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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (339917)	6/11/2007 7:11:27 AM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571301

Too bad comrade... cnn.com BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's Liberal-Socialist coalition government will offer his resignation Monday, a day after conservatives -- led by Christian Democrats -- posted big gains in general elections.

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (339917)	6/11/2007 10:45:31 AM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571301

Sarkozy allies head for landslide By Jon Boyle REUTERS NEWS AGENCY June 11, 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Cecilia Sarkozy cast ballots yesterday in a first-round legislative election. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and first lady Cecilia Sarkozy cast ballots yesterday in a first-round legislative election. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) PARIS -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right allies were headed for a parliamentary landslide after a first-round legislative election yesterday, bolstering his chances of implementing wide-ranging reforms. Mr. Sarkozy's conservative UMP party won 39.6 percent of the vote, while the opposition Socialists had 24.7 percent, the Interior Ministry said. A jubilant right said voters had decided to give Mr. Sarkozy the tools to carry out his pledge to boost growth, cut taxes and slash unemployment, but the left and centrists said a crushing right-wing majority was unhealthy and threatened democracy. Abstention looked set to hit a record of about 39 percent, against just 16 percent in the presidential election, reflecting deep voter fatigue after months of electioneering and a widespread feeling the center-right was certain to win. Pollster CSA said Mr. Sarkozy's bloc, which has an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly lower house, would win between 440 and 470 seats in the after a second round of voting on June 17. IPSOS Dell pollsters saw the center-right taking between 383 and 447 seats against 120 to 170 for the mainstream left. Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who won his seat in the first round yesterday, said voters had given a "beautiful lead" to Mr. Sarkozy's allies but warned that the job was only half done. "Everything will really be decided next Sunday. That is why all the French will have to go and vote. Change is under way," said Mr. Fillon, whose party was set to become the first in France to hold onto power in an election since 1978. CSA gave the opposition Socialists, in disarray since last month's third straight loss in presidential elections, just 60 to 90 seats compared to the 149 seats the party won in 2002 elections. Senior Socialists appealed to voters to turn out en masse next week in a bid to stem the conservative "blue tide" that risked submerging the opposition in parliament. "Come and vote, come for yourself, come for democracy, come for the Republic, come for France, come for social justice and come to help us reconstruct a new left," urged Socialist Segolene Royal, who remains popular despite losing to Mr. Sarkozy in the May presidential elections. Among the big losers yesterday were parties at both ends of the political spectrum. The far-right National Front saw its vote halved to less than 5 percent, with no seats in view, while the Communists suffered their worst parliamentary performance in postwar history, taking 5 percent of the vote, which could produce between 6 and 13 seats. Former leftist Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the right risked emerging too powerful from the vote. "In the Assembly, having 400, 450 right-wing deputies and a small number of left-wing deputies makes democratic debate impossible." The Socialist campaign was dogged by infighting and finger-pointing after the defeat of Miss Royal. She has indicated that she would like to take over as Socialist party leader but remains a controversial figure within the left. Francois Bayrou, the centrist who polled a strong third in last month's presidential vote, saw his support slump and said France's winner-takes-all system distorted democracy. "France will regret this imbalance one day or another," said Mr. Bayrou, whose renamed Democratic Movement polled about 7 percent nationally and is expected to win one to four seats. The centrist won 18.6 percent in the presidential ballot. Eleven Cabinet members were standing for election, and Mr. Fillon has ruled that they will have to quit if they lose. Like Mr. Fillon, a number of government ministers were elected outright yesterday, including Economy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Xavier Bertrand and Defense Minister Herve Morin. Government No. 2 Alain Juppe, who had faced potentially the most difficult ballot, appeared well-placed for a runoff in his Bordeaux fiefdom.

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (339917)	6/11/2007 10:49:54 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1571301

Electricity not cut off for Communists - yet By Kim Willsher LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH June 11, 2007 PARIS -- The swing to the right in last month's presidential election and yesterday's parliamentary balloting have brought the French Communist Party -- once France's biggest political organization -- to the brink of bankruptcy. Famously supported by poets and intellectuals including Pablo Picasso, surrealists Andre Breton and Rene Magritte, and poet Louis Aragon, the Communists were historically never short of a few francs. But they were always secretive about their funding, partly because some of it came from the KGB, the Russian intelligence service. At the height of their power, the Communists ruled in coalition administrations and could make or break governments. When they ordered a strike, hundreds of thousands brought France to a standstill. But now the party has been forced to acknowledge that things are "seriously tight" as speculation rises that it plans to sell such prized possessions as its emblematic Paris headquarters -- designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer -- and valuable art including "Mona Lisa With Mustache" by Marcel Duchamp. In the "catastrophic" presidential campaign, party leader Marie-George Buffet ran up a $7.37 million bill that yielded just 1.93 percent of the votes. Under France's complex system of political funding, the collapse of support meant only $1.08 million was reimbursed by the state, rather than the $10.7 million the party would have received had he won at least 5 percent of the national vote. The party went into yesterday's parliamentary election with predictions that it will retain as few as four of its 21 seats in the outgoing parliament, thus losing the privileges and funding given to official parliamentary groups, which need at least 20 legislators to receive public cash. According to Le Monde newspaper, the director of a "large modern art museum" said he had been visited by a Communist Party delegation, asking him to value the large Fernand Leger fresco, "Liberty I write your name," that hangs in the party headquarters. "I was led to believe they were in the process of selling their last assets," he said. A member of the party told the newspaper: "It's true, we're scraping around in the bottom of drawers so we don't have to sell the family jewels." The Communists built a property portfolio thanks to decades of funding from Moscow, which, until 1990, was estimated to have sent about $2 million a year. Much has since been sold, but the party still owns several apartments, including one used by Vladimir Lenin during a visit to Paris. Jean-Louis Frostin, the party treasurer, said its finances were "very stretched, but not bled dry," adding: "None of the works of art given to us over the years has been valued because they are not for sale." He said the headquarters "hasn't been valued, either." The party's 90,000 members pay about $8 million in dues every year, said Mr. Frostin, who acknowledged that cuts are planned to the 55 full-time staff. Olivier Dartigolles, the party's spokesman, said: "I promise you that at the next meeting, the electricity won't have been cut off."