Re: The election heartquake in France

I was shocked to read this morning that La Pen and Chirac will be facing 
off. This seems to be the general rightward trend, doesn't it? Bush Jr., 
Sharon, Berlusconi in Italy, Haider in Austria; Denmark recently went to the 
right as well.

Bush's "war against terrorism," his war against the Other, especially Arabs 
and Muslims, must have played a large role in the resurgence of La Pen? 
(Incidentally, the last I heard, he was in prison and was barred from ever 
running in elections again. What happened?)

But maybe not all is bad news: Jospin (center-left-liberal) lost because the 
far left received an astounding 10% of the vote. Perhaps we'll start to see 
a resurgence of the Left (and not the wimpy, laissez-faire Clinton-Blair 
variety, modelled, after all, on Reagan).

michael de socio

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