Cheminade: Segolene Royal the Fighter Won the Upper Hand

[Jacques Cheminade is head of the French LaRouche movement, Solidarite et Progres]

May 3-Segolene Royal won the upper hand over Nicolas Sarkozy in their debate last night. Both pugnacious and precise, she proved that she is perfectly capable of becoming President of the Republic. Nicolas Sarkozy seemed to be trying to hide his lack of vision by juggling with technical questions,-- an organization man rather than a man of character. Being unable to defeat her, he tried to treat his opponent with condescension, revealing himself as a man uncomfortable with any intelligent and competent woman.

The two most significant exchanges were the one involving France's indebtedness, and that which concerned measures for children and the handicapped.

For Nicolas Sarkozy, France's budget has been in deficit for 25 years, and the absolute priority is to economize to reduce the national debt, by cutting the expenses and the lifestyle of the State. Segolene Royal, counter-attacking, showed that, before everything else, growth must be restarted, and promised to pay down the debt once the rate of growth exceeds 2.5% of GDP. She underlined that it is the quality of our public services which attracts foreign investment into France and that fiscal policy must be a tool to serve economic development. Her approach was dynamic, while her adversary's appeared that of a financial accountant. The main confrontation was about child-care and the handicapped question. Nicolas Sarkozy proposed that all women be granted a court-enforceable right to child-care, public or private. Segolene Royal made him admit that the implementation of such a right would take five years, while at the same time emphasizing that lack of childcare is an emergency which leaves a mother no time to go to court. When Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of measures for the handicapped, Segolene Royal replied with anger, pointing out that he had been the one who had cut 7.000 teaching jobs, and dismantled the Handiscol plan for the handicapped which she had created as minister. When Nicolas Sarkozy criticized her aggressivity and advised her to "control yourself," he showed himself the sophist trying to switch their roles, while Segolene Royal demonstrated that a competent woman with "sang-froid"[coolness], can be capable of justified anger when confronted with unacceptable policies.

We must regret that the candidates already knew the subjects to be discussed, and often seemed only to be repeating their lessons, notably when Sarkozy was searching for support from the reporters, whom he knows to be generally indulgent to him. On nuclear, both candidates multiplied their errors. Segolene Royal claimed that France's nuclear-related power production is 17%, and Nicolas Sarkozy replied that it was 50%, whereas in reality it is 78%! Even more unacceptable for a minister who had to deal with nuclear power, Nicolas Sarkozy claimed many times that the EPR reactor is fourth generation, whereas in reality it is third generation, as Segolene Royal noted. She explained how she would impose a moratorium on the EPR and would increase renewable energy production, but would maintain the existing plants and speed up research on fourth generation reactors, like the pellet-fueled, gas-cooled HTR. Even on this subject, thought to be highly technical, she was more competent then her rival.

In the end, if Alain Duhamel considered Nicolas Sarkozy the winner, we must add that he is always wrong during electoral campaigns. Lyndon LaRouche, the leader of the Roosevelt faction in the U.S. Democratic Party, called during his May 1st webcast for a mobilization of the American people to impeach Cheney, then Bush, to create the «New Washington» as of 2007. The policies of Nicolas Sarkozy, the neo-conservatives' ally, would be incompatible with this necessary change. Segolene Royal's policies, on the contrary, represent an alternative if, to be able to apply her social program, she develops a confrontational strategy with the financial oligarchy, coherent with those of the South-American leftist leaders, the American democrats inspired by LaRouche, and the initiatives from China, India and Russia towards a new economic order worldwide, based on great projects for mutual development. For our part, with our youth movement in France, in close coordination with their friends in the U.S.A. and in Germany, we will fight for these projects to be realized. But we must move fast,-- very fast,-- faced with financial collapse, social breakdown, and the military flight forward of the present British and American governments. On these grounds, we will do everything possible so that Segolene Royal is elected and so that, after being elected, she transcends herself again, with all the courage of a woman with character who knows how to correct the errors of her friends.