"French Cabinet proposes new antiterrorism measures; Opponents say measures a ploy to boost Sarkozy" by Sylvie Corbet | Associated Press, April 12, 2012
PARIS - France’s conservative government unveiled new counterterrorism measures Wednesday to punish those who visit extremist websites or travel to weapons-training camps abroad, in the wake of killings by an suspected Islamic extremist in southern France last month.
The measures now go to Parliament, where they may face resistance from the Socialists, who say France’s legal arsenal against terrorism is already strong enough and that the proposal is a campaign ploy to boost President Nicolas Sarkozy’s chances at a second term.
Sarkozy’s Cabinet gave its go-ahead to measures that would make it illegal to travel abroad to “indoctrination and weapons-training camps for terrorist ends’’ or to regularly visit websites that incite or praise deadly terrorism.
I don't see why they would be. Most of them work for government intelligence agencies.
The measures come amid the hypercharged political atmosphere ahead of France’s presidential and legislative elections in the coming weeks. Even the proposal’s backers concede they may not be taken up before elections reshape the National Assembly in June.
The Socialists - who could see gains in the elections - oppose the measure, arguing that France needs only to apply its counterterrorism laws better....
Critics say the conservative Sarkozy, whose prospects of reelection are uncertain in the race against poll front-runner and Socialist Francois Hollande, is trying to buff up his domestic security credentials.
Sarkozy first laid out such proposals after alleged gunman Mohamed Merah killed three paratroopers, a rabbi, and three Jewish children in three shootings over eight days in the southern cities of Toulouse and Montauban in March.
“The president has said many times that you govern until the very last day,’’ said Justice Minister Michel Mercier.
Mercier said that while France’s laws against terrorism - considered by many specialists as among the toughest in the Western world - are strong, they can always be improved, and need to adapt to new threats such as the lone wolf.
“There are not just networks. There are also terrorists who act alone, who train by themselves,’’ Mercier told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. “So we’re reinforcing our legislation.’’
Merah’s shooting spree rocked France, which had not faced deadly radical Islamic terrorism since the mid-1990s. He claimed ties to Al Qaeda, though French authorities have expressed doubt about that.
Ever notice these "lone" gunmen always end up dead?
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"French shooter was ‘abandoned child,’ attorney says" March 29, 2012|By Johanna Decorse
TOULOUSE, France - The 23-year-old man who claimed responsibility for several killings in southern France had separated from his wife days before the attacks and was suffering “psychological difficulties,’’ his lawyer said.
In an interview Wednesday with the Associated Press, attorney Christian Etelin sought to portray his now-slain client as a “lone wolf’’ with no organized crime or terrorist connections and as “an abandoned child’’ angry at a long-absent father.
Police say that Mohamed Merah filmed himself killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three paratroopers earlier this month and that he claimed he had links to Al Qaeda. Merah was killed in a gunfight with police last week.
While French politicians have described Merah as an isolated killer, police are searching for potential accomplices.
Merah’s brother is in custody, suspected of helping prepare the attacks. Questions about a possible “third man’’ intensified after officials said Merah was not the one who mailed a USB key with video of his killings to the Al-Jazeera news network.
That's the intelligence agent handling the case! I'll bet the MSM won't linger on him, they never do.
Merah’s body will be sent to Algeria for burial, said Abdellatif Mellouki, regional leader for France’s main Muslim organization. Merah was born in France and grew up in Toulouse, but his family is of Algerian origin and his father, who lives in Algeria, wants his son buried there.
Etelin was taken aback when Merah was identified last week in a nationwide manhunt as the top suspect in France’s worst terrorist killings since the 1990s. The lawyer appeared to still be learning things about Merah, whom he had represented before and who had numerous convictions for delinquency. Etelin last saw Merah on Feb. 24, about two weeks before the first killings March 11.
“I maintain that it is a case of a lone wolf,’’ he said. “It’s in the context of the contradictions he wrapped himself in, the psychological difficulties that he had to cope with, that everything happened. . . . There was no infrastructure or organization that he would have been the soldier for.’’
Etelin said Merah got married in an Islamic ceremony in December, but the couple separated less than a week before the first attack. They had had no civil ceremony, which is required for the marriage to be recognized under French law.
“He had a failure inside of him, a suffering of the abandoned child. This situation of abandon that he suffered again after the separation with his wife,’’ Etelin said.
I'm about to abandon the paper if they keep shoveling this slop.
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"Lawyer denies French suspect confessed" Associated Press, April 03, 2012
PARIS - An Algerian lawyer said Monday that she has evidence the young man accused of killing seven people in attacks on French soldiers and a Jewish school claimed his innocence to police.
That's why he had to be killed.
Separately, France announced it was expelling several foreign Islamist extremists on its soil.
Mohamed Merah, 23, was killed by police after a standoff of more than 30 hours at his apartment in Toulouse after being identified as the suspect behind the killing spree last month. Authorities said that in negotiations, Merah claimed to have links to Al Qaeda and confessed to the killings.
But Zahia Mokhtari, a lawyer for Merah’s Algerian father, said Monday that she had two identical videos of Merah that contradict the police narrative. “In these videos, he says, ‘I am innocent. Why are you killing me? I didn’t do anything,’ ’’ she said.
Mokhtari would not detail how she got the videos, saying she would reveal more on their origin once she files a lawsuit in French courts against the elite police force that killed Merah.
Merah is alleged to have killed three paratroopers, a rabbi, and three Jewish schoolchildren, attacks that put French authorities on edge. President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed a crackdown on foreign Islamist radicals, and the Interior Ministry said Monday that deportations are in progress.
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"France fears a serial killer is at large" Associated Press, April 07, 2012
PARIS - A string of killings involving the same weapon has raised concerns a serial killer may be on the loose in a Paris suburb. It comes as France is still reeling from a wave of terror-related shootings in the south....
I'm just wondering if you guys are sick of getting jerked around.
French agencies are on alert after shootings last month in southern France that police say was the work of an Islamist militant who used a motorbike, videotaped the shootings, and asserted links to Al Qaeda. The alleged gunman was shot dead in a standoff with security forces....
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I notice the fact that the guy was known to French intelligence, had already been in custody, and was being watched is being omitted from follow up reports.
"France detains 19 suspected Islamist extremists" by Cecile Brisson and Thomas Adamson | Associated Press, March 31, 2012
PARIS - Police led predawn raids across France on Friday in a crackdown against suspected Islamist extremists, arresting 19 people and carting off automatic rifles and other guns in authorities’ latest response to a wave of terrorism that has shaken the country.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, intent on showing an all-out fight against terrorism as his reelection contest nears, promised more such raids as his conservative government responds to a spate of shootings in southern France by a radical Islamist that left seven people dead and two wounded.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said there was “no known link’’ between those detained Friday and Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old Frenchman who claimed responsibility for the killings in Toulouse and Montauban. Merah was killed in a shootout with police after a 32-hour standoff last week.
The raids in or near the cities of Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille, Paris, and Nantes involved the arrest of members of a radical Islamist group known as Forsane Alizza - the Knights of Pride - that was banned last month.
Every time I see radical Islamist group in my daily Zionist propaganda my first thought is an intelligence agency operation.
Gueant said several assault rifles and other guns were seized. The roundup was part of a judicial operation ordered by France’s powerful antiterrorism judges, who opened an investigation into the group in October.
Sarkozy gave no details about the reasons for the arrests.
“It’s in connection with a form of Islamist radicalism,’’ he said on Europe-1 radio, warning of more operations aimed at expelling from France “a certain number of people who have no reason to be here.’’
But Philippe Missamou, a lawyer for Forsane Alizza, said those arrested in the sweep were all French citizens, raising questions about where Sarkozy might have such suspects sent.
“This is a purely political maneuver . . . linked to the presidential election,’’ Missamou said of the arrests. “These people have been known to authorities for two years - why weren’t they arrested earlier? They weren’t hiding.’’
Group leader Mohammed Achamlane was detained in western Nantes.
Missamou said the group, formed about two years ago, “has never advocated violence, but on the other hand, they have called for legitimate [self]-defense.’’ Most French media coverage of the relatively unknown group has focused on its street demonstrations in favor of the right of Muslim women to wear face-covering veils, a practice that France banned last year.
Yeah, that's the source of all your problems. Never you mind the banks that plundered your pensions or the war machine sucking up your tax loot.
Anne Giudicelli, an expert at Paris-based risk consulting firm Terrorisc, said authorities could have one or more of three motivations for the sweep: “Giving a kick’’ to a group under surveillance before it might take any actions; deterring any would-be copycats of Merah’s attacks; or showing off “muscles, politically’’ amid new terrorism fears.
“In any case, the early signs suggest the operation was rather well executed, involving many different areas simultaneously and netting people who were in contact with each other,’’ she said.
France’s national psyche was jolted by the attacks by Merah, a native of Toulouse who espoused radical Islamist views and claimed links to Al Qaeda.
We call it "Al-CIA-Duh" here.
His killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, three paratroopers, and a rabbi were the worst terrorist attacks in France since Islamist extremists led a campaign of bombings in the Paris subway and elsewhere in 1995.
The deadliest attack that year was on July 25, when Algerian Islamist insurgents bombed the Saint-Michel subway station, killing eight people and injuring 150. Gas cooking canisters loaded with nails, sometimes hidden in trash cans, were used in many of the bombings.
Merah’s killings have revived concerns about homegrown Islamist radicals in France.
Just when the Sarkozy campaign needed it! Wow!
Public order and security are high up on the agenda as Sarkozy seeks reelection in the upcoming presidential election that kicks off April 22. Polls show he is facing a tight race with Socialist nominee Francois Hollande.
French Muslims have worried about a backlash after Merah’s attacks, and French leaders have urged the public not to equate Islam with terrorism.
The government on Thursday banned several foreign Muslim clerics from entering France for a conference of the UOIF, a fundamentalist Islamic group. The clerics were of Palestinian, Egyptian, and Saudi origin.
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"Islamists planned to abduct a judge, prosecutor says" April 04, 2012|By Elaine Ganley
PARIS — Preliminary charges are being filed against 13 Islamist radicals in France, a prosecutor announced Tuesday, saying some had been calling for Muslim Shariah law in the country, stashing weapons, and hatching plots, one to kidnap a judge.
Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference that members of the Forsane Alizza, or Knights of Pride group, received physical training in parks and forests around Paris and religious indoctrination “in order to take part in a jihad,’’ or holy war. The group preached hate and violence on its Internet site, which “called for an Islamic caliphate in France, the application of the Shariah [law], and incited Muslims to unite to prepare for civil war,’’ Molins said.
The site, which also showed clips of late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was shut down after authorities banned Forsane Alizza in March.
The charges handed down against some members of Forsane Alizza come amid a crackdown on Islamist extremists following the March killing spree in southern France by a 23-year-old claiming links to Al Qaeda. The suspected gunman, Mohamed Merah, was killed after a 32-hour standoff with police.
France expelled a foreign radical imam Monday and an Islamist militant and others were in line to be forced to return to their homelands.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday on Canal Plus TV that there is now “zero tolerance’’ for hate speech and ideologies that don’t conform with the values of France.
“You will see that in the weeks to come we will continue this absolutely systematic work of assuring the protection of the French by not tolerating such activities,’’ he said of the Forsane Alizza group....
The prosecutor said several terror plans appeared to be in the works, including the kidnapping of a judge in Lyon, in southeast France.
An official close to the investigation said the targeted judge is Jewish....
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"French police arrest 10 suspected radicals; Critics say Sarkozy is pushing raids to help reelection" by Ingrid Rousseau | Associated Press, April 05, 2012
PARIS - French police rounded up 10 suspected radical Islamists in their second countrywide sweep in several days Wednesday, leading to criticism that President Nicolas Sarkozy is ramping up raids to win votes in a tight election.
The arrests are part of a high-profile crackdown following attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school. Authorities carried out the raids as part of a preliminary investigation opened Monday into terror-linked activity in France, a judicial official said.
Another official close to the investigation said the 10 detained were suspected of links to Islamist websites and of threatening violence in online forums. Some of them may have been trying to attend jihadist training camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he added.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
The operation was led by France’s counterespionage agency and targeted people authorities feared could turn to action instead of just issuing idle threats, according to the judicial official. Police seized computer hardware in the raids.
The raids in five cities, mostly in southern France, were the second in several days.
Sarkozy, who is facing a tough reelection, has promised to hunt down radicals and hold them to account or kick them out of the country. But he has come under criticism for using the raids and expulsions to further his campaign, and critics also say he did not do enough to prevent the killings last month in and around Toulouse that left seven dead.
Yeah, isn't it amazing how these "tough-on-terror" types always fail? Really makes you question the whole damn operation, CUI BONO?!!!
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said that since those killings, “we are a lot more on edge. We are extremely vigilant and, as the president said, there is zero tolerance.’’
But he insisted that those rounded up in the recent raids would have been detained regardless of what happened in Toulouse....
The raids represent the increased focus in France on homegrown radicals. Last month’s attacks on French paratroopers and the Jewish school have been blamed on Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman who claimed to have received weapons training during trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Merah was killed in a gunfight with police March 22 after a standoff.
France expelled a foreign radical imam and a radical Islamist militant earlier this week, sending them to their homelands. Others are in line to be forced out of France.
Sarkozy on Tuesday declared a “zero tolerance’’ policy for hate speech and radical ideologies at odds with French.
Sarkozy has a tough-on-crime, tough-on-immigration reputation and has championed France’s ban on the Islamic face veil, arguing it imprisons women and runs counter to human rights.
Of course, dropping bombs and missiles on them in faraway places over a crock full of lies is okay.
France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, many of whom feel stigmatized by such measures and authorities’ focus on Islam since the Merah case.
Sarkozy’s administration and police came under criticism after the Toulouse killings for not stopping the perpetrator sooner, since they knew he had traveled to Afghanistan and the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan.
Police had Merah under surveillance after his return, but officials have said they could not arrest him.
They supervising him.
In light of the criticism, a parliamentary delegation held a hearing Wednesday on the role and organization of France’s intelligence forces.
Oh, I think we know the role. It was a facilitator.
The delegation’s work is considered top secret, and an unusual news conference scheduled to follow the hearing was abruptly canceled.
Sarkozy’s opponents have also criticized the timing of the recent high-profile operations against suspected radicals.
Francois Hollande, who is leading most polls ahead of the April and May elections, said the president was trying to make up for earlier intelligence failures.
“What’s surprising is why do this after a terrorist attack that has, it’s true, profoundly affected us,’’ Hollande said on RTL radio, reacting to Wednesday’s raids. “I’m not questioning all that’s being done. I’m simply saying that we should have maybe done more before.’’
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Yeah, NO ONE IS FOOLED!!!
"Sarkozy’s reelection in jeopardy" April 20, 2012|By Steven Erlanger
PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy is in deep trouble and is looking, for now, as though he could be the first one-term French president since 1981. He appears to be running neck-and-neck with his main challenger, the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, in the first round of voting Sunday, when 10 candidates are competing. But the opinion polls show Sarkozy losing to Hollande in a face-off two weeks later.
His possible defeat carries implications that would radiate far beyond Paris. Sarkozy has had contentious but valuable relationships with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a fellow conservative, on European and eurozone issues; with the British on defense issues, including the Libyan war; and with President Obama on issues involving Iran and Israel, NATO and Russia.
I'm sensing a stolen election coming.
A victory by even a centrist Socialist like Hollande, who has advocated higher taxes on the rich and a greater emphasis on growth over austerity, would create immediate strains with Germany and rattle financial markets that are already nervous about the size of France’s debt.
Just getting your mind ready for the Sarkozy upset to come!
Hollande has also said that he wants to pull French troops out of Afghanistan sooner than NATO has agreed to do. Still, he says that his first visit abroad would be to Berlin, no matter how chilly the reception.
Sarkozy faces an electoral dilemma that is inherently tactical. Presuming he gets through to the runoff May 6, does he continue to run to the right, or move to the center? And will it make enough of a difference anyway in a nation that admires what he promised five years ago - a “rupture’’ with the past - but not what he has delivered, which is a stagnant economy and unemployment at its highest level in 12 years?
Even more troubling for Sarkozy, polls indicate that many French do not like him - his negative ratings are high - and that many of them will vote in the second round for the bland Hollande or simply stay home rather than see Sarkozy back in the Elysee Palace for another five years.
“Sarkozy is facing a real problem,’’ said Christian Malard, a senior analyst for French television. “Historically, when we look at the polls this close to the first round, no one has ever bridged such a big gap and won. He’s had some good ideas, and people say we need to reform this country in a world of ferocious competition. But Sarkozy is paying the price of his behavior, his manner - always in a rush and trying to solve every problem - and the French didn’t like that.’’
Meaning the only way he can win is stealing it.
Catherine Nay, his biographer, calls Sarkozy a terrible communicator. “He never capitalizes on his successes, he changes the subject every day, people forget the next day what he did the day before, he fogs the brain,’’ she said. “He’s the victim of too fiery a temperament.’’
Sarkozy is running hard to place first Sunday to give him momentum going into the second round. And if he trails Hollande on Sunday, he will remember that Jacques Chirac trailed his Socialist rival in the first round in 1995 and won anyway.
But to win May 6, Sarkozy would need the votes of many who Sunday will choose either the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, or the centrist, Francois Bayrou. Some observers suggest that Sarkozy might need as much as two-thirds of the votes from each of those two very different camps to win. That will require a difficult balancing act, they say.
“The trend is not good for Sarkozy; the gap is widening,’’ said Pierre Haski, the editor of the online newspaper Rue89. “He’s facing a real dilemma, because he needs to talk to two completely different constituencies, Bayrou and Le Pen.’’
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"US accent on French election; Socialists adopt Obama model in fight vs. Sarkozy" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times, April 22, 2012
PARIS - Arthur Muller, Vincent Pons, and Guillaume Liegey, young Frenchmen who met in Cambridge at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are working hard to get out the vote, American-style, for the Socialist challenger for the French presidency, François Hollande.
For the last few months, they have been working to recruit and train 70,000 volunteers to knock on almost 3.5 million doors. Having witnessed the successful campaign of President Obama, they are back in France, using American models of canvassing to get left-leaning voters who would normally stay home to instead cast ballots. Their work, said Liegey, 31, is concentrated in the banlieues, poorer suburbs heavily populated with ethnic minorities, where alienation and abstention are high.
Their efforts are being put to the test on Sunday, as France votes in
the first round of the presidential election, choosing among 10
candidates. President Nicolas Sarkozy is fighting hard for reelection
against what seem to be steep odds, since every poll shows him losing to
Hollande in the second round on May 6, when the top two finishers in
the first round compete.
But the polls also show that there are significant numbers of undecided voters among the 43.2 million registered, and that 10 percent to 25 percent of all voters said they would abstain.
All parties are trying to get out the vote, but the Socialists are trying new techniques, at least for France.
“When we saw what Obama had done, the very systematic way of door-to-door campaigning and the way he used the Internet to coordinate volunteers, we thought, ‘How can we do that in France?’ ’’ said Pons, 28. They did a pilot project in 2010 and then made their pitch to the Socialist Party and were hired by the head of the Web campaign, Vincent Feltesse, taking leave from their regular jobs as business consultants. They hope to bring Hollande close to half a million new votes, as much as 1 percent of the electorate.
The two main candidates are already thinking ahead to the second round. Sarkozy is hoping to come in first on Sunday, to get new momentum for the next two weeks.
The traditional French understanding is that in the first round, people vote with their hearts, and in the second round, with their heads. And the second round, barring surprises, should be a classic French fight between the left and the right.
On Friday, in a last set of interviews, Sarkozy apologized again for mistakes of behavior and symbolism early in his term, attending flashy parties with rich friends and doing things some considered undignified, like swearing at hecklers and jogging in public.
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"Socialist Hollande edges Sarkozy in French vote; Incumbent battles apathy heading to May runoff" by Steven Erlanger | New York Times, April 23, 2012
PARIS - The Socialist candidate, Francois Hollande, won a narrow victory in Sunday’s first round of France’s presidential elections, riding promises of economic growth and a general dislike for the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, into a favorable position before a runoff with Sarkozy on May 6.
The strong showing by the left and anger on the political extremes seemed to reflect a desire for change in France after 17 years of centrist, conservative presidents.
It may also represent the first stirrings of a challenge to the
German-dominated narrative of the euro crisis, which holds that public
debt and runaway spending are the main culprits and that austerity must
precede growth.
Hollande has said he would increase spending - creating state jobs for teachers and the police and subsidizing job creation in industry - and later raise taxes. Sarkozy, 57, has put his emphasis on spending cuts, reducing the tax burden on companies, and liberalizing the labor market.
Hollande finished with 28.5 percent of the ballots cast and Sarkozy with 27.1 percent, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry after the last polls closed.
They were followed by Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front with 18.2 percent, Jean-Luc Melenchon of the Left Front party with 11.1 percent, the centrist Francois Bayrou with 9.1 percent and five other candidates with minimal support.
Although Sarkozy’s total was only about a percentage point short of Hollande’s, the view of most experts has been that unless Sarkozy took the first round, he would have a hard time winning the runoff.
The strong showing by Le Pen gave some heart Sunday night to Sarkozy’s supporters, since the two share similar themes about immigration, radical Islam, and law and order.
You see, sometimes it is okay to be a right-wing racist!
But a number of Le Pen voters have said they will abstain or vote against Sarkozy in the second round....
Although the incumbent Sarkozy has seen his popularity sink, along with the economy, to record lows, his main rival Hollande has run a timid campaign that presents few major new initiatives....
A victory by Hollande next month would bode a change in direction for France...
With few major new initiatives?
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Please tell me you French folk aren't being fooled by this s***.
"Sarkozy leans toward right in runoff bid" April 24, 2012|By Elaine Ganley
PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy starkly laid out his path to reelection Monday: He will be plunging deep into far-right territory to hunt the votes he needs to beat Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the runoff.
A day after Hollande won a slim upper hand in the first round of voting, Sarkozy candidly courted voters of the far-right National Front whose candidate, Marine Le Pen, placed a solid third. She gave the party its highest-ever score, nearly 18 percent, the biggest surprise of Sunday’s first-round vote.
Le Pen and her anti-immigration party want to pull France out of the euro currency, reinstate border controls, crack down on immigrants, and halt what she calls the Islamization of France.
Sarkozy is all in on the euro, so....
“The word ‘protectionism’ isn’t a dirty word,’’ Sarkozy said Monday during a rousing speech in Saint-Cyr-Sur-Loire, near Tours, southwest of Paris.
Pffft! You guys fall for that one and you deserve for another five years.
Protecting the French identity, French civilization, French borders, French workers, French youth, and French retirees were all on Sarkozy’s agenda - and all are themes dear to the National Front.
Looks like French fascism to me.
Sarkozy and Hollande, both 57, used their first postelection speeches to lure far-right voters to their respective camps ahead of the May 6 final round. But Hollande did so more softly.
Why are they always the ones that are pandered to?
The math is brutal. Hollande won 28.6 percent of Sunday’s vote, Sarkozy won 27.2 percent, and both need votes from Le Pen’s far right to climb over 50 percent - but Sarkozy needs them more.
Hollande is expected to get many of the backers of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who won 11 percent. The 9 percent who voted for centrist candidate Francois Bayrou are also in play.
Sarkozy named the National Front, and in a bid to destigmatize those who vote for the far-right party, said he respects them.
On the left, some “hold their noses,’’ he said. “I want to say that we have heard them [the far right] and know how to respond with precise commitments.’’
The commitment he clearly named was tightening French borders - with or without other European countries - to keep them from becoming a “sieve’’ for immigrants and others.
“Europe must change so as not to be perceived as a threat but as a protection,’’ he said.
For his part, Hollande said some voters cast ballots for Le Pen because they feel the system has left them behind.
“We have to look further for voters,’’ Hollande said in a speech in the western region of Brittany. “Women and men who don’t know where to go . . . go toward the extreme.’’
Both candidates warned about the spread of populism around Europe - what Sarkozy called a “crisis vote’’ by those hurt by the effects of the debt crisis and left behind in a globalized world.
Sarkozy even waved the red flag of fear. “If we change nothing, if we don’t agree on new rules, we risk taking the tragic path of the 1930s,’’ he said, referring to the rise of Nazism.
(Blog editor simply shakes his head at the desperation on the cusp of madness)
If Hollande wins the runoff, he will become France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995. Polls show him slightly ahead in a matchup with Sarkozy.
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I somehow don't think he's going to win:
"Hollande vows to push EU to ease debt policy; Front-runner lists his core agenda if he ousts Sarkozy" Associated Press, April 26, 2012
PARIS - French presidential front-runner Francois Hollande says that if he is elected, he would immediately ask other European leaders to renegotiate the fiscal treaty aimed at reducing debts so that it would include measures to encourage growth.
Hollande also shrugged off worries that his election May 6 would send markets into panic, called for a more active role by the European Central Bank, and said he would move swiftly to get French troops out of Afghanistan.
Polls suggest Hollande will win the election, unseating conservative
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been accused of losing touch with
French voters and failing to create jobs in a five-year term marked by
financial crisis.
Hollande’s proposals could set him on a collision course with Germany....
He dismissed concerns that investors would turn against France if he won the election, saying that despite his first-place showing in Sunday’s first round of voting, “I haven’t had communication of information putting our nation in danger.’’
And those are the guys running the show and calling the shots.
Beyond Europe’s borders, Hollande acknowledged, he does not have much diplomatic experience, and he said he would would chart a cautious course.
He said he would stick to France’s firm policies against Syria and Iran.
Yup, policy regarding Israel won't be changing.
He reiterated his pledge to pull all French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year.
“I don’t want to make a mistake,’’ he said. ‘I want to make judicious decisions from the beginning.’’
Earlier Wednesday, Hollande pressed his leftist platform, playing to public fears about jobs and anger at banks and ratings agencies, which are widely blamed in France for the financial and economic crisis.
Isn't that what Sarkozy is doing? Of course, the public's fears and anger are legitimate and real.
In his final campaign brochure, released Wednesday, he vowed to resist “the power of money’’ if elected and said his priorities would include “bringing finance to heel.’’
Good luck with that. I think you just lost the selection, 'er, election.
Some economists say the only way for France to calm jittery investors is to pare down its debts and boost growth prospects by changing laws to make it easier to hire and fire workers and open and close companies.
Sarkozy’s finance minister shot back at Hollande’s spending plans Wednesday, warning that countries across Europe have to do more to cut costs.
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Related: Sarkozy pledges $52b in spending cuts
Yeah, that's going to win him votes.
