With under 3 months left until the first round of the French presidential election on April 22, it maybe prudent to start paying attention to France, where socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande has just widened his lead over President Nicolas Sarkozy despite a flurry of measures being advanced by the conservative leader to boost employment and competitiveness, a poll showed on Tuesday. This is quite relevant for Europe, as Hollande has made it very clear that none of the recent treaties and agreements would stand in their current version if elected, in the process overturning austerity and the position of the ECB in Europe's bailout org chart, and will gradually add an element of uncertainty to the second most important country in Europe's core, even if no longer AAA-rated. And for those who say there is no chance Hollande could take over, according to IFOP Hollande would trash Sarkozy in a runoff election by a whopping 58% to 42%, a result that even Romney and Diebold would be envious of.
From Reuters [6]:
The opinion poll published by IFOP/Fiducial showed Mr Hollande extended his lead for the first election round on April 22 to 6.5 percentage points from 4 points two weeks ago, with 31 per cent support against 24.5 per cent for Mr Sarkozy.
It found Mr Hollande could win a second-round runoff on May 6 with 58 per cent versus 42 per cent for Mr Sarkozy, an increase of two percentage points for Mr Hollande versus two weeks ago.
The poll was conducted shortly after Mr Sarkozy, eager to cast himself as busily working to solve France's problems up to the very end of his mandate, was interviewed on prime-time TV on Sunday to detail reforms he aims to push through parliament ahead of the election.
Could it be that even the French are finally starting to wise up to the bullshit of their politicians. If so, how long before the same finally happens in America?