Word: socialists
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Late in the evening on Monday, April 23, harrowed by his defeat in the first round of the French presidential elections, the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin stood before a distraught crowd of supporters. As he had failed to outpoll right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen for second place and a slot in the runoff against Presidential incumbent Jacques Chirac, Jospin prepared to announce his immediate resignation from French politics, saying that the strong showing of the National Front party had come “like a thunderbolt.” Yet, in many ways, that evening?...
...should have seen it coming. a few weeks ago, i asked a French friend why Lionel Jospin, the Socialist candidate for the presidency, had such difficulty connecting with the voters. "They just don't like him," my friend shrugged, as the French do. Worthy and whiny, and with that pursed-lips seriousness that the French think characteristic of Protestants like him, Jospin proved incapable of inspiring his natural constituency...
...siphoned votes away from him. Still, the question remains: Why did so many voters desert the mainstream candidates? How about: because they are bored stiff with them. Chirac first served as Prime Minister in - this is not a misprint - 1974. Jospin has been a leading light in the Socialist Party since 1973. Imagine being asked to choose, this year, between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford: you'd look elsewhere...
...Save The Country's Soul After the earthquake, the rescue work. French political leaders rallied behind President Jacques Chirac to crush the far-right National Front's candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the second round of presidential voting on May 5. While Le Pen - who edged past Socialist Lionel Jospin to face center-right Chirac in the runoff - promised another electoral shock, Chirac refused to debate him. Stating that Le Pen's "intolerance and hatred" made that impossible, Chirac said France's situation was grave, with "its soul, its cohesion, its role in Europe and the world" at stake...
...sinister demagogue” and wrote of the humiliation that citizens feel at the strong showing of a man who has often been accused of racism. Despite Le Pen’s radical positions, he captured 17 percent of the vote, beating out Socialist Party candidate and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin...