I had some short stories, poems and photographs to share ... and so here I am

If Fate Had Taken A Different Course

 

Royal becomes France’s first woman president

PARIS (AS) – Segolene Royal was elected France’s first ever woman president on Sunday, surprising commentators and pollsters who had predicted an overwhelming victory for her conservative rival, Nicolas Sarkozy.

With just over 80 percent of ballots counted, Socialist Royal scored just over 56 percent of the vote, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry. Sarkozy phoned Royal to concede defeat.

“The country has spoken and I will not let you down,” an emotional Royal told supporters gathered outside the Socialist Party headquarters in Paris. “I will take time to listen to our social partners, to work out our first priorities for change.”

The result was a bitter blow for Sarkozy, a former interior minister and ambitious son of a Hungarian immigrant. He had been comfortably ahead in 100 straight opinion polls leading up to the second round run-off vote.

A visibly shocked Sarkozy, 52, told his UMP party supporters “naturally we are disappointed and disillusioned” but he told them that they had to “stay mobilised” for parliamentary elections in June.

Voter turnout in these elections is estimated to have been 85 percent, the highest in 40 years.

Tens of thousands of Royal supporters converged on key sites around the French capital, including Place de la Concorde and La Bastille, for celebrations likely to go on through the night.

The Socialist win will no doubt be a relief for police chiefs who mobilised thousands of officers over fears a Sarkozy victory could spark unrest. Sarkozy is unpopular in poor suburbs because of his hard-line approach to law and order.

Royal said she wanted to be a president for all French people, telling those who voted for Sarkozy that she would promote “inter-party dialogue and cooperation” and that her responsibility was “to protect and listen to all French people.”

Over the past few days Royal remained convinced that she had a good chance of winning, despite polls that suggested she was trailing Sarkozy by as much as nine percentage points.

Royal, whose husband is the head of the Socialist Party, is the first Socialist to take the country’s top job since Francois Mitterand, president from 1981 until 1995.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm too depressed over this (and the Kansas tornado) as it is. Sarkozhttpy's win is going to make things horrible for a while in France.

S. Kearney said...

Ed, nice to have you stop by. :) There are certainly big changes and interesting times ahead for France!!

L.M.Noonan said...

I thought of you as soon as i saw the news. What's the world coming to? I only hope that this puts the wind up every left of centre voter in this country come election...which looms.

RodaLarga said...

Excellent "depeche"! If only it was true...

By the way, the blog is super, easier to read and much more appealing. The choice of a light colour helps bring out the contents, like photos, paintings and other stuff

S. Kearney said...

MVB,
Thanks! I'm glad you like the changes. And the cream/beige background? And did you read the Anne Perry post? Do you think it could become a book?

Unknown said...

Oh, if only. Oh well...

Anonymous said...

I know shockingly little about French politics and I must learn more. Thanks for at least preventing me from huge embarrassment when I have to confess I don't know who's President in France!

S. Kearney said...

V,
I quite like this idea of alternative histories ... writing the event as it might have been ... I would like to do that with the Virginia Tech story, for example, with a happy outcome, a heroic story.

Litlove,
I understand. I think many French people were asleep when it came to politics, until they were woken up in 2002 - when the extreme right National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen got through to the second round.

Anonymous said...

we've had many great female leaders in the history of mankind. sadly, many males still think that females are not good enough. woe to them and their egoistic, micro minds.

hope i'm not being too blunt here.

S. Kearney said...

CS,
Couldn't agree more! NZ has had a woman as PM for a very long time. It was a nice change.

Debi said...

Yes but look what happened when we had a woman Prime Minister in the UK!

Maybe there's a parallel planet somewhere where the result was as you depict. We just need to find the glitch in the space/time continuum so we can go there.

S. Kearney said...

Hi Debi,
Oh, yes, Margaret, we all forgot about her ... was it because she only had three hours sleep a night?

Meloney Lemon said...

...and lived on a diet of black coffee and vitamins.

S. Kearney said...

Ml, hi, yes ... and there was something about regular "power naps", which sounds extremely dodgy! :)

Unknown said...

Hey I power nap, but Maggie was a bad bad woman. I guess there are bad apples of both genders, but like CS says, well maybe not exactly, but you know if only if it was a more equal planet. Maybe like Debi says we need to find that alternative planet, or alternatively work hard to achieving it here.

Rethabile said...

Dans seulement cinq ans. Patience. Patience. BTW, I linked to your poetry blog. Cheers.

S. Kearney said...

Rethabile, Hi, Welcome! :) Great to have you on board! I'm looking forward to devouring your delicious looking poems. Do check out Word Carving in my links as well ... there you will find some great poetry like yours. Call by any time. :)