The French Finally Get It.

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:06 pm

Women voters shun Segolene Royal
Reuters
By Kerstin Gehmlich Reuters - 1 hour 37 minutes ago

PARIS (Reuters) - Socialist Segolene Royal failed to win over a majority of women voters in France's presidential election and may have paid a price for focusing too much on her gender at the expense of promoting her policies.
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Only 48 percent of women voted for Royal, according to an Ipsos poll conducted on election day on Sunday, while 52 percent supported rightist rival and overall winner Nicolas Sarkozy.

The weak female support is a bitter personal blow for Royal, who had played up her feminist credentials throughout the campaign, frequently defending policies she would want "as a mother" and accusing critics of male chauvinism.

Some women said the glamorous Royal, a mother of four, had focused too much on the symbolism linked to becoming France's first female president.

"The reason she did not have the female vote is not because there was no solidarity but because she was not up to it," said Tita Zeitoun, founder of the Action de Femme group which fights to get more women into top business positions.

"Just because you're a feminist, you don't vote for a women who does not have the ability. We're talking about the presidential election here ... It's too serious to link this to a phenomenon of femininity or feminism," she said.

Many voters complained Royal's policies lacked coherence compared to the proposals by Sarkozy, "the candidate for work", who promised rewards for those who worked hard and said he would undermine the 35-hour work week by cutting taxes on overtime.

The Ipsos poll showed a majority of private sector workers, pensioners and self-employed voted for Sarkozy, while Royal gained support among the unemployed and those aged under 25.

Royal had campaigned on leftist economic plans, including an increase in the minimum wage. She also pledged to make France a fairer place, saying she would promote the equal treatment of men and women and to fight violence against women.

"IMAGE GAP"

Statistics show women in France are far from equal. Just 12 percent of lawmakers are female and only one woman heads a firm in the CAC-40 index of blue chip companies, and she is American.

"For some of you, it will not be obvious to say a woman can incarnate the highest responsibility," Royal said in a televised debate last week, calling on voters to make an "audacious" choice.

But political analysts said Royal might have appeared aloof for some women from more modest backgrounds.

"There is a gap between her image, an image of a woman who belongs to the elite, who has done the ENA (elite school for civil servants), who has the look of women having acquired a high level of education," said sociologist Mariette Sineau.

"She appears very different to working-class women," Sineau added, noting that Royal had visited poorly paid women working as supermarket cashiers only towards the end of her campaign.

Royal's support among older voters was particularly poor, with 64 percent of women above the age of 60 supporting Sarkozy, and only 36 percent voting for Royal, according to the Ipsos survey. Women under 35 were split between her and Sarkozy.

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MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:07 pm

Sarkozy presidential win paves way for radical reform in France
May 7 06:25 AM US/Eastern

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Right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy's clear presidential election win paved the way Monday for radical reforms to kickstart France's sluggish economy, tackle simmering social discontent and chart a new foreign policy course.

"The French people have chosen to break with the ideas, the habits and the actions of the past," Sarkozy said in a victory speech following his emphatic triumph over Socialist Segolene Royal.

The former interior minister with a tough line on immigration campaigned on a pledge to change France to face the realities of the 21st century and get the country back to work -- a platform viewed with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.

French newspapers of the left and right agreed Monday that Sarkozy -- often attacked as a divisive figure -- had won a clear mandate for reform.

"With the strong legitimacy his indisputable electoral performance gives him, the new president of the Republic can now begin his great transformation, but taking care, of course, to reconcile the French," wrote the right-wing Le Figaro.

"Nicolas Sarkozy is a legitimate president, elected without rotten tricks or hesitation," wrote the left-wing Liberation. "Tough, but it's the people's will. Thatcher without the petticoats? Let us prepare ourselves..."

Sarkozy's programme includes the abolition of tax on overtime, big cuts in inheritance tax, a law guaranteeing minimum service in transport strikes, and rules to oblige the unemployed to take up offered work.

The 52-year-old won the battle to be France's new generation leader in place of President Jacques Chirac with 53 percent of Sunday's vote against 47 percent for Royal, according to official results. The estimated turnout of 85 percent was the highest in 25 years.

There were wild celebrations among 30,000 supporters in Paris on Sunday night, but also fiery anti-Sarkozy protests that turned nasty in the capital and half a dozen other cities.

Several hundred cars were torched by youth gangs in the high-immigration suburbs hit by riots in 2005.

Before the handover of power from Chirac on May 16, Sarkozy plans to retire for several days to a secret location -- the island of Corsica, some media suggest -- to rest and plan the first days of his presidency.

World leaders were quick to congratulate Sarkozy on his victory, with US President George W. Bush telephoning him within an hour of polls closing.

Sarkozy's presidency carries hopes of a new era in US-France relations after the frostiness caused by Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war.

In his victory speech, Sarkozy said Washington can count on France's friendship but urged it to show leadership in the struggle against global warming.

Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a host of European leaders also called Sarkozy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current EU president, said she was convinced he would maintain the French-German axis at the heart of the European Union.

Sarkozy has said his first foreign policy goal would be to chart a way out of the crisis sparked by the French rejection of the EU constitution two years ago.

The unabashed right-winger, who has fought to soften his tough-talking image, promised to reach out to those who opposed him in the bitter campaign.

"For me there is only one France. I will be president of all the French. I will speak for all of them," he said in a speech at the headquarters of his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

Royal's defeat left her Socialist Party reeling from its third consecutive presidential defeat after 1995 and 2002.

"I gave it all I had and will continue to be with you and close to you," Royal said. But many experts now expect bitter recriminations within the left wing party over its new humiliation.

Party leader Francois Hollande warned his troops Monday he would tolerate "no score-settling" as the party prepares to battle the right in legislative elections next month.

A rally by Royal supporters degenerated Sunday night, as riot police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protestors who burned an effigy of Sarkozy in Paris' Place de la Bastille. Police blamed "extreme-left and anarchist groups".

Nationwide police made 270 arrests, half of them in the Paris region, after clashes left several protestors and police injured, including two officers slightly hurt by acid in the western city of Nantes.

Youth gangs burned 360 cars in the high-immigration suburbs of Paris and other cities, where the former interior minister's tough stance on crime made him a hate figure for many.

But police said the number of car-burnings -- a grim ritual in many suburbs -- was similar to an average New Year's Eve and did not amount to "large-scale urban violence".

Sarkozy's rival Royal had predicted that his election could unleash trouble in the suburbs.

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Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:21 pm

The first article made the election out to be about women and feminism. That's hardly the case.

The French economy stinks vis-a-vis their competitors in the EU. No socialist system is going to survive against the German juggernaut, or compete in a global economy with cheap labor from India and China.

Only when you have oil coming out of your ears can you have the state give benefits away - as in Venezuela. If you want to compete with services, then you're going to have to give up all the leftist thinking.

The consumer wins in the end.

- Bill

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:50 pm

Bill Glasheen wrote:The first article made the election out to be about women and feminism. That's hardly the case.

Somebody should have told Royal that.

mhosea · Post by **mhosea** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:59 pm

MikeK wrote:
Bill Glasheen wrote:The first article made the election out to be about women and feminism. That's hardly the case.
Somebody should have told Royal that.

I read in the NYT the other day that she lost her temper in a televised debate on the subject of educational services for the disabled. Plus she was prone to interrupting. Passion for an activist is a good thing, but I think people want their head of state to keep a cool head. She might have managed to emulate Al Gore (first presidential debate of the 2000 election) and Howard Dean (I have a scream) in the same debate. I loved it when Jon Stewart described her as "curiously hot".

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Mon May 07, 2007 9:08 pm

I agree Royal missed the mark. But hey when you're selling a pig, you need a lot of lipstick!

No amount of distraction from what really mattered seemed to affect the voters.

- Bill

MikeK · Post by **MikeK** » Mon May 07, 2007 11:59 pm

I don't know Bill, I'd bet 10 years back she would have cleaned up nice for a night on the town.

AAAhmed46 · Post by **AAAhmed46** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:24 am

What? Insulting the french again?

What the hell.

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Tue May 08, 2007 1:31 pm

Excusez moi?

It's fair for Mike to make comments about "The French" in this context because we're talking about election results. In other words, we're talking about how the majority of voting French citizens feel.

It's fair for me to call socialism a "pig" because IMO it is. Ever heard of the expression "pork-barrel politics?" And it appears the average French citizen preferred something else for three elections in a row!

It's fair for me to say it wasn't about women or feminism because of the poor recent history of the socialist party in France. Royal tried to make it about women, feminism, and equality, but wasn't able to distract the voter from their true feelings about the party and how they might deliver for their citizens and their country. Hence my reference to putting lipstick on a pig.

Don't wrap socialism in a French flag and cry foul. American politicians try that flag waving thing all the time. We're good at calling faux patriotism when we see it.

Let's not forget that American revolutionaries such as Thomas Jefferson were inspired by the likes of Rousseau. Good ideas are timeless, and wear no ethnic identity.

- Bill