France Goes To Run-Off Election

With neither candidate getting over 50% of the vote, France’s presidential election will be decided in a run-off election on May 6.  Nicolas Sarkozy, characterized as the pro-west, pro-capitalism candidate got 30.44 percent of the vote and Segolene Royal, the socialist candidate got 24.79 percent of the vote.  The French people now have a stark choice before them.

But don’t expect that the runoff will produce the same outcome.  Royal had a significant opponent, François Bayrou, a centrist candidate who got 18.31 percent of the vote.  The determining factor will be where that 18.31 percent chooses to hang their hat.  

They each have their views on how to save the French economy.  Sarkozy’s idea is through capitalism and by reducing taxes from 60% to 50%, and have more flexible weekly work hours.  Royal, on the other hand, wants to spur the economy by increasing the minimum wage by 20 percent and adding half a million government subsidized jobs and a shorter work week, more holidays, more benefits, less employer autonomy.

What Sir Winston Churchill said:

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Here’s hoping the French people will see that the Sarkozy ideology will be their best bet for whatever they think ailes them.

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