How Can Royal Win | 45 comments (45 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: How Can Royal Win (none / 0)

it is contradictory with the elections results: if leftwing voters had been so demoralised and angered, they would either have voted for the far-left or abstained.

He explains this very point elsewhere in his article

The answer lies in the tragic errors of the left. The far left, a force to be reckoned with in France, was unable to unite and present a single candidate. No fewer than three Trotskyist candidates, a Communist and the altermondialiste José Bové were competing for the votes of the same constituency. Their disunity rendered their campaign inaudible

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Apr 24th, 2007 at 11:24:39 AM EST
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Re: How Can Royal Win (none / 0)

In 2002, the far-left was not united: there were as many candidates of the far-left and, together, they made 19,06% of the votes (and you can add 5,33% for Chevènement). So the lack of unity doesn't explain the poor performance.
This remarkable performance was achieved by attracting voters who would have voted for Jospin (he obtained only 16,18% of the votes)
Abstention was much higher

So, his reasoning applies very well to the 2002 election, but not to the 2007 one!

And he doesn't explain why the far-left can't unite!

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

by Melanchthon on Tue Apr 24th, 2007 at 11:50:39 AM EST
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Re: How Can Royal Win (none / 0)

You can unite the left-wing authoritarians, but for the rest, uniting the left is like herding cats.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Apr 24th, 2007 at 11:53:25 AM EST
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How Can Royal Win | 45 comments (45 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)