2012 French Presidential Election - Page 4

On March 20 2012 06:22 ArcticRaven wrote:
I actually like Hollande. There aren't many politicians here that were involved in near to zero scandal (only the problem with PS leadership in PACA, in which he was mostly neutral) in the last ten years, and that's why I'll vote for him .

On March 20 2012 06:31 Geiko wrote:


Check out the Stats from Eurostat concerning the whole 2007-2011 period to get the global picture. France's unemployement rate increase is surprisingly low compared to all other european countries, with special mentions for UK and Spain for catastrophic unemployement increase figures (both socialist governments). Your numbers are only based on 2 trimesters and are not usable to measure increase.

On March 20 2012 06:25 Koorb wrote:

The Court of Audit is one of the few institutions in this country which is widely regarded as independant of the governement and of the parties. And it should be reminded that its president Didier Migaud (who is indeed from the Socialist Party) has been appointed by the President of the Republic himself, Nicolas Sarkozy. Do you really think that the president would choose someone who can't be trusted for this job?

On March 20 2012 06:25 Koorb wrote:
I just don't ain't sure about your two first points, but the third is actually false cf. this. Since 2008, France's public debt has increased from 1318,6 billions of € to 1591,2 billions of €.

And I'm doubtful as well for the other two points you're mentioning. Unemployment rate is usually a pretty tricky issue (since its accounting is controversial), and consumers organisations such as 60 Millions de Consommateurs claim that the purchasing power is actually decreasing cf this article (basically because the purchasing power calculated by the governement is distorted by the decrease of the price of high-tech goods, while the everyday purchases such as food are getting more and more expansive) .

On March 20 2012 06:25 Koorb wrote:
I knew that this classification would be contested, but the point is:
*Pulling out of the Schengen agreement, which is today one of the most highlighted policy proposed by N. Sarkozy, is a long-time claim of the far-right currents. So is the division by two of the legal immigration. And so is the halal-bashing that the party gladly took part of a few days ago. Meanwhile, I can't think of any truly far-left-related policies in Hollande's proposals.
*Union for a Popular Movement gathers a lot of former far-right politicians. Guillaume Peltier (one of N. Sarkozy's spokesman) is a former official of the National Front who later joined the Bruno Mégret's MNR (a party even more far-right than the National Front), and then he was an official of Philippe de Villiers's MPF (far-right again). Hervé Novelli (a former minister of the commerce) used to be a member of Occident (a violent far-right group) in his youth, and he later was a National Front official. Gérard Longuet, current minister of defense, is also a former member of Occident, so are Patrick Devedjian (who succeeded to N. Sarkozy as president of the general council of Haut-de-Seine) and Alain Madelin. And they're not the only one in that case. Meanwhile, I can't think of any former radical far-left politicians currently in charge in the socialist party.

The Union for a Popular Movement currently features a far-right current, the Socialist Party doesn't feature a far-left current (since of most of their people who could be regarded as far-left politicians left the party for Mélenchon's Left Party). Hence the discrepancy of categorisation between the two parties in the OP.

On March 20 2012 06:25 Koorb wrote:

Nicolas Sarkozy himself admits that, as the mayor of Neuilly, he met a lot of CEO's who he became close friend with and who influenced him (Bernard Arnault the CEO of LVMH and wealthiest person in France, Serge Dassault the owner of the same name firm and of a lot of local newspapers, Martin Bouygues who notably owns the most-widely watched television channel in France, Arnaud Lagardère, Liliane Bettencourt, Vincent Bolloré...). And yet again, I can't think of any kind of friendship between François Hollande and such influential CEOs (maybe Pierre Bergé, and Anne Lauvergeon?)

On March 20 2012 06:50 Geiko wrote:



This is just too biaised for me to answer clearly ... The whole debate on immigration is being brought down by left wing parties that use the word ultra-right wing or "racist" whenever someone wants to talk about immigration.
The irony is that François Hollande stated last thursday on the public channel that Sarkozy's politics on immigration wasn't firm enough and that 200 000 immigrants per year was still too much.... The far left wing candidate Mr Mélanchon also stated that there were too many immigrants in France.

I can also name countless very left wing politicians that have joined the PS, and I can also state the fact that the PS has already made agreements with all the ultra left parties for after the elections.




Nicolas Sarkozy has a lot of rich friends yes. His friendships however have never led to preferential treatment so I don't see how pointing them out is relevant. That is also the case of François Hollande namely Berger, Pigasse and Bolloré. François Hollande is also his own friend as he earns 30 000€/month for cumulating 4 or 5 public jobs, I find it funny that he has critisized Sarkozy for raising his salary to 19 000€/month.

You also mention state "affaires"' which haven't been ruled on yet and none of them point in direction of Sarkozy who has never been implicated in any shady affairs in the past.

On March 20 2012 05:26 corumjhaelen wrote:

There's no equivalent in France I think.

On March 20 2012 07:05 Nouar wrote:
No shady affairs ? Karachi ? Clearstream ? Trying to put his 25yo son who failed his 1st year in university as the head of EPAD, administrating La Défense cause "But it wasn't paid, I thought it wouldn't pose problems", and not even seeing where the problem was ? :D :D :D

buying a jet with a swimming pool and a pizza oven (???) for his official trips ? :D :D :D Increasing his salary by 170% ? :D :D

I'll grant you the left are probably not better, but you are really making a fool of yourself lol.

On March 20 2012 07:15 ArcticRaven wrote:
No preferential treatment ? And what you call the Bettancourt affair ? or , the other way round, the way TF1 (Bouygues) presents him in an ever-better light, the way the polls Laurence Parisot organizes always give him favorite ? Even better, the Figaro (Dassault) ? Hell, just read this propaganda and come talk about preferential treatment. The journal Dassault owns is as objective as the Pravda, its director exhorts journalists who disagree to go work elsewhere, and there is no preferential treatment ?

On March 20 2012 06:43 chuky500 wrote:


Actually there's been strong cheating suspicions in the election of Hollande as the leader of the socialists in 97, like there were suspicions in 2008 with Aubry. link in french

In 2007 Hollande threatened socialists to exclude them from the party if they gave their signature to another candidate as Royal. When it got known he retracted the menace one month before the deadline.

There's also the vote of the treaty of Lisbon. Hollande and the socialist party voted yes while french people had voted no at the referendum. Pretty scandalous too.

On March 20 2012 05:12 VyingsP wrote:
Sad you did not present Eva Joly. Sure she is between 1-3% in the polls.
Concerning the non-french reader of this thread, I am quite interested to read what you think about our candidates and maybe the development of our campaign.

On March 20 2012 07:24 Mysti_ wrote:
Geiko is like 100 times more biased than the op I doubt he'll recognize being wrong anyway Nouar you should give up :p

I've heard about so many corruption scandals and shameful things that I could hardly list them all without forgetting some. Yet one can argue that Hollande is no different but at least he is way more respectful and discrete than Sarkozy is.

What he said recently to the journalist made me think of a Napoléon's quote: "To attach no importance to public opinion is a proof that you do not merit its suffrage.". And I also bursted of laugh when I heard Carla Bruni (his wife) tell journalists that they are modest people.

I'm hoping Mélenchon will make it to the second round, he's the only worthy candidate imo but I fear it won't happen as there is no place for honesty in politic unfortunately. It's all about stupid promises and making people trust you and vote for you and then once you get elected you do what you want and you don't give a fuck about them anymore.