The 2007 French presidential election is just around the corner. There was one and only live debate between the two candidates on TV today yesterday. I didn't have a chance to watch the whole two and a half hours, but news updates on different websites and TV channels seem to generally agree Royal outperformed Sarkozy. I wasn't particularly following French politics when I was there, but as far as I remember, Nicolas Sarkozy was just everywhere. My friends half-joked by calling him Président de l'Intérieur. So I automatically assumed the 2007 election would be his one-man show. He is clearly the front-runner, but I am amazed - and naturally proud ;) - Royal is doing so well.
When it comes to e-campaigning, an aspect I cannot NOT look at, she even seems to be ahead of Sarkozy. I attended a Hansard seminar titled "The internet and the 2005 General Election: political awareness, participation and trust" two weeks ago. In the meeting, Derek Wyatt MP passionately demonstrated how cleverly Royal's camp mobilised bloggers. I had a further look when I came back home. Voilà, Ségoland.
(Original map in pdf is here.)
They actually mapped all blogs that support her. James from the NPCU pointed out in the Q&A session that such networking was a typical socialist-party programme. I understand it is. Still, I find this attempt - what's the scholarly word - COOL.
(Reproduced from the original article on my website)