Presidential election: French people have nothing to be ashamed of
Jean Claude | 22.04.2002 09:07
I hear some people are demonstrating in the streets in France with banners reading: "I'm ashamed to be French."
Well, if I were French(I'm Belgian...), I certainly wouldn't feel ashamed after the first round of presidential elections in France.But then the people who are ashamed now are probably always ashamed to be French. Contrary to Americans, most French look down on patriotism.
I for one am extremely pleased with and proud of what the French did.
To begin with, they slapped Jospin, and with him the claret Left, in the face and they deserved it.Oh yes! Remember: Jospin said that athough he was a socialist, his electoral platform was not a socialist one.If this is not hypocrisy, what is it? The French kicked this man out and they were right.
They also voted for Le Pen, will some object. 16% did. That means 84% voted for the other candidates.
Whatever one may think of Mr. Le Pen's programme(do people know his programme? what do they really know about him except the insults and the mocking remarks the media and the political establishment have been pouring upon him for years instead of trying to come up with credible, effective alternatives?)I say that whatever one may feel about Mr. Le Pen, I find nonetheless this vote truly admirable.
What is admirable here, is the fact that so many people just refused to be influenced by the media. The media had tried hard with polls and pundits to make everybody believe the election was simply a (non)choice between Chirac and Jospin.They failed: the French just preferred to listen to their own feelings.No matter what the media commentators may say, that is a sign of great independence and hence political maturity. No apathy here.
One may regret that 16% of the French
voted for the FN, but if one adds up the votes of all the candidates of the extreme-left plus the greens, one finds that just as many people voted for leftist candidates.
France voted for the candidates with clear-cut ideas, people who were impassioned. They were right. Bravo la France!
Well, if I were French(I'm Belgian...), I certainly wouldn't feel ashamed after the first round of presidential elections in France.But then the people who are ashamed now are probably always ashamed to be French. Contrary to Americans, most French look down on patriotism.
I for one am extremely pleased with and proud of what the French did.
To begin with, they slapped Jospin, and with him the claret Left, in the face and they deserved it.Oh yes! Remember: Jospin said that athough he was a socialist, his electoral platform was not a socialist one.If this is not hypocrisy, what is it? The French kicked this man out and they were right.
They also voted for Le Pen, will some object. 16% did. That means 84% voted for the other candidates.
Whatever one may think of Mr. Le Pen's programme(do people know his programme? what do they really know about him except the insults and the mocking remarks the media and the political establishment have been pouring upon him for years instead of trying to come up with credible, effective alternatives?)I say that whatever one may feel about Mr. Le Pen, I find nonetheless this vote truly admirable.
What is admirable here, is the fact that so many people just refused to be influenced by the media. The media had tried hard with polls and pundits to make everybody believe the election was simply a (non)choice between Chirac and Jospin.They failed: the French just preferred to listen to their own feelings.No matter what the media commentators may say, that is a sign of great independence and hence political maturity. No apathy here.
One may regret that 16% of the French
voted for the FN, but if one adds up the votes of all the candidates of the extreme-left plus the greens, one finds that just as many people voted for leftist candidates.
France voted for the candidates with clear-cut ideas, people who were impassioned. They were right. Bravo la France!
Jean Claude
Comments
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Jean Claude
22.04.2002 12:41
And to say that the media ignored Le Pen is utterly ridiculous - I watch French television and regularly listen to French radio and they seem to talk about nothing *but* Le Pen!
Also, even if he is not talking himself, he and his fascist dickhead-friends have set the agenda for mainstream political debate in France. Like the BNP's influence has done here, all the major parties are falling over themselves to be tough on crime and anti-immigration: what Le Pen calls the "Lepenisation" of politics in France.
red'n'black
fed up with racism and intolerance
22.04.2002 12:46
Yes, french voters (I am one of them) refuse to obey to media hammering.
I didn't want to believe their predictions about Jospin and Chirac to be the leaders...I was right. Was I alone?
Certainly not, thousands of voters felt it before it happen... alone, with no microphone to warn about the danger of this facism revival (The beast grabbed our country's flesh...Will it be bloody?).
Happy to see real leftist votes appear, but what do you think of Lepen's popular and unemployed voters? Many say those people used to vote for communists, who merely disappeared...
Frightening seen, as you know that Lepen's voters, in the beginning, belonged to rich parts of the population (militars, people who had collaborated with nazis when they were youth, royalists, catholic integrists...).
Why did voters who are sucked by the system chosed the ones with the largest vampire teeth ?
I will add scores:
Lepen+Mégret represent 20%
Laguiller+Besancenot represent 10%
manush ciao