One might be forgiven for thinking that the only election out there at the moment is that surrounding the hype for the US presidential one ........and that's not until next November! But there is a much more immediate and important one looming. In France.
Dominique Moïsi is a senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations and writes in the IHT on the forthcoming French election and how Sarkozy is faring:
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Sarkozy’s handicaps are grave. For the moment, the emotional rejection by a majority of the French of a man they apparently do not want to see on their television screens for another five years still appears to prevail over the clear lack of enthusiasm for his main opponent, the Socialist François Hollande. On top of that, unemployment is high and people are anxious — a very difficult context in which to be re-elected.
The left is still obsessed with what happened in April 2002, when a fragmentation of the votes led to the elimination of Lionel Jospin in the first round. They do not want a repetition of such a scenario. Starved of power, they will unite behind their candidate.
A scant month ago, total uncertainty prevailed, and the race seemed wide open among the four leading candidates: Hollande on the left, Sarkozy on the right, François Bayrou in the center and Marine Le Pen on the far right. Today only the first two names seem to figure in a classic left-right confrontation.
It is also a competition between two different individuals and two different styles. Sarkozy — “The Artist” of French politics in his very vocal way — is perceived by many as “too much” after five years of rule, while there are doubts whether Hollande is “enough.” The former is a natural leader, instinctively divisive in his approach; the latter has a more consensual nature and thinks of himself as a mediator."
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