The French Result Are In.

I'm sorry for the delay it's just that at around 19:30GMT on 22/4/12 I've been having dinner and watching a film called "Post Grad" on TV. It's quite a gentle comedy providing you know enough about "Gilmore Girls" to get the one big joke.

Anyway the preliminary exit polls for the first round of the French Presidential election have been released. They suggest that Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande with 27.5% of the vote will meet incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy of the centre right UMP party with 25.6% of the vote in the second round run-off on May 6th. Under these circumstances I have to say that I'm backing Sarkozy for the simple reason of the economy. Although populist Hollande's policies like a 75% top rate of income tax are simply unworkable given the current economic situation in the Eurozone and the wider global economy. Of course most of my opinion is based on the Economist magazine's controversial analysis. However I have to say that while they're often wrong on social/political issues on purely economic issues they generally know what they're talking about which is more then can be said about Hollande.

Now I've obviously got to go out and do my own research before making my final decision while Sarkozy has got to find a way of turning round a campaign that has to some extent been based on his opposition to me.