La France

I am following the French elections with a lot of interest. Thanks to the blogs – mentioned below, I can have a feel of the atmosphere. It seems that the dark and overwhelming shadow which presently stands against the world, is also at work in La France, despite a history of … well history, and culture … and etc.

Already a lot of déjà vu. Poll manipulations, emphasizes on fear and security … 30% of the French are not yet decided so all kind of twists remain a possibility … and then Rien ne va plus!

I was in France twice during the elections. I have already written about the first time in PM Personality and French elections. This was1981 when the socialists won.

The second time was right after the second term of Mitterrand. The population attitude was very different by then. In 81, the French felt as if they were going to liberate the Bastille once more. But in 95 most of the people I talked too – friends, taxi drivers, workers etc. – considered politicians as crooks, nobody believed much in their promises. Many wouldn’t bother to vote.

It seems that this time Bayrou represents some hope for a change. I wonder who, rather what will be the winner: fear or sanity. Let’s hope for the best.

Les Politiques has many informative posts on the subject
Loopy
Dorkozy, at the Frogblog