[lbo-talk] France looks to new Sarkozy era

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue May 8 12:43:13 PDT 2007


Doug:

So Sarko's adoption of Le Pen rhetoric doesn't bother you?

[WS:] Not really, since I would expect that. What bothered me was that Royal did not offer a more compelling alternative to right wing rhetoric. I see it as indicative of the position of the left in general - it is mainly reactionary in the sense that it attacks initiatives of the right or neoliberals without proposing any compelling alternatives - just bland slogans and triangulations.

Just look for yourself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6357899.stm

Most of it sounds like Sarko lite or Clintonite triangulations rather than a bold new vision of society that the left once had.

In other words, what bother mea is not that the right won, but that the left lost by a small margin, which suggests that neither side has much to offer and it all comes to bean counting, in which the right is slightly better.

Wojtek



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