By Jessica Reed
If you remember this openDemocracy blog post about trendy-wannabe French politicians-turned-bloggers, then this Financial Times article shouldn't be surprising: France seems to be the European country where blogs have the greatest political impact - this should be emphasised by the upcoming presidential elections and their PR campaigns (via Daniel Drezner):
(...) It has since become de rigueur for presidential candidates on left and right to start a blog. Ségolène Royal, the favourite to be the Socialist presidential candidate, has invited readers to submit ideas for a manifesto-style book she is publishing online.
Nicolas Sarkozy, interior minister and the leading presidential candidate on the right, has about 600,000 readers every month for his blog. His UMP party has bought keyword advertising with Google France, so people who search for words relating to recent political issues, such as banlieues (the run down suburbs), or sans papiers (illegal migrants), will be directed to the blog.
Elsewhere: Right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy's blog in french + His main opponent, socialist favourite Segolene Royale's website + "Outside the USA, France is one of the leading 'blogging' countries. According to a recent crmmetrix study (.pdf link, july 2006), 26.7% of the French online population visit a blog at least once a month.
