France's young Socialists back François Hollande to reignite fires of 1968

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/young-socialists-back-francois-hollande


Hugo Hanry, left, Sylvain Lobry, centre, and Florence Assan will vote for Martine Aubry. ‘Most of our lives all we have known is the right in power,’ says Assan. ‘Now we want change.’ Photograph: Magali Delporte for the Observer

The celebrated Bataclan nightclub in the edgy 11th arrondissement of Paris was stiflingly hot and, even by its own standards, it was heaving.

A young crowd in the audience cheered, shouted, applauded and whistled – a not unusual racket in a cutting-edge venue that once hosted an unknown Edith Piaf and, more recently, Pete Doherty.

Avant-garde bands and cult rock stars pull them in here. After the music, the youngsters will spill out on to the streets and talk will invariably turn to late-night parties and where to go next.

Last week, however, the Bataclan hosted an unlikely headline act: a balding, bespectacled man in a spectacularly dull suit whose nickname is Mr Normal. And the excited chatter was of political parties, where next for France, and who will triumph in the second, deciding round of the Socialist party primaries, which takes place today.

"François, president. François, president," shouted the crowd, supporting their favourite presidential candidate, François Hollande. Outside on the pavement, others watched on a hastily installed television screen.



***i'm very excited about the possibility of socialists returning to power in france.

[RKP5637]

1. K&R!!! n/t