Either-Or? Not quite.

Before all is said and done and France's future for the next five years is sealed, I would like to go back to both candidates.

Last Tuesday, May 1st, another meeting took place in Paris, Place de la Bastille, a gathering of women supporting Ségolène Royal.
The atmosphere was both strange and very festive for a somehow political meeting that took place in a country with so much debt, unemployment, homeless, cars burning every night, etc.

First there was this meeting of what could look like a meeting of Muslim women supporting Royal. Yet, check the pictures, while some appear to be veiled, Muslim women, some - those with the long white veil - appear to wear a costume. They had no poster to say who they were or represented - apart Royal posters and red roses, the symbol of the socialist party - and they left precisely at the time the gathering was to begin.

And then, on the other side of the place, there were the feminists, the "pro-choice" women, babayagas (?!?) and other women organizations supporting Royal. Surrounded with Brazilian style music, all kind of surreal messages could be seen. A true gathering of, well, socialists. A true political project, also.

Women's experience for Ségolène

Women's intelligence for Ségolène

I vote Ségolène, For my pension

For my place in the day nursery - For education [I vote Ségolène]

For the dream of a better society [I vote Ségolène]

Isn't this one typically socialist?

Women's laugh/Women's wisdom for Ségolène

For free contraception [I vote Ségolène]

Again, thanks to RV for the following video:

As a woman, I'm glad to know those smart women with a true message are claiming to represent us, women :-/

Finally, and to end the series of posts about the French presidential election, I would like to quote - twice - one of the candidates.

I want to talk to all those that life has broken, those wounded by life, those tired by life, those in distress. I want to talk to the sick, to the handicapped, to the elderly, to those that too big a pressure has exhausted, to those who suffered too much. I want to give them hope again. I want to tell them that the France I dream of is a France that gives up on nobody, a France that is like a family in which the weakest, the most vulnerable, the most fragile has a right to as much love, as much respect, as much attention as the strongest, a France in which dignity of the man and the citizen is found even in the one that has no more strength.

You want a fraternal France, a France that lives no one behind, a France that helps the most fragile, the handicapped, the elderly, the outcasts, those encountering difficult days. All in all, a France in which those who are strong put their strength, talent and energy at the service of the weak. I want it with you. But there is no fraternity possible if we don't create any more wealth.

The first one is taken from an April 22, 2007 speech by... Nicolas Sarkozy. The second is taken from a campaign leaflet for this same candidate.

From the first rumors about who might win, we're going for five years of "the strong at the service of the weak". Yeah, anyway. Check the updates for this election here.

Posted by Carine at May 6, 2007 03:25 PM