Lenin's Tomb on the Disastrous French Elections

Tweet "He [Sarkozy] won with 53% of the vote and only one other competitor, and this is a huge lead according to some commentators. It is slightly more than half of the vote, and a 6% lead. A more sizeable share of a more sizeable vote than many of the supposed 'landslides' in Anglo-American elections - yet still, as tacitly acknowledged by the oleaginous references to a 'divisive campaign' and 'polarisation', he is hardly the bearer of a collective national will. Already the prepared journalistic cliches are being wielded, all the better not to have to confront any issues. He will, we have been told, have to 'unite a divided nation'. A uniter, not a divider: as if. Obviously, that happens to be Sarkozy's line. As he explains: "I love France. I love France, just as one loves someone who is very close to one". Petain, he loved France.

"The high turnout, we are told, was a 'victory for democracy': as if a vote for any demagogic racist scumbag, so long as there is a big turnout, is a 'victory for democracy'. We have been told of the 'radically different' proposals of the two candidates - but this is the same media that told us Bush and Gore were 'radically different' because the latter was a bit less inclined to pamper the gun lobby. We have been advised that Royal was 'gracious in defeat', as if a bourgeois Socialist politician would start shouting at the cameras that "the bastards have elected racaille! Get out on the streets! Riot! Karscherise the Sarkozy administration!" The Observer even ponders a 'move to the centre' by the PS, as if it isn't already run by the centre-right with an ineffectual Blairite leader.

"Speaking of riots, there have been claims that a vote for Sarkozy would produce riots, and indeed, it is reported that French cops are beating the streets of the banlieues tonight, awaiting the first incidence of trouble. Well, that would be the product of a basic survival instinct. Since, quite simply, Sarkozy means the unemployed youths, the low-paid workers, the immigrants and every other marginalised, exploited, oppressed group in society nothing but harm, a few riots would be a healthy sign of life. Write it down and pass it on, I'm backing the Paris jihad the second it hits the streets. Damn it, Sarkozy's administration should be battered by mass demonstrations and strike waves from the second it starts business.

53% of French voters can go fuck themselves.

The comments at the original article (link in first line) are interesting.