NPR: Can someone explain French politics to me, please?

Can someone explain French politics to me, please?

This weekend's French presidential election keeps getting more interesting. But it's not the two main challengers who are pumping up the volume. It's the two guys who lost in the first round: the ultra-conservative Jean-Marie Le Pen and centrist François Bayrou. The two are stirring things up a few days before Sunday's vote, and it looks like it means trouble for conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, who won the first round of voting a couple of weeks ago.

First, Le Pen announced that he wanted his supporters to boycott Sunday's elections. Le Pen believes neither candidate deserves the backing of the 10.4 percent of French voters who supported him in the initial round. Well, based on Le Pen's far-right positions, none of these folks were going to vote for Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, even with a gun to their têtes, so it's really a whack at Sarkozy.

And then Bayrou (who attracted a sizeable 18 percent first-round vote) announced that while he wasn't going to back any candidate, he would not vote for Sarkozy because his conservative positions would be bad for France's "social fabric."

Don't two negatives make a positive? He's not supporting anyone, but he's also not voting for Sarkozy ... which would seem to say to me, with only two candidates running, he will vote for Royal. Do politicians really think people don't notice this stuff?

Anyway, as Michael Stickings wrote over at The Moderate Voice, the Le Pen announcement was trouble enough for Sarkozy. Now, with Bayrou's non-support/support of Royal, he might be in real trouble. It all means that Sunday's vote will be a real squeaker.

1:09 PM ET | 05- 3-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

"I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians," said Charles de Gaulle. Wonder if was envisioning this particular French election?

Sent by David Hollis | 4:52 PM ET | 05-03-2007

French Politics - they're just as cut-throat as American politics, only they sounds better doing it!

Sent by Brian Weeks | 9:54 PM ET | 05-03-2007

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