We have twoongoing threads about the recent French election, but since they were started before the election there’s a lot of predictive speculation in them. Now that Sarkozy’s election is a fait accompli, I think a thread without that distraction is in order.
What will Sarkozy’s administration mean for France’s economic policies?
For its immigration policies? And treatment of immigrants?
For its relations to the EU and the future of the EU?
For its relations to the U.S.? Sarkozy was supposed to be more pro-American than Royal (which does not mean he’ll be deploying troops to Iraq).
Will Sarkozy’s win translate into a UMP majority in the upcoming National Assembly elections? France altered it’s constitution a few years ago so both the President and Assembly had 5 year terms. Could something weird happen like a Socialist majority (would that make Royal or Hollande the Prime Minister)?
If you are interested BG, I found this article on Wiki talking about some of this stuff:
There are some good charts and other stats on that page as well. They also go into the various issues that made up the election. I’ve only skimmed the page thus far but there is a lot of good info there relating to the election.
An article on the National Assembly, its current make up and such…again, if you are interested in this stuff and as it doesn’t look like any of our French Dopers are going to make an appearence to untangle things.
According to this, the legislative election will be in two rounds, June 10 and June 17, and the UMP and its allies are expected to retain their majority.
Update: In the legislative elections, Sarkozy’s party suffered a setback in winning fewer seats than expected. However, it still should have enough votes in Parliament to get Sarkozy’s program through.