by Jessica Reed
As a fierce presidential battle nicknamed "Sarko vs. Sego" (I think it would be a good name for a manga) is currently taking place in the far-away lands of France, former prime minister Michel Rocard (who also ran for President as a candidate for the Socialist Party1) has some interesting things to say about the current campaign tactics, including some predictions:
So Sarkozy and Royal are universally expected to be the two leading candidates heading into the “High Noon” encounter of the second round. But, judging from the past, this is not how French politics works. Ever since de Gaulle, all candidates for the French presidency who started too early have lost. Poher, Chaban-Delmas, Barre, Balladur, and I were picked out by the media and treated as candidates for more than two years before the election, whether declared or not, and we were all eventually beaten. My own feeling is that the bombardment by the media is of such violence that the credibility of a candidate cannot endure for more than a few weeks. Overexposure hurts.
Fair enough - as I have previously said on this blog, the extreme polarisation between Royal and Sarkozy leaves other candidates (mostly centrists, like Francois Bayrou) frustrated with the media, and leaving voters feeling slightly trapped between two choices which do not match their desires - it is too often heard, especially amongst french youth, that people choose the lesser of two evils. This overexposure could potentially have disastrous consequences, and french people know it too well: back in 2002 extreme right-winger Jean Marie Le Pen made it to the second round:
In this bizarre dance, where the big parties and important candidates know that it is better to start later, the real beneficiaries of today’s media circus are the candidates without any real chance of winning: a fascist, another extreme rightist, a communist, two Trotskyites, and a few other marginal personalities. They are candidates only in order to benefit from two years of free publicity.
Is there a lesson to learn - and quickly, before history repeats itself? Well, it seems that diversifying the current media coverage and promoting a focus on other candidates would be the first step towards more equality, even if it makes little doubt who the final candidates will be.
1- Equivalent of the UK Labour party, perhaps slightly more left-leaning in its approach to economics.
