The Press on Sarkozy

It’s good to see The Press devoting an editorial to new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. As the soon to be head of state of one of the five permament members of the Security Council, he will be an important world figure.

They comment:

Although he is often denounced as a divisive figure, Sarkozy not only took the Right-wing vote, but also half the Centrist vote, despite failing to win the support of the Centrist leader, Francois Bayrou. Perhaps even more remarkably, the hard-headed, sharp-tongued Sarkozy, whose bruising political manoeuvres are notorious, won 52% of the female vote against his female rival.

In the last 26 years, neither the Left, in the shape of Socialist leader Francois Mitterand, nor the Right, represented by Jacques Chirac, has made a serious attempt to bring about the effective reform France needs. It is no coincidence that in the same period France has slid from seventh to 17th in economic output per person.

They do make one mistake in their editorial though, when they claim:

Sarkozy took 53% of the vote, a full six points ahead of his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal. It was the largest majority since the re-election of Charles De Gaulle more than 40 years.

It wasn’t. There have been three other elections post De Gaulle with a greater margin. Maybe one can overlook the last election where it was a 64% margin as that was vs Le Pen, not a mainstream rival, but the margins post De Gaulle have been:

1969 16%
1974 1.6%
1981 3.6%
1988 8.0%
1995 5.2%
2002 64%
2007 6%

So that was a pretty big error to call it the largest in 40 years. It is 4th of seven.