Sunday, April 15, 2012
Les Presidentielles

Today is one week from the first round of presidential elections, but no one is saying anything about it.

Yesterday, campaign workers for the Lutte Ouvriere --Workers' Struggle candidate, Nathalie Arthaud, were out in force at the intersection of Rue Battant and the bridge across the Doubs in the Old Town. Her platform is as follows:

A program of struggle;
Prohibition of reductions in force;
A sliding scale for salaries and pensions;
Suspension of trade secrets and proprietary information;

Actually, Arthaud's brochure is useful summary of the pros and cons of the two candidates who will fight it out in the second round, Nicholas Sarkozy, the center-President of France of the center-right party, and Francois Hollande, his Socialist challenger.

As to Sarkozy, Arthaud's literature says "Reject Sarkozy, reject not only the man, his arrogance and his cynicism, but also capitalism and the big bosses who defend the system."

As to Hollande, Arthaud makes little of his program to tax as much as seventy-five percent of incomes of over one million Euros. Lutte Ouvriere's problem with Hollande's policy is that he has characterized it as essentially a symbolic measure. Arthaud argues that beyond this tax, workers need policies that will guarantee a decent standard of living, which can only happen when the power to fire is forbidden and salaries are increased.

Hollande, in making the statement for which Arthaud criticizes him, is merely recognizing the fact that such a tax which will not resolve France's persistent budget deficit, He has been helped in the polls by Sarkozy's inability to make major reforms, even though he has lately been more successful than expected in reducing that deficit more than one percent. Nonetheless, Sarkozy's third marriage, to Carla Bruni, a former haute couture runway model from a spectacularly rich Italian family, and his propensity for socializing with the wealthy in a country where financial success is suspect, have made Hollande the likely winner of the second round, despite the advantages of campaigning as the incumbent President.

Sarkozy is also hindered by the campaign of Marine Le Pen, the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of Le Front National, the anti-immigrant party, who is drawing votes away.

The slogans of the three major candidates, brief and punchy, are:

La France Fort ("A Strong France") -- Sarkozy;
Oui, La France ("'Yes!' , France") - Le Pen;
and,
C'est Maintenant ("It's Now") - Hollande

Elise's pithy rejoinder to Hollande's slogan is,

--Or never!

which may suggest something of the lack of enthusiasm, he too, inspires.

The French are much more enthusiastic about L'Abbe Pierre, a Roman Catholic monk who devoted his life to the poor, and who created communities and a movement to assist them throughout France called Emmaus. Yesterday the local convention center was given over to a flea market organized by Emmaus on behalf of its charities. The market took in twenty-five thousand Euros in a day, which indicates something of the support which it receives from Bisontins, as the citizens of Besancon are known.