> This is an example of the sectarianism I warned against. In fact
> the only real "neolib" candidate, Alain Madelin, got a whopping
> 3.6%
No, the French PS has been neolib for some time, starting with the "franc fort" policy of the early 1990s, and continuing with Maastricht monetarism in the late 1990s. The PS signed off on the 35-hour week, but did little else to combat unemployment, mostly because the party is an integral part of what Bourdieu called the "noblesse d'etat" -- the state nobility, the technocratic elites who were Keynesian managers in the 1970s, and have irresistibly mutated into investment bankers. Example: Vivendi is the product of state utility services, transformed into a corporate monster, which has done its evil best to privatize water services throughout the global periphery and piss away its internal funds on Barry Diller co-productions. In five years, there'll be no difference between the mainstream Euro parties and the US Republocrats, who are already almost indistinguishable from Japan's LDP.
As JC pointed out, the Parliament has most of the power anyway, so that's where the real battle will be fought.
-- Dennis