Word: socialists
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...chortled, but can't even count ballots. Worst of all, they make a travesty of popular government by giving the leadership of the free world to the guy who came in second. On a smaller scale, but with huge political implications, the same thing happened in Paris last week: Socialist Bert-rand Delanoë won only 49.6% of the popular vote but picked up a majority of municipal council seats because of a precinct-based voting system roughly similar to the U.S. Electoral College. So much for the French lesson in democracy...
...partying went on until 2 a.m. in front of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris' city hall, as Delanoë made a victory speech and accordionists entertained champagne-swilling supporters of his Socialist-Communist-Green coalition. But while they celebrated wresting control of the French capital from the Gaullist Rally for the Republic party that has ruled it for nearly a quarter century, elsewhere the picture was bleak. In the voting for mayors and city councils of 36,000 municipalities, Gaullist and center-right parties took 38 large and midsize cities from the left and lost only...
...which was bad news for Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who is expected to square off against Gaullist President Jacques Chirac in next year's national elections. Pollsters and pundits had predicted a "pink tide" of leftist victories that would have given Jospin a crucial boost in advance of next spring's parliamentary and presidential votes. Instead, Jospin was engulfed by a "blue tide" of conservative victories that raised worrisome questions about his future chances. Perhaps the most alarming sign was that five of his cabinet members were defeated in local contests, including such stalwarts as Labor Minister Elisabeth Guigou...
...caused widespread voter disgust over the Gaullist "system." After Chirac replaced Tiberi with Philippe Séguin as the rpr's official candidate, the disavowed mayor decided to run as an independent and split the conservative vote. In Lyons, similar divisions on the right handed a narrow victory to Socialist Gérard Collomb, giving the left control of France's third-largest city for the first time in almost a century...
...Since they were first elected in June, 1999, the three M.E.P.s have been making waves in the still pond of the Brussels bureaucracy, striking at some of the E.U's cushiest perks and least effective talking shops. Dutch Socialist Van Hulten successfully fought for Friday meetings of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to be scrapped because no one bothered to turn up for votes, a move that has saved taxpayers millions of euros; Clegg has campaigned for the Parliament's over-generous system of pay and allowances to be scaled back; and Van der Laan has called for feckless institutions...