Posts Tagged "Campaigns"

Politics and Me: I’ll have to sit this one out

The General Election is the 6^th of May. I should be out and about in Bath and North East Somerset campaigning like (I hope) my friends are.

Instead, I’m in Spain. I keep reminding people, to their surprise, that I study languages, not politics. Amazingly, students of politics are the least politically engaged people I know, but that’s another story.

So I’ve spent this year, the third year of my degree split between France and Spain. In France I was working for my ideological colleagues, and now friends, in the Parti Socialiste and the Conseil Regional (Regional Government.) There, I fought two elections; the by-election in September, then the Regional Elections in March. It was a small defeat followed by a massive triumph, and as far as memories go, I’ll never forget them or the people there.

I always say that politics is my hobby, which makes people laugh, because in fact it’s so much more than that. I say to all those people who don’t engage in it, that think we’re all the same, or even ask me (with contempt) why I even bother:

I’ll stand up for you even though you won’t stand up for yourself, because someone has to.

I hate, with deadly seriousness, that I can’t be there now for the General Election. Not just for me, but for all those people who don’t understand what’s at stake.

At the risk of repeating that Clinton moment, I just don’t want to see my country fall behind. I can understand if a Tory Government is elected, but what really hurts is that I was unable to do anything about it. I want to make a contribution but I can’t. I feel very helpless.

I just have to sit on the sidelines, watching with intent, with nothing but this website, that everybody ignores, including my friends.

So I say to you all, get out there and campaign for whoever you feel will do the job, make a choice, and stick to it, because we all have to live with the consequences.

My Very French By-Election: Round 1 Results

On Sunday night, I received the results to Round 1 of the by-election. They make for interesting reading!

I had to deal with it in an Excel spreadsheet and figure out who was who, but YOU get this nice handy chart:

So, there are a number of interesting conclusions I draw from this. (Note the French use a comma instead of a decimal point. Even punctuation translates.)

1. Unsurprisingly, the UMP candidate is way ahead with 40.54% compared to us in second place with 15.38%. This means that we go to the second round on Sunday, but it doesn’t look likely that we will win.

2. The Greens failed miserably. There score is way below what they should have expected considering their performance at the EU Parliament Elections. They have also (once again) refused to enter an alliance with us. In fact, in an interview a Green (not important who) said “The principles of the PS are not compatible with Europe Ecologie” – A barely veiled call to vote Right, I think.

3. The “Left” put together about 35%. I don’t know about “Modem” (Lib Dems!) but I think the Communists are willing to help.

4. Participation was 20%. Not surprising for a by-election taking place during the summer and just after the return to school, yet still despicable.

5. The Extreme Right is the really interesting one, in which I eat my own words. I had said not to worry too much about the FN because they had collapsed in 2007. You can’t argue that 8% isn’t a good performance, add it to his other fascist-friend (Nissa Identitaire) and you have a total of 16%. It seems they’re getting their act together once again.

Nevertheless, nothing is lost. Into the breach, camarades!

If you have any questions, I’ll answer them in the comments.

My Very French By-Election: Round 1

As voters in Pasteur, Cimiez and Libération vote in the first round of the by-election for Nice 6, I’ll take you through the choice they face. There are 11 candidates in total from the extreme left all the way to the extreme right. The two winners from today will go through to round 2 next Sunday. Meaning there’s still a week to go before we definitely definitely win.

The Heavyweights

The local press has framed the election mainly as a “duel between left and right” with the two main parties in France likely to go through.

Xavier Garica: Parti Socialiste

My team! Xavier Garcia is the press spokesman for the Parti Socialiste and grew up in the constituency. He seems to be the only candidate with a consistent slogan “Pour mieux vivre dans notre quartier” (To improve life in our neighbourhood”) and a very good poster designer (not me). His website is also first rate.

We put out a questionnaire at the beginning of the campaign and had over 500 responses. Guess whose task it was to put the answers in a spreadsheet? Yo. At least now I know this section of town better than most residents of Nice.

His only potential weaknesses are the image of the PS at a national level (a mess) and the fact that he has never run for anything before. However, this could of course work in his favour compared to our adversary.

Lauriano Azinheirinha: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire

The “favourite” in that the UMP won the election first time round but were disqualified (The PS did not field a candidate; see the Greens). They have glossy leaflets and incumbency on their side.

However, the candidate is not particularly well known despite already being a Deputy Mayor. He is relying on the charisma and name recognition of Christian Estrosi. As you can see in the picture “Estrosi avec Lauriano!” and on all his literature the name Estrosi has been in bold. Dirty Tricks abundant, Estrosi even wrote a letter to the residents of the canton telling them who to vote for. TSK.

The problem with riding on Estrosi’s coattails is that they are plenty of anti-Estrosi people out there!

The Lightweights

Though there are other minor characters we’ve seen out and about:

Vincent Péchenot: Les Verts (Greens)

When the elections were officially taking place, the PS decided not to field their own candidate but make an agreement with the Greens, as they work together in the group Changer D’ère in the Mayoralty.

From what I gather, this gent is not really a viable candidate to go against the UMP war machine so the PS decided to take it upon themselves.

I’ve seen them out leafletting fairly frequently, though it was off to a slow start. One particular occasion they were riding around Pasteur on bicycles with green flags. That might work in Cimiez (lots of richy-ecologist types) but not so much in Pasteur. D’oh!

Then we have this not very interesting assortment of right-wingers, most of whom pitch them selves as “UMP without the UMP part” or just plain “No to Estrosi”. (Spot the Lib Dem)

The Loonies

And you can’t have 11 candidates without finding a few comedy gems and plain old nightmares!

Communists

Though the Parti Communiste is typically considered mainstream, I just haven’t quite got used tot eh idea that Communists still exist. The PCF campaign hasn’t been great at all, and their literature has been AWFUL. It’s a nice poster though, if a little cluttered by logos.

We haven’t seen much of this guy apart from posters, but he’s definitely my favourite after Xavier (for a different reason); I don’t know why, but everytime I pass his poster I die from laughing, perhaps you can figure it out:

Hahaha. It’s just brilliant. First, contrast it with the others and you notice a certain rough-and-ready quality.

Second, compare it with the official Communist Party candidate: The Black-and-White photo, OLD-SCHOOL! For all those who feel that the Communist Party is just too damn right wing these days! We need a PROPER communist around here.

I think it’s the Hammer and Sickle that gets me.

The Fascists

So we have the extreme Left, now take a look at the extreme Right:

Jean-Louis Faudi: Front National

The bigger brother of the BNP, the FN has been the subject of many questions posed to me.

First, it has to be said that the FN has not got a huge presence in Nice any more. It just to be very strong, but due to local internal fighting the organisation all but collapsed. You tend to find pockets of FN activity, but I haven’t seen any obvious activism as I think they only come out at night. I have seen areas with “Le Pen: President” stickers on lamp posts, and they have covered a fair bit of ground in terms of paper, but nothing slick.

Click on the poster above though, and you’ll notice a few things: One, he just looks plain evil, what with the squinting. Two, some have asked about  whether, like the BNP they have tried to “reinvent themselves.” I’ll point you to the black shirt. I’ll also point you to the mini picture of the Muslim women. The slogan reads “meme emballée, l’immigration n’est pas un cadeau” which means “Even wrapped up, Immigration is not a gift.”

Benoit Loeuillet: Nissa Rebelda

But for those of you out there who think the FN is for softy pinkos, there exists an even further right candidate for you!

This is, to my knowledge, the NiceIndependence  movement. You can see that some enterprising individual decided reveal his little Hiter ‘stache. The funny thing is he gave the kiss of death to Xavier in an interview where he said (roughly):

The only good surprise about this campaign has been that Garcia. At last! A lefty who is not afraid to talk about security. 2nd round, we vote for him.

Round 2

At the moment, I (like everyone else) am assuming that it is the UMP and the PS who will qualify, though the results will be announced officially tonight. Then it’s a straight head to head until the winner is decided next Sunday.

If all goes well, the Greens and Communists will come rallying to us. Conversely, it’s unlikely that the UMP guy, on such an overly pro-Estrosi platform, is going to win the support of the Far-Right or even the Centre-Right minor parties.

My very French By-election: The Battle for Nice 6

On Sunday, habitants of the 6th canton (district of a town) of Nice will go to the polls to elect a new Conseiller Général (It’s kind of like a Local Councillor).

This is a by-election, after the elected UMP candidate was disqualified for breaking the rules on funding. The area in question is Nice 6, which is a big district spanning from Libération through Pasteur and up to Cimiez.

Obviously, I’m going to present to you a very impartial and balanced view:

Votez pour nous!

I’ve been on the Campaign Team for the Parti Socialiste; our candidate is Xavier Garcia. I’ve been particularly involved with this because he is also the man who welcomed me to France and offered my current job. I am thus especially indebted to him for his kindness and hope you will all join his Facebook group, even if you can’t vote, or even if you can’t understand French. Hopefully, I have helped him as much as he has helped me. (You might recognise his website from somewhere…)

The Candidates and Parties

There are 11 candidates, ranging from the Communist Party to the Socialist Party to the UMP and the National Front, with plenty in between.

Amazingly the Left is more united than the Right, (how is that possible, you cry?) with just the PCF (Communists) and the PS (Socialists) and the Greens.

The Right on the other hand, (as it would be) is privy to Sarkozy’s UMP, an independent friend-of-the-embittered-former-mayor, a whole host of other tiny independents and of course the National Front, the older brother of the BNP. I haven’t seen more than a poster from them, but I have heard they’ve been around.

How to say NO

A question I am frequently asked is “Don’t they all hate you?” The answer is in fact, no! Of course there is an abundance of right wingers, but they don’t get angry, they just say “no thanks, I’m from the Right” so we say “Okay, have a nice day” and move on. The Lefties are the ones who are generally more energetic, particularly the old ones against “the reactionary Right!”

One man does stick in my mind though, we knocked on his door and he told us that he “always voted but neither left nor right.” I think he was FN…

Leaflets and Literature

I’ve learned a great deal about effective campaigning (I’ve learned plenty of what-not-to-do as well, from the other parties of course). Perhaps it’s a French condition, but they all seem to love writing long letters with lots of text.

I’ve collected most of the literature I’ve seen while out and about which ranges from the very very good, to the very very bad. So here are a few of the highlights:

My favourite include an early leaflet from the UMP which focuses mainly on the personality of the mayor, Christian Estrosi, rather than the local candidate. In a style that suggests “Our glorious leader presents to you… some guy!” Estrosi’s name features first, is bigger, and is in a brighter colour than the gent who is actually running.

Then a Communist piece (in monochrome BLUE ink, just to add to the confusion) which spans four pages of nothing but text. Which a sort of questionnaire at the end of each proposition, where the choices are “I share this view” or “I do not share this view” or “I have a different view” – That’s Communism, I suppose!

Who is going to win?

I don’t know. I think the PS has put forward the best campaign, but there are a lot of UMP voters out there anyway. The French system dictates that there are two rounds of elections, so hopefully we will get through on Sunday to round 2, which will be between just two (maybe three) or the bigger candidates.

Stay Tuned.

Facing the French public, and joining in

Today I embarked on the first of the international political practice of leafleting and petition signing.

I’ve thus been getting involved in the campaign against the construction of line 2 for trams on the Promenade des Anglais, which is the long walkway and road that goes along the front of the sea and, of course, the beach. I’ve only been there briefly so far (where I saw that, like English beaches, it is in fact mainly stones, but, unlike English beaches, the sea is blue and appealing) but all you need to know is that the site is very beautiful, and that’s what everyone comes to see. (Evidence of this to follow in the post).

A group of us went to the Palais de Justice (the courthouse) where there is a square outside at 1000h to get started. Approach someone with the clipboard: “Bonjour Monsieur/Madame, dites non au tram sur la prom?”

The majority of the time I just got a simple but polite “non merci” though in two hours I managed to get about 20 signatures. My main cultural question is at what point a Mademoiselle becomes a Madame, so I had to restrict my efforts to old women in that sense to remove all doubt. A few people where busy, a few poilte, a few in favour of the tramway there and a few people with questions.

I managed to develop a few arguments in case I had some inquisitive people (and some took AGES to make their point, so I smile and nod and make affirmations like “Really?” “You’re right” until they stop and sign), though they were more akin to 1970s Soviet Rockets that an American Stealth Bomber in their sophistication, but it is day 3 after all.

If there are any French speakers who read this, I suggest you head over to the campaign website.

Still, all good fun for cultural learning.

In a similar vein, I’m delighted to say that I have already been asked directions by tourists who speak French badly worse than I do. It seems like I’m joining it quite well.

On a slightly more fun point, if any one you are going to France soon, see how many stereotypes cultural experiences you can find (I’ve done all these ones so far):

• People walking around with more than one baguette under their arm
• Someone throwing a cigarette not at you directly, but just where you are about to walk
• A French flag
• A French flag flying next to a European Union Flag
• A French flag flying next to a European Union Flag flying next to ANOTHER French Flag
• The words Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité inscribed somewhere
• Seeing someone almost get hit by a car even though they were at a crossing when the green man was shining
• A woman on a bicycle with a basket full of vegetables (I assume there were onions)
• Someone almost getting their toes cut off my a cyclist
• A man playing an accordian!

Europe: Democracy in spite of itself

We’ll kick off EuropeWeek with the biggest topic in British-European policy; The Lisbon Treaty. Let’s look at how it’s been handled rather than what it entails; we’ll save that one for later.

In 2004, the European Union underwent a “Big Bang” enlargement and added 10 Eastern European countries to its membership list. Meanwhile, the Convention on the Future of Europe met to draft what was known was the Constitutional Treaty. The aim was to scrap the previous treaties; Nice (2001), Amsterdam (1997), and Maastricht (1992), going right the way back to the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and start anew with a comprehensive Constitution for the EU in the globalised world.

It didn’t quite pan out like that.

In Britain, all the main parties promised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty during the ratification process in their manifesto. As the Constitutional Treaty made it’s way across Europe, it became more and more clear that it wouldn’t fly. The Dutch rejected it, as did the French, as did the Irish. By this time, it was called off for a redrafting. The British Government decided that there was no point kicking a dead Treaty, and so called off any referendum. There is little point in rejecting something that has already been rejected, apart from adding insult to injury.

Thus was born the Lisbon Treaty. Instead of a grand project for the EU, the Commission had to return to the traditional tinkering with an old engine and created a Reform treaty to amend the previous treaties. A much more modest scheme than before; it kept the necessary bits that would help the EU to cope with so many new (and vastly different) members while removing the bits people were upset about.

The problem is that the People weren’t really talking about Constitutions and enlargement and other lofty EU issues. They were talking about other things, this is the inherent problem with referenda.

In Ireland, the ‘No’ vote was successful because of some fears over abortion laws (or something like that). In France, the ‘No’ result was attributed to fears of an invading Polish Plumber who would steal French jobs, in a country which terminally has about 8% unemployment. The French also wanted to tell Jacques Chirac how useless he was.

It seems very democratic to have a referendum; it’s almost as democratic as a proper election. Who better to decide anything other than The People? The trouble is that The People don’t answer your question if they have something else to say.

France likes to have referenda because it knows that the actual subject doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make a difference what the implications of saying ‘non’ are, it’s just fun to do. Charles de Gaulle was brought down in a referendum in 1969 over a trivial amendment to the Constitution, which through the campaign became a Confidence Vote.

Likewise, in 1992, on Maastricht, the French passed the Treaty. President François Mitterrand had identified himself so closely with the European Integration Project he staked his reputation on it. Consider the following quote from a French Minister:

About 70% of the population are Pro-Europe, while 70% are anti-Mitterrand, so I would say the result will be about 50-50.

The result was 51-49 in favour. I hope you see what I mean.

Maastricht brings us neatly back to Britain. While the French people were voting to establish the European Union, the British people were watching their elected representatives do the same, as they have done for every Amending Treaty before and after. The last referendum was in 1975 under Harold Wilson on a Europe “in-or-out” ticket.

The debate has never really moved on since.

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