Wedge

I suppose that one's for me? :P
I'm a centrist... Basically I hate politics because it's always about getting power and trying to keep it. Because you don't become president without ambition, and thus you need ambition (self-centered quality) more than care. Back in '07 I voted for Bayrou and in the final round I just didn't vote at all because I hated both finalists. Today I don't know... I'll probably vote Bayrou again but I don't feel connected to his programme like I was back then. Still, he's the least incapable of all, I'd say. He has a strong following from geeks. We already know who'll be in the final round -- Hollande and Sarko. I'll go and vote for Hollande, even if that means paying more taxes. I know it'll cost me money. I just know I'm ready to pay just to see Sarko ousted and finally brought to justice. He may be a 'funny' guy, but he's done so many abject things in his 5 years, and even before that... It's not like the French are going to forget.Nope. The main topic for a while was this fucking Toulouse shooting. Sarko was trying to make it into a security-oriented campaign, where the right wingers always win. Also, another 'important' topic was a 'scandal' on French school cafeterias in the Paris area *possibly* providing exclusively Halal meat to pupils. I'm not kidding you. This campaign was totally fucked up.
Doesn't matter, though... Hollande has so much more public support that he's bound to win the election either way.It's really French only. Nothing interesting, *even* for the French.Actually many people aren't going to vote because they left on holiday yesterday... But the French law allows you to have someone else vote for you as long as you provide an administration paper along with it.
The polls close at 6pm in most areas, 7pm in big cities and 8pm in major cities and most of the Paris region.

Very interesting :) Suprising about the Euro as here the economy is always high in the agenda. Which is, perhaps, why successive governments have felt the need to boom it ("no return to boom & bust" is the latest incarnation).

Re: power and motives, there was a discussion about the US election where someone remarked that if you're mad enough to want the job you should be banned from running. You're ambitious to release better software than SMF - does that make you uncaring?

Sadly the halal scandal could happen here too, anything to keep the 'muslims under the bed' thread going. If fact I'm sure I have seen it here but in relation to hospital food.

Today I'm working 7.30am - 8.30pm so would be unable to vote even in Paris. How would I be sure that my nominee votes for who I want to vote for? And what if someone asked me to vote for Thatcher for them? I'd rather have chopped my hand off.

A statistic that gets trotted out every French election is that, by registered French voters, London is France's 6th biggest city :) So we always get a visit from the candidates.

Lol! And I believe the Marks and Spencer store near Ashford Station - where most EuroStar trains stop on their way from Paris and Brussels - has more French customers than British, by far. A kind of "booze cruise" in reverse.

The Halal meat thing must have had its effect with Le Pen coming third :(

So they're saying that Hollande is favourite but surely it could go either way given that he's only about 2% ahead with 46% of the voters to choose their second preference?

We should do Europe a favor and just write Nao in as president :D

President of Europe.

Why not.

I may be mad enough, but I don't have enough ambition to do that :P
I'd rather lead a quiet life somewhere... Like, uh, now!

Anyway... So I voted for Bayrou, who ended up with 9.13% which is half of his 2007 score. Meh.
Mélenchon did a bad score as well -- which rejoices me because I never liked him... At all :lol:
Le Pen... Well, let's be positive and imagine that people who voted for her are just fools, rather than plain and simple racists.

Nobody gives Sarkozy a chance for round 2. Really. 56%/44% for Hollande in most polls is a hard score to beat...
Heck, even I will vote for Hollande. I just want the world to be finally rid of Sarko... I don't have an opinion about the man himself, but as president, he was -- and still is -- our own little Dubya.

It is not racism, is STOP ISLAM, STOP INVASION

What?