Le Blog

Here goes the typical conversation in the France nowadays:

So come on now, who are you going to vote for?

I’m still hesitating. Generally, I vote Green in the first round and Socialist in the second round of each presidential election. But when Le Pen got to the second round in 2002 – to everyone’s surprise, since he was behind both Chirac and Jospin in the polls – I was ... read more

What I think of the elections?

Generally: it’s a right, but above all it’s a civic duty. You could vote for anyone – I wouldn’t care who – as long as you voted. Nothing frustrates me more than people who abstain, or who don’t register for voting.

For the elections on Sunday, as usual I find myself trapped between an unconvincing left-wing candidate, whose only merit is her gender, and ... read more

A few months before she died, my mother told me: "You remember all those years I said I'd vote Liberal if I thought they had a chance? Guess what? I did anyway."

A Gallic version of my mother's hidden spirit of defiance has been at play in French politics in recent years. Whereas she was prepared to defy family tradition and expectation, and go quietly against the grain in a ... read more

The week of French national schizophrenia is in full swing, with the outcome not unlike the chances of picking a Grand national winner, with about the same probability and margin for error.

The bookies' favourite is Sarko, the coffee machine non elected congresses’ favourite - a French work place institution - is still undecided, the questions of opinion are – uniquely for the French – not based on policy or ... read more

The strangest thing for a Brit looking at the French political scene is having to forget all your assumptions about left and right. The concepts of left and right are so different here that it’s hard to find equivalents.

The easiest way to illustrate this is all the comparisons to Tony Blair. Nicolas Sarkozy has met with him and is a well known anglophile, Segolène Royal is credited with ... read more

If my school friends here in France are typical—and I’m sure they are—they are a curious mixture of what looks like radical Conservatism.

Last year, the French government proposed a new law to allow young workers to be fired more easily, a sensible move to the Anglo-Saxon mind with youth unemployment so high.

The French mind doesn’t work like this. Young people — who perversely are currently voting ... read more

In this last, lively few days before ‘le premier tour’ the media here is dominated by the elections. Every news item begins with a reminder that the big day is Sunday. We hear which towns all the ‘minor’ candidates are appearing in at the hustings each evening (small places like Nantes or Macon that don’t usually get much publicity but are ideal for the fringe candidates to drum up extra ... read more