Belated second part of my post on the candidates in the 3rd overseas constituency, with the remaining 8 candidates and their official propaganda.
11. Ezella Sahraoui, Parti Radical de Gauche, soutenue par Génération Ecologie, no slogan (how disappointing). The PRG is a centre-left party. Its leader, Jean-Michel Baylet, participated in the socialist primary in 2011. Lives in Lille.
A lot of text on this leaflet. For the third constitutency, the PRG has chosen a young (24) female candidate and an old (75) male substitute. P.1 introduces the canddidate and her political engagement. P.2 develop four themes: education for French children abroad, ‘Francophonie’ (promotion and defence of the French language and culture), economic development (support to French entrepreneurs abroad), and social issues (in favour of a ‘European social insurance card’ on the model of the European health card, which would also cover pension and unemployment).
12. Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, independent (but former UMP, slogan: ‘Votre candidat, votre choix’. Lives in London. Obviously, winner of the poshest name competition.
A hedge fund manager, Lussan‘s programme is presented on p.2, with proposals on education (French-language education should be more accessible to more people). He rejects ‘American-style taxation’ of expats and wants to promote the values of Northern Europe, including entrepreneurship, mobility and openness. He’s also an alumnus of Edinburgh Uni (hurrah!)
13. Yannick Naud, MoDem (Mouvement Démocrate). Lives in London.
Like Lussan’s leaflet, the first page of this leaflet is text-free, with only a picture of the candidate. You will notice that Naud holds a document with a picture of François Bayrou on the cover. Yes, the MoDem is another party that came out of the UDF. Bayrou was the last leader of the UDF, rejected the merger of the centre-right with Chirac’s RPR, and was candidate to the presidential election in 2002, 2007 and 2012. He has been an education minister during Miterrand’s second and last cohabitation cabinet (1993-97). After the first round of the 2012 presidential election, Bayrou said he would vote for François Hollande, the socialist candidate, breaking the traditional support of the UDF and MoDem for the main right-wing candidate.
His priorities include: French-language education, fair taxation, entrepreneurship, support to exports, promoting professional competences, promoting France abroad, healthcare, social protection and pension rights. He also defends the European project, which is a traditional commitment of the centre-right.
14. Marie-Claire Sparrow, independent. Lives in London.
Unlike the last two leaflets, this one is all about the message, with lots of texts over two pages. A solicitor, Sparrow has been a member of the AFE since 2006, and her programme is very expat-centred, with a project that proposes to defend the social rights of expats in their country of residence and in France and double nationality, to put an end to ‘fiscal discrimination against expats’ (they are not allowed to keep a number of savings accounts while living abroad, for instance), to increase the presence of French schools across the constituency, to support the network of Alliance françaises.
15. Bertrand Larmoyer, independent. Lives in London.
One of the few single-sided documents. An independent, Larmoyer introduces himself a liberal, but defends responsible, ethical liberalism. His programme is divided into 2 parts, one on expat issues and one on national issues. For expats, he wants to improve access to French schools, continue the improvement on consular services, prevent the taxation of expats, improve the exercise of pension rights acquired abroad when expats return to France, and to introduce the representation on expats in the management of the French social security system for expats.
On national issues, Larmoyer wants to encourage entrepreneurship, reduce the size of the state to reduce deficits, reform the state to decrease the number of levels of government, and reform social services.
16. Emmanuelle Savarit, UMP. Again, no slogan. Lives in London.
A surprisingly simple (and single-sided) document from the candidate of the main right-wing party. An entrepreneur, she really started politics to support Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007 (when she then lived in the US). Also surprisingly, her programme only addresses expat issues. One might expect the candidate of the party that is still the majority in Parliament to highlight her party’s national programme.
As a result, her programme includes, like most of the candidates, proposals to improve access to French schools and encourage bilingual education, fight against expat taxation, improve administrative services for expats, encourage cultural exchanges and entrepreneurship. She also wants to improve access to social services and pension rights.
17. Olivier Bertin, Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts. Slogan: ‘Vivre mieux’ (better living). Lives in London (his substitute lives in Oslo).
A delegate of the AFE since 2001, Bertin is the candidate of the Green party, whose candidate for the presidency was born in this constituency (Norway). His priorities for expats are close to that of the other candidates: improving access to French schools, strengthening the cultural network, improving social services for expats, refusing double nationality, improving consular services, etc. He also presents his party’s national progrmme: ‘saving the climate and preserving nature’, creating jobs through a green economy and reforming taxation for high earners and polluting industries, improving standards of living through better social housing and public health, and reforming institutions (‘a sixth republic in a federal Europee and an interdependent world’).
18. Edith Tixier, Solidarité et Progrès. Slogan: ‘Un monde sans la City ni Wall Street’ (a world without the City and Wall Street). No inication as to where she might live.
This candidate obviously wins the prize for best glasses. She is a candidate for Jacques Cheminade‘s party. Cheminade was candidate in the 1995 and 2012 presidential elections. He will be remembered for his proposal to colonise the moon in the 2012 election campaign.
The leaflet is about reforming the finance world, and it is simpler to reproduce p.2 than explain it.
The leaflet looks very professional, and the party proposes to launch a parliamentary commission on the causes of the economic crisis, split the banks to separate speculative activities from more ordinary banking activities, and increase the amount of money available. Tixier’s campaign emails look a lot less polished (one referred to the fact that we expats might miss France and its food (‘J’espère que vous n’êtes pas trop nostalgique de notre pays et de sa culture rabelaisienne : fromage, bon vin, saucisson et pain frais’). So, no cliche about France was used in the making of this campaign material, then.
Le Petit Journal (news website for the expat community) has a comparison of the programmes of all the candidates here.
Elodie Fabre 