ISSUES....
Inside, confidential, off the record

 

UMP embarrassed

We like Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, and we like him a lot (we like him even more following his wooing and winning of Ms. Bruni, but that's another story for times past) given his pledges on lower taxes, an expanded work week, hopes for smaller rather than larger bgovernment etc. Sadly, the voters in France seem not to be nearly as enamoured of "Sarko" as are we, for in local elections this past weekend "Sarko" and his UMP (the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party were rather heartily embarrassed, losing one locale after another to the centre-left Socialists. The UMP lost Paris; it lost Strasbourg; it lost Reims... and it lost the "popular vote" by 49.5% vs. 47.5% to the Socialists. The Socialists are trying, hard, to paint these elections as a referendum on Mr. Sarkozy, and perhaps they are to be seen that way in some small manner. But the Socialists have held control of the French cities and town for decades, and the election this weekend simply restored to the Left some of the cities they'd lost in previous elections. We have great hopes for Sarkozy and the UMP. We can see Mr. Sarkozy taking on the entrenched
left-of-centre powers who are responsible for creating such disasters as the 35 hour work week and the control of the nation's universities by anti-religious, far left-of-centre zealots, and we applaud him for his intentions; but we do wish he and the UMP had done better this past weekend; we really, really do.

-Dennis Garthman/The Gartman Letter/ 03 19 08

- For more on interesting comments, you can subscribe to The Gartman Letter by contacting Dennis Garthman: Phone 757 238 9346, Fax 757 238 9346 or dennis@thegartmanletter.com

 

Petroleumworld News 03/19/08

ISSUES.... Is an independent journalist effort from Petroleumworld, on Inside, Confidential
and Off The Record Information, its views are not necessarily those of Petroleumworld

Legal information: Copyright/Disclaimer

Copyright© 2008 respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.
We welcome the use of Petroleumworld™ stories by anyone provided it mentions Petroleumworld.com as the source. Other stories you have to get authorization by its authors.

 

Send this story to a friend

Your feedback is important to us!

We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.

Write to editor@petroleumworld.com

Any question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com

3


Best Viewed with IE 5.01+
Windows NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels