Be very afraid - A socialist is coming to power in France

[Mass]

This is at least the message if the Boston's CBS affiliate this morning who announced that the far left was coming to power in France. (my husband and I looked at each other with surprise).

The latest polls, remarkably consistent, seems indeed to confirm than Hollande will be the likely winner on Sunday.

http://www.sondages-en-france.fr/sondages/Elections/Pr%C3%A9sidentielles%202012

This said, Hollande is not exactly far left by any standard of French politics. He may best be qualified as center left and was actually the centrist candidate during his primary. So, I can only think that another local reporter got spooked by the word "socialist", the big bad wolf.

[abelenkpe]

1. Better Hollande than the far right anti immigrant candidate nt

[get the red out]

2. Afraid of what?

That French people make a decision our corporate media doesn't like?

[Mass]

6. Probably, or of this red flag that the word "socialism" seems to be for most people in this country.

[get the red out]

7. Yes, and I guess their election would be President Obama's fault

I called a FB "friend" on her "Obama is a socialist" propaganda this morning with actual facts to the contrary, she has not yet refuted. Sad, she's a widow working on completing the degree she never finished, those Rethug friends of hers will do her a lot of good on that one! But hey, they aren't socialists and she won't get a degree or new career, but she won't go to hell when she dies for voting for "abortionists". Just makes me ill........

[Capt. Obvious]

3. I'm afraid of Freedom Fries returning to menues

[ProSense]

4. Krugman: Hollande Hysteria

Hollande Hysteria

Today’s FT is all Hollande, all the time. Some of it is sensible; some of it is like, well, this piece by Josef Joffe, which declares that Hollande’s likely victory is “a bleak prospect for all but new Keynesians and old socialists.”

I guess I should be flattered that Joffe considers the great debate to be between austerity hawks and … me. But he says that it’s a “tired” debate — because debating how to fight mass unemployment just gets boring, you know?

Joffe is, however, useful as a guide to the German view, which is basically that we got ourselves competitive and restored growth, so why can’t everyone else. Somehow he never mentions that Germany’s recovery in the 2000s was driven by a huge move into trade surplus; is everyone supposed to do the same thing, all at once? What’s the Germany for “fallacy of composition”?

Philip Stephens has a very good pushback against Hollande hysteria:

The influential Economist has declared on its front cover that Mr Hollande is “dangerous” – though, being British, it did add a qualifying “rather” to this disobliging epithet. The would-be president, the magazine observed, “genuinely (my italics) believes in the need to create a fairer society”. Well, what could be more dangerous than that?

Such alarmism rests on some curious premises: that the lesson of the recent past is that governments should never meddle with the markets; and that Europe’s present economic strategy has been a roaring success in rebuilding public finances and restoring economic growth.

And Wolfgang Munchau is cautiously hopeful, as am I.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/hollande-hysteria/

[Mass]

5. Thanks Prosense.

The British media has been relentlessly anti Hollande. I have seen the frontpage of the Economist, and it is ridiculous

[Recursion]

8. "Socialist" in France doesn't exactly mean what it does here

Think something closer to a New England Republican.

[Mass]

9. The problem is that socialist here is a meaningless term used to frighten people.

This said, your comparison with New England Republican is baseless. Think progressive Democrats rather (though obviously we have our blue dogs too).

[Recursion]

11. Remember DSK? He'd be a "liberal" in England (which is to say, a moderate Republican here) (nt)

[Mass]

12. he is considered the right of the socialist party. And no, he is not like the liberals in England

anyway. Though he is probably more business friendly that most Socialists (but not most dems in this country).

Named by Sarkozy to the Worldbank.

I'm French and live in New England, so I have a pretty good perspective of what we're talking here.

[qb]

10. Excellent news!