other farces will take place with different systems. resurrecting the socialist party means making very clear signs towards the antiglobalization movement that has led voters to reconsider their support to the governmental left. there is no lack of ideas/human ressources for this task. it is just a matter of how much time will it take the socialist party leaders (the base is already aware of the changes) to realize that it is the only valid and realistic option.
chances are, as i wrote in a mail a few days ago, the left will make a much better score in june. the voting system is different and a lot of people who voted for lepen the other day will very unlikely vote for the national front candidate, they will probably vote in a more realistic way. the left has clearly realized that a united front is necessary to win the elections and the shock of last week's results will probably encourage not a few candidates to change of campaign strategy. the right has failed to renew itself in the last 5 years and is unlikely to get a very good score, they still have old leaders, who are not leading much anymore, split factions etc. same for the extreme right. there was a report on nhk last night about the may 1st demo and lepen support. about 20,000 made it in the streets under the lepen banner, which is not a very big change from the past, and is defenitely not proportional to the 17% lepen got 10 days ago. meanwhile about 1,500,000 demonstrat! ed!
against him all over france (between 500-900,000 in paris, about 900,000 elswhere). a huge number of young people have entered politics thanks to the political shock and those are unlikely going to support chirac in the next election.
anyway. the socialist vote to support chirac is going to be interesting to see. i have heard of people getting ready to vote for chirac and send him the lepen bulletin by mail to make him realize why he has been elected. i think i skipped an article in le monde today about that but it seems to be the socialist party's official stance.
jc helary