Tomorrow is the first round of the French elections, and I am really excited about it. Maybe not as excited as I get over American elections, but excited nonetheless. I have been sort of looking forward to this date (April 22) as a milestone of sorts, and it's absolutely insane to me to think that the day has finally arrived.
Round 2 takes place on May 6, and that's just around the corner. I just can't believe how quickly time is flying.
For the last election (2002), I went over to a friend of The Boy's, where he was having a sort of election loto thingie. We all put down our guesses as to what percentage all 16 candidates would receive. At the time, I was studying journalism and knew all of the candidates and their platforms pretty well, so I thought I might do ok. Wow, was I wrong. But then again, so was everybody else at the party. I don't think anybody there saw the Le Pen victory coming. Even worse, the host of the party was a devout socialist (his father is a socialist member of the Assembl�e nationale or something) and the mood in the room went quickly from baffled to horrified to depressed, culminating in despair when Jospin announced his withdrawal from politics. I was interested in the outcome but not emotionally involved in any way. That clearly was not the case for many of the people at the party.
While I don't think this year is going to be anywhere half as exciting, I am still anxious to see the outcome. I definetly feel I have a firmer grasp on the range of French-ness out there in a way I maybe didn't in 2002. In the last few weeks, I have surveyed my French friends and ask them who they think The Big Two will be. The responses have been varied. The combinations thus far have been:
Sarko and Bayrou
Sarko and Le Pen
Le Pen and Bayrou
Not a single person I have asked has proposed the much hyped Sarko/S�go split. I don't know where I stand this time around. What do you think?
UPDATE:
Apparently, my friends are all morons. Straight and simple: Sarko/Sego.
ext Polls are in...Sarko vs Royal? now its on to 2nd round.
I have to admit I thought it might end up being Sarko-Bayrou because so many people I talked to told me they DIDN'T want to vote for S�gol�ne and that they were going for Bayrou...
So I'm surprised, to be honest, with tonight's result: Sarko-S�gol�ne... But really pleased to hear that 86% of the French people voted! Isn't that excellent? Shows really how much people are concerned about change and bringing about SOMETHING new in the country... Although who knows what!