immigration right-winger. But at the end of the day, you feel you can't vote for them. Why? Because of the outcome of the last election.
In 2002, so many French lodged protest votes against the main candidates – so called "elephants" like Socialist Lionel Jospin – that hard-right ideologue Jean-Marie Le Pen finished second. That brought a runoff between conservative Gaullist Jacques Chirac, and far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen – a choice that deeply galled many French, especially traditional moderates and leftists.
This year, the vote utile seems mainly to favor Ms. Royal, conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy, or Mr. In-Between, François Bayrou – a third choice who wants to unite the left and right. But many voters are pessimistic that even a strategic vote utile could accomplish that unity.
"We have a divide between left and right and nothing's going to change that," says a grizzled house painter at Montmartre. "Not my vote, nothing."
The vote utile is being used mainly as a way to block disliked candidates.
"For me to vote for Royal, a fake leftist, means I am really scared," says Jeremy, a musician. "It means I don't have a choice. There is no way France can elect Nicolas Sarkozy, a fascist, who says criminals are criminals at birth, and says immigrants are scum. What is that?" (Last week Sarkozy was quoted as saying that pedophiles are born genetically predisposed to their acts. In 2005 he called ethnic rioters racaille – "scum" or "riffraff.")
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