French Elections and May Day Part 1
Gee the French don’t do things by half. Well Nicolas Sarkozy has been duly elected and France enters into a new era of conservative politics. He has already set up the Ministry for National Identity and Intergration and he is on a
tour of meeting and greeting at the moment.
Well the last days were frenetic. A group of us got together to watch the debate between Sarkozy and Royal which went for 3 hours. We attended a rally with Royal supporters who later that day participated in the May Day rally, very colourful, lots of noise. In fact throughout the campaign you would see supporters in street corners singing and calling their support.
On electi
on day things were very tense you could feel it, as we biked our way down to the Place de la Bastille there were busloads of cops already getting ready for the problems (that did eventuate later that night), as well as the swarming international media it was incredible.
As we hanged out with our friends waiting anxiously for th
e results I looked at the window and I could see all televisions on through the living room windows with people also waiting. When we found out the results (47% Royal, 53% Sarkozy) it was very anti-climatic.
We all decided to head out to the local gay friendly bar near George Pompidou in Le Marais which is cartier with a strong Jewish and gay flavour to drown our sorrows.
As we rode along the road you suddenly looked around and see that the cops had shut down all the streets that lead to the Place de la Bastille, and you could see smoke (tear gas) in the background.
It was a very surreal night, as Sabrina and I rolled home to Republique you could hear the shouting from afar. As we got closer there were cops and people clashing throwing bottles and tear gas at each other.
Later that night our friends Cristina and Mariama decided to take a tour and they were tear gased. They saw some cops being overly aggressive with a young guy and they stood there to watch
and put pressure on the cop to stop, the cop gave them 3 seconds to move and then pulled out the tear gas.
I expect that there will be lots of disquiet with Sarkozy, and I must say that unlike how the international media has potrayed it, it was not a whitewash for Sarkozy there are many against almost 50% so it will be an interesting year to say the least.
Cazuela
Gee the French don’t do things by half. Well Nicolas Sarkozy has been duly elected and France enters into a new era of conservative politics. He has already set up the Ministry for National Identity and Intergration and he is on a
tour of meeting and greeting at the moment.Well the last days were frenetic. A group of us got together to watch the debate between Sarkozy and Royal which went for 3 hours. We attended a rally with Royal supporters who later that day participated in the May Day rally, very colourful, lots of noise. In fact throughout the campaign you would see supporters in street corners singing and calling their support.
On electi
on day things were very tense you could feel it, as we biked our way down to the Place de la Bastille there were busloads of cops already getting ready for the problems (that did eventuate later that night), as well as the swarming international media it was incredible.As we hanged out with our friends waiting anxiously for th
e results I looked at the window and I could see all televisions on through the living room windows with people also waiting. When we found out the results (47% Royal, 53% Sarkozy) it was very anti-climatic.We all decided to head out to the local gay friendly bar near George Pompidou in Le Marais which is cartier with a strong Jewish and gay flavour to drown our sorrows.
As we rode along the road you suddenly looked around and see that the cops had shut down all the streets that lead to the Place de la Bastille, and you could see smoke (tear gas) in the background.
It was a very surreal night, as Sabrina and I rolled home to Republique you could hear the shouting from afar. As we got closer there were cops and people clashing throwing bottles and tear gas at each other.
Later that night our friends Cristina and Mariama decided to take a tour and they were tear gased. They saw some cops being overly aggressive with a young guy and they stood there to watch
and put pressure on the cop to stop, the cop gave them 3 seconds to move and then pulled out the tear gas.I expect that there will be lots of disquiet with Sarkozy, and I must say that unlike how the international media has potrayed it, it was not a whitewash for Sarkozy there are many against almost 50% so it will be an interesting year to say the least.
Cazuela
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