Does the result of the French presidential election matter to the UK?

French election 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy 'laying trap' for Francois Hollande

Given the economic state of play within Europe will a win for the Socialist candidate change the way France deals with the Euro crisis? Also the French election has become quite dirty. is this a sign of things to come from more Right wing Governments as they face there electors? here is just a small taste of the French election. does it matter who wins? or not? What will it mane for Germany and the UK?

If the Socialist candidate enters into this game of anti-Sarkozyism, he will lose the election.”
That tactic is precisely what led to the downfall of Lionel Jospin, the Socialist candidate in 2002 who was knocked out by National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in round one by basing his campaign on an anti-Chirac ticket. Support for Jospin plummeted after he called Chirac "tired, exhausted and passive" and a man who had "lost much of his energy and drive". The comment was duly condemned as an ageist "cheap shot" by Mr Chirac.
“It happened to Segolene Royal who lost in 2007 by attacking Nicolas Sarkozy frontally. We are not in the United States. That strategy doesn’t work. »
If my memory is correct, Hollande acknowledges that Jospin lost for precisely this reason, so he is hardly likely to fall for it.

Hollande is acutely aware that his popularity is largely down to massive rejection of his main rival. One poll this month suggested 60 per cent of French intending to vote for Hollande not because of his policies but because they can no longer stand the sight of Sarkozy.
That leaves Hollande with a huge potential Achilles heel, but for Sarkozy to get the chance to strike at it he must first divorce Sarkozy the man from Sarkozysm, his political agenda. Given the mass enmity for the man, that is a tall order.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nicolas-sarkozy/9131858/French-election-2012-Nicolas-Sarkozy-laying-trap-for-Francois-Hollande.html

In answer to your question, frankly, I don't know.

In hopes of being marginally more useful, I'll say that it seems Hollande has won the first round, with 28% to Sarkozy's 26%, but Le Pen's got 20%, all on a reportedly high turnout which is... somewhere between depressing and scary, I think.

If you're taking a holiday in the Eurozone this Summer, now might be a good time to fix the exchange rate on your spending-money.

Does the result of the French presidential election matter to the UK?

Not apparently.

Yes - I do believe that a win for the French socialists will have an effect on the UK, for a start off the new French president will be diametrically opposed to the British government in terms of both economics and politically.

A socialist win will mean an end to the austerity measures and instead will see the implementing of a programme to rebuild the economy, investing in jobs, including 60,000 new teachers and thousands of extra police officers. The building of 500,000 new homes per year and investing particularly in young people, all intended to encourage growth.

The socialists will also push for further and closer European integration, particularly between France and Germany including the establishment of a joint military headquarters, joint civil services, co-operation on scientific and industrial research and a joint investment bank.

All in all I suspect it will put David Cameron in an even more difficult or impossible situation, looking over his shoulder at his own Eurosceptics, and at the same time been the odd man out in Europe.

What the markets will make of Francois Hollande will remain to be seen, he is intent on ridding the economy of its defecit by 2017, yet at the same time will invest heavily in jobs, public services, industry and construction, my guess is beware the banks and the rich.

.... and ummmm ......

Witchfinder quote

my guess is beware the banks and the rich.

Should I cash in my Monopoly money and sell my property in Park Lane and Whitechapel?

Does the result of the French presidential election matter to the UK?

Well, they may stop buying British beef products.

Oh, they don't buy them anyway. Quelle domage

In Britain when a new government is formed the Prime Minister first goes to the Queen to swear allegiance. In France when a new government is formed the new President flies to Germany (I'll leave the rest to you). Weird world innit.

Any new Prime Minister in the UK goes firstly to Buckingham Palace to be invited to form the new government by The Queen, but the Prime Minister does not go to swear alligience to The Crown because as an MP, he or she took an oath when becoming a member of Parliament.

As there is currently an economic crisis in Europe, and particularly within the Eurozone, it seems right and proper for any new French leader to go and meet with the German chancellor.

The French and Germans are the two key economies within the Eurozone and are also the two most influentual players within the EU, unlike Britain which is an embaressment and chooses to be a sideshow with little influence.

In Britain when a new government is formed the Prime Minister first goes to the Queen to swear allegiance. In France when a new government is formed the new President flies to Germany (I'll leave the rest to you). Weird world innit.

tlttf. Try comparing like for like. Francois Hollande has been elected as Head of State, he doesn’t have to swear allegiance to an unelected nobody. The French have just changed their Head of State democratically, we have to wait for one to die before another in-bred misfit inherits the job.

Hollande, without ‘The Evening Standard’ to tell lies about him day after day (which gullible people like you swallow) won 52% of the vote in France. He’s appointed a government of 50% men and 50% women and awarded himself a 30% pay cut. Couldn’t imagine the hypocritical chauvinist Cameron – the man who claimed benefits for his sick son but has now stopped payments to others – doing either.

The first thing every new British PM does is to fly to Washington to pay homage. Of course when Cameron did so he made an idiot of himself, making a public pronouncement about how the USA fought alongside Britain in 1940. Hollande went to Berlin because Germany and France are the two most powerful countries in the EU. Nothing weird about that.

M. Hollande seems to have some practical ideas, but he won't be the first President of France to discover that the French people in particular object vocally and fiercely when their standard of living looks to be threatened.

Cameron might just be right when he tells the ECB to print lots of Euros.

Shame you think me gullible Ivan, considering I've managed to stand off from the leftie luvvies and haven't been brainwashed yet, but hey whatever floats your boat. Watch Hollande try and pull French troops out of Afghanistan by Christmas (though I agree with the sentiment) without an agreement between all the countries participating there. Then again the troops will pro ably be able to retire on an enhanced pension shortly. Such is the way of the socialist.

haven't been brainwashed yet

Except by 'The Evening Standard' and its lies about Ken Livingstone, with which you've polluted this forum. You never did apologise for repeating the libel that he used paid actors for his promotional video; no doubt you were gullible enough to believe it.

What libel Ivan, the people in the video were paid, hence the term "paid actors". You seem to have a very poor opinion of all things not in agreement with you, bet your a laugh a minute down at your local. Come on son there's much more to life than the new labour party, who knows they may even become a party of the working person once this bunch of hanger ons have disappeared. Though highly unlikely to happen in my lifetime, we live in hope.

Amusing how the lightweight contenders always want to meet with the Champion straight away. There's usually a few eliminating bouts in the way of that wish.

Socialism at work and everything is ticketyboo!!!

Only a short excerpt, the rest is available by the link.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/npap-o12.shtml

French Socialist Party’s austerity program expose bankruptcy of petty-bourgeois “left”
By Kumaran Ira
12 October 2012

The austerity policies of the Socialist Party (PS) government of President François Hollande are exposing the bankruptcy of the petty-bourgeois “left” parties, such as the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), which supported his election.

According to an October 3 report by the daily Le Monde, the Elysée presidential palace is preparing a “competitiveness shock” to cut corporate contributions to social spending by €8 billion (US$10.3 billion) per year, or €40 billion over Hollande’s five-year term. The aim is to defend French corporate competitiveness by slashing labor costs—that is, the living standards of the working class.


To make up the slack, taxes are to be increased. This would reportedly hit workers earning between 1.6 and 2.2 times the minimum wage—e.g. in auto and other industrial sectors—particularly hard.

Yep power to the people!!!!

Aux barricades, mes amis!

What hypocrisy when a man who describes himself as right of the Tories is so bereft of ideas that he hides behind an article by the extreme left to criticise the democratic socialist government of France.

Except Ivan....If these policies were being carried out by Sarkozy you would be screaming like a Banshee about right wing ideologies and facists ect...blah blah blah.....Typical!!!

blueturando. Don’t put words into my mouth, please. Sarkozy would not have increased the top rate of income tax in France to 75%, but Hollande has. It's less provocative to expect everyone to make some sacrifices if you really are "all in this together", and France is already a more equal society than the UK.

The only countries in which the richest 1% earn more than in the UK are Argentina, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. In Finland, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Spain the richest 1% earn only nine times average earnings (or less) – in Switzerland only 7.8 times; in Sweden 6.7 times; and in the Netherlands only 5.4 times the average income. The Swiss still have bankers, the Swedes industrialists, and the Dutch host multinational companies; they haven't all run away because they have to contribute a little more to society.
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/rack_of_inequality

Hollande's approach is in stark contrast to the Tory way of doing things, which is to cut the top rate of income tax to 45% to help the rich and cut benefits for the poor and disabled. There’s your class war – it’s real and the Tories have started it.

Once again you’ve tried to divert attention from the point I was making. No doubt you or your right-wing friend would be “screaming like a banshee” if I had used what I believe is a communist source to attack your beloved Tories; it’s sheer hypocrisy for someone who is on the extreme right to do so.

back to topic, my link highlights that the French socialist president that you all love is cutting capital gains tax on companies and lowering the working classes wages, is that socialism at it's best?

Retrato de coño.

Highly amusing OW, especially when I'm surrounded by mice?

Cometh the Hour, cometh the man.

[quote="Ivan"]

The first thing every new British PM does is to fly to Washington to pay homage. Of course when Cameron did so he made an idiot of himself, ...

I think Cameron's visit to Washington was a resounding success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxFnQ-Bx348&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=IZgPhI51ci0&NR=1
Obama And David Cameron At White House

Obama; "Between us we have the largest investment relationship in the world........"


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9155494/Barack-Obama-tucked-David-Cameron-up-in-bed-on-Air-Force-One.html

The Prime Minister said the US President offered him use of his bed on the plane as the pair flew back to Washington after watching a basketball match in Dayton, Ohio last week.

Mr Cameron said: “On the way back, it was about 4 o’clock in the morning UK time, so he said ‘David, why don’t you use my bed and put your feet up’.

“So I duly did and Barack went to the back of the plane and explained to my private secretary and the team, he said ‘Don’t worry, the British Prime Minister is fine, I’ve just tucked him up in bed’.

“I don’t think that’s happened before.”

By Murray Wardrop Daily Telegraph
1:42PM GMT 20 Mar 2012
The Prime Minister said the US President offered him use of his bed on the plane as the pair flew back to Washington.

We know that Australia is in a different time zone, but it's not a difference of SEVEN MONTHS, is it?

oftenwrong wrote: By Murray Wardrop Daily Telegraph
1:42PM GMT 20 Mar 2012
The Prime Minister said the US President offered him use of his bed on the plane as the pair flew back to Washington.

We know that Australia is in a different time zone, but it's not a difference of SEVEN MONTHS, is it?

UK Telegraph.

I think Cameron's visit to Washington was a resounding success.

bambu. Then maybe you didn't hear Cameron say on that visit how Britain and the USA stood "shoulder to shoulder" against Germany in 1940. The only thing wrong with that is the USA didn't enter the Second World War until 7 December 1941.

Cameron is the most arrogant, devious, dishonest and corrupt Prime Minister this country has ever had. If you think he has any value, please invite him to Australia and send us the feisty Julia Gillard in exchange.

Now maybe this thread can return to the French presidential election....

Our uncritical admiration of the elected administrators in Britain is not mirrored in French politics, where government is by the consent of the governed, or not at all. French history since the end of WW2 is peppered with incidences of civil unrest, principally the student revolt of 1968, but also repetitious blockades of seaports and/or the highways. It's not easy to name a President of France who has not found himself reversing policy in the face of intractable refusal to accept any such thing.

M. Hollande's own personal Waterloo hasn't occurred yet. But just be patient.

Seems 'the Youth of France' are none too happy with their lot in life these days;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lb8SLNMIBlM

Generation Identitaire - "A Declaration of War" - From the Youth of France - (English subs)

Apparently Germany wants to check the books in France as they are possibly fibbing about their income projections. + the majority of the French wish they hadn't voted for Hollande as the country begins to move backward with good socialist intentions ie; More wage restraint and higher taxes, ensuring more people work within the black economy.

Does Britain really need this overly bureaucratic, over paid bunch of t*ssers defining our way forward. I think not!!

As the UK is not a member of the Eurozone, our books or budget or accounts do not need to be checked by the EU or the European Central Bank.

If nation states are so inextricably linked via economic and fiscal union, then some form of transparency is vital for it to work, the Euro is not a bad idea, it is a very good idea which has been badly implemented or wrongly implemented.

A central authority must take responsibility for making certain that individual states stay within accepted limits or parameters, and that spending, income and debt remain sustainable.

Britain is always going to have more than just a passing concern about the French government, if only because France is our nearest continental neighbour. Most British exports to Europe begin their journey at a Channel Port, as does the movement of immigrants in the opposite direction.

If I broke the rule Ivan fine. I did post the link so no copyright break. I really should report the sycophants for over quoting yet somehow I find better things to worry over. My apologies for highlighting the ineptitude of socialist policies. I really should know better

I did post the link so no copyright break.

tlttf. You’ve broken the law on five occasions in the last few days. Posting a link doesn’t give you the right to post an article in its entirety. Our house rules incorporate both the law and our interpretation of it. Future violations by you will be deleted on sight, without explanation, and may have further repercussions. If you wish to comment further, do so by PM, not on this or any other thread.

The laws and house rules by which copyright issues on this forum will be settled can be found here and are not open to discussion:-
https://cuttingedge2.forumotion.co.uk/t645-notices-for-members

The only exceptions are (a), extracts from Wikipedia, where there is no restriction on quoting, (b), where a blogger transfers his or her own work from another site, and (c), where written permission is obtained and displayed from the author.

M. Holande began by saying that the French economy could be safely restored without austerity, but with still no sign of recovery in the Eurozone his Party is changing their tune, which will place them again on a collision course with the French Labour movement.

One country's Finance Minister at the recent Brussells talking shop is reported to have suggested that Europe's future would be as a Union of Germany with Britain and just a handful of other Northern European countries like Holland and Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Austria. Was he joking?

Well Mr Hollande and his party are showing exactly what a socialist government given a free run can achieve in one year, doesn't it make you glad we managed to bin ours a couple of years age?

tlttf. Typically brainless response. Why don't you tell us about how well the Conservative government in Spain is doing, with 27.2% of the workforce unemployed?

Perhaps if you didn't read 'The Daily Mail' so often you might realise that anecdotes don't replace reasoned argument.