Aujourd'hui - tour 2

A DEUX JOURS DU SCRUTIN, DES SOCIALISTES
JUGENT LA SITUATION DIFFICILE
[TWO DAYS OUT, THE SOCIALISTS
CONSIDER THE SITUATION DIFFICULT]

4 mai 2007 (Le Monde/AFP/Reuters) - Interrogé sur RFI, un des porte-parole de la candidate, Julien Dray, refusait d'anticiper la défaite mais confiait :

"Je prends la réalité telle qu'elle est. Je ne veux pas non plus mentir aux gens : au premier tour, on savait que la situation était difficile. (...) J'avais d'ailleurs dit que si l'écart entre Nicolas Sarkozy et Ségolène Royal était au-dessus de cinq points, le deuxième tour serait difficile."always helped" in its own camp, with the "traps, twisted blows and treasons".

Il a imputé les difficultés de Ségolène Royal, qui "n'était pas forcément toujours aidée" dans son propre camp, aux "chausse-trappes, coups tordus et trahisons".

[Questioned on RFI, a spokesman of the candidate, Julien Dray, refused to anticipate the defeat but confided:

"I take reality such as it is. I do not want to lie to people either: with the 1er tour, one knew that the situation was difficult (...) I had said then that if the difference between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal were above five points, the 2e tour would be difficult."

He attributed the difficulties of Ségolène Royal, who "was not inevitably always helped" in her own camp, to "traps, twisted blows, and treasons".]

Yet "chausse-trappes, coups tordus et trahisons" are exactly the sort of things a president must endure and prevail over. M. Dray, true to the boss he serves, finds fault everywhere but with Ségo.

SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL : "FAISONS MENTIR LES SONDAGES"
[SÉGO: "LET'S MAKE LIARS OF THE POLLS"]
BREST May 5, 2007 (Le Monde)

In every Ségo pronouncement there is something telling. Ségo does not ask here to prove the polls wrong. She asks to have them made lies, or more correctly, to be discovered as lies. The insinuation is that she is the victim of lies. She does not consider she has run a wobbly campaign. She does not consider the electorate mightn't fancy her. But the truth is that since January Ségo has trailed in the polls. M. Dray, above, and other PS functionaries have all conceded the operative truth of the published polls by basing assessments and strategies on them. If these polls are lies, then the Socialists themselves have been complicit in the propagation of these lies.

Of course, there is only one poll that matters, which will be conducted today.

LE PS SE PRÉPARE À LA REFONDATION DE L'APRÈS-6 MAI
[THE SOCIALIST PARTY LAYS A NEW GROUNDWORK FOR ITSELF AFTER MAY 6]

5 mai 2007 (Libération) - Déjà dans le coup d'après ? Alors qu'une batterie de sondages funestes, intervenue au lendemain de sa confrontation avec Sarkozy, mercredi, est venue doucher «comme une claque» l'enthousiasme des partisans de Royal, l'hypothèse d'une défaite, chez les socialistes, a pris corps, hier. Seule la candidate semble encore y croire, qui au dernier jour, a fait preuve, depuis la Bretagne, d'une pugnacité inégalée jusqu'ici. Pour le reste, et le fait est suffisamment rare pour être souligné, toutes les sensibilités du parti sont d'accord : l'affaire semble pliée. Un sentiment partagé jusque dans l'état-major PS : « Ce n'est jamais écrit, et ça peut être beaucoup plus serré qu'on ne le dit. Mais la logique nous amène à penser qu'on a perdu... »

Already beaten? While a battery of disastrous surveys followed the Wednesday confrontation with Sarkozy, it has been a cold shower on the enthusiasm of the Royal camp, the possibility of defeat, seized the Socialists yesterday. Only the candidate still seems to believe in [victory], who on the last day in Brittany has shown a matchless pugnacity up to now. For the rest -- and the fact is sufficiently rare to warrant emphasis -- the mood in the party is all the same: game over. A feeling shared by the PS staff: "It is not written, and it can be much tighter than it appears. But logic leads us to think that it is lost..."

This gloom is a vote killer. The party faithful may turn out, but anyone not won over is not likely to be stirred to vote for Ségo when her own campaign gives up the ghost before the polls opened.

PFFT (What is this?): Traps, twisted blows, and treasons 2½ | Poorly run campaign 4 | Rayonnement français 0