French Presidential Election 2012
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I tend to avoid political subjects, which are normally of transitory interest, but the election of the French President in 2012 is an event too important to ignore. On this page, from about a year before the election, I am going to try to select clips which will document the major moments in what promises to be a fascinating event |
Click (or right-click to download) on the top half of the picture for the video and on the lower half for the text
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Here we are in March 2011, and the campaign has not yet begun. However, President Nicolas Sarkozy is fabulously unpopular, his party, the UMP, has just lost the regional elections (les cantonales) to the Socialists, and the National Front of Marine le Pen - traditionally viewed by right-thinking French people as fascist - has made enormous advances. So, as a little place holder, here is SarkoInfo - a nightly moment of political satire from Karl Zero and BFM TV |
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17th May. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Director-General of the
IMF, has been the favourite in the polls to be elected as a socialist
President. |
30 August 2011, and I was watching the news on France 2 where David Pujadas had just come back from his holidays and was presenting the JT. The Socialists were holding their primaires, the ritual blood-letting to decide which of François Hollande or Martine Aubry would be their candidate in 2012, and I was wondering when something would happen worth recording here. Then Pujadas got a twinkle in his eye, and I hit the record button - which I can do faster than Wyatt Earp ever unholstered his six-gun. Michel Rocard - who was Prime Minister under Mitterrand, and therefore knows something about putting the knife in - had clearly decided to pave the way for Dominique Strauss-Kahn's triumphant return to France. You will remember that the New York procureur had decided not to continue with charges because of doubts over the story told by the victim.
So on his return to France DSK said that he would make a statement to the French in about two weeks. It was scheduled for the evening news on TF1, Sunday, 18 September. Claire Chazal, who is a friend of DSK's wife, would be the interviewer. It lasted 20 minutes, and was very, very unpleasant. To give the French press it's due, the reaction to this interview was overwhelmingly hostile. It was rehearsed, insincere, and told us nothing about what happened in that famous hotel room in New York.
Transcribing the words of this odious man was no fun, so I am afraid I livened it up a bit. Having recently featured Jean-Luc Delarue's programme Réunion de famille here, I added the generic music to the sound track, and then at key points, the audience clapping enthusiastically while Jean-Luc interposes 'Chouette !', 'Sympa !'. I hope I will not be accused of légèreté.
To counter the unpleasant effect of the gentleman pictured above, here is a woman politician who is principled, honest, straight, and completely admirable. She is enormously popular in France, and quite right too. And if I say that Rama Yade is also young and beautiful, it only adds to her qualities.
To prepare ourselves for the ordeal of the French Presidential elections of 2012, it is as well to know something about the eight presidential elections after the foundation of the Vth Republic. The channel Toute l'histoire gave us an excellent documentary on the elections from 1965 to 1995, and here is the first excerpt dealing with De Gaulle vs Mitterrand in 1965
Here is the first of the current Presidential candidates, and we're starting from the right, the extreme right. Marine Le Pen, who has taken over le Front national from her dad, Jean-Marie, fascist, antisemite, etc etc. Marine has renounced much of that, and kept the bits that ordinary French people are quite likely to vote for - she is against immigration for instance. She is also an intelligent, articulate lady with a sense of humour.
End October 2011. François Hollande has been chosen as candidate for the Socialists. Greence is bankrupt, and the financial system of Europe is falling round the ears of those who have spent too much and borrowed unwisely for many years. Nicolas Sarkozy has just returned from Brussels where he has agreed to what the Germans want, with the aid of the Chinese, and the grudging agreement of the banks - bail out Greece yet another time. It won't be the last, one fears. Here are the last five minutes, where Yves Calvi tried to get him to say whether he would be candidate, then tried to get him to say whether he might not be candidate, and Sarkozy kicks both questions effortlessly into touch
Above, we saw a piece on the Presidential election of 1965, which De Gaulle won. By 1968 he was getting old, and May 1968 demonstrated to what extent he was out of touch with the people. He lost the referendum he called in 1969, and resigned the same year. The rules call for the President of the Senate to assume office, and this was Alain Poher, a rather nice quiet man, who presented himself as candidate for the election of 1969 as a centrist candidate. George Pompidou was the candidate of the right. This election is remarkable for the appearance of a splendid old man, Jacques Duclos, a firebrand of the communist party. It was one of these occasions when the socialists of France fail entirely to convince the people of their capacity to govern. Gaston Defferre, their candidate, only got 5% of the vote
Bless them, LCP, La chaîne parlémentaire has found a way to make the election lighthearted. Each month Com' en politique, presented by the wonderfully eccentric Thomas Hervé, takes a look at la Com, the way politicians present themselves. Here he has an expert (what we would vulgarly call a spin-doctor) to advise on the image, and the important matter of dressing to impress. We need programmes like this. There is nothing more important in France than a presidential election in a year of deep financial crisis.. but my goodness, it doesn't provide too many laughs.
We haven't seen the socialist candidate, François Hollande on this page so far. It is not that I am violently anti-socialist and everyone agrees that Hollande is a nice man, intelligent and with a great sense of humour. But he wasn't the first choice for candidate. That was Dominique Strauss-Kahn who fell from grace like Lucifer himself. François Hollande, ex-First Secretary of the Socialist Party, stepped into the breach, and prepared himself for the presidency by losing a lot of weight ( he was definitely chubby). His problem - and mine - is that he is not terribly interesting. He is earnest, undoubtedly sincere, and speaks with the endearing naivety that characterises French socialism.
His first great speech of the campaign was at Le Bourget 23rd January. See what you think
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It is very rare that I quote from Bibliothèque Medecis, the heavily intellectual interview show of Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, but this time his guest was Alain Duhamel. Duhamel is one of the most senior political journalistes of France : he and Elkabbach interviewed all the major political figures of the country in their time, with some memorable battles such as the one with George Marchais in the programme Cartes sur table Here, Duhamel analyses the chances of the two major candidates in the presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande
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