> But there is no time at all for delay. The French Left must pick
> itself up off the floor and get back in the ring within the next
> two or three days.
Three points: (1) Jospin and the PS are hardly Leftists. They're neolib to the core, though cagier than the Thatcherites about hiding it. (2) France's Presidential electoral system is almost as archaic as the US, and should be tossed on the scrapheap. (3) Le Pen's vile irrationalism is the product of two decades of brutish austerity by the architects of Maastricht monetarism. Even at the height of the 1990s expansion, French unemployment never fell below 9%.
Bourdieu, thou shouldst be alive at this hour. He would've been totally, utterly unsurprised, and would've insisted that the French ruling class *needs* someone like Le Pen, in order to secure its legitimacy.
-- Dennis