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UM, DIDN'T NAPOLEON BETRAY THE REPUBLIC?
Last Chance Endorsement

The Economist has come out for Sarko. This will net him exactly zero votes. Of the two in five undecided French voters, we doubt any two have been waiting on an endorsement from The Economist.

And it's not a ringing endorsement. Nor very hopeful.

First, though, we are treated to a conspectus of the France the next president will inherit.

The French Presidential Election
FRANCE'S CHANCE

April 12, 2007 (Economist) - This election matters. France is the euro zone's second-biggest member and home to ten of Europe's 50 biggest companies. But it is deeply troubled. It has the slowest-growing large economy in Europe, a state that soaks up half of GDP, the fastest-rising public debt in western Europe over the past ten years and, above all, entrenched high unemployment. Over the past 25 years French GDP per person has declined from seventh-highest in the world to 17th. The smouldering mood of the suburbs (banlieues), home to many jobless youths from ethnic minorities, blazed into riots in 2005 and lay behind new trouble that flared recently at a Paris railway station. The disenchantment of voters [and this and this] is reflected not only in opinion polls but also in their rejection of the European Union constitution in 2005. Tellingly, they have not re-elected an incumbent government for a quarter-century.

After considering his nearest competitors, The Economist considers Sarko.

Which leaves Mr Sarkozy as the best of the bunch. ... On the evidence of his career and his campaign, Mr Sarkozy is less a principled liberal than a brutal pragmatist. Yet he is the only candidate brave enough to advocate the "rupture" with its past that France needs after so many gloomy years. It has been said that France advances by revolution from time to time but seldom, if ever, manages to reform. Mr Sarkozy offers at least a chance of proving this aphorism wrong.

In case you missed it, that was the endorsement.

PFFT (What is this?): The Economist crosses its fingers 3 | Rayonnement français 0