Re: The election heartquake in France

Anne-Marie,

I wouldn't be too hasty about moving to the US:  Chirac will almost
definitely win the runoff, and in a recent story covering the French
elections, the New York Times observed that the "right-wing" Chirac is
well to the left of - Al Gore!  We're not exactly the same planet here...

However, Michael is correct to note a general rightward shift in Europe.
Thus, I repose a question I asked here several months ago - what does a
rightward shift in Europe mean for the relationship between Europe and the
US (and for future of EU integration).

On Sun, 21 Apr 2002, Michael de Socio wrote:

> 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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-- 
Boris Stremlin
bstremli@binghamton.edu