WEDGED up against the capital’s ring road, the concert hall was packed, even on a weekday evening. As supporters waved French tricolore flags, a thumping bass beat accompanied their champion onto the stage. But the crowd was warm, rather than electrified. At the souvenir stands, there were few takers for the posters of the 71-year-old candidate. Alain Juppé, the front-runner in the centre-right Republican party’s presidential primary, is not a politician to set pulses racing. As France prepares for its toughest election in over a decade, voters crave something different—but wonder if he is it.
“I’m here out of curiosity,” says Camille, an 18-year-old law student who will vote next spring for the first time. Mr Juppé seems “calm and reassuring”, she reflects, but she has not yet decided whether she will turn out to vote at the primary, held in two rounds on November 20th and 27th. Jean-Marie Campana, a retired civil servant, prefers Mr Juppé’s unifying message to the “excesses” of Nicolas Sarkozy, a former president and rival candidate. But he says he will probably vote for François Fillon, an ex-prime...Continue reading
from Europe http://ift.tt/2eJZcj3
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment