Reply #116: Merde alors; but I doubt that the results are fraudulent

[LeftishBrit]

Apart from Mitterand, all French presidents since the war have been Conservatives. And Royal, though she would have been a much better president, was rather vague and ineffective as a candidate.

This is not a change of party (Chirac was a Conservative); it is a possible shift to the right *within* a party. Any Brit who has seen what Thatcher did to the Conservatives, and what Blair did to Labour, realizes that such a shift within a party is potentially at least as serious as a change to a more right-wing party. But a French president is not as powerful as an American one, and probably not as powerful as a British PM with a large parliamentary majority; and I hope that the changes will not in fact be too great.