FRANCE:SUNDAY'S EUROPEAN election has shaken up French politics. The biggest surprise was the unprecedented success of Daniel Cohn-Bendit's Europe Ecologie. The ecologists almost tied with the socialists, and even surpassed them in the Paris region.
In the presidential election two years ago, the Green candidate Dominique Voynet scored only 1.57 per cent.
Cohn-Bendit and his deputy, the anti-corruption judge Eva Joly, united a wide range of ecological parties and associations and emphasised two themes only: Europe and ecology. They stole voters from the UMP, PS and MoDem. Fortunately for Nicolas Sarkozy, Cohn-Bendit confirmed on Sunday night that he will not stand for president in 2012.
Sarkozy's UMP is the other big winner. The final score of 27.87 per cent surpassed the UMP's wildest dreams. In a statement issued yesterday, the Élysée attributed its success to the "gratitude of the French for the work accomplished during the French presidency of the EU and their support for efforts undertaken by the government to overcome an unprecedented world crisis".
Socialist leader Martine Aubry was on the verge of tears when she read a page-long statement acknowledging the PS's poor performance.
"The socialist party needs profound renovation. It must no longer live in a closed circuit, but must open up to society," Aubry said. The PS will as of now be in direct competition with the ecologists.
Francois Bayrou, who won 18.57 per cent of the vote in the 2007 presidential election, was the other big loser, with only 8.45 per cent of the vote. This was the third loss in a row for Bayrou's MoDem, after the 2007 legislative and 2008 municipal polls. He can no longer be considered a serious challenger to Sarkozy.
Bayrou blamed his defeat on a televised clash with Cohn-Bendit on June 4th, in which he lost his sang-froid, and the television broadcast of the ecologist film Home, watched by eight million French people on June 5th.
The Front de Gauche, led by the communist Marie-George Buffet and the former socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won its contest with Olivier Besancenot for the far-left vote, 6.05 per cent to 4.88 per cent. At 4.8 per cent, Declan Ganley's ally Philippe de Villiers delivered his worst performance in 15 years. De Villiers blamed Sarkozy for "making the same campaign as us, on the same themes: Europe that protects and the rejection of Turkish accession."