Royal listens as campaign falters
I’ve been following the French election campaign for some time; over the last year we’ve seen the excitement of Chirac’s protege de Villepin destroying his chances of standing for President over the CPE fiasco, Chirac’s false hopes of standing again (he came 17th in a recent poll as who should be the next President), and Royal’s controversial nomination campaign. But this is the first time i’ve got round to writing about it. Why? Well this is when it begins to get exciting, even though campaigning doesn’t officially start until April.
My money has always been on the “poisoned drawf” Sarkozy winning the election. Not because he would make a better President but because he is more ambitious and more determined. Don’t forget he’s wanted to be president since he was a teenager. But also because I think Royal’s “post-modern listening experiment” will eventually fall on deaf ears.
Royal’s campaign strategy sounds great in theory but they will not work in a political environment consumed by distrust, presentations and sound bites. Royal wants a deliberative campaign where she listens to everyone’s concerns, makes notes and then comes up with some great policies. Great in theory- some of the best political campaigners have pretended to be been listeners. Remember Bobby Kennedy or Bill Clinton! But you can’t using these processes to formulate policy, it will ultimately upset those who’s ideas were not used and those who feel the new policies don’t go far enough.
Such a process is making her appear weak in comparison to Sarkozy, who has effectively seized the initiative and is currently setting the agenda of the political campaign. Royal’s listening phase of the campaign has been overshadowed by gaffes, the revelations by aides and her lack of concrete policies. She’s got alot of convincing to do in the second talking phase of her campaign if she hopes to win.