On 8 mai 07, at 16:18, James Heartfield wrote:
> The Socialists were burdened with a largely negative campaign of
> scare-mongering ('Sarkozy will lead to riots' - i.e. you middle
> class voters
> ought to be scared of him provoking the migrants) because it was
> apparent
> that they accepted the basic argument that France's welfare state was
> holding the economy back.
That was mostly in the last days before the second round, when it was made clear that they had lost. Which does not excuse them. But the campaign was mostly _not_ scare mongering. Besides, it has to be remembered that Royal got the third score of all candidates of the Fifth Republic, hardly a failure. The first score being Chirac in 2002 (an easy win since it was "everything but Le Pen") the second score being Sarkozy this time. She beat _all_ the PS candidates of all the preceding elections, as well as all the other right candidates.
As was rightly put in an article sent to the list, had the vote been for 18-59 year old people, she would have had a sure victory. So it is not the active classes that rejected her, but mostly the people who are traditionally more conservative: the elderly.
Jean-Christophe Helary