Saturday, May 05, 2007
FRENCH WARNED
Segolene Royal deploys the politics of fear:
Slipping in the polls ahead of France’s presidential vote on Sunday, Socialist Segolene Royal launched a last-minute broadside against right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy, warning his election would unleash violence across the country.
In her most outspoken attack yet on Sarkozy’s “dangerous candidacy”, Royal said she had a “responsibility to issue an alert over the risks ... regarding the violence and brutalities that will be triggered across the country. Everyone knows it but no-one says it. It is a kind of taboo.”
Her comments Friday on RTL radio were taken as a direct warning to voters that a Sarkozy victory on Sunday could set off riots in the high-immigration suburbs similar to ones in November 2005.
You’d hope this would provoke a Sarkozy landslide. Voting is underway.