Friday, February 09, 2007

French Left switches sides (in a good way)

Until the last month or so, all the ga-ga over the Socialist Royale was a mix of Hillary-geist and Obamamania. Reality is setting in.
One by one, several French writers and intellectuals are making the startling confessions. After decades as committed leftists, they are defecting to the right — many saying they've lost faith in Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal.

With just 10 weeks to go until the election's first round, Royal still has no platform. She has made gaffes on international affairs, and her popularity with intellectuals and ordinary voters alike has slipped, leaving conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy at the top of the polls.

Royal, 53, will take a big gamble Sunday in unveiling, at last, some of her plans for France in a platform speech that will be judged by especially tough standards because she has waited so long to make it. Until now Royal has been in a "listening phase" of her campaign,
...
Royal "scares me because she's not cut out for this, she doesn't have the qualifications to be president of the Republic," Hanin told Europe-1 radio. "When you love your country, that's scary."

Leftist essayist Alain Finkielkraut blasted Royal's "manifest incompetence" in an interview with Liberation newspaper, saying he felt closer to Sarkozy, though he did not outright endorse him.

Philosopher Andre Glucksmann backed Sarkozy in a commentary in Le Monde, complaining that the French left was "marinating in its own narcissism." Though he said he respected Royal, he nonetheless took a dig at her by saying that "the left's emptiness was even greater than her own."
Say what you want about the French - their Leftist still have a solid majority that still believe in France - and they are showing it.

BTW, perhaps a different subject for a different day; but since when did French "intellectuals" get names like Finkielkraut and Glucksmann? I mean; FinkielKRAUT!?! Where is my Camus and Satre?

BTW, this is important. Sarkozy is about as friendly as you will get in a French politician. Shhhhhh.....

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