Word: socialistics
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...outside the barred iron gates of a sprawling Parisian townhouse. Tension in the street gradually increased until the inevitable explosion shook the entire street - a detonation preceded by an eerie silence punctuated only by the hiss of thousands drawing a breath in anticipation. But the screaming outside the French Socialist Party headquarters on the Rue Solferino weren't the expressions of horror and despair heard five years earlier, when the right-wing Jean-Marie Le Pen beat then Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin into the runoff against President Jacques Chirac. This time, the Socialist faithful were yelling...
...were confident, but after the shock of Le Pen sneaking by us into the runoff in 2002, no one could feel safe," admits party member Arnaud Sanchez, 20. That forced many Socialist voters to "hold their nose," as Sanchez puts it, and vote for Chirac to ensure the defeat of the anti-immigration Le Pen. "I was ashamed to go abroad and have to explain to people how someone like Le Pen could get that far - meanwhile, the urgency to deny Le Pen meant France got a default president in Chirac," says Sanchez. "Thank goodness this time it's different...
...Annick Lepetit, a Socialist Party official and member of parliament from Paris, agrees that Royal's presence in the second round corrects the anomaly of five years ago, when the presidential runoff amounted to a choice between the center-right and the far right. "This time, voters will have the choice between two different programs and visions for France - one from the right, the other from the left," Lepetit says. "For that reason, whoever wins will have a legitimacy to rule that's been absent the last five years...
...Relief rather than triumph was the prevailing mood outside Socialist headquarters. Their road to the Elysee Palace remains an uphill climb. Although Royal's first round vote tally of 25.8% is better than Francois Mitterrand's performance in his victorious 1981 presidential run, Sarkozy's 31.1% is even more formidable. While the Socialist candidate can count on the backing of most far-left candidates in the runoff, their first-round share added with the Socialists' is only 36.2%. And if much of Jean Marie Le Pen's 10.4% transfer their support to the tough-on-immigration Sarkozy, the outcome...
...Sarkozy's high first-round score reflects his success in seducing hard- and extreme-right voters, but he'll pay for that in the second round," predicts Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist Party heavyweight and vice-president of the European Parliament. While mainstream conservatives backing Sarkozy's tax-cutting, market-friendly economic polices may overlook his repeated pledges to help Le Pen voters "out of their ghetto" and into his camp, Moscovici warns that the hard-right lean will repel most people who supported Bayrou. "Sarkozy reminds me of Berlusconi," Moscovici comments. "The Italian right forgave him every excess, the Italian...