Le moment de verité

It was over the course of the various legs of my journey from Strasbourg to Dublin yesterday, that I finalised my position, albeit merely a theoretical one, with regards to the imminent premier tour of the french presidentiel election. It's a shame I haven't been able to comment more about it, which is mainly down to a lack of research on my part, something I belatedly attempted to remedy as I set off on my travels armed with a stack of lefty press and a lot of time to kill.

In the spirit of optimism, of not being strategic or playing the game, and approaching the premier tour without the spectre of the second overshadowing it, in a rather strange turn of events I've abandoned my affiliations, shallow as they are, with the Jeunes Socialistes in favour of a strange, distant & seldom-visited place, and where my fundamental beliefs truly lie - la gauche anti-libérale. As Politis laments however, we have not one candidate representing this camp, but three. I certainly don't know all there is to know about Marie-Georges Buffet, Olivier Besancenot, or José Bové, however based on that which I have learned, it's the latter, the alter-mondialiste, who gets my non-vote. A definition of voting which has been put forward in the past, and on which there appears to be consensus, although I compltely disagree with it, is the notion that voting is equivalent to, or signifies - giving an opinion. Personally I don't think voting, generally speaking, has anything to do with giving an opinion, rather with making a choice from a highly constrained range of options with a pre-determined spectrum, a compromise. But I suppose it depends what way you vote. Strategic voting, for Segolene in my case, would certainly have nothing to do with my opinions, or only a very little. Bové on the other hand, gets a little bit closer. A vote based on ideals, on aspirations, on hope.

In Politis, Bernard Langlois rationalises this "vote of conviction" (as opposed to the "useful vote") in the following terms:

"Ce candidat est celui qui exprime au plus prés ce que je crois? Je vote pour lui, même si je sais qu'il n'a aucune chance de figurer au second tour. C'est ainsi que je fais progresser les idées auxquelles je tiens, que j'apporte ma pierre a la construction d'une Cité moins ignoble que celle ou nous sommes contraints de vivre, que je donne une visibilité plus grande a une autre monde possible. N'est-ce pas se conduire de la façon la plus démocratique?"

After April 22nd, no doubt this small parenthesis of misplaced idealism will be brought to an abrupt close, and I'll be brought sharply back to the reality of the situation, back to strategy and playing´the game, in short - back to politics.