The Voice Box

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF FRANCE It was interesting watching the final round of the French elections. Once the other ten candidates were eliminated, and the battle became a straightforward 'right vs left' contest. I knew Madame Royal would have a very difficult time. Looking at Monsieur Sarkozy, it was quite obvoius that he had done all his homework. He had already eliminated all oppositon inside his party, so there were no side shows to take his audience away from the main stage. The stagemanaging of his every move, even including the contrived spontaniety of his supporters, impressesd the locales who were not accustomed to this sychronised presentation. Obviously there were times when he went too far, as the episode when he mounted a horse to demonstrate maybe his 'wild west prowess'. Madame Royal was not so lucky. As a candidate for the Socialists Party, she suffered from all the backstabbing that we have come to expect from the left in France. Even in the final round the...

The French Elections With almost a week to go to the French elections, there is still a lot of undecided voters. Two days ago, I returned from a long weekend in Paris. While there, I saw very few live election rallies. Maybe I was always in the wrong place. There was quite a lot said on televison, and the newspapers were full of articles. But I was quite amazed that that the general public seemed to carry own with their domestic existence, with little overt reaction to the election. I visited quite a few parks, and all the locals seemed to be enjoying was the very good weather. Now that the current French President, Monsieur Chirac, is finally making the best of his last days at the palace, it is time to decide where we stand on the present candidates, hoping to be the next President of France. Altogether, there are twelve candidates vying for the office of president. Of the twelve, only four stana real chance of becoming president, according to the polls. Until recently, most people w...