The vote today did not decide the final election, but narrowed it down to the final two candidates. There had been ten to choose from in this vote. Final voting occurs on May 6.
Marine Le Pen came in third with 18.1% and Sarkozy will have to win over a good portion of her far right votes, in order to be able to beat Hollande. For her National Front party it was a huge night, as they gained their highest number of votes ever.
Communist Jean-Luc Melenchon, who had nearly 12%, urged his followers to back Hollande. Francis Bayrou, considered the top centrist, took 9%. The remaining five candidates, split only about five percent of the vote.
This is the first time, during the Fifth Republic, that a returning President has failed to win the first round. Current polls suggest Hollande will win. If Sarkozy can not sway enough to his side, he will become the first incumbent not to win the election since 1981. At that time socialist Francois Mitterrand was elected for two terms.
"The choice is simple, either continue policies that have failed with a divisive incumbent candidate or raise France up again with a new, unifying president," Mr Hollande said. He promises to raise taxes on the rich and on corporations, increase the minimum wage, lower retirement to sixty, and higher sixty thousand new teachers.
Sarkozy promises to continue working on lowering the national debt. He also wants to create a tax that would tax anyone who moved out of France for tax reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment