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| Europe |
| Sarkozy win - truly a mandate! (voting statistics) |
| 2007-05-08 |
| Nicolas Sarkozy won the women's vote and fared well among blue-collar workers, even though his rival for the French presidency was a woman and a Socialist. Experts said Sarkozy took working-class votes from the left by playing up his tough cop image and by pounding away at the theme that he believes in rewarding hard work. "The main attraction among workers were the security-immigration duo, which works, and the values of hard work: He put the emphasis on increasing purchasing power," said Frederic Dabi, a pollster with Ifop. According to the Ipsos poll, Sarkozy cruised in his traditional electoral base: 82 percent of small business owners, and 67 percent of farmers voted for him. Befitting a conservative, he won 61 percent of votes by those over age 61, and 68 percent among voters 70 or older. Royal's best showing was among 18- to 24-year-olds, but Sarkozy tallied 57 percent among the 25- to 34-year-old tranche. The Ipsos poll of 3,609 adults was conducted by telephone Sunday. The agency did not provide a margin of error, but it should be about plus or minus 1.6 percentage point for a survey of that size. Official figures showed Sarkozy won France's one-time industrial heartland in the north, which had not voted for a rightist presidential candidate since Charles de Gaulle in 1965. Sarkozy even tallied nearly 44 percent of the vote in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris, where a wave of rioting erupted in late 2005 while he was interior minister and infuriated many there by calling troublemakers "scum." Strikingly, he captured 52 percent of the women's vote against 48 percent for Royal, indicating the campaign transcended gender issues and became a choice between ideas. In the campaign, Sarkozy dared to attack the status quo with calls to do away with inheritance tax on small and medium estates and cut the number of public sector workers. He also evoked issues of national identity and immigration that were once the stomping ground of extreme-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Sarkozy plans to put big reforms before parliament in July. One would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France. Sarkozy is as critical of Iran's nuclear program as is the U.S., and he has chided the French press for its anti-American tone. But he has called the Iraq invasion a mistake and says the Bush administration should do more on global warming. Merely hundreds of rioters Monday night, Socialist leader finally appeals for calm The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after a second night of post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed. "To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior," Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Tuesday on RTL radio. "We are in a republic, where universal suffrage is the only law we know. There can be disappointment, there can be anger, there can be frustration. But the only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons," he said. Late Monday night, several hundred people massed again at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, breaking shop windows, starting street fires and igniting a handful of cars. Riot police dispersed them, arresting about 100 people. In Nantes in western France, hundreds gathered again Monday night, with a few dozen hurling beer bottles and other projectiles at police cordons. Police responded with tear gas, arresting several people. Public buildings were also damaged. Minor incidents were also reported in Toulouse in southern France. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #11 I wish to personally thank the French Leftists for showing the world what rioting antidemocratic thugs they are and to wish Mr. Sarkozy the best of luck in reforming that country. |
| Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2007-05-08 19:12 |
| #10 Sorry, don't agree with the conclusion. He won by 6%. A 3+% swing would have put Missy Royale in power. That isn't a mandate. That being said, hrer's hpoing he can act like it was. |
| Posted by: Chavinter Lumumba7722 2007-05-08 17:11 |
| #9 Is facture something like tax on earned income, JFM? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-05-08 16:20 |
| #8 Has anyone noticed? Royal won the 18/24 years old, ie those who live on Daddy's money and pay no taxes. I often joke but do I joke? that you should only allowed to vote if you can exhibit a facture (from the excellent Arab blog, mahmood.tv. "You are not an adult until you pay your first facture). |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-05-08 16:16 |
| #7 where a wave of rioting erupted in late 2005 while he was interior minister and infuriated many there by calling troublemakers "scum." In fact it was a mainpulation from the MSM. The complete scene was a woman from the rioting zones, I even think she was an Arab/Berber pleading to him: -Plese rid us of that scum. -Yes Madam I promise you we will rid y of this scum. The MSM cut the words of the woman. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-05-08 16:12 |
| #6 anarchist is MSM code for communist. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan 2007-05-08 16:04 |
| #5 Sarkozy takes office May 16th. Hope that his transition team is working overtime! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-05-08 15:33 |
| #4 I am really looking forward to a new era of Franco-American relations with Sarkozy in office--at least, as long as we don't get a Dem president in '08. I truly believe there are a lot of good and right-thinking Frenchmen (like JFM!) who are looking to reclaim their country and restore sanity to their economy, labor and immigration laws, and foreign relations. |
| Posted by: Dar 2007-05-08 12:49 |
| #3 Yes, liberalhawk, but it was Segolene Royal who made such a fuss about violence following the election of Sarkozy -- and she has said nothing to stop it either before or after. Nor, until today, have any political leaders on the Left, nor even lame-duck President Jacques Chiraq, which presumes they don't disapprove. On the other hand, the police that Sarkozy is ultimately responsible for have been arresting rioters and breaking up riots. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-05-08 11:50 |
| #2 socialists? from what my sources tell me, it aint even regular communists doing this rioting, its anarchists, IE students/clowns. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2007-05-08 10:30 |
| #1 "To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior," Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Dawned on the Socialosts that they might get blamed? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-05-08 10:18 |