Segomania
London, Friday.
Even from the other side of the Channel, the victory of the gazelle over the elephants can be seen to have been pretty crushing.
Segolene Royal faces a harder battle to reach the Elysee (no accents today, by the way). But she was comfortably the best equipped of the three socialist candidates to muster a strong challenge.
Whatever admirable qualities Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn possess, these did not rationally seem to include much prospect of being electable as president next spring.
The Parti Socialiste members who voted emphatically to make Mme Royal their candidate clearly had no wish to hand a gilt-edged present to Nicolas Sarkozy - or, if Bernadette's latest thoughts on the subject are to be taken seriously, one Jacques Chirac.
And while I am as yet unconvinced that she - Segolene, not Mme Chirac - would make a great president if elected, I do draw some satisfaction from her success, having indentified her as a serious potential candidate at a time when others, supposedly wiser, gave her no chance.
I disagree with the view that Sego's triumph ensures a contest even more boring than usual. Surely she is at least less grey than either of her defeated rivals.
And there will be all sorts of tests of her temperament, her Left wing credentials and her substance on the bigger issues of nation and world. There will be plenty of people, of the Left as well as the Right as has been seen in the dirty tricks produced in an attempt to undermine her campaign, eager to trip her up.
Jack Lang, who withdrew from the socialists' nomination battle to support Segolene though you just know he thinks the French would really be better off with him, got it spot on in an eve-of-vote interview with France Soir.
"You'll see in the coming days," he said. "The whole world's press will start taking an interest in our presidential elections and just because of her."
M Lang's other proposition - that Segolene may be the best option for the French merely because she's a woman - is perhaps less compelling and Sarko can be trusted to do his utmost to tear it apart. Boring campaign? I think not.
By Colin Randall @ Friday, November 17, 2006 ¦
17 Comments:
Of course Sego is an attractive and well-turned out woman and makes a refreshing change (at least physically) from the ilk of DSK - but is that really Presidential material? From what I read in the French press so far, she doesn't have much to say for herself - she was slammed for suggesting boot camps and made the error of suggesting that teachers did more hours (the traditional left electorate).
She is being thrown to the lions and Sarko will make minced meat of her. That man wants to be President and no-one, especially Sego, will get in his way ...
I admire her guts and/or death wise, but she needs some weighty policy makers and speech writers fast as expensive clothes and big smiles won't work.
You wonder why it is so quiet here ? Don't you know ? It is the 82nd minute of the match, and Sunderland are now 2:1 up to Colchester. It is, how you say it, white knuckle time.
Full time score: 3:1
Pink knuckle time.
I think she means 'fornicate'...
"Loricate" is apparently an adjective, but one which Anne G has placed here posterior to its noun, presumably for poetic effect. But being an unfamiliar adjective, following the noun, it looks for all the world like an intransitive verb. Loricate means "scaly" or "plate-like". It would seem somewhat redundant I mean to say, have you ever seen a non-loricate crocodile ? It's bad news for handbag manufacturers if you have.
I have hairdrier that can be so so irritating. It sometimes blows cold when it should be warm, and sometimes it is the other round way. I keep hoping it get better soon. I am thinking it should be called Anne.
I was being silly, Anne, not offensive.
Hence the three dots. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.
Thought your definition very good, Sarah! Isn't it nice to know that many of us learnt a new word yesterday; I was trying to apply it to a phrase about Sego, but haven't quite got the hang of it yet but will work on it diligently today, once I've finished Saturday's GKXword in the Telly.
Yes I agree with you Colin, far from boring. Boredom would have been Fabius. I think those who criticise her for not having policies have got it wrong. Do you really think that somebody who went to France's top school and sleeps with a smart arse like François Hollande couldn't rattle off a few policies. Do not forget that she spent her formative years in the Elysée with that master of machiavellism, one F. Mitterand. She knows what France needs, more work, more saving and what will get her elected less work less saving. So its best to remain ambiguous and pretty. As Mitterand said, something along the lines of, whenever I said clearly what I thought it went against me.
By the way in her incarnation as a junior schools minister she did take one measure which may be indicative of the future. She banned schoolgirls showing off their strings over the top of their jeans. So ladies, a bit less cleavage please.
Well, we all know who you would vote for if you could, don't we, Richard? I assume, perhaps wrongly, that you are still a Rosbif...
Personally talking, I would like to view Nathalie Gettliffe becoming President. She understands properly that life is a big pull-of-war with Les Anglosaxons. When in doubt, we must look after our Number 1.
Well no, you don't know who I would vote for if I could. I like the fact that Ségo is modernising the socialist party. Nevertheless we should not forget the official socialist party policy which she is supposed to implement. This is all written down in a policy document of which her live in lover is the gardian angel.(boring you said, they'll be more gymnastics than in the olympics) It is rather similar to the communist party manifesto I'm afraid.
I like Sarko as well, but he seems to have foot in mouth disease, with his Karcher et al. Besides Chirac could never tolerate anyone else winning if he couldn't. So I will observe. The fastest way to get from a to b in France is to go to c. Let's see who best masters that art.
I read that if Sarko wins, Yannick Noah and other 'A'listers will be leaving France in droves. Hmmm. That has to be worth a few votes, just out of curiosity.
When its comes to the crunch, it's debatable whether a country with such deeply-ingrained sexist attitudes as France is actually capable of electing a woman to its 'highest' office.
The time when her candidacy for President looked most promising was that brief period when the eternally racist French media was speculating that Nicolas Sarkozy might in fact be considered 'Jewish'.
If this supposition had had more weight, then the French presidential election might well have ended up as a contest between France's shameful tradition of sexism, versus its equally-shameful tradition of anti-semitism.
It would have been fascinating to see which category of human being the chauvanistic French electorate despise more.
Were it true that the French were misogynist, M. Lacombe should rejoice in the outstanding success of MS Royal. In fact women have always played a major part in French politics and M. Lacombe appears to be someone who rejoices rarely.
Corinne can - must - stay. This blog had been praying for someone to take an interest in Sunderland vs Colchester. Not Corinne de Poitiers by any chance?
No......please!! Not a footie blog! Please stay Corinne but no football, for mercy's sake!
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