Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande will face off for the French Presidency on May 6th after neither passed the 50% winning mark in yesterday’s first round.
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Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande will face off for the French Presidency on May 6th after neither passed the 50 per cent winning mark in yesterday’s first round.
Hollande looks the favourite, winning the first round 28.6% to Sarkozy’s 27.1%, giving him the momentum going into the two-week run-off. Fascist Marine Le Pen came third on 18.1% – the Front National’s largest ever presidential vote share – with far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon fourth on 12% and centrist François Bayrou fifth on 9%.
Where the voters of the bottom eight candidates vote now will be crucial. Melenchon has urged all his supporters to unconditionally back Hollande, while Le Pen is remaining silent on who her backers should now support.
Although yesterday’s vote reflected recent polls, in the past they have been inaccurate, particularly in predicting support for the Front National as voters do not like to publicly declare the agree with the far right party. This is what partly led to the surprise of Jean-Marie Le Pen edging out the Socialist candidate to enter the second round in 2002.
It is an unexpected achievement that Hollande is set to become the next Socialist president of France. The unlikely candidate replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn after his sex scandal. He’d been dubbed the ‘ordinary’ candidate in contrast to the ‘bling’ candidate whose popularity has faded over recent months.
• France decides (round 1) 20 Apr 2012
• Sarkozy chases youth vote as election enters final weeks 5 Apr 2012
• Sarkozy v Hollande: French presidential race hots up 14 Mar 2012
• Desperate Sarkozy cranks up the anti-immigration rhetoric 14 Mar 2012
• Is François Hollande the next president of France? 9 Feb 2012
Hollande comes from a small town called Tulle and is seen as a lovely, down to earth guy. His policies if successful include taxing those who earn more than a million euros at 75%. If he makes it to the Élysée Palace he will be the first Socialist president since 1995; if Sarkozy loses, he will be the first incumbent to lose a second term since 1981.
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11 Responses to “It’s Sarko v Hollande, part deux”
Life: Downloaded
RT @leftfootfwd: It’s Sarko v Hollande, part deux http://t.co/3hLFnhzk
Anonymous
It’s the failure of the left and the right, that has allowed the racist socialists to get such a large percentage of the vote.
Will Hollande fix anything? No. The problem of hidden government debts remains. With a civil service even more entrenched in France than the UK, there is no hope. All the rich French have a long track record of avoiding taxation and confiscation by the state. After all, its happened repeatedly. So Hollande with have to penally tax the middle class. Hollande won’t address Le Pen, so even if he does win, it will be a disaster and he will be wiped out come the next election. That doesn’t solve France’s problems, which will have just got bigger. End result will be more and more extremist candidates.
The plus point with Hollande could we be the break up of the EU.
Selohesra
Has this picture been photshopped? -Hollande looks even shorter than Sarkozy
BevR
RT @leftfootfwd: It’s Sarko v Hollande, part deux http://t.co/HbVkGYw4
Sarkozy and Hollande chase the disaffected Le Pen vote | Left Foot Forward
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