France's Third Party Candidate...

Francois Bayrou is making a serious run, coming as the saying goes out of nowhere. Story here WashingtonPost.

Don't know about his politics but found this statement of his quite interesting:

With one candidate who would like France to be America and one who would like it to be Scandinavia, it is time to show France wants to be France!"

The American-phile candidate is Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate of the right (and ruling party), known for crackdowns on French Arab youth. The Scandinavian-phile is Segolene Royal, the leftist socialist candidate who in typical leftist fashion wants to expand massively the state infrastructure and welfare apparatus. Whatever the politics, that's a nifty slogan.

And this:

[Bayrou] says he doesn't want to spend as much money on social programs as the Socialists and doesn't want to be quite as draconian on immigration matters and security issues as the ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement. "I am a centrist," Bayrou said in an interview. "Left and right is not the only reference for people anymore." Bayrou said he believes coalitions made up of ministers from several parties are "the way to govern modern societies."

The first round is April 22nd. Right now Bayrou is trailing Royal by about 3-4 points. But interestingly in every head to head poll--against either Royal or Sarkozy--Bayrou wins. He's looking like Crash....if he can only get nominated, the Oscar looks to be his.

tags technorati : france

tags technorati : bayrou