The Campaign and the Elections

Abstract

The campaign was desultory. Hollande managed to kick off his campaign with what seemed a coherent set of proposals for the economic revival of the country. Sarkozy attacked his opponent as a non-entity and turned his attention to the nationalistic themes of anti-immigration, promising to require the labeling of halal meat as his police expelled the Roma. The real underlying problem of troubled minority suburban communities suffering the ravages of unemployment remained unaddressed. Similarly ignored was foreign policy in particular, the euro crisis, which injected itself into the French campaign through the more and more frequent calls for austerity. It was not clear how Hollande could carry out his campaign promises while balancing the budget.