Politics
Tuesday May 1, 2007
France: Royal Campaign Demonizes Leading Candidate Sarközy for "Hard Right" Views
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Gudrun Schultz
PARIS, France, May 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - France's leading contender in the coming election, Nicolas Sarközy, has been targeted by his key rival Ségolène Royal in a vicious attempt to instill fear in voters over his "dangerous" and "hard Right" policies, reported The Times earlier today.
Mirroring the savage smear campaign waged by Jean Chretien's Liberals against then-Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day in Canada's 2000 federal election, Royal's tactics follow a pre-set pattern of painting socially conservative candidates as would-be tyrants dangerous to the peace of the nation.
Jean Chretien's 2000 campaign team focused their assault on Day's evangelical beliefs, openly mocking him as a religious extremist seeking to impose his views on the nation. The campaign was largely successful--Chretien won--but it appears to be a challenge to pull off a similar victory in France.
With recent polls showing Sarközy in a strong lead, the intensity of Royal's campaign has approached a frenzied tone of desperation. Denouncing the conservative leader for the "great violence" and "brutality" of his campaign, which she said was frightening voters, Royal has contrasted her "France at peace with itself" with Sarközy's "France of the hard Right."
"Sarközy embodies a hard radicalized Right
with all its fears and hates. Entrusting the presidency to a demagogue like this means real danger," Royal supporters declared yesterday.
The battle for voter support in the election has polarized along key social issues, with Royal promising to legalize homosexual 'marriage' and introduce euthanasia, while Sarközy has taken a firm position supporting traditional family on the basis of the needs of children and has publicly rejected legalizing euthanasia.
While opposed to the introduction of homosexual 'marriage,' Sarközy nevertheless does not believe homosexuality is morally problematic. In a recent interview with Liberation newspaper, the center-right leader called it "shocking" that the Catholic Church regards "homosexuality is a sin." He added, "One does not choose one's identity."
Sarközy has nearly two-thirds the voter support of Royal, according to the latest poll conducted Sunday by CSA--65 percent of those questioned said Sarközy was "solid" compared to only 24 percent for Royal.
On questions of personality and charm, however, the socialist leader came in well ahead of Sarközy with 57 percent rating her likeable, compared to only 29 percent for the conservative candidate.
Royal's campaign planners are exploiting that advantage with everything they've got. Historian Max Gallo, one-time spokesman for the late President Mitterrand, said, "I cannot thing of any other case of a politician being excreted like this since the hatred of opponents of de Gaulle."
Read The Times coverage:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1728912.ece
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
No Gay "Marriage" or Adoption says French Presidential Hopeful Sarközy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06090803.html
France Presidential Hopeful Royal Promises to Legalize Euthanasia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022001.html
Attacks Against Party Leader's Christianity Continue
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/nov/001117b.html
W-5 SMEAR CAMPAIGN SEEN AS FOILED ATTACK ON STOCKWELL DAY
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/nov/00110703.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.