Belgian and Swiss media are reporting that according to exit polls, Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate of the right-wing, has been elected President of France by a margin of 53 or 54 to 46 or 47 for Segolene Royal, the socialist candidate. Royal is the first woman to make it this far in a French presidential election. Her run was hobbled by some early gaffes from which she seemed unable to recover her footing. Sarkozy plans to pursue close ties with Bush and the U.S. and a neoliberal economic program that will hurt the most vulnerable in French society.
It's a disappointing development for our French friends and for the whole world. As many mistakes as Segolene made, I believe that she would have made a remarkable president. Sarkozy is poised to institute Le Pen-esque policies cracking down on those he has previously referred to as "rabble" and promised to clean out "with a fire hose"--anybody who doesn't look and act French. If anything, this election proves that Americans don't have a monopoly on reactionary politicians who get elected by using fear, division, and the politics of exclusion. Here's hoping for a better result in the upcoming French parliamentary elections.