France Wins With Sarkozy

*

Royal reminded France that if they elected Sarkozy, the Urban Youth would riot in the streets.

I wonder if her comments did anything but underscore how different the two candidates were in their thinking with regards to how best handle the unruly denizens of the "Zones Urbaines Sensibles".

I had figured that Royal would win this.

I was wrong.

~~~

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.

Within minutes of polls closing, Royal conceded defeat in a speech to party faithful in the heart of Paris.

"I hope that the next president of the republic fulfils his role in the service of all French people," she said.

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.

Turnout was predicted at about 85 percent.

Sarkozy's face flashed up on television screens after polling stations closed at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), signaling his victory and setting off jubilant scenes among supporters gathered in central Paris.

Across the city at Socialist headquarters there was gloom and sorrow after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reform to make itself more appealing to voters.

Although opinion polls regularly suggested voters preferred Royal, who was seeking to become France's first woman head of state, they saw the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic program.
http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-05-06T181532Z_01_L06633468_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRANCE-ELECTION.xml

It looks like the rioters did not even bother waiting until the polling was complete before they decided to torch cars and vandalize polling places. (Hat tip to No Pasaran!)

~~~

34 voitures brûlées dans la nuit
06 mai 2007

19h13. Trente-quatre voitures ont été brûlées à Paris dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche avant le second tour de la présidentielle française. Les entrées de plusieurs bureaux de vote ont été bloquées par des vandales.

Trente-quatre voitures ont brûlé dans la nuit dont un véhicule de police, un nombre légèrement supérieur à celui de la nuit qui avait précédé le premier tour de l'élection le 22 avril, a indiqué dimanche une source policière.

Devant les bureaux de vote?
Le maire du 1er arrondissement parisien, Jean-François Legaret, a indiqué à l'AFP, citant des informations policières, que certaines voitures avaient été brûlées devant des bureaux de vote. La police n'a pas souhaité confirmer ces informations afin de «ne pas troubler le scrutin» présidentiel en cours.

Selon l'élu parisien, membre du parti UMP du candidat de droite Nicolas Sarkozy, au moins les deux tiers de la cinquantaine de bureaux de vote des quatre arrondissements du centre de Paris ont eu leurs serrures bloquées avec de la colle, des allumettes, des morceaux de fer, des mégots de cigarette. Certains bureaux ont ouvert avec un peu de retard.
http://tsr.blogs.com/info/2007/05/34_voitures_brl.html