French Election 2012: The Spring of France's Discontent

Sunday will see the first round of voting in the 2012 French Presidential Election. The key candidates are Nicholas Sarkozy, the incumbent president of France; Francois Holland, the Socialist Party candidate and seen by many as the favorite; Marine Le Pen, the far-Right candidate who's made noise much as her father, Jean Le Pen, used to for their National Front Party;  and Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate of the Left Front, a coalition of lefitsts.

The economy is the big issue in France, and it may be one of the factors that costs Sarkozy his job the same way it has cost incumbent governments their positions in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. The Washington Post has a fascinating piece about why the election should matter to Americans here. Suffice to say, with French discontent with the current structure of the European Union at an all time high, and the fragile coalition struggling to deal with the myriad of economic crises facing the world, this election may have effects on our own, and certainly on the future of the relationship between France, Europe, and the rest of the world.

Do the French know that? Or are they seeking an escape from a Europe that has somewhat passed them by:

But few things have been said about the gravity of the French economic crisis: the deficits in France’s public accounts and balance of payments; its drop in competitiveness; its decline in international commerce; its apathetic growth.

Discontent with the Establishment and the elite is high in France right now, due to the economic crisis and the malaise French mainstream politics have become to millions of French citizens.

The two-part structure of France’s presidential race means that many voters may be using the first round to afford themselves a protest vote. Even so, analysts say, the number who appear willing to do so by voting for the political fringe signals an alarming degree of disaffection, even anger, among the French at a critical time when they must decide which direction to take in addressing the grinding euro crisis and their nation’s economic malaise. 

 I'm almost surprised we haven't seen some sort of third party rise up in the United States. Putting aside talk of a centrist candidate drafted via the internet, nothing else has come up--yet. But in France, due to their unique electoral system, the system will hear the complaints of millions who want more out of their candidates.