More about the French elections

[Elisabeth Vincentelli]

About the Paris election: In addition to winning Paris for for left,
Bertrand Delanoe also is the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of
a major capital. He came out about two years ago and his sexuality never was
an issue in the campaign. After he won French daily Liberation quoted a
disgruntled conservative as saying, "The fags are going to City Hall. It's
going to be La Cage over there." That was pretty much it. Now the main thing
people are talking about is whether he'll bring a date at dinners with
visiting foreign dignitaries and their spouses. I have several friends
active in the Paris sections of the Socialist Party and they all like
Delanoe, who's supposed to know the city very well and has excellent
grassroot connections. I doubt he'll be able to do anything about the
appalling pollution in Paris but hey, that's just me being picky.

Other interesting tidbits in the French elections:

Paris elected a Green district mayor (there's 20 district mayors and one
super-mayor) for the first time. On the other hand, Jean Tiberi, the
corrupt, indicted mayor of the 5th district (the Latin Quarter), got
reelected.

Nationwide the non-Socialist and non-Communist left did very well. In
addition to the Greens, the two Marxist parties (Alain Krivine's and Arlette
Laguiller's) that had been left for dead got very respectable scores,
reaching 10% in some cities. This leaves the Socialists in an interesting
position if they want to form new alliances on the left. Especially since
the communists are in free fall. They lost their last city of more than
100,000 people, Nimes. They also lost some strongholds in the Paris suburbs
nicknamed "The Red Belt" since the 1930s. It truly feels like the end of an
era there.

The National Front, undermined by divisions and strife, didn't fare well,
though it kept a couple of cities in the south. Its collapse benefited the
mainstream conservative parties.

At this point it looks like Prime Minister Jospin will unseat President
Chirac in the next presidential election.

Elisabeth