Today, Nov. 7, 2006, is election day in the U.S., and for at least the last week or more there have been segments on the French national news about our congressional elections. In fact it is not unusual to have several references to what is happening in the U.S on the French evening news. They watch us pretty closely.

An important election will also be held in France soon, the presidential election taking place next April and May. There are usually two rounds of voting in France. A candidate can win outright in the first round by having 50% or more of the vote. This is almost impossible, since there are usually 5 or 6 candidates on the ballot and the votes get split. The top two will be on the second ballot, and obviously one of them will get more than 50% of those votes and become the winner.

The two major parties in France are the PS, or Parti Socialist (Socialist Party), and the UMP, which is right of center politically. The PS is loosely analogous to the Democrats in the U.S., but they are somewhat to the left of the Democrats, I think it’s fair to say. They are not crazy left-wingers, however, like people in the tiny Socialist Party in the U.S. Those people certainly exist in France and are in other left wing parties. In any case the PS will decide on its candidate soon, as the first round of party voting takes place on Nov. 16. If a second round is needed, that will occur a week later on Nov. 23rd.

Article continues at this link: French Presidential Elections
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