After first-round elections, a clear choice for France
With a near-record 84 percent turnout, French voters send two presidential candidates with vividly contrasting visions – and characters – to the May 6 runoff.
from the April 24, 2007 edition
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The vibrant left in France suffered similar losses. Six parties – including the communists, greens, and Trotskyites – scored only 10.5 percent.
Not since 1995 has France been offered a real choice. A 2002 runoff between conservative Jacques Chirac and the far-right Le Pen left many voters, who were not going to elect a far-right head of state, bitter at having to vote for Mr. Chirac to make sure of it.
Since 2002, Chirac has done little to alter the basic underlying French social-welfare model, even as a complex of frustrations and fears have grown about French identity and competitiveness. Attempts at even small-scale changes, like more easily hiring and firing new employees, brought demonstrations. In a France with a revolutionary past, disputes are usually first settled on the street and then by negotiation.
How Sarkozy and Royal would face opponents of the current generous welfare model willing to strike or riot – or inspire voters concerned that the good life and French global leadership may not be sustainable without reform – is unclear. A close election May 6 may not bring a ringing mandate.
But Sunday's huge turnout and the "awakening of democracy" as Le Monde terms it, may enable both "Sarko and Sego" to use the old saying that "for things to stay the same, things are going to have to change."
Both candidates have opened with what pundits describe as bold statements. Royal, often described as pressured if not bullied by the far left of her own party, told supporters this is not the case. "I am a free woman.... I am not a hostage of any group," she said to cheering crowds Sunday night.
She staked out a position as a nurturer of France focused on change. "It is not only responsible but urgent to leave behind a system that is not working," she said. But change must come "without brutalizing [France]," she said, an oblique reference to what is likely to become a main issue – Sarkozy's image as a tough guy.
Royal said she will "refuse to cultivate fear" – except, said one commentator, "perhaps a fear of Sarkozy as president."
Sarkozy sought on Sunday to take his persona out of the equation, by asking for a clean campaign, saying that a race between himself and Royal would offer "two ideas for the future, two projects for society ... and we have the responsibility to make the positions as clear as possible."
A debate between Sarkozy and Royal is slated for May 2.
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