The French Have Spoken

Here is a photo of the polling station by my place. There was this very cute family heading to the polls, but this guy with the orange backpack stepped right in the way! Foiled! Yesterday 85% of eligible French voters went to the polls and 54% of them voted for Nicolas Sarkozy. I am very relieved. Public opinion polls have consistently shown that the French overwhelmingly consider Segolene as more likeable than Sarko, but on the day of the election, most voters cast their ballot for the tough-talking French minister of the interior, regardless of his personality. While these public opinion polls do not pose that tough question about which candidate you would most like to have a beer with, I'm sure most people would have chosen Sego to throw down a few pints. In the United States, we did have such a question and we (or a majority of the scant percentage of people who actually voted) chose that more likeable person. I'm glad that in France personality is not the salient dimension on which people choose their officials. Why am I anti-Sego? Well, because I don't think her economic programs were good at all. She is a Socialist from the 1970s who proposes policies that she cannot possibly finance. I saw, under her, France regressing in economic power and esteem. Luckily after her defeat she has called for a rethinking of the left and a possible alliance with the centrist party and very economically liberal UDF. Perhaps this will allow the party to keep up with the times.