hankyoreh

The French presidential campaign was dominated by strong interest and demands for change from the masses. Voter turnout was evidence of this. As many as 83.77 percent of eligible voters voted in the first round on April 22, and the final vote saw 83.97 percent turnout, surprisingly high for modern society, where political apathy and cynicism run rampant. The fact that it was a race between a man and a woman of the post-war generation representing the political left and right probably contributed to the high turnout. However, even more a contributing factor was the intense policy debate between the two candidates about what a " France unlike the past" should look like and the explosive interest the public took in it. What it means is that France is at a crossroad of change.

The victory of Nicholas Sarkozy of the right-leaning Union for a Popular Movement may be a sign that French society is moving to the right. Observers note the country's economic stagnation, with a yearly growth rate is 2 percent and has had 8 percent unemployment for 20 years, is the reason. Sarkozy ran his campaign promising changes towards a market-oriented economy, including a more flexible labor market, tax cuts, and a reorganization of the 35 hour work week. His opponent, Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal, defended welfare and the 35 hour week, but she was still more pro-business than traditional leftist candidates. Even within the Socialist Party many saw economic growth as the biggest issue. This time around France's independent foreign policy, which likes to stress that it is different from that of the United States, was not a point of contention. That shows you how everyone was interested in finding a way for France to recover from economic stagnation, and that is a departure from the climate that has existed for the left and the right in France for decades.

The Socialist Party has lost the last three presidential elections because it was unable to accept change and because it failed to even maintain its identity. In this latest election it fought with itself over whether to return to its traditional leftist supporters or to move more towards the center. Royal and the Socialist Party never showed a France in need of change what their leftist strategy and vision for national development would have been. "The left would not have become this week had it reformed itself," said a party official when the vote was over. That is something that resonate in Korean society as well.



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