The First Big Step

In case you are wondering as to what happened in France today regarding the regional election, it was very good news.

The election process is two steps. There is a first tour which was today and that narrows the field down. There are perhaps 17 parties with candidates which represent the full political spectrum from far right to extreme left.

The ruling party presently is the center right UMP. The UMP has aggressively courted the far right by enacting oppressive immigration policies open racism.

What they managed to do was empower the far right. They also have managed to totally drive the rest of France to the left by their non negotiation with labor and manipulation of environmental issues. There has been an anti Sarkozy swell building and today it exhibited itself in a number of ways.

The first tour of the election is a way for voters to show their dissatisfaction and to cast symbolic votes. The Europe Green party did unexpectedly well as well as the lesser Left wing parties. The Socialists were the big winners and the left wing and green votes will probably all go to the socialists in next weeks final run off.

There was also a record abstention today, it was explained that so many UMP voters felt disappointment with their own party and didn't bother to cast a vote.

The most worrisome, but predictable result was the gain by the far right Front National.

Empowered by the Sarkozyist policies, they were able to take votes away from the UMP by saying that they didn't go far enough.

All in all, though, it was as if the air cleared here. It will be interesting to live through the next week of spin as the UMP tries to convince a country that has been lied to one too many times that they will be nicer. 

With all the news focusing on the brutal and illegal expulsions of immigrants, it is interesting that the big movie event here is a film about the brutal expulsions of the 13,000 Jews from Paris in 1942 by the collaborating French Police Force. La Rafle.....