By Roland Piquepaille
Today, forget about technology and computers. Let's speak about France.Yesterday was the first round of voting for the presidential elections in France. And instead of the expected runoff between Jacques Chirac (the conservative president) and Lionel Jospin (the socialist prime minister) in two weeks, this will be an unexpected duel between the current president and the extreme-right leader (you'll find his name in the story: I cannot even type it).
It is a very sad day for France and for all the people who live in and/or like France.
It's also very ironic that Jacques Chirac -- whose current nickname is "Super Menteur" or "Super Liar" -- will probably be elected in two weeks by the widest margin ever seen in France. Many people -- including lots of leaders of the Socialist party, and myself -- will vote for the conservative president. And for the first time in their lives. And for one reason: democratic values.
If you read french, the publisher of Le Monde, Jean-Marie Colombani, wrote the editorial today. It's called "La blessure" and it starts with: "La France est blessée. Et pour nombre de Français, humiliée." Translation: "France is wounded. And for many French people, humiliated."
I'm one of them. You can read this editorial here.
Sources: Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post, Apr. 22, 2002; Le Monde daté du 23 avril
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or france:
“For aesthetics is the mother of ethics.... Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe—not empirically, alas, but only theoretically—that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)
“The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American. It is more fun for an intelligent person to live in an intelligent country. France has the only two things toward which we drift as we grow older—intelligence and good manners.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)