[Peace-discuss] French elections

[C. G. Estabrook]

The best account I've seen. The "Buisson strategy" (= "a hard-right  
campaign, etc.") does not refer (directly) to the American Bushes, in  
spite of Sarkozy's nickname "Sarko l'Américain," but to the right-wing  
journalist Patrick Buisson, historian of the Organisation de l'armée  
secrète and, 30 years later, adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy.


> I believe that the "Buisson strategy" was designed and succeeded  
> against Le Pen.  By running a hard-right campaign on the FN's  
> traditional anti-immigrant themes Sarkozy, who at one point actually  
> had lower poll numbers than Marine, took aim at the FN's traditional  
> base.  It was successful in forcing Marine to return to the  
> traditional FN campaign in order to protect her base, and thus cut  
> her off from the workingclass vote that she was appealing to with  
> her denunciations of austerity, "crony capitalism," and "Europe."   
> At the high point of her campaign (the rhetorical high point of the  
> whole campaign), when Sarkozy increased VAT in order to reduce  
> corporate social-security contributions and called it a VAT sociale,  
> Marine immediately denounced it as a "VAT patronale."  From there,  
> the FN campaign slid back down the right side of the hill, as  
> Buisson-Sarkozy intended, and her working-class vote slipped back to  
> Mélenchon.  So Sarkozy avoided the humiliation of a third-place  
> finish.  But ... Sarko remains in a terrible fix, and Marline will  
> do her best (and she's the best rhetorician as well as the best  
> looking of all the candidates) to make sure he loses.  Le Pen père's  
> response to the very first reported results: "Sarkozy est  
> battu!" (with a broad smile).
>
> Shane Mage