Nicolas Sarkozy on the way out?

[Will E Worm]

He needs to go. He's a racist.

 

[Johan]

I don't fancy him but I don't think he's racist.

the first French president to lose a re-election bid in more than 30 years.

Actually, only 3 presidents out of 5 have been re-elected :
DeGaule : 1958-1965 ; 1965-1969 (Quit in 1969)
Mitterrand : 1981-1988 ; 1988-1995
Chirac : 1995-2002 ; 2002-2007 (In 2002 the president mandate was reduced from 7 years to 5 years)

Before Sarkozy's election in 2002, Pompidou and Giscard-d'Estaing weren't re-elected (Pompidou died during his first mandate, Giscard-d'Estaing lost to Mitterrand in 1981)

 

[Trident1]

Sarkozy needs the far right voters. The Euro markets went into a tailspin when they learned that Hollande was ahead. Tells you that a Socialist/Leftist is bad for business.

 

[vodkazvictim]

Sarkozy needs the far right voters. The Euro markets went into a tailspin when they learned that Hollande was ahead. Tells you that a Socialist/Leftist is bad for business.

The right wing is bad for business.
Make things too easy and business just softens up, loses the ability to compete abroad and becomes useless at home.

 

[Trident1]

The right wing is bad for business.
Make things too easy and business just softens up, loses the ability to compete abroad and becomes useless at home.

All I know is that when you get a Socialist/Leftist in office/power say buh by to profits/investments/business. Just look at the markets.

 

[PlasmaTwa2]

All I know is that when you get a Socialist/Leftist in office/power say buh by to profits/investments/business. Just look at the markets.

Which totally explains how the economy tanked under Bush/Sarkozy/Conservative Leader #49.

 

[lurkingdirk]

I bet he'd last longer in politics if he were taller.

I'm just sayin'.

 

[Trident1]

Which totally explains how the economy tanked under Bush/Sarkozy/Conservative Leader #49.

Right because Sarkozy had his "Joo" hands on the housing market, the bank crisis, the fall in the Euro, the Greek crisis, the Hungarian meltdown, and the depression in Spain. Golly you're so correct Plasma.

 

[Johan]

Sarkozy needs the far right voters.

He needs both the far-right (Le Pen, 19%) and the center (Bayrou, 9%). It's gonna be terribly complicated for him to have them both but having only one won't be enough to win...

 

[PlasmaTwa2]

Right because Sarkozy had his "Joo" hands on the housing market, the bank crisis, the fall in the Euro, the Greek crisis, the Hungarian meltdown, and the depression in Spain. Golly you're so correct Plasma.

When you tell me how the strong Conservative leadership helped countries weather all those storms maybe I won't feel the need to post stupid replies to your stupid comments. In the meantime if you'd like to also explain how countries like Norway are thriving in profits/investements/business with "socialist" governments, that'd be great.

 

[Rey C.]

He needs both the far-right (Le Pen, 19%) and the center (Bayrou, 9%). It's gonna be terribly complicated for him to have them both but having only one won't be enough to win...

That's what I read too. Apparently he needs over half of one group and two thirds of the other. But I think the polls show that he hasn't broken over 50% support with either group. He's in kind of the same boat as Romney here in the U.S.: he also has to court the extreme right to pass himself off as a Republican, but Americans are generally center-right - not extremists or far right. Tough task in both cases.

And here's the sad thing about the international news (or lack thereof) that we get here in the U.S.: you probably hear more about U.S. politics than we hear about French politics. Up until recently, I thought Sarkozy was still pretty popular there. Now as I dig into more Euro based news websites, it seems that the opposite has been true for awhile.

 

[Rey C.]

I bet he'd last longer in politics if he were taller.

I'm just sayin'.

He tried to compensate for the height thing by having a smokin' hot wife. Usually works... but not always.

 

[georges]

When you tell me how the strong Conservative leadership helped countries weather all those storms maybe I won't feel the need to post stupid replies to your stupid comments. In the meantime if you'd like to also explain how countries like Norway are thriving in profits/investements/business with "socialist" governments, that'd be great.

Mitterand was a socialist president that we had during 14 years and our economy tanked under him by wanting to implement a nany state assisting unwilling to work parasites but also by providing social helps, free healthcare and appartments to foreign people who have never ever busted their asses for France. We are bankrupt because we have been a nanny state since the independance of our former colonies since 1962, the year when Algeria was declared independant. Even Sweden who used to have a leftwing government and is now rightwing. Danemark doesn't have a poupulation of 80 000 000inhabitants like Germany or 60 000 000 inhabitants like France. We have been too welcoming, too generous and too laxist with the immigrants coming from the Magreb as well as with the asyleum keepers coming from the foreign countries. We pay this former mistake heavily now.

 

[georges]

That's what I read too. Apparently he needs over half of one group and two thirds of the other. But I think the polls show that he hasn't broken over 50% support with either group. He's in kind of the same boat as Romney here in the U.S.: he also has to court the extreme right to pass himself off as a Republican, but Americans are generally center-right - not extremists or far right. Tough task in both cases.

And here's the sad thing about the international news (or lack thereof) that we get here in the U.S.: you probably hear more about U.S. politics than we hear about French politics. Up until recently, I thought Sarkozy was still pretty popular there. Now as I dig into more Euro based news websites, it seems that the opposite has been true for awhile.

The other contender which should have beaten Mme Lepen and which is Melencon had only the half of votes than she has. And you forget Mr Bayrou's party made 9% who is financially a conservative so Sarkozy will win whether you dislike him or not. The majority of the Front National voters are voting Sarkozy as they did in 2007 and with Bayrou Voters it will be the same. Voting Hollande is voting for authorizing people with less than 10 years of residence to vote in local elections, for letting the radical islamisation of France happen, for increasing dramatically the debt of France on all levels as well as ruining the french-german relationships. Hollande has never been at the head of a minister. The people from the worst quarters and the worst towns vote for him as well as people who hate France vote for him.

 

[Trident1]

In the meantime if you'd like to also explain how countries like Norway are thriving in profits/investements/business with "socialist" governments, that'd be great.

Sure. First you mentioned countries (plural) so you tell me which others are "thriving" other than Norway.

Why is Norway in the black thus far:

-Small population
-Relative homogenous population ( this will change now that more muslim immigrants are coming in)
-Fiscally responsible
-OIL
-Business/Tech savvy
-Norwegians are frugal and save

 

[Rey C.]

The other contender which should have beaten Mme Lepen and which is Melencon had only the half of votes than she has. And you forget Mr Bayrou's party made 9% who is financially a conservative so Sarkozy will win whether you dislike him or not. The majority of the Front National voters are voting Sarkozy as they did in 2007 and with Bayrou Voters it will be the same. Voting Hollande is voting for authorizing people with less than 10 years of residence to vote in local elections, for letting the radical islamisation of France happen, for increasing dramatically the debt of France on all levels as well as ruining the french-german relationships. Hollande has never been at the head of a minister. The people from the worst quarters and the worst towns vote for him as well as people who hate France vote for him.

Actually I don't know that much about Sarkozy. I don't like him or dislike him. I just saw this story and found it interesting, so I posted it. No where in this thread have I expressed any sort of personal feelings about the man. I'd been under the assumption that he was still pretty popular in France. Now I see that was an incorrect assumption. As I mentioned to Johan, we don't get very much news on most European matters. Bloomberg or CNBC will carry a story if it affects the financial markets. But that's about it.

But just from what I've read, Sarkozy's attempts to build a coalition with the far-right (and still keep the center) doesn't seem to be as cut & dried as you're suggesting. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

 

[Rey C.]

The people of France will have to decide over the coming months and years if they've made the best decision for themselves or not. My concern is how this will affect the global financial markets and the economy here in the U.S. But as it became fairly clear over the past couple of weeks that Sarkozy was probably going to lose, hopefully there won't be a market shock tomorrow. It's the unexpected that usually shocks markets downward. One commentator on Bloomberg reckoned that Hollande's actual policies won't be *radically* different (in practice) from those of Sarkozy... probably just a different method of delivery. But we'll see... :dunno:


Sarkozy Is First French President in 30 Years to Fail Reelection

Sarkozy Is First French President in 30 Years to Fail Reelection


Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat in the French presidential election makes him the ninth European leader to be booted out since the region’s debt crisis began.

Sanctioned for his flamboyant personal style and slowing economic growth, Sarkozy lost to Socialist Francois Hollande, who got 52 percent of the vote against 48 percent, five polling estimates showed. Sarkozy becomes the second French president to lose a re-election bid since World War II after former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing was vanquished in 1981.

With joblessness at a 12-year high and public debt at a record, the electorate proved unwilling to forgive the 57-year- old lawyer for foibles such as celebrating his 2007 victory at a chic Paris restaurant and a holiday on a billionaire’s yacht, making the election an anti-Sarkozy vote.

“If the French had jobs and more money in their pockets, they’d be confident and ready to forgive,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

Sarkozy joins a long list of victims of the crisis, which began with subprime mortgages in the U.S. before causing government yields to diverge across Europe. Leaders in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Netherlands were elbowed out from their posts.

At the start of his term, Sarkozy, an outsider with immigrant roots, was France’s most popular leader since General Charles de Gaulle, World War II hero and founder of the Fifth Republic. By the time he announced his re-election bid in February, he was the most unpopular incumbent French president since the war and was counting on his stewardship of the debt crisis to deliver a second term.


Act Like a King

The dislike of Sarkozy began well before the financial crisis hit France. His approval rating fell to 32 percent by May 2008, a year after his election, from 65 percent a month after his election, pollster TNS Sofres said.

“The French cut the heads off kings, but they also want a king and they want their king to act like a king,” said Fabrice Seiman, co-chief executive officer of Lutetia Capital in Paris, who was once an adviser to the budget minister.

Sarkozy’s unpopularity began the night of his 2007 victory, which he celebrated at Fouquet’s, a fancy restaurant on Paris’s Avenue des Champs Elysees, with about a dozen chief executive officers. He then went off the coast of Malta on the yacht belonging to one of them, Vincent Bollore.

Next came a public divorce with his wife Cecilia - the first ever by a sitting president - and an even more public courtship with singer-model Carla Bruni, his third wife, including a well-publicized visit to Euro Disney.

 

[Mayhem]

I don't really get the criticisms leveled at him. He went out on someone else's yacht? What am I missing? I'm also not entirely catching the post-election party thing either.

 

[Straight Shooter]

When will the election results be in? I know there is a significant time difference since I'm in the U.S. Will they have the results by the end of the night like they usually do here for U.S presidential elections?

 

[darkwarrior3007]

When will the election results be in? I know there is a significant time difference since I'm in the U.S. Will they have the results by the end of the night like they usually do here for U.S presidential elections?

Sarkozy is out, Hollande is in.