Word: royaler
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This Sunday, another large turnout is expected for the run-off election as the French choose between the two remaining candidates—Nicolas Sarkozy of the right-of-center Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party and the Socialist Party’s Ségolène Royal. Although we welcome the overwhelming signs of democratic strength in France, only one vote will move the country toward far-reaching reforms that La République requires—a vote for Nicolas Sarkozy...
...that they are at a historical cross-roads, the French seem unable to decide between the economic liberalization proposed by Sarkozy (who, although “right of center” in France, is further left than most Democrats in America) and the more traditional social welfare agenda of Royal. Although “Sarko” has led every poll in recent months, he has ceded four percentage points in the last week to Royal, who is ruthlessly exploiting anxiety about economic reform and Sarkozy’s personality, riding a “Tout Sauf Sarkozy?...
...Exchanges like that one kept the debate - the only one before Sunday's runoff election - bubbling on for more than a half hour beyond its schedule; the two journalists at the square table as moderators were reduced to essentially throwing out bait for the pair to chew on. Royal, dressed soberly in a white collared shirt and black blazer, kept her eyes riveted on Sarkozy (blue suit and striped tie) as she unrolled ideas as she saw fit rather than in the ordered sequence the moderators vainly tried to preserve. Several times they had to intervene to give Sarkozy...
...malaise: "It's because we work less than others do." Though he doesn't advocate a full reversal of the 35-hour working week introduced by a Socialist government in 1998, he wants to free both employers and employees from paying payroll tax and insurance charges on overtime hours. Royal's response: "I prefer to give work to those who don't have any," especially through a government-funded program to give six-month "springboard" jobs to young people leaving school...
...courteous response to a moderator's question of how each candidate saw his or her rival. "I respect her talent..., I respect what she did to get to where she is, and I bear no personal animosity toward her," said a smiling Sarkozy. Ségolène Royal offered no such platitudes. "This is a debate of ideas," she demurred, saying that she has "a different vision of France's future" than her opponent. At one point in the debate she boasted that she had beaucoup de sang-froid. No one's likely to disagree...