No, it's not about Douglas Adams and the answer to life, the universe and everything, although for some it may seem like it. 42 is the number of votes, out of a grand total of 233.000, that seperated Ms Martie Aubry, the new leader of the French Socialist Party (PS) and the 2007 PS candidate for the French precidecy, Ms Ségolène Royal. With a leadership battle won with 50,02 to 49,98 precent, Ms Aubry, daughter of former European Commission President Jaques Delores, will find it hard to lead an equally divided party allready struggeling in its opposition to President Sarkozy and his UMP commanding a comfortable majority in the National Assembly.
From an outsider perspective I'm a bit ambivilent towards the PS' new president. While Ms Royal was accused for leading the party to the right during her presidential candidacy Ms Aubry is said to have the right ideology and a guarantee towards any centrist tendencies. Being neither French nor socialist but with an affection for France and with respect and recognition for France's importance, both i Europe and on the world stage, I'm not certain as to how to react. On the one hand the political operator in me, supporting UMP, in the lack of a better choice, sees a leader stearing PS to the left as even more centrist voters for Mr Sarkozy in 2012. On the other hand, it is not good for a country if the same people govern for too long (just look at France...) and so an alternation between UMP and a 21st century, social-democratic PS would be desirable. In this respect I'd prefer if they had chosen a different leader. Nevertheless, Ms Royal is not the moderate moderniser the PS needs. Thanks to President Sarkozy he left French politics in favour of New York and the IMF, namely Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
From an outsider perspective I'm a bit ambivilent towards the PS' new president. While Ms Royal was accused for leading the party to the right during her presidential candidacy Ms Aubry is said to have the right ideology and a guarantee towards any centrist tendencies. Being neither French nor socialist but with an affection for France and with respect and recognition for France's importance, both i Europe and on the world stage, I'm not certain as to how to react. On the one hand the political operator in me, supporting UMP, in the lack of a better choice, sees a leader stearing PS to the left as even more centrist voters for Mr Sarkozy in 2012. On the other hand, it is not good for a country if the same people govern for too long (just look at France...) and so an alternation between UMP and a 21st century, social-democratic PS would be desirable. In this respect I'd prefer if they had chosen a different leader. Nevertheless, Ms Royal is not the moderate moderniser the PS needs. Thanks to President Sarkozy he left French politics in favour of New York and the IMF, namely Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
No comments:
Post a Comment