slow-dog.entry21.04.2002: "french primaries"

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The cheese eaters had their primaries, and boy are lots of people upset with the results. Here are the tallies:

Jacques Chirac President (RPR) 19.8%
Jean-Marie Le Pen National Front 17.4%
Lionel Jospin Prime minister (Socialist) 16%
François Bayrou UDF 6.5%
Arlette Laguiller Trotskyite Workers' Struggle 6.3%
Noel Mamére Green 5.5%
Jean-Pierre Chevènement Radical nationalist 5.3%
Olivier Besancenot Trotskyite Revolutionary Communist League 4.5%
Jean Saint-Josse Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition party 4%
Alain Madelin Liberal Democracy 3.8%
Robert Hue Communist party 3.6%
Bruno Mégret National Republican Movement 2.4%
Corinne Lepage Independent ecologist 1.7%
Christiane Taubira Radical Left party 1.6%
Christine Boutin Independent centrist 1.1%
Daniel Gluckstein Trotskyite Workers' party 0.5%

Did anyone know that there were three separate Trotskyite parties in France, as well as a Communist party? And that still, this is inadequate choice for some, such that a Radical Left party was needed to represent another viewpoint? Looking at the party names, it appears that the same can be said for the environmentalists, who have two parties, and for the nationalists, who seem to have three. So now all the Trotskyites are going to have to swallow their pride and vote for Chirac, who doesn't appear to make anyone in France happy with his shifting positions on everything from economics to the environment.

07:24 PM PST