Socialists get too much of what they asked for
As France’s President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy sipped champagne in a jacuzzi aboard a millionaire’s yacht in the Mediterranean, violence broke out for a second straight night as “youths” fought police, smashed stores and burned cars nationwide, angry that the conservative had defeated Socialist Segolene Royal in the second round of elections Sunday. Following on the heels of Sunday night’s violence, Monday evening saw riot squads engaging bottle-hurling arson mobs in Paris, Nantes, Toulouse and other locales.
Just days before the vote Royal had predicted that such violence would break out, and Socialist leaders, shellshocked and ideologically adrift after two consecutive electoral thrashings, are now appealing for an end to the rioting. The Socialists are afraid that the violence will even further alienate the blue-collar voters who were once their mainstay, as legislative elections loom in June. “To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior,” Socialist Francois Hollande pleaded. “The only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons.”
However, few of the violence-prone are likely to listen: Third World immigrant “youth” — the ones who burned France in late 2005 in weeks of violence — are mainly opportunists looking for plunder. Many other rioters are white “youths” who think of themselves as “anarchists” and look on the Socialists as little better than Sarkozy himself.Royal’s “warning” about violence uncovered the political impotence of the left in Europe, which is in disarray continent-wide, paying the price for decades of political correctness which has alienated its working class base. In France, the 2002 Presidential poll was a tectonic shock, with the Socialists destroyed in the first round by patriot Jean-Marie Le Pen. Until then, pro-white ideas had been easily dismissed as “extreme” by both the left and conservatives. But in 2007, Le Pen’s ideas dominated the discourse, with Sarkozy stealing much of the Le Pen platform and many fence-sitters deciding for Sarkozy out of fear of Royal winning. Underlining the impact of Le Pen and his Front National was Royal’s attempt to float many Le Pen-sounding ideas, calling for “law and order” and admitting that the Socialists were wedded too closely to political correctness.
Sarkozy’s anti-immigration stance is widely seen as cynical: Sarkozy himself is not even a Frenchman, being the child of Jewish immigrants. Le Pen called for his supporters to abstain from the second round, but many of his softer voters apparently ignored him: the solid 53% of the vote won by Sarkozy in a massive turnout was clearly thanks in large part to many voters who had backed Le Pen in the first round. However, Sarkozy will prove to be unable to deliver on his promises, further helping the Front National to grow and putting their ideas at the top of the national agenda. Sarkozy’s arrogance was highlighted by the fact that he left France shortly after his win, for a holiday on a yacht owned by multimillionaire Vincent Bolloré (who got his start with the Rothschild family), a fact that is likely to increase Front National appeal in the June elections.
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