Friday, May 11, 2012

France and England on $98 a Day - France's Election

We were there.  It was yet another rainy day in Normandy.  The BBC said that France was voting to decide between Sarkozy and Hollande, but you couldn't prove it by us.  We heard no TV advertisements, the candidates issued no slogans, and we saw no voting lines.

Elections must be very different in France.  The only posters we saw showed both candidates in high school annual type poses--always side by side.  No one had a sign in his yard or a bumper sticker on his car saying, Surprise with Sarkozy or Happiness with Hollande.

David and I drove around that Sunday, imagining we would witness history with long voting lines.  A British expat had assured us that this election would be definitive even if one candidate only received one vote beyond the 50% mark, so were were certain everyone would get to the polls.  But we saw not a single voter.

Still, the results are in and a new president has been chosen.  This election that silently took place 6 May, will have profound consequences for France with a Socialist president for the first time since the 1980s

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