FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION/GREEK ELECTION 2012

Nicolas Sarkosy has just conceded defeat and says he has called Francois Hollande and wished him luck. He has lost by 2% or thereabouts.

In Greece it looks like a right shambles, with the votes for the two main parties who have ruled for decades being hammered and the fringe parties getting votes - including the neo-nazi Golden Dawn Party. LL

Thanks, LL, I've just been watching the scenes in France....bit of a change, then.

I know nothing about Greek politics, but neo-Nazis are never good.

Where is our French correspondent? What does this mean?

It means that my British State Pension will improve somewhat because the Euro will suffer. And apparently all of the rich French will decamp to Britain, so Hollande won't get all of those crippling taxes he has been threatening.
Not looking good as far as I can see. But it won't affect me all that much as I am a Tax Payer in France of many years standing, despite never having paid any Tax.

bb1 wrote:Where is our French correspondent? What does this mean?

She's away to watch some TV programme, I believe. What it means is that France has gone Socialist, the first Socialist President since, I think, Mitterand. But it was a very close thing; one wonders how many of the National Front people followed Marine LePen and posted a blank election form. And now what happens over the immigrants, the economy, the austerity program .... apparently Hollande is already booked to visit Angela Merkel in Berlin and Barack Obama in Washington DC. LL

From Sky about Greece:

The Golden Dawn party's policies include placing landmines on the Turkish border to stem immigration.



Would rich French people really want to come to the UK, Sabot? The UK is in a shambles - well, I suppose it always is - and it hasn't stopped raining since the government banned hosepipes in the South East of England.

I am feeling a bit depressed. Watching TF1. The usual amateur commentators shouting at each other, although this didn't happen when Sarkozy won. Very bad manners.

Dancing in the streets in Tulle and some Departments of Paris. But absolute silence around here. Not so much as a peep of a celebration. Although I have never had the nerve to ask them who they vote for. But I would have expected something if they were feeling happy.

The thought of Francois Hollande at The Bastille Day Parade is making me feel quite ill. A Parade that I am normally riveted to.

Actually, Francois Hollande is far from lacking intelligence, but if he thought he was going to get away with a 75% Tax Rate then he can't be a bright as i thought. The very rich will leave France in droves. I think. And the poor will get no more than they do already.

Local Services are paid for by the people of each Commune, and generally very well run, so no great improvement needed there. We never have a problem with Trash Bins being emptied, or Roads being repaired.

No one will be throwing me out.

bb1 wrote:From Sky about Greece:

The Golden Dawn party's policies include placing landmines on the Turkish border to stem immigration.



Would rich French people really want to come to the UK, Sabot? The UK is in a shambles - well, I suppose it always is - and it hasn't stopped raining since the government banned hosepipes in the South East of England.

Popular opinion seems to be that some of the rich will move to Britain. It's not too far from home, you see. And there are a lot of French already living in Britain.

if he thought he was going to get away with a 75% Tax Rate then he can't be a bright as i thought.

A what? Yes, anyone who can will bail out and buy extra umbrellas.

I had a bank manager who looked like him years ago. We didn't really see eye to eye on financial matters...

Oh my God. They are all heading for The Bastille. I hope they aren't going to start chopping heads off in the general excitement. But there's no knowing what they might do if they think that the rich are bailing out. You know what The French can be like when they get carried away.

From the Mail, it sounds as if they're going to be doing a bit of shopping before they riot:

The Euro has gone down by one penny. That has cheered me up a bit, although it isn't what I wanted. But I suppose I might as well make the best of it.

I suppose it's an ill wind...I don't really understand it, I will wait for the heavy papers to read about it.

But financial instability is bad for the euro, isn't it?

bb1 wrote:I suppose it's an ill wind...I don't really understand it, I will wait for the heavy papers to read about it.

But financial instability is bad for the euro, isn't it?

Not when you are dealing in Pounds, it's not. When The Euro is unstable you get more Euros for your Pounds.
Actually, it's more complicated than that. More to do with the value of The Pound. Back six or seven years ago you only had to pay 70 pence for a Euro which was normal and stable. But then The Pound went tits up, and at one point you had to pay 90 pence for a Euro, so 80 pence isn't bad, although still not good.
The election of Francois Hollande could bring the whole thing back to some sort of sensible balance. I do hope so. And then I might be able to afford to stop working.

A commentator on a German TV channel pointed out that France gets another 'foreign' leader. Sarkosy is part Hungarian, Hollande is of Dutch descent. He wondered why the French could not produce a 'genuine' French man/woman to lead them. LL

Watch This Page. It'll be me next time. And I'm going to deport all they Brits.

Whinging Poms.
Stop The Church Clock Bell.
Ban Hunting.
Learn English.
Sell Heinz Beans.
Dish Out Benefits To Brits.
Behead All Cocks. [of the feathered variety, I hasten to add]
Ban Tractors.

I sometimes wonder what some of them are doing here anyway.

Nothing wrong with a Ducth politican leader, as long as his name is not Geert Wilders.

Rose wrote:Nothing wrong with a Ducth politican leader, as long as his name is not Geert Wilders.

Nobody said there was, the German commentator was merely saying that the French, who are so very patriotic, seem to be low on the ground with 'true' French politicians. - what the hell is he doing with that pen (?) ?? LL

My comment has nothing to do with you LL, djeez
Pen: I hope he's poking his conscience and remembers his own background...
He was born in Indonesia and came to Holland as a fugutive (child), he is married to a Hungarian woman and loves to bleach his hair,
makes him look like an Aryan man, brrrrrrrrr

Rose wrote:My comment has nothing to do with you LL, djeez

What does this mean, besides nothing good?

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16226705

Germany's Eurozone Plans Could Go Astray

1:57pm UK, Saturday May 12, 2012
Tadhg Enright, business correspondent
You would have been a fool if you did not see this coming. Then again, an awful lot of foolishness in Athens, Brussels and Berlin got us into this mess in the first place.

When Greece's technocrat government negotiated its second bailout in as many years everyone knew that a general election was around the corner.
That is why Eurocrats said all of Greece's party leaders had to give promises - in writing - that they would not to try to undo the draconian spending cuts demanded by Athens' bailout masters, the EU and IMF.
Two years of broken promises by the Greek government should have been enough to show that it would never turn out that way.
The crisis that has enveloped the Eurozone has also done away with the thin veil hiding the identity of the real leader of the club and Germany is talking tough with its wayward subject.
It is telling Greeks that membership of the currency must go hand in hand with a balanced budget, however difficult that is to achieve.
But this latest chapter in the Greek saga comes at an interesting time as other voices within the Euro club are more openly and trenchantly questioning the stewardship of Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has lost her chief ally in France with Nicolas Sarkozy giving way to President-elect Francois Hollande whose campaign was fought on all manner of anti-austerity platforms including turning back the clock on the French retirement age and bringing it back to 60.
The Netherlands government collapsed under the weight of public anger over its austerity measures.
All eyes will be on Ireland at the end of this month where voters, unusually, have the constitutional right to decide whether or not to sign up to 'Merkozy's' Fiscal Compact and the future of tight government spending controls it promises.
Berlin's well-laid plans look like they could very likely go astray but their rhetoric belies that reality. The strong message to Greece is: "Don't think we won't kick you out if we have to."
But although politicians, policymakers and analysts might have adopted a more blase attitude towards a Greek exit or 'Grexit' as the concept has become known, the ratings agency Fitch has done what it can to bring them back down to Earth.
"A Greek exit would break a fundamental tenet underpinning the euro - that membership of EMU is irrevocable," Fitch said in a statement.
There is no legal framework for a country to leave the Euro but if it were to happen it would set a legal precedent; a precedent that could be followed by others.
This past week has also highlighted the shaky ground on which the Spanish banking system stands.
And with almost one in four Spaniards out of work, many question if it can ever restore economic growth with an exchange rate fixed with that of the world's manufacturing and exporting heavyweight, Germany.
If Spaniards start to think that their own exit from the single currency could become a preferable reality, like Greeks they will start to transfer their euros to their mattresses in fear that they could be transformed into new age Pesetas overnight.
That is the kind of thing that could push the Spanish banking system over a cliff and repeated elsewhere in Europe it could trigger another wave of the crisis.
It is that kind of domino effect that Europe feared when the Greek crisis began and it is that kind of threat that has not gone away.

The Euro is now down to 79 pence. I might be able to afford some half decent heating next Winter if this keeps up, instead of relying on hot water bottles and two feather duvets.
But The Euro still has much further to go down to where it was five years ago. And further still to where it was at inception. It was 65 pence in those days. That means that you just had to pay 65 pence to buy one Euro. This was related to The Franc that was stable in those days.

Thanks, Sabot, it's easier to follow these things in practical terms...there doesn't seem to be any sign of the euro stopping falling, so Heaven knows what is going to happen.

There was an interesting piece in one of the Resident articles Pedro posted. Apparently, fewer and fewer Germans are going to Portugal because of this, and because they can reach the former communist states easily.

But because of the euro sliding, Portugal is getting much cheaper for UK residents, so ill winds, and all that.

We are not in the Euro, nor is the UK of course, so we are getting more for the £stg. It's rising at about 10 points per day. LL