Election day in Paris. The city was positively buzzing this weekend. The more I live in this country, the more I realise how well-informed the general population is. I was in Vancouver during the last federal elections and not once did I ever launch into debates with random people in scuzzy bars. I can't even remember how many heated political discussions I got into on Friday and Saturday nights when I was out. It must be the French love of arguing.
So it will be a Sarkozy-Royal face-off. I can't say I'm surprised. To me this first round of elections was more intersting in terms of the "smaller" candidates. I was especially curious to see how many votes Le Pen and Bayrou got (as of right now, ~11 and 18% respectively). First of all, Le Pen lost some ground - which is a good thing - but probably in large part thanks to Sarkozy, who stole some of his electors when Bayrou started gaining ground in the opinion polls. In order to separate himself from the centre candidate, Sarkozy's political discourse veered to the right. Secondly, Bayrou now finds himself in a position of power - 18% of the vote is quite a solid proportion. Since he has yet to announce which (if any) candidate he will lend his support to, and since his support is extremely valuable to both candidates because both Sarko and Sego are looking to woo his electors in the second round on May 6th, Bayrou will surely use this to his advantage in order to secure himself a spot in the next government and/or make sure that his ideas get taken into account.
I am tempted to predict that Sarkozy will win the second round of elections. But it's going to be close. Several far-left candidates have already backed Segolene Royal and urged their electors to do the same. I don't have the exact numbers, but all the communist/trotskyist/green votes put together make up almost 10% of the popular vote. Meanwhile, Le Pen did not mention his voting intentions in the next round. Instead he stuck to what he does best: insulting the French population for making the wrong decision.
On a completely unrelated note, my big party plans for this weekend were foiled twice. The first time by a friend's roomate who forgot his keys (and being the kind soul that she is, she went home to let him in), and the second time by a killer sore throat that has now blossomed into a nice head cold. So no DJ Funk on Friday night. Although going back to the Truskel for the first time in almost two years was delightful, especially when accompanied by my two favourite pals Aaron and Sasha. On Saturday night I went to a birthday party in the 16th arrondissement (where high society lives) and stuffed myself full of Le Notre - arguably the best fine catering in France - finger foods and fine champagne. Foie gras sandwiches, anyone? I couldn't even describe to you in words how incredible this appartment was...filled with books, expensive art and the heirs to great fortunes.
