- Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:19 pm
#218825
Looks like Sarkozy's allies are throwing in the towel:
I'd love to see Hollande lead a renaissance among European social democrats, but I get the impression he could well end up rowing back from his more radical positions for fear of being fucked over by the bond markets. Hope I'm wrong.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 58083.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;New polls published yesterday suggested that Mr Hollande, 57, was leading the field of 10 candidates in the first round with up to 29 per cent of the vote. He had extended his lead over Mr Sarkozy to between two and four points. In voting intentions for the two-candidate, second round on 6 May, Mr Hollande now leads the President by a "landslide" margin of 14 to 16 per cent.
In a series of damning, private remarks, reported by the Le Canard Enchainé newspaper, senior members of President Sarkozy's government said that defeat now seemed inevitable.
"The carrots are cooked," the Prime Minister, François Fillon, was quoted as saying. "[Sarkozy's] strategy of campaigning on hard-right issues was a serious mistake." The former centre-right prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was reported to have said privately: "There is no chance of us winning."
The President has also suffered a series of desertions. It was reported earlier this week that the former President Jacques Chirac intended to switch sides and vote for Mr Hollande. A clutch of former Sarkozy ministers and supporters, from the right, left and centre of French politics, have also declared they will vote for the socialist. They include Martin Hirsch and Fadéla Amara, two of Mr Sarkozy's ministerial recruits from the Left after his 2007 election and three former centre-right Chirac-era ministers, Azouz Begag, Corinne Lepage and Brigitte Girardin.
I'd love to see Hollande lead a renaissance among European social democrats, but I get the impression he could well end up rowing back from his more radical positions for fear of being fucked over by the bond markets. Hope I'm wrong.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.