Italian election maps?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How curious that Emilia Romanga and Tuscany vote for the left. They're the two richest areas. I remember visiting the Bologna/Modena/Parma area, seriously wealthy! I've never seen so many sports cars. The price of accomodation is also astronomical!

Actually the richest part of that area usually votes Forza Italia... but the main reason why Tuscany and the Emilia Romanga vote Ulivo is because they are industrial areas.
Oh and because old Commie habits die hard.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, Bologna isn't called Red Bologna for nothing. Florence is also very left wing, they had a peace march when I was there, lots of Che Guevara t-shirts!

Watching Parma (the Commie club) play Lazio (the Fascist club) play each other is apparently an interesting experiance

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Lazio is dirt poor! The south starts as soon as you leave Rome!

Lazio is the Fascist club, Roma is the Commie club in Rome. (Other Commie clubs are Fiorentina and Perugia. Another Fascist club is Hellas Verona. Parma doesn't have muc hof a tradition, so can't really be a politicla club)
The richest region of Italy is Lombardy, which is quite right wing.
The lefty area of central Italy is basically the Partisan area of WWII...

No tradition needed... certainly the Parma supporters are mostly Commies (at least from what I noticed), but true it's not as traditional or ingrained as with Roma.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

All I have to say is....Forza Italia! Go Berlusconi!

You serious?!!

Absolutley. I'm conservative. I'm Italian. Forza Italia! Re-Elect Berlusconi!

He's also a crook

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Chirac is a conservative

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Chirac is a conservative

No he isn't. He is what passes for conservative in France. He is probably to the left of Kucinich.

France isn't exactly a left wing country. Le Pen got into the second round of the Presidential Election...
It is very, very polarised.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Chirac is a conservative

No he isn't. He is what passes for conservative in France. He is probably to the left of Kucinich.

France isn't exactly a left wing country. Le Pen got into the second round of the Presidential Election...
It is very, very polarised.

It's more left wing than any other nation in Europe except  Sweden or Holland. And I'm sure we can agree that Europe is the most left wing continent. Le Pen only recieved 17% of the vote.

The man is an out and out FASCIST!!!! What do you mean ONLY 17%

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Chirac is a conservative

No he isn't. He is what passes for conservative in France. He is probably to the left of Kucinich.

France isn't exactly a left wing country. Le Pen got into the second round of the Presidential Election...
It is very, very polarised.

It's more left wing than any other nation in Europe except  Sweden or Holland. And I'm sure we can agree that Europe is the most left wing continent. Le Pen only recieved 17% of the vote.

The man is an out and out FASCIST!!!! What do you mean ONLY 17%

He only received 17% of the vote! That isn't much, sorry. And he isn't that right wing when compared to the GOP. He isn't any more conservative than Santorum or Lott. Please name me a country in europe more liberal than France, other than Sweden or Holland.

First off, although much of the Paris area is rather left wing (esp. St Denis, a run down sh*thole a few miles east of Paris proper) Paris is not France.

These are the results of round one:

Bruno Megret                 MNR                667,026  02.3
Corinne Lepage               Cap-21             535,837  01.9
Daniel Gluckstein            PT                 132,686  00.5
François Bayrou              UDF              1,949,170  06.8
Jacques Chirac               RPR              5,665,855  19.9
Jean-Marie Le Pen            FN               4,804,713  16.9
Christine Taubira            PRG                660,447  02.3
Jean Saint-Josse             CPNT             1,204,689  04.2
Noël Mamere                  Verts            1,495,724  05.2
Lionel Jospin                PS               4,610,113  16.2
Christine Boutin                                339,112  01.2
Robert Hue                   PCF                960,480  03.4
Jean-Pierre Chevenement      PR               1,518,528  05.3
Alain Madelin                DL               1,113,484  03.9
Arlette Laguiller            LO               1,630,045  05.7
Olivier Besancenot           LCR              1,210,562  04.2

And Le Pen is way to the right of even the most extreme Republicans like Lott (has Lott ever proposed deporting/making virtual slaves of ethnic minorities?).
And have any Lott supporters sprayed Swastikas on Jewish graves?

I realise that in the deluded view of the world held by many Republicans, France is some wimpy-arty-lefty place where everyone is gay/likes gays.
That picture is wrong. Very, very wrong.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

France isn't left wing, what on earth are you talking about? It regularly gives the far right 15% of the vote, has a bossy arrogant foreign policy, conducts nuclear weapons tests in the face of international condemnation, it has lower taxation that most other European nations and is reputedly the most racist nation in Europe. I wouldn't call that very left wing would you? It even had compulsory military service up until recently.
It's not as left wing as Britain in my opinion.

In many ways it's not even as left wing as the U.S... one of the most admirable features of American politics is the fact that it is impossible to be an elitist snobbish bastard and get elected to high office. (as in Bush and Kerry's efforts to out-macho each other).
Hell even Bush the First would be thought of as "populist" in France...
Which ... really, really needs some of that populist energy that American politics is full of (even Le Pen is an establishment figure who lives in Paris's western suburbs. As does just about every other politician and political pundit).
In many ways France is deeply conservative... take secularism for example. In France a Santorum like bigot is likely to be an avowed secularist.
Note that the only parties opposed to the banning of headscarves were the Greens and the Communists.