RSSA “Royal” Defeat … Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy Wins France’s Presidential Election … “the US could count on France’s friendship”
Call it a “Royal” defeat or Strike 3, Socialists in France go down in smoke as 
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins Presidential election with an estimated 53% of the vote.
PARIS (Reuters) – Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won France’s presidential election on Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a comfortable margin and extending the right’s 12-year grip on power.
Forecasts by four pollsters showed Sarkozy, 52, a hard-line former interior minister, won around 53 percent of the vote in the second-round ballot and will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was president for 12 years.
In an even more stunning and welcome turn of events come the following comment from France’s President elect:
Sarkozy wins French presidency
PARIS, France (CNN) — Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy greeted news of his election Sunday to a five-year term as France’s president with a vow to serve as a leader for all people of France.
“The president of the republic must love and respect all the French,” he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. “I will be the president of all the French people”.
Sarkozy added that he wanted to tell his “American friends that they can rely on our friendship … France will always be next to them when they need us.”
This must just angst the BBC to report:
“the US could count on France’s friendship, but called on Washington to take a lead in the fight against climate change.” (BBC)
This after a more than strained relationship with outgoing French President. 74-year-old Jacques Chirac.
He also said he believed deeply in European integration, but appealed to France’s partners to understand the importance of social protection.
“[Voters] have chosen to break with the habits and the ideals of the past so I will rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit!” he said.
Others to read:
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Wizbang, Sarkozy is known as more pro-American, anti-terrorist, and reformist than either his predecessors or his opponent.
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Charles Bremmer, Times on Line
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9 Responses to “A “Royal” Defeat … Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy Wins France’s Presidential Election … “the US could count on France’s friendship””
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Good news for the French, although they have no idea what good news it really is. It is time someone brought some common sense to the sinking French. Let’s hope it is not too late.
Actually, though, Sarkozy has always been opposed to the war in Iraq and made that clear during his campaign.
Opposed to the war??? He has one going on in his country right now.
He knows what the stakes are and he knows France is on the front lines.
For too long, just as in the U.S., our politicians have pandered for votes and immediate gratification over long term planning. Definitely a flaw in our system
The French have come to their senses after 12 years of Chirac and the left the country has been left in shambles. They are the first of many to realize that ‘pluralism’ and ‘democracy’ come before saying or promising anything to certain religious or ethnic groups.
Watch for the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and yes, even the Dutch….to swing towards a conservative position. Europe is on the front line and the people are realizing that there are enemies in their midst that have no interest in following the rule of law. I see difficult times for Europe over the next 20 years as they work to get rid of many of the social blights they have created through nanny state policies.
Vive la France! md
Sarkozy showed he is a stand-up guy by visiting Bush even before the elections—that took a lot of guts.
The Guardian laughably describes Royal as “moderate-centrist” and Sarkozy “right wing.” From their infra-red [euro-style political color spectrum]perspective, that is probably what they perceive—but the sane part [non-Guardian/Independent] part of the highbrow Brit press sees Sarkozy as more of a Thatcher than Royal would have been perceived as a Blair.
Sarkozy has a mandate, after 86% of the French electorate has spoken.
how about starting by declaring Floyd Landis the winner of the Tour De France ?
Sarkozy declared himself a European (bad news for the Brits) and said of the US:
I want to issue an appeal to our American friends, to tell them that they can count on our friendship, which has been forged in the tragedies of history which we have faced together.
I want to tell them that France will always be by their side when they need it, but I also want to tell them that friendship means accepting that your friends may think differently and that a great nation such as the United States has a duty not to put obstacles in the way of the fight against global warming, but on the contrary to take the lead in this fight, because what is at stake is the fate of humanity as a whole. France will make this battle its primary battle.
Wonder why everything here is italic … some kind of ironic comment on France?
Anyway, this is not a 180-degree swing in French sentiment. There will always be bilateral tension.
But my guess is that the French have something on their mind: Muslim immigrants. I know I’ll be immediately accused of racism, religious hauteur (let’s throw in a few French words), sexism (may as well) and everything else.
But I think the reality of homegrown terror groups, and the continued tilting of society as the soaring Muslim birth rate contrasts with the declining overall birth rate, is giving some people the willies.
I’m not saying anything about Islam. I’m referring specifically to the growth of terrorism that seems to be accompanying it. Fair or not, that’s the image we’re seeing, and my guess is that the French think Sarkozy is the one who will do something about it.
We’ll see.
Sarkozy would be wise to make the “primary battle” muslim immigration, its influence and long-term impact on France.
Hang on, Wolfie, help is on the way.