Thread: Riots in central Paris after election results

Riots in central Paris after election results
By staff writers and wires
May 07, 2007 08:30am

CLASHES between police and protestors have been reported in central Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected French President overnight.

In the Place de la Bastille in Paris riot police fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon after hundreds of rioters – some wearing masks – began throwing bottles, stones and other missiles.

Earlier, a small crowd brandishing black and red anarchist flags set fire to an effigy of Mr Sarkozy before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it. Demonstrators chanted "police everywhere, justice nowhere".

About 5000 supporters of defeated Socialist party candidate Segolene Royal had gathered in the square to await the election results. Mr Sarkozy beat Ms Royal by 53 per cent of the vote to 47 per cent, according to projections.

The defeated Socialists had portrayed Mr Sarkozy as a danger for France during the election campaign and said he was authoritarian who was likely to exacerbate tensions in the poor, multi-racial suburbs that ring many cities.

Thousands of extra police have been drafted in to patrol sensitive areas following the election result.

Victory celebrations

In another part of central Paris, Mr Sarkozy appeared before cheering crowds in and promised to be "president for all the French without exception".

"This evening is a victory for France," he said to a crowd of 10,000 in the Place de la Concorde.

"I ask you to be generous, to be tolerant, to be fraternal. I ask you to hold out your hand. I ask you to give the image of a France that is united, together, which leaves no-one at the side of the road.

"My dear friends, I have seen victories before in my career. But victory is only beautiful if it is generous. Victory is not vengeance – it is being open in spirit. Victory only has meaning if it is victory for the country in its entirety.

"Millions of French are watching us. Millions of French have placed their trust in us. You must understand that the first people I wish to address are those who did not place their trust in us.

"I want them to understand that I will be a president of the republic for all the French without exception."

Global response

European leaders congratulated Mr Sarkozy on his victory today and hoped his triumph would help unblock reforms stalled by the rejection of the EU constitution in 2005.

US President George W. Bush also telephoned to offer his congratulations and said he expected good relations with the new leader, who has made a priority of repairing the damage to French-US relations caused by tension over the Iraq war.

Mr Sarkozy's election could help re-start the process of finding a way forward on reviving the European Union constitution, which has been held up as Europe awaited the results of the French election.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was confident Mr Sarkozy would help find a way out of the impasse that has gripped Europe since French and Dutch voters threw out the constitution in referenda two years ago.

"France is back in Europe," Mr Sarkozy said just after his election win.

Mr Sarkozy has proposed a slimmed-down "mini treaty" containing basic institutional reforms that would allow the EU to function properly after its expansion to 27 members. To avoid the need for a second referendum in France, he wants to pass the mini treaty through parliament.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0%2C23599% ... 2C00.html#

Australia, Russia, France, and England are all gearing up for crackdowns on illegal aliens!

Let's get America on that list!

W

The United States is on the list.


It would be nice though if we could find some honest people left in the government to get on board.

Sarkozy Wins French Presidency

Monday May 7, 2007 12:16 AM


By ANGELA CHARLTON

Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) - Nicolas Sarkozy, a blunt and uncompromising pro-American conservative, was elected president of France Sunday with a mandate to chart a new course for an economically sluggish nation struggling to incorporate immigrants and their children.

Sarkozy defeated Socialist Segolene Royal by 53-47 percent with 85 percent turnout, according to near-total results. It was a decisive victory for Sarkozy's vision of freer markets and toughness on crime and immigration, over Royal's gentler plan for preserving cherished welfare protections, including a 35-hour work week that Sarkozy called ``absurd.''

``The people of France have chosen change,'' Sarkozy told cheering supporters in a victory speech that sketched out a stronger global role for France and renewed partnership with the United States.

There were few reports of unrest, despite fears that the impoverished suburban housing projects, home to Arab and African immigrants and their French-born children, would erupt again at the victory of a man who labeled those responsible for rioting in 2005 as ``scum.'' That abrasive style raised doubts over whether Sarkozy, himself the son of a Hungarian refugee, could truly unite the increasingly diverse and polarized nation.

Sarkozy pledged in his victory speech to be president ``of all the French, without exception.'' But that task will not be easy. The 52-year-old former interior minister inherits a nation losing faith in itself, paralyzed by worries over globalization, bitter at American dominance and saddled with social tensions.

Late Sunday, small bands of youths hurled stones and other objects at police at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, who fired volleys of tear gas.

For all his determination and talk of change, Sarkozy also is certain to face resistance from powerful unions to his plans to make the French work more and make it easier for companies to hire and fire.

``Like Thatcher in Britain, like Reagan in the United States, Sarkozy will change things,'' said supporter Thierry Gauvert, 55.

The White House said President Bush had called to congratulate Sarkozy, who is largely untested in foreign policy but reached out to the United States in his victory speech, an indication of his desire to break from the trans-Atlantic tension of the Chirac era.

Sarkozy also made it clear that France would remain an independent voice.

The United States, he declared, can ``count on our friendship,'' but he added that ``friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions.''

He urged the United States to take the lead on climate change and said the issue would be a priority for France.

``A great nation, like the United States, has a duty not to block the battle against global warming but - on the contrary - to take the lead in this battle, because the fate of the whole of humanity is at stake,'' Sarkozy said.

In some European capitals, Sarkozy's victory inspired hope that he might lend a decisive hand to efforts to salvage the European Union's hopes of greater integration, largely on ice since French and Dutch voters rejected a proposed EU constitution in 2005.

Royal's program seemed more in line with the policies pursued under the outgoing Jacques Chirac - who is from Sarkozy's own party, the Union for a Popular Movement. Chirac, 74, held the presidency for 12 years but failed repeatedly to push through reforms.

The handover of power ushers in a president from a new generation, who has no memory of World War II and waged the country's first high-octane Internet campaign.

Royal, an unmarried mother of four, would have been France's first female president. Her defeat could throw her party into disarray, with splits between those who say it must remain firm to its leftist traditions and others who want a shift to the political center like socialist parties elsewhere in Europe.

Conceding minutes after polls closed, Royal said her campaign had launched a ``profound renewal of political life, of its methods and of the left ... What we tried to do for France will bear fruit, I am sure.''

Cracks immediately started appearing in the Socialist Party, which now must try to regroup ahead of June legislative elections that Sarkozy's party must win to give him the majority he needs to reform.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist former finance minister, noted that it was his party's third consecutive defeat in presidential elections.

``The left has never been so weak, because the French left has still not renewed itself,'' he said.

Sarkozy - for whom the presidency has been a near-lifelong quest - will formally take over Chirac on the very last day of his term, May 16. Sarkozy aide Francois Fillon, a favorite to be the prime minister, said that for a few days from Monday, Sarkozy plans ``to withdraw to somewhere in France to decompress a little'' and to prepare his government team.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/s ... %2C00.html

Global response

European leaders congratulated Mr Sarkozy on his victory today and hoped his triumph would help unblock reforms stalled by the rejection of the EU constitution in 2005.

US President George W. Bush also telephoned to offer his congratulations and said he expected good relations with the new leader, who has made a priority of repairing the damage to French-US relations caused by tension over the Iraq war.

Mr Sarkozy's election could help re-start the process of finding a way forward on reviving the European Union constitution, which has been held up as Europe awaited the results of the French election.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was confident Mr Sarkozy would help find a way out of the impasse that has gripped Europe since French and Dutch voters threw out the constitution in referenda two years ago.
"France is back in Europe," Mr Sarkozy said just after his election win.

BEWARE.........damned if we do and damned if we don't.

This guy is going to PUSH FOR THE EU CONSTITUTION!!!!