just john Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Almost certainly the British are in the minority and outnumbered by a lot of people with expectations a lot different to theirs . . . [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 I'm not at all surprised that the Dordogne came out so strongly in favour of Hollande. I can't remember the figures, but the majority voted for Royal last time. My local MP is of the left.The thing that my neighbours seem to worry about most is unemployment. Family ties are very strong and the young people don't want to have to move away to find employment.The main occupations are farming and fonctionaires.The farmers are having a bad time mainly because the subsidy for tobacco growing is being steadily withdrawn. This sounds laudable, but it has a knock-on effect on the tobacco factory in Sarlat which is one of the largest employers in that area. All this at a time when they know that France is not now producing enough tobacco to serve the domestic market and so it is being imported from China. Sarkozy wanted to cut down the number of fonctionaires.Most of the holiday industry is in the hands of small family businesses which only employ a few people in temporary jobs in the very short season.I really don't want to start another argument about the number of Brits in the area except I feel obliged to say that it is not as great as many imagine.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Interesting Hoddy, as several of those reasons are the same as those cited for the rise in the vote for the FN in the documentary linked to in another thread.I wonder why the result is a vote for the left in one area, and the FN in another... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 These things are complicated aren't they ? I wouldn't be at all surprised if most of the 20% in my commune who voted FN in the first round voted for Hollande in the second round.They would be sending a message that they really don't want immigration and many are openly racist in a way that is shocking to English ears. They do have, however, a sort of hierarchy of racism. In this hierarchy we are the least disliked; especially if we are Scottish or Irish. We are preferred to the Dutch because we spend our money in France. The Dutch are said to bring their own potatoes with them and take the peelings home. This continues until you get to 'les Islamists" who I think would have a very bad time if there were any of them around.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 Its the Jeermans around here who are reputed to bring their spuds with them. One year after a normal farmer's manifestation against veg prices, tons and tons of new spuds were dumped all along the road to Roscoff. Everyone local knew they were doused with diesel ready to set alight if need be, but not the Jeermans of whom we saw three camper vans stopped and they were loading their saucepans up with these spuds.Parisiennes are not liked around here and from what I have seen, us British are quite high up the pecking order of racial hierarchy, that was confirmed by the huge turnout for my husband's funeral last year when we did not expect that many and it was packed out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 I find all this fascinating. Pariisiens aren't liked and we get hardly any German visitors at all. With memorial stones to people who were shot by them every few hundred metres I suppose they don't feel comfortable.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoneySuckleDreams Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/Tableau_de_recensement_-_2nd_Tour_cle8dd39a.pdf?goback=%2Egde_9_member_113272544 has this been posted ? The results of the overseas voting.The overall majority is a Yes for Sarkozy, but I think the stats are skewed by the results in the low tax regions, Switzerland, Monaco etc where the %voting for Sarko was >80%. In most other places, the results were quite close Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 And in France itself, although rural France is under-populated, there is a lot of it and it associates Sarky with wealthy Parisians and therefore not representative of "ordinary Frenchmen", whether of left or right persuasion. Regardless of which of he and Hollande will be better for the country, Sarkozy ignored the rural vote at his peril. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Well the carburant prices are dropping as Holland promised and will be held for three months whenthey stop falling. Diesel today already five centimes cheaper than last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 [quote user="NormanH"]There seem to be a lot of French people voting Socialist in those two departments which are very popular with British home-owners. I would have expected them to be more conservative, given the rural nature.[/quote]It's the same in the Gers. I haven't read the whole thread, but these SW rural depts seem to be militantly leftwing, even communist. It could be they are dependent on the vagaries of the weather for their income, and their neighbours for support. Paris is too far away.Suits me, my outlook is similar. But I don't know how Hollande's policies fit in for the agricultural comunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 In our (relatively speaking) well-to-do part of the Dordogne, I couldn't get any French person to comment on the results of the election. Even though, in our commune, the second round produced 70.04% for Hollande with 88.96% turnout and only 13.5% blancs et nuls.However, went back to our other house today (grass to cut, place to air, etc) and our neighbour there was over the moon. In fact, she was bubbling over with pleasure, said that Hollande wanted to taxer the riche but that that was fair and OK by her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Our lot had a bit of a think between rounds one and two. In round one, they were a lickle dot of red in a sea of blue. By round two (and one assumes that the Le Pen voters must've ignored their leader's exhortations) they managed to turn blue and vote Sarko again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 My commune voted 73% for Hollande and all the other communes adjoining well over 70% too. This is a huge agricultural and fishing area and staunchly socialist with a few communists thrown in for good measure. All these farming folks would not have voted for Holland if they did not think it would benefit their livelihoods would they?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Oddly, a fair bit further down the coast, in my particular huge agricultural and fishing area, they fairly universally voted Sarko. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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