Update: "Note the Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian and Palestinian flags on display in the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the Socialist victory in France."
Update: Stoopid in France/They voted in the Socialists/That act is suicidal, suicidal...
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Fou En France
They've up and elected the Socialist dude? That's just nuts!
Update: "Note the Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian and Palestinian flags on display in the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the Socialist victory in France."
Update: Stoopid in France/They voted in the Socialists/That act is suicidal, suicidal...
Update: "Note the Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian and Palestinian flags on display in the Place de la Bastille to celebrate the Socialist victory in France."
Update: Stoopid in France/They voted in the Socialists/That act is suicidal, suicidal...
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2 comments:
Well, I can't say I was surprised by the outcome. I correspond with several French e-mail pals--it's how I keep up my mastery (such as it is) of _la belle langue_--and the dissatisfaction of my correspondents, across the political spectrum, with Sarkozy was palpable. His attempted reforms (e.g., pushing back retirement to 62 and expanding allowable exceptions to the 35-hour work week) of the French nanny-state were just enough to irritate the populace, without gaining any real economic advantages for the nation.
People talk about Italians and _la dolce vita_, but they have nothing on the French and _la vie douce_. Even socially very conservative French folk are firmly attached to the (not overly arduous) 35-hour week (often spent as government " _fonctionnaires_" in barely disguised sinecures), retirement at 60, and generous government subsidies for all sorts of personal expenditures; it leaves lots of time and energy to till their beautiful gardens. The social conservatives might have rallied to him if he had consistently and effectively restored public order--especially concerning the thuggery of "_les jeunes_" in the mammoth public housing projects that now ring most French cities, and curbed immigration from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. But he didn't, so, after casting fruitless--at least in the short-run--votes for Marine Le Pen, many probably followed her lead an "voted blank."
Hollande, of course, is a conventional Euro-socialist who will almost certainly cynically disregard his promises to tighten immigration controls, do his best to subvert what remains of independent mediating social institutions, give the latest social-Marxist fashions (e.g., homosexual marriage) the force of law, and lick the oil-coated feet of Moslem potentates even more avidly than Sarkozy did. But maybe he'll screw up the French economy and society so badly that Le Pen and the Front Populaire will actually have a real chance of victory next time around.
My wife just read my post; she has pointed out that I committed the political solecism to end all political solecisms: Martine Le Pen heads the Front National, _not_ the Front Populaire! This latter was, of course, a coalition of Leftist parties--predominant among which were the Communists--in 1930s France; much of French defeatism at the beginning of World War II can be traced to its baleful influence. . . . Forgive me, Marine!
(Oh well, at least my wife has something to crow about over the next couple of weeks. She already started with the, "You thought you knew so much about France, didn't you, Mr. Bookworm-with-French-penpals?" . . . It'll keep her happy for a while.)
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