<div>The nice thing about this is that the Greens, the Socialists, and the Communists, even if they don't win the majority of the vote, can force Nicolas Sarkozy to the left. I wish that could happen here in America.</div>
<div><br><br> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 8:56 PM, unionyes <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:unionyes@ameritech.net">unionyes@ameritech.net</a>></span> wrote:</div>
<div class="gmail_quote"><br><br>----- Original Message ----- From: <<a href="mailto:moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG" target="_blank">moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG</a>><br>To: <<a href="mailto:PORTSIDE@LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG" target="_blank">PORTSIDE@LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG</a>><br>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 9:48 AM<br>Subject: France's Rising Political Star<br><br><br></div>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">France's Rising Political Star<br><br> Just An 'Average Brunette' from the Banlieue<br><br>By Stefan Simons in Paris<br>
Spiegal (Germany)<br>April 9, 2010<br><br><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,687950,00.html#ref=nlint" target="_blank">http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,687950,00.html#ref=nlint</a><br>
<br>Cecile Duflot, the head of France's Green Party, has<br>become a rising star in Paris power politics. Following<br>her party's success in the European Parliament and last<br>month's regional elections, Duflot could become the<br>
kingmaker in France's next presidential election -- a<br>campaign in which a trio of women might unseat Nicolas<br>Sarkozy.<br><br>"We have been lucky to have won twice," a beaming<br>CĂ©cile Duflot begins. "First in the European elections<br>
last June and now in the regional elections." She still<br>has the figures at hand: "2.7 million French people<br>voted for us," and landed "265 delegates in 22<br>parliaments." But then the microphone fails.<br>
<br>"Some things never change," the young woman on the<br>stage says, laughing, joking about the organizational<br>chaos one usually expects from the Green Party. But<br>then, to confirm the movement's unity, she adds: "We<br>
are together and we will stay together." The 200<br>delegates in the Paris hall belonging to the French<br>Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), a major<br>umbrella group of trade unions in the country, cheer<br>
loudly.<br><br>She's sharp as a knife, she's quick on the uptake and,<br>on top of that, she's the graduate of a well-respected<br>business school in Paris with the face of a Madonna.<br>Duflot has all the qualities for a career in politics.<br>
Nonetheless, even when she was elected chairperson of<br>Europe Ecologie, the French Green Party, three years<br>ago, nobody really trusted her to do the job. "Young,<br>photogenic, likeable -- but totally unknown," the<br>
French leftist newspaper Libération wrote.<br><br>Greens Could Be Kingmakers of French Politics<br><br>But recently -- and particularly since the French<br>regional elections that delivered President Nicolas<br>Sarkozy a bitter defeat over three weeks ago -- Duflot<br>
has become a political star. Under her leadership,<br>Europe Ecologie garnered 12.5 percent of the vote. With<br>this result, the Greens finally became the third-most<br>powerful political party in France, after the<br>Socialists -- no small feat in a nation where the<br>
handing out of Michelin stars to high-class restaurants<br>often gets more attention than environmental policy.<br><br>With this, the Greens have also become the kingmakers.<br>The fact that Duflot held a press conference together<br>
with her colleagues, Socialist Party leader Martine<br>Aubry and Communist head Marie-George Buffet, in the<br>Café de L'Industrie in Paris' chic Bastille district<br>was symbolic. This trio of women at the head of the<br>
Green, Socialist and Communist parties could end<br>Sarkozy's rule. Socialist leader Aubry and her fellow<br>party member Ségolène Royal will now be forced to take<br>the Greens seriously -- especially if Duflot follows<br>
through with her plan to put forward a Green candidate<br>in the 2012 presidential election. Duflot's party isn't<br>likely to state which major party it plans to support<br>until shortly before the second round of voting. This<br>
could see Duflot making important decisions about the<br>careers of Aubry and Royal, who want to make another<br>run for the presidency.<br><br>A 'Small Totally Average Brunette from the Banlieue'<br><br>More than one-third of all French find Duflot, a 34-<br>
year-old mother of four, likeable. At the same time<br>though, more than 60 percent of them didn't even know<br>her name a few short months ago -- and that despite the<br>fact that the Greens collectively got 16.3 percent of<br>
the vote in the European parliamentary elections,<br>almost overtaking the Socialists. But at the time of<br>the elections last June, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a long-<br>time Green Party member, was the main person in the<br>campaign limelight. Because of his role in the 1968<br>
student protest movement in France, Cohn-Bendit has<br>remained popular with voters. Duflot was pottering<br>around in the background and she described herself as a<br>"small, totally average brunette from the banlieue,"<br>
(the French term used to describe suburbs of major<br>cities with low-income and social housing). She wasn't<br>kidding, either: Born in a Parisian suburb, Duflot now<br>lives in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges on the southeastern<br>
outskirts of the city. When she's in the city, she also<br>uses public transport.<br><br>The daughter of a railway worker and a teacher, Duflot<br>learned early on how to get by on limited resources.<br>Her mother Marie-Paule conserved water, recycled<br>
clothes and even separated her trash in France in a<br>time when that kind of behavior was considered to be<br>some sort of German joke. Barbie dolls and toys that<br>ran on batteries were taboo, and young Duflot played<br>
the cello and participated in theater. When the family<br>went on camping holidays, they traveled by train. And<br>while her parents were active in the CFDT union, Duflot<br>involved herself in nature conservation with the Bird<br>
Protection League and the Young Christian Workers, a<br>Catholic youth organization. Later, she graduated from<br>ESSEC, one of France's top business schools, and<br>started her career at a firm that builds social housing<br>
projects.<br><br>The Youngest Ever French Green Party Leader<br><br>When Duflot first joined the Greens in 2001, the party<br>was shaken by personal disputes and factionalism. The<br>young mother impressed the activists with her<br>
organizational skills and her commitment. She was<br>hardworking and assertive but never aggressive. In<br>January 2005, she was appointed to the position of the<br>Greens' spokesperson; and in December 2006, the party<br>
chose her as their leader. She was 31 years old at the<br>time.<br><br>It is true that she still lacked experience. She gave<br>speeches in a rattling staccato and her voice got<br>higher as she did. Duflot herself even said at the time<br>
that she had the "the charisma of an oyster." But she<br>learned quickly and she managed to unite the motley<br>crew of individuals that make up the Green Party. The<br>sectarian mob became more structured and the Greens'<br>
small field of environmental expertise was supplemented<br>with educational, economic and social policies. In 2008<br>she was re-elected to the top job by 71 percent of the<br>party, she gained supporters from the left and,<br>
together with Cohn-Bendit, she founded the Europe<br>Ecologie, which brought together the German Greens and<br>other, smaller political parties in order to run in the<br>European Parliament elections.<br><br>Voters recognition of Europe Ecologie continued with<br>
last month's French regional elections. As the Greens'<br>successful top candidate in the Ile-de-France region,<br>Duflot became the vice-president of the regional<br>council of the economically important district, which<br>
includes Paris. Although Duflot will be vice president<br>alongside a Socialist politician, this new job sees her<br>finally emerging from behind the shadows of her mentor,<br>Cohn-Bendit.<br><br>A number of Duflot's fans would love to see her launch<br>
her own campaign for the French presidency, but for now<br>she doesn't want to have anything to do with that.<br><br>"For me it is about my ideas, not about me personally,"<br>she explains. And this may also have something to do<br>
with some wise words Duflot's father used to tell her,<br>wisdom along the lines of: "I don't care what people<br>are saying about me behind my back."<br></blockquote></blockquote>
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