French Presidential Election 22 April 2007 Thread

[StateBoiler]

I can't believe that nearly half of the electorate is still undecided. Is this common?

They aren't truely undecided. France has a long tradition of people abstaining from mentioning their preference in an election to pollsters. That's why you always see such large numbers who abstained from answering the question. It seems that in this poll they included those who did state that they were undecided.

As opposed to the American tradition, which is hanging up the phone on instinct. Did that for 2 probing "Newt Gingrich for President" phone calls I received last year.

Question. Based upon the French election system, if Bayrou makes the second round, the smart money says he pretty much has the election won right? Cause if he made the second round with Sarkozy, then all the Royal voters would vote Bayrou over Sarkozy right? (And vice versa, Sarkozy voters would rather have Bayrou over Royal).

[StateBoiler]

Latest CSA poll:

That doesn't look too bad,there is still hope that Sarkozy might lose...
And,anyway,the fact that someone like Le Pen gets 15% and more only confirms my opinion on France...

Give your country 5-10 years and the British National Party will win seats in Parliament.

[StateBoiler]

What is the Alleanza Nazionale (12% of the vote last election) if it's not Fascist? Sure, not as bad as Le Pen and Co., but still...

Fini,Alleanza Nazionale's leader,is as fascist as Sarkozy or Bush might be...
Lewis Trondheim,FI and AN's views are not NEARLY as extremist as Le Pen's or as Lega Nord's.

I think Italy's problem is more their youths base on what I see in some soccer games. Watched a tape of Catania-Palermo...dear God it was like watching a civil war in a third-world country.

And then I had a debate with a Reggina fan that told me it was all instigated by the police and organized by Berlusconi and the police deserved what they got. I take it he was an ultra communist or something, but he definitely, and not in the joking sense, wanted to take a gun and go shoot people in Rome when they banned all games. Then there's the more knowledgeable (and less radical) Italian soccer fans say that's typical of all youths in Italy, they're either hard-left or hard-right with little in between due to the country's malaise, complete lack of leadership and responsibility from anyone in the country (with Berlusconi and Prodi both taking the blame according to them), alongside increasing unemployment. Good thread: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474214

After hearing a bunch of Italians talk about Italy (they live there, not New Jersey descendants), and taking into account the whole mafia situation in the South, I'm not so sure if Italy is still a first-world country to be honest. That, and the descriptions from my dad when he had to go to Naples for a couple weeks in spring 2003 before he had to go to Iraq. Naples he said was an absolute dump. I told him over the phone Naples is pretty much the Detroit of Europe.

To be fair, after he got out of Iraq he went to a military base in Sicily, which he absolutely loved (he's from Indiana, and Sicily reminded him a lot of Indiana).

[StateBoiler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6558949.stm

BBC article about Le Pen.

Talks about some of his supporters. Most shocking thing from it: a decent number of Muslims will vote for him.