Showing posts with label DPA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DPA. Show all posts

Monday, May 7, 2012

French political expert James Shields' prescient view of Hollande in charge: The Europe & France of 2012 is very different from Mitterand's of '81, less a French President can do within Europe, therefore expect incrementalism not transformational changes, though this may well disappoint France's most-devout Socialists


Sign of The Times this morning, the day after le second tour de l'élection présidentielle: Left-hand turn ahead, prepare to pay increased toll to appease the professional proletariat class and their laundry list of demands & grievances. 
But we'll always have Paris, right? 
Yes, mes amis, but some of it will be moving to London soon to wait out the coming economic  déluge.



France24english video: Debate, Part 1 of 2. President Hollande: Can "Mr. Normal" lead France in times of crisis? May 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/7MpB7IM_b1g


France24 Debate show host François Picard and his guests discuss what important decisions lies ahead for president-elect François Hollande, using clips from his acceptance speech in Tulle: what factors he may weigh in selecting a Prime Minister, what that choice might suggest about Hollande's future priorities or signals to party faithful; concerns about his economic policies, and how he will deal with Angela Merkel's Germany on the Eurozone debt crisis and why German financial institutions won't like what they hear from his govt., et al.
Guests: Steven Erlanger, Paris bureau chief of the N.Y. Times; Ulrike Koltermann, former Paris bureau chief, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA); James Shields, French political expert and Head of French Studies, Aston University http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lss/staff/shieldsjg/
Patrick Vignal, Senior correspondent, Reuters/France.


For me, the best takeaway comment was that of Jim Shields, who says, more or less, the Europe and France of 2012 is very different from the one that Socialist François Mitterand strode onto, chiefly because there is more that is beyond the reasonable human control of the Élysée Palace, therefore expect incrementalism, not the transformational changes that his oldest and youngest supporters long for.





France24english video: Debate, Part 2 of 2. President Hollande: Can "Mr. Normal" lead France in times of crisis? May 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/76ZEBgYxCVE