Far away from the republic, right-winger appears to be their man
The Brisbane Times
May 7, 2007
ALMOST 4000 French citizens across Australia queued for up to 1 hours to do their bit for liberte, egalite and fraternite.
And in Sydney at least, it appeared to be Nicolas Sarkozy all the way yesterday.
“The world's going way too left,” said Australian-born David Carroll, who has dual citizenship with France thanks to his mother, Yvette, who migrated here more than 30 years ago. Both said they would vote for Mr Sarkozy.
So, too, Michael Jadouin and his wife, Rosy, who have held dual citizenship for 31 years.
“[Segolene Royal] is not the one that can solve France's problems, particularly immigration,” Mr Jadouin said.
If patterns in the first round of the French presidential election two weeks ago are any indication, voters in Brisbane and Adelaide will join Sydney in giving Mr Sarkozy a resounding endorsement. In Melbourne, however, the conservative hard man may find himself neck and neck with his more softly spoken Socialist rival.
Only in Canberra is Ms Royal clearly on top, with almost double the votes of her opponent.
Overall, almost 43 per cent of the French who voted in Australia in the first round gave Mr Sarkozy the tick, as against 31 per cent of the French in France.
The French consul-general, Lionel Majeste-Larrovy, said the first-round turnout represented a 64 per cent increase on the last presidential election, in 2002, while the number of expatriates who had enrolled since then had doubled. “I think this shows there is a lot of interest in this election,” he said.
Unimpressed with the candidates on offer, Blandine Mansion said she would “vote white” – a donkey vote, in other words..
