[The Independent, U.K.]

 

 

Le Monde, France

French Parties 'All Draw Inspiration' from Obama Win

 

"Obama's victory is change that touches and affects the very conception one has of relations between men."

 

-- François Bayrou, president of the centrist Union for French Democracy

 

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

 

November 6, 2008

 

France - Le Monde - Original Article (France)

French political parties all want to benefit from the Obama effect. On Tuesday November 4th, the seat of the Union for French Democracy [Mouvement Démocrate - centrist - MoDem ] in Paris, having been transformed into a kind campaign headquarters for “Democratic Night,” experienced an election evening the likes of which hadn't been seen since the first round of the French presidential election in April 2007. But this time there was the added taste of victory … and more. Several hundred people, among them many young people, followed the results live all night in a very “American” atmosphere. Debates, live interviews across the Atlantic and commentaries about the results went on until dawn.

 

For the MoDem militants, there wasn't the shadow of a doubt: Barack Obama was “their” candidate. François Bayrou [photo left ] greeted the new American president's victory, seeing in it a, “change that touches and affects the very conception one has of relations between men. Hundreds of millions of women and men who felt like they were up against the feeling wall today see an open door in that wall,” the president of the Union declared.

 

“The Americans have today chosen the American dream,” welcomed on Wednesday the Union for a Popular Movement [UMP- the French ruling party of Nicolas Sarkozy ], through the person of its executive secretary general, Patrick Devedjian [photo right]. “Undoubtedly the Obama phenomenon will have an influence in Europe and France,” he said. Although the Union for a Popular Movement hadn't organized any special events, its leadership made no secret of having followed the Obama campaign in order to draw lessons. The strategic overhaul of the party will draw its inspiration from the example of the American Democrat's course. The UMP wants to build from scratch a similar social network on the Net, capable of breaking the hold of activists in appeal to a wider public and transform Netsurfers into conveyers of public opinion and its members into electoral agents.

 

For strategists of the presidential party, the key to Mr. Obama’s victory was the “ultra-professionalism” of his campaign. They intend to implement the same principles in 2012. “Politics must not avoid the rules of show business … nothing can ever be over-prepared for or too scripted,” declared publicist Christophe Lambert, a member of the UMP's strategic cell.

 

At the Socialist Party, which failed to send a delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, François Hollande  was scheduled to comment Mr. Obama’s victory on Wednesday morning. Ségolène Royal [photo, left ] said on Wednesday that it was “mixed-race America” that had brought Barack Obama to the presidency, and that he would "advance global fraternity everywhere.”

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

For his part, the Mayor of Paris [Bertrand Delanoë, photo, right ], saluted “a formidable message of hope and enthusiasm,” while Jack Lang sees “a grand and beautiful day for the world.” Tuesday, even before the results of the voting was known, Faouzi Lamdaoui, the Socialist Party's national secretary of equal opportunity, issued an "appealled to all leaders of the left - notably of the Socialist Party” in demanding, “Where are our Barack Obamas?”

 

CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US November 8, 11:49pm]