There are fierce debates raging in the French elections at the moment, over immigration and ‘vrai travail, faux travail’ : real work, false work. People are asking ‘what is false work?’. I shall have to keep listening to europe1.fr (LW 185) to discover more.
Worryingly, Martine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader and ex-leader of le Front National (similar to our own National Front), has gained nearly a fifth of all French votes cast in the latest round. This is widely put down to the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy (President with the trophy wife, Carla Bruni, – ‘Dahling, I’m a femme fatale’) hasn’t dealt with immigration issues as well as a lot of people would like.
The main contender against Sarkozy is François Hollande, socialiste and ex-partner of the well-known (in France) Ségolène Royale. His present partner, Valerie Trierweiler, says she will be ‘far more modest than Carla Bruni’. She is yesterday quoted as saying: “Of course, clapping the man I love while remaining a journalist was a problem for me. But not any longer: I clap him like a footballer’s wife!”