The Texas Mercury?!? Goddammit... what's that redneck e-mag all about?? I've got some urbaner reading for you:
France's shame
Apr 25th 2002
From The Economist print edition
The result of France's first-round presidential contest was shocking-but it might do some good
IT IS disgusting that voters in one of the world's richest and most civilised countries should now have to choose as their president either a washed-up if amiable opportunist regularly lampooned on television as "Superliar" or, by way of an alternative, a thug whose message is one of hate. It is spine-chilling, too, for Europeans across the continent who fear that the success of the odious Jean-Marie Le Pen may inspire voters elsewhere to follow suit. All the same, ghastly as the first-round result of France's presidential contest has been, the eventual outcome, once the country's parliamentary election in June is over, could yet be less malign than it seems.
There is no cause to panic. With lucky Jacques Chirac almost certainly back in the Elysée Palace for another five years, Mr Le Pen will soon have no more say in running France than he did before. At the same time, the jolt to the system he reviles is salutary. Some of the questions he raises need answering.
To be sure, Mr Le Pen scored too well. His National Front won more votes than any other party in no fewer than 35 out of France's 100 departments (see article). But his success owed more to the mainstream candidates' dismal failure and, above all, to the crazy fragmentation of the left-which cast more than a quarter of the entire vote for candidates plainly or arguably to the left of the Socialists' Lionel Jospin-than to a surge of enthusiasm for France's neo-fascist right. The front's popularity has ebbed and flowed for more than a decade. Mr Le Pen won 14% in the presidential race of 1988 and 15% in 1995, with dips and bounces over the years. This time his tally of 4.8m votes was only a shade higher than in 1995. His percentage was bigger, at just under 17%, because the turnout dropped sharply while his own supporters stood firm. Had it not been for the shock of Mr Le Pen depriving voters of any left-wing choice in the run-off on May 5th, last weekend's most striking outcome would have been the disarray of the left and the near-disappearance of the once-powerful Communist Party.
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economist.co.uk; |
