On 20 févr. 07, at 20:17, Colin Brace wrote:
> France: Royal's campaign falters as Sarkozy consolidates support of
> big business
> By Antoine Lerougetel
> 19 February 2007
This guy needs to do a little more fact checking...
> [...]
>
> Sarkozy's aggressive response to Royal was in tune with the sentiment
> of French business, circles, which were unimpressed by her campaign
> pledges. What was particularly considered anathema was her promised
> social reforms. She judged them to be essential in attempting to win
> some popular support for her overall right-wing agenda, but the major
> corporations want a decisive end to the stalemate that has been
> produced by the resistance of the working class to the structural
> reforms repeatedly attempted by the Gaullists under Jacques Chirac.
>
> SP economic spokesman Luc Besson [not the filmmaker???] even felt
> obliged to resign from the presidential campaign after being rebuked
> by Royal for putting a price on her social policies in the face of
> sustained criticism from the media. Royal intended to keep things
> suitably vague, but Besson had stated that her social programme would
> cost 35 billion euros.
SR (not SP) economic spokesman is Eric Besson, very close to Jospin.
Royal did not _intend_ to keep things vague since candidates are expected (and pressured) to give an estimation of the cost of their program. The cost is estimated to 35m which is considered to be much less than Sarkozy's and will be specifically addressed later this week.
> This does not detract from the overall right-wing character of Royal's
> own programme. Indeed on every other front she must have calculated
> that she had given the French bourgeoisie what they were demanding of
> her.
??? Is he smoking something ?
> In line with Sarkozy, she intends to bring together the employers and
> the trade unions to impose the cuts in rights and living standards
> necessary to make Europe's economy "the most competitive in the
> world." This is the essence of her "Republican Pact" (a term also used
> by Sarkozy).
No, she does not use this term, she prefers the term "Presidential Pact".
> Royal too expresses her implicit agreement with Sarkozy's neo-liberal
> economic project, declaring, "Europe must fight for an industrial
> policy following the example of the United States and the emerging
> nations."
Anywhere she mentions social/economic policies she refers to Northern Europe social democracies. See the videos of the 2/11 speech and her last 2h TV appearance on TF1 yesterday. I don't remember she mentioned even once the US.
> She had neither mentioned nor pledged to repeal a raft of measures,
> many of them sponsored by Sarkozy, attacking democratic rights and
> freedoms, including enhanced police powers: two anti-terror laws
> massively increasing state surveillance of the population, the
> Equality of Opportunity Law, the Prevention of Delinquency Law, the
> suppression of labour protections, the State of Emergency Law.
> Clearly, she intends to keep them on the statute book.
???
> [...]
>
> full: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/roya-f19.shtml
I think the quoted extracts clearly say that reading the whole won't teach much to the reader.
Jean-Christophe