By request, a French election thread:
Sarkozy just became the first French president to lose a bid for reelection in more than 3 decades.
Given that in François Hollande a self-identified socialist takes power in a nuclear-armed, Security Council-Permanent Member state. Austerians, wingnuts will have, I’m sure, interesting reactions.
Discuss.
Image: Jacque-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps at Great St. Bernard Pass, 1800.
(The image is a cliché, I know, but I couldn’t resist, given the vertically challenged status of both Sarko and the First Consul.)
trollhattan
One rare instance of, should he claim he wants to “spend more time with my family” I’ll believe him.
Zee French, they are not liking les Austerity. This is good news for Willard.
Davis X. Machina
@trollhattan: Of course, the real answer is real austerity, not the present pussyfooting around.
David Koch
Sarkozy’s slogan “le corporations are people, mon ami” just never caught on
beltane
Angela Merkel’s party also lost badly in local elections in Schleswig-Holstein, getting trounced by the Greens, Pirates, and Social Democrats. Meanwhile, the far-left has done exceptionally well in Greece. It would appear that European voters have lost faith in the austerity confidence fairy in a big way.
salacious crumb
Sarkozy can stick a carrot up his ass and try to fulfill his dream of getting rid of Middle Eastern tin pot dictators like Gaddhafi..maybe he can take Obama with him as well.
Brachiator
Some background, from the BBC.
Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as France’s new president.
He got about 52% of votes in Sunday’s run-off, according to early projections, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy has admitted defeat, saying: “Francois Hollande is the president of France and he must be respected.”
Analysts say the vote has wide implications for the whole eurozone. Mr Hollande has vowed to rework a deal on government debt in member countries.
Exuberant Hollande supporters have already converged on Place de la Bastille in Paris – a traditional rallying point of the Left – to celebrate.
Mr Hollande capitalised on France’s economic woes and President Sarkozy’s unpopularity.
The socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year.
He also wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.
In his concession speech, Mr Sarkozy told stunned supporters that he was “taking responsibility for defeat.
Hinting about his possible political future, he said: “My place will no longer be the same. My involvement in the life of my country will now be different.”
During the campaign, he said he would leave politics if he lost the election.
It is only the second time an incumbent president has failed to win re-election since the start of France’s Fifth Republic in 1958.
The last was Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who lost to socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1981. Mr Mitterrand had two terms in office until 1995.
ETA: important elections in Italy and Greece today as well. Right wing extremists in Greece won enough votes to be included in the government.
max
(The image is a cliché, I know, but I couldn’t resist, given the vertically challenged status of both Sarko and the First Consul.)
Tsk. Kind of insulting to Napoleon, don’t you think? I mean, Napoleon could fight, manage an empire, run an economy and whatnot. He was just greedy, kind of like the Eurocrats. (He was overly greedy, but he was also successful at it.)
Sarkozy is merely a mental and moral midget.
max
[‘But still better than Merkel!’]
andy
Yep, Bush’s WOT tool is out. Austerity’s about to start getting rolled back, and the best part is Sarkozy’s unaccountably talented and beautiful wife, Carla Bruni, is now free to make more records!
WaterGirl
I am not well informed on the European elections. Would this be considered good news or bad news?
beltane
I am waiting on the results for the Italian regional elections. There are rumors that lefty blogger Beppe Grillo’s anti-Euro party has done very well but I can’t find any confirmation of this yet in the Italian papers.
I don’t know how this will all play out except that today’s elections do mark some sort of paradigm shift.
butler
@WaterGirl: Depends. How much do you like austerity? If you’re a fan, then this isn’t a good result. On the other hand, if you’re not on Team Austerity, then this is at least mildly good news.
WaterGirl
@butler: How much do I like austerity? Not so much. Austerity is not only not fun, but it makes the situation worse. So I’d have to give austerity a 2 on a scale of 10, with 10 being positive.
Alex S.
Something is going to change. Coupled with the Tories’ loss in local elections, there is a chance that the austerity regime is going to fall apart. Merkel is isolated and Cameron is weakened.
srv
This is good news, unless you like conservative Frenchmen who are German lapdogs.
Freddie deBoer
Apparently France’s voters belong to the reality-based community.
butler
@WaterGirl: So then this is the better result. I doubt he can reverse all the measures but its a move in the other direction.
Amanda in the South Bay
@srv:
You know who else liked conservative Frenchmen who were German lapdogs?
beltane
@Alex S.: Yes, this is monumental. Merkel is not only isolated, she herself is also politically weakened.
Alex S.
I can’t wait to read Sully’s reaction.
/irony?
@beltane:
True, she lost her dutch ally last week when their government fell apart.
Elizabelle
Wonderful news.
Viva Hollande, and much luck to him and his government.
Merp
Huzzzzaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
Also I love that painting. Every time I see it I notice something new. This time: the only thing rendered with vertical lines is the sword. Awesome.
Violet
I thought Napoleon wasn’t actually short.
@WaterGirl:
For John McCain? Always good news.
Baud
I blame Obama for losing Europe.
David Koch
Dowside: Disc jockeys won’t be able to prank call Sarah Palin posing as Sarkozy
Sphys
Nothing really useful to say, but Napoleon actually was average height for the period: 5’7″. The French pouce was slightly longer than the English inch, leading to the misunderstanding. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon (or http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=320, where I learned about this in the first place).
Baud
@David Koch: Upside: Freedom Fries are back!
Maude
@Elizabelle:
I want to see how the European banks handle this. Their messes are bigger than ours.
Perhaps it is time for those financial institutions to pay the piper.
Egg Berry
I am going to predict that the markets fall precipitously tomorrow, because the masters of the universe are not going to like this.
Brachiator
Ah, the obvious pun thread title was missed.
French Election Stunner: Hollande Daze
Spaghetti Lee
Vive Mseur. Hollande! Le Mort a Les Austeriennes!
(I know almost no French. Was that remotely accurate?)
Joe
Watching Lionel Jospin in the 2002 election was horrifying. The way he kept making every mistake Al Gore did, convinced me that electoral campaigns in France and the USA were converging.
Now that it would be a good thing, let’s hope it’s still true.
General Stuck
Does this mean that French Fries are no longer authorized, or that the cheese eating surrender monkeys unsurrendered? Foreign politics give me gas.
WaterGirl
So the Koch brothers, the US chamber of commerce, the banksters and the republican party will likely be unhappy about this election result in France?
I would count that as a win.
Edit: we need to get banksters added to the dictionary so autocorrect quits changing that to banisters.
Villago Delenda Est
@Egg Berry:
The Masters of the Universe should pray that the mob does not come to string their worthless asses up.
Spaghetti Lee
The surname “Hollande” is “believed to come from Calvinist ancestors who escaped Holland (the Netherlands) in the 16th century and took the name of their old country.”
DUTCH ANCHOR BABY! WHERE’S TEH BIRF CERTIFICATE, HOLLUMMER?!
Rhoda
@Egg Berry: They actually are warming to the idea of pro-growth stimulus. They make money, they’re good. And austerity won’t make them money.
MonkeyBoy
According to the Cheney Doctrine doesn’t the US now has grounds for a preemptive strike on France?
More seriously, will the frothing wingers demand we break off diplomatic relations or somehow otherwise snub France?
General Stuck
The palace orgies won’t be the same without Carla Bruni
scav
Ha! Ciao Sarko! Tes joyeaux sont lá, La porte ests lá-bas, Claque-la s’il te fait plaisir. Hyper.
Nethead Jay
@Brachiator: Since you copy-pasted the same text here as in Freddie’s post below, only minus the little starting insult, “I got no time for little Freddie’s noodling”, I’ll ask here too: Are you always a giant self-important asshole like this?
Maude
@scav:
And don’t let the door hit yer butt.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan:
I doubt Carla Bruni will have much to do with him now his life in power is diminished.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Violet: I thought Napoleon wasn’t actually short.
That’s right – the reason for the misconception is explained here.
Mr Stagger Lee
To Arms Citizens!!!!
Form your Battalions!!!
Let’s March Let’s March!!!
So The Impure Blood waters
the furrows the fields!!!
That song makes me want to raise the pitch forks, drink wine,make love and watch Jerry Lewis movies.
Brachiator
@Nethead Jay: Sorry, there is no point in dragging a disagreement from another thread into this one. Background info is neutral.
Here is the ominous background to the Greek elections:
Everything is not about pushing back austerity.
Does anyone have a clear idea as to what Hollande’s victory means for Le Pen and the French far right?
lamh35
OT guys, but I just had to share this news.
So okay, I have 2 jobs currently both in Microbiology, one FT, one PRN. My FT job is at THE major public hospital in DFW and I’ve had it for almost 7 years. My current job has become almost a struggle to get up and go to in the morning. It’s a least a 20-30 minute drive, I’m trained on every “bench” in the lab, but I never get to do more than 1 a month (I swear on some “benches”, I haven’t worked in over a YEAR!) and aside from some of my co-workers (including my LGBFF, that’s Latino Gay BFF, and some of the older ladies who remind me of my mom and aunt), I really dread going to work. My PRN job is at a private hospital (i.e. rich folk ya’ll), is a smaller group of people (In Micro alone, there is only 2 FT employees and one of those included the supervisors), and there is a better chance of being on a different bench if not daily, then weekly. Also, the pace is alot less hectic, the people are alot more nicer (although I doubt I’ll be as friendly as I am with some of the people at my FT JOB) and the hospital environment is way cooler and calmer than my FT.
So anyway, I only work 2 weekends a month at my PRN. I’ve been there for a year and it was time for my evaluation. I went to the Lab Mgr office (who is way nicer than my FT Mgr who is basically a bitch to work with) and she went over my evaluation (which was STELLAR of course). At the end, she asked if I had any goals for the next year and i told her some BS about learning to do more of the “bench” work here than I do now and then…she dropped this big idea in my lap.
Basically, she asked me if I would consider a position in Micro working on/off (7 days or 4 days, 10hr or 12hr, whichever I prefer, she basically said I could think about what my “dream schedule” would be and that they would be negotiable). So she all but basically offered me this position, even though she is aware that I have been thinking about moving back to NOLA. She said if I didn’t really have a timeframe for moving back to NOLA (which I don’t, it’s been hard finding position in Micro that pay well, I’m basically waiting til they re-build the medical center which won’t happend until least 2013!), then I could work the on/off schedule IN MICRO and still have PTO and that way I have at least 3 days/7days of free time and of course I could use it to go home to NOLA practically ANY TIME I WANT!!! So I’d be able to still make the money that I’m currently making here in DFW and still be able to go home to NOLA more often!!!!
It’s almost perfect!!!! I told her that since I would be working next weekend, I would like to take this week and think about it and I would have a decision by the end of the week!
OMG, ya’ll, I am smiling and a bit too happy right now, because if I can get this to work out, it is literally THE BEST OF BOTH worlds. I love the life I have here in DFW (friends and what not) but I really miss not being able to see my family more often, and with this possible soilution, it just seems like to sweet a deal. So I’m on little high right now and I need to settle down and think about this but…It’s amazing how opportunity can just knock unexpectedly!
David Koch
François Hollande makes great sauces
Citizen_X
@Violet: Damn, you beat me. Well it’s good news for Mitt Romney!
Mino
Oh dear, where will the plutos go to escape taxation? Their wives and daughers won’t want to move to the last bastions of oligarchs–Saudi.
Steeplejack
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Three out of four isn’t bad.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh35: Congratulations!
P.S. What is DFW?
PeakVT
Here are the latest results from Greece. The Greek constitution has the odd (to me) clause that the party which receives the most votes gets a bonus of 50 seats, so as it stands right now New Democracy (center-right) and PASOK (center-left) will have enough seats to form another coalition.
Chris
My prayers be with him. He’s got a hell of a job in front of him.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
Dallas-Fort Worth, I believe.
AxelFoley
@salacious crumb:
LOL, maybe you can go fuck yourself, too.
rikyrah
Congratulations, François.
A French President named François…how fitting…LOL
Anya
Thanks, Tom.
I hope this means no more austerity madness in Europe.
Chris
@Brachiator:
No, man. We won’t have a clear answer to that until the parliamentary election results are in. And yes, it’s a big concern for me too.
AxelFoley
@Villago Delenda Est:
Why ya’ll keep bringin’ He-Man into this?
Citizen_X
@lamh35: Wow, that’s great! Congratulations!
I’m in a shit job right now (down the road in H-Town), and trying hard to find something better. So that’s some inspiration for the cause!
Nethead Jay
@lamh35: Congratulations, that sounds great.
@PeakVT: Just talked with a colleague whose wife is from Greece. They said that there’s still room for changes but if the trends hold it could be chaotic.
Brachiator
@lamh35: Congratulations. Hope all goes well.
Do I take it that you might have been displaced from New Orleans to Dallas Fort Worth (NOLA to DFW)?
Nethead Jay
@Chris: You’re in France, right? I have a cousin who’s married to a frenchman, living outside Toulouse. They were hoping for Hollande but are also worried about the perliamentary election.
David Koch
Another one bites the dust.
Obama kills terrorist behind USS Cole bombing. (1)
Obama is like Michael Corleone, settling family business, one by one. Can’t wait until he has
Hyman RothRupert Murdoch “met at the airport”.Chris
@Nethead Jay:
No, I’m in America, but I’m half-French (dual citizenship), hence the abiding interest. How does your cousin’s spouse feel the parliamentary elections are going to turn out?
jefft452
@Brachiator: “The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party … winning 6-8% of the vote”
DOOOOOOOOOOM!
A little perspective please, Greece has been royaly screwed by the Centrists, and the best the far right can do is 6 to 8% of the vote
OTOH
@PeakVT: “so as it stands right now New Democracy (center-right) and PASOK (center-left) will have enough seats to form another coalition”
Legitimately bad news for the Greeks
Brachiator
@jefft452:
I clearly noted that the vote may be enough to give neo Nazis places in the parliament. This seems to alarm other Europeans. Other countries, notably the Danes and the British, have tried hard to keep racist extremists out of the government, because they can multiply their power if they are needed to help form a strong coalition government.
You can not apply an American model in which it only matters whether you are left, right, or centrist.
But even here, what would be the political impact here if the American Nazi Party or an organized openly Klan party won a few seats in the Congress, enough to join together with the Tea Party to give the GOP a solid majority?
lamh35
@Brachiator: yep, I’ve been in DFW since we evacuated from Hurricane Katrina.
My immediate family at the time chose DFW because one of my sister’s was already here and we just needed some place to stay other than paying for a hotel. So relatives are usually free…lol.
My mom and 2 of my sister managed to stay about 3 years, and my youngest in in school in nearby Commerce.
I never really wanted to live in DFW, but I’ve made some great friendships
Mnemosyne
@lamh35:
The one thing I would say would be to see if you can get something in writing saying what the minimum number of hours per month you can expect to be scheduled would be. One of G’s employees quit to take a job in what he’s trained doing (I think it was surgical tech), only to discover that they were only going to use him for maybe 1 or 2 on-call shifts a month. He ended up calling G a couple of weeks later to see if he could get his old position back, but G had already filled it.
But if they can guarantee you a minimum number of hours and you can live on that salary, I say go for it!
Nethead Jay
@Chris: He’s always been center-right, supported Chirac/UMP even with the known curruption but couldn’t stand Sarkozy. But he’s also from an algerian Pieds Noirs family background and very worried about Le Pen/FN making gains and UMP collapsing in the wake of the presidential defeat.
PeakVT
@Nethead Jay: If ND and PASOK form a coalition, it would be rather narrow (155 to 145 right now), which would be unstable. If the two don’t reach a majority (with the 50 seat bonus) there could be no government for a while, since one of the smaller parties has pledged not to work with either ND or PASOK. And all of them are opposed to the “memorandum” which ND and PASOK seem to still support.
Brachiator
@lamh35:
My sister’s church helped organize relief and relocation efforts.
Again, sincerely hope that all goes well for you going forward.
Jay C
@PeakVT:
Aren’t New Democracy and PASOK the current coalition “government” in Greece?
Bad news indeed if the results of an election in which it is blatantly obvious that most voters want new leadership results in — a government of the old leadership!
PeakVT
@Jay C: Yes, they are.
ETA: PASOK and ND are now projected to have 153 seats (42 and 111 respectively). Chaos draws nearer.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Oui to the first three. I’d have to have a lot of vin ordinaire in my system before willingly watching a Jerry Lewis movie (except for the one I like).
La Marseillaise always makes me think of (one of) my favourite scene(s) in Casablanca.
Cain
@David Koch:
The hits keep comin, baby. Republicans are going to be pissed that the war of terror is being effective and it’s not due to baby bush.
Brachiator
A little from the Serbian elections:
The rivals for Serbia’s presidency, liberal incumbent Boris Tadic and ex-nationalist Tomislav Nikolic, are heading for a run-off, exit polls say.
Mr Tadic polled around 26% of the vote, early estimates said, while Mr Nikolic was around one point behind.
Serbia won EU candidate status in March and although both men say they back membership, Mr Nikolic strongly opposed the step some years ago.
The candidates’ political parties were also very close in parliamentary polls.
Mr Nikolic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) appeared to be narrowly ahead of Mr Tadic’s Democratic Party (DS).
The BBC’s Nick Thorpe in Belgrade says that the first surprise of the election was the strong showing of the Socialists of Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, with around 15% of the vote. That would put them in with a strong chance of joining a coalition with the Democrats, he says.
rea
@max: Napoleon was a whole inch taller, too.
jefft452
@Brachiator: “I clearly noted that the vote may be enough to give neo Nazis places in the parliament.’
DOOOOOOOM!
Openly Fascist parties have been able to get a few seats in various European countries from time to time
“But even here, what would be the political impact here if the American Nazi Party or an organized openly Klan party won a few seats in the Congress, enough to join together with the Tea Party to give the GOP a solid majority?”
If we had proportional representation, I suspect that an openly KKK party would have seats in Congress today. Even in our winner take all system, openly KKK supported candidates were able to form a controlling collation in the House and Senate as recently as my childhood
Yeah, I get what you are saying,
I’d rather they got 0% of the vote too, but like I said, perspective
Greece today is the perfect environment for Fascism to thrive, and 6 to 8% is the best they could do
Chris
@Nethead Jay:
Yeah, that’s me too. Honestly, I didn’t mind the old school right wing (the one De Gaulle founded) that much – yeah, they had a whole host of problems, but at least they weren’t batshit fucking insane in the way of the GOP. If the new right wing party turns out to have moved towards the FN, though…
Foregone Conclusion
In reality, very little difference between Sarko’s approach and Hollande’s, at least within France. Sarkozy wants a balanced budget by 2016, Hollande wants one by 2017. Sarkozy wants a reduction to 3%, as demanded by the pact, by the end of the year, Hollande wants one by the end of 2013. On fiscal policy, very little difference. On the Eurozone as a whole, he wants a financial transaction tax and Eurobonds, but then again so did Sarkozy.
But, yeah, he’s a socialist (or, to be more accurate, a social democrat), so the Republican right is going to be mad. Heck, if they think it’s unreasonable for high earners to pay 35% marginal rate, how will they react to 75%?
Citizen_X
@Cain:
You know what they said after bin Laden bought it: never send a cowboy to do a gangsta’s job.
Tyro
@lamh35: tl;dr. Introductions/back stories should be minimal. My English teacher’s guidance suggested about 10%-15% of the total essay length.
This is a common problem I see in dKos diaries as well: large part of the diary spent discussing personal anecdotes and backstory in the beginning before getting to the point of the story.
lless
Well there’s always the CIA. Now where do they find the next General De Gaulle?
Warren Terra
Has Carla Bruni filed for divorce yet?
What is Hollande’s marital status?
ruemara
@lamh35: Congrats! This sounds like a good thing for you. Hope some of this good news rubs off on me.
@Tyro: Get bent.
gelfling545
@Spaghetti Lee: C’est pas mal pour un debut.
gelfling545
@Mr Stagger Lee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rauZMrXqRu0
Les aristocrats a la lanterne!
Steeplejack
@lamh35:
Way to go! Situation sounds good. I like the idea of four on, three off, or even (maybe) 10 on and 10 off. Would definitely be different. But maybe very cool.
Steeplejack
@Tyro:
You could have just stopped at “tl;dr”. Nobody is requiring you to read any comment. As the sainted Peggy Noonan reminded us, “Sometimes you need to just keep walking.”
Tyro
@Steeplejack: I feel the need to give people writing style advice. It starts with the principle that the internet is not talk therapy. The next is that your writing should have a clear purpose and get straight to the point.
I’ve learn to tolerate comments that being with “OT, but…” But I insist that if you’re going to do that, the comment should also be competently written.
Keith G
@lamh35: Fantastic and congrats. The more libs here in Tejas the better.
Ruckus
@Tyro:
Who the fuck died and left you in charge?
Yutsano
@Tyro: Your concern noted, it has been.
the fugitive uterus
i know i have every reason in the world not to love that painting but i have always loved it! anyway, at least Napoleon did more than just play dress up.
Paul in KY
On the Napolean picture, he was actually a terrible horseman. If that picture was a still from a movie, he was thrown about 1.5 secs later.
His generals wanted him to always ride a coach, since he’d about killed himself twice in falls from horses.
Glad Sarkozy is gone. Viva la France!
Caravelle
@Warren Terra: Cohabitating. Has the US media picked on that yet ?