Bravo Sarkozy!

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to pardon prisoners on Bastille Day. (BBC News: Sarkozy says 'No' to mass pardons) He has instead decided that the French President's powers to pardon criminals should be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a means of keeping the prison population down.

Too often the opposite attitude prevails in this country, resulting in criminals being given lenient sentences and even non-custodial sentences, exposing the system to ridicule. If prisons have to be overcrowded until more have been built, or if cell space has to be reduced to increase capacity, then those are the only sensible options. Rationing prison places does nothing to deter crime or reassure society.

Return of the Bonapartists?

I've just seen the news that in the forthcoming French legislative elections, the great great nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte is standing. (BBC News: Napoleon runs for parliament seat) My knowledge of the convoluted history of French politics isn't good enough to recall what exactly what happened to the Bonapartists but I thought they were considered to have been the predecessors to Gaullism or something. Napoleon is running for Francois Bayrou's new party - is this a natural home? Can any readers who know better explain?

French photographers

I'm currently watching the BBC News 24 French election special and at the moment we're seeing Sarkozy's motorcade heading to the UMP headquarters in Paris. Umpteen photographers on motorcycles are jostling for shots of the man.

Am I the only one reminded of Diana?

Cue a Daily Express headline on this tomorrow...

Royal guillotined

Voting in the French Presidential Election has now closed and Ségolène Royal has conceded defeat to Nicolas Sarkozy.

FANTASTIC!

Do the French still guillotine Royals?

I'll admit to not having paid as much attention to the French Presidential election as I could have. One reason for this is my general lack of interest in or liking for France (give me Germany any day) and another, perhaps related, is that I stopped learning French over a decade ago and have hardly used the language ever since. That said, I have known who Nicholas Sarkozy is for a long time (see Political junkie test!).

Whoever wins will have a hard task filling Jacques Chirac's shoes. Whilst I've never been the greatest fan of Chirac, it is hard to deny that he has steered France on a course that has made her a far more influential country in the world today than the UK. Indeed I don't doubt there are many here who would agree with Chirac over Blair on transatlanticism. French domestic affairs are another matter - the country may officially regard everyone as "French" to the point of banning collecting statistics on ethnicity (which some right wing ideologues in the UK call for, as though it would solve all racial and cultural issues) but the riots and alienation make me wonder if this is where the UK will be in a few years' time.

Most of the opinion polls I've heard of seem to suggest that it's between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, with the former triumphing in the second round. If François Bayrou could get to the last two then things will be interesting. And if Sarkosy finds himself in a second round against Jean-Marie Le Pen, as Chirac did five years ago, then Christmas won't have come early enough for him. And Le Pen is likely to do a lot better than polls suggest again, though I suspect left-wing voters will be more cautious about voting for the fringe elements also in this race. This in turn will make Bayrou's chances of overtaking Royal harder. The turnout has already surpassed the last election, again denting Le Pen's chances. But what direction will France take?