Les sans-dents: The toothless, is apparently the French President's jovial term for the poor
Les sans-culottes [without breeches] made up the majority of the revolutionary army.
Les indignées [the indignant] similar to the occupy movement in the US.
François Holland is even less popular than the Republicans in congress and has been a total disaster for the left; since for some reason that I fail to understand he is grouped with us. I sympathize with many who say that even Sarkozy was better.
Personally I have never seen France in such a mess and the extreme right is profiting like never before and Hollande's popularity has dropped by a further 5% since the last elections [for the European parliament]. The economy is a shambles, youth unemployment is around 22%, austerity is still the buzzword.
I can see Marine LePen reaching the run-off in the Presidential elections in 2017 as her father did before her, but she will lose by a much smaller margin. The other candidates and potential candidates are hardly inspiring [bar one or two]
In France we have a political elite coupled to and often part of the bureaucracy, les énarques [graduates of École nationale d'administration] all trained in the same way, with about as much chance of thinking outside of the box as a cube.
This is not a new problem as this article from 1997 points out
The French elections have triggered the customary campaign-time offensive against the most elite of France's elite grandes ecoles, the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (Ena).
For its critics and much of public opinion, Ena has come to symbolise all that is wrong with France, while its defenders say it serves as a scapegoat.
The most extreme campaign statement came from former finance minister Alain Madelin, who told a rally: "Ireland has the IRA, Spain has Eta, Italy the Mafia, and France Ena."
The other French saying is if you want to destroy a business hire a polytechnician [l'École polytechnique]. These "schools" were originally set up to democratize France yet they have become the production lines of the elite, in other words they have become the system.
Ena's association of past students said it was "stupefied" and expressed confidence that Mr Madelin would withdraw his statement. "Otherwise how could he accept ministerial responsibilities forcing him to work with terrorists and gangsters?" In his first interview after the election was called, prime minister Alain Juppe suggested "replacing with something closer to reality" an Ena that has "aged
Alain Juppe was also a graduate of ENA.
It has not changed but become more entrenched
Well that is enough of French politics for today, it's Sunday and I have better things to do like making sure the newfies don't have fleas.