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Loading ...Gay Paris mayor to seek French presidency
08.26.2008 5:59pm EDT
(Paris) Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said Tuesday that he will seek the leadership of France’s Socialist Party.
The party has been in disarray since Segolene Royal was beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in May 2007 and the party has failed to mount an effective opposition.Party members are due to choose a new leader in November and Royal already has said she would seek to renew her leadership.
Delanoe’s declaration in an interview with Le Monde newspaper puts to rest months of speculation.
“Yes, I will put all my energy at the service of my beliefs,” the mayor told Le Monde newspaper when asked if he would run.
In March Delanoe romped to an easy re-election as Paris mayor, fueling speculation his Socialist Party would tap him to run against President Sarkozy in 2012.
If he were to win the presidency it would make Delanoe the first openly gay man in modern times to lead a major power.
In 1998, while he was a relatively obscure city councilor, Delanoe came out in a television interview, breaking an unwritten French law that a politician’s private life should remain private.
He later said that friends urged him not to go public, but that he overruled them because of the good he felt it would do to advance gay rights. “Would not my intervention help even if only in a small way to lighten the burden of secrecy borne by so many people,” he wrote in his 2004 biography.
In 2001 Delanoe was elected the capital’s first ever Socialist mayor and the first gay person to head a city government in a major city.
A year later Delanoe was stabbed by a deranged homophobe as he presided over an all-night cultural party at city hall.
He was rushed to hospital suffering a single stab wound to his abdomen. Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital operated on Delanoe for more than three hours. He spent nearly a month in hospital.
Police arrested a man at the scene. During interrogations he told investigators he hated gays and politicians.
Since becoming mayor Delanoe has been hugely popular, particularly with the poor and middle classes.
But his popularity also is high outside Paris and a growing number in the Socialist Party see him as their strongest hope for defeating Sarkozy in the next election - scheduled for 2012.
Why not !
Just because he is gay is no reason to celebrate. After all he is Socialist, an “ism” that stifles incentive, economic growth and robs Peter to pay Paul. European Communism fell like a house of cards. He will do no better.
whats so bad about socialism?
Modern socialism has little to do with historical communism. For example in Canada we technically have a conservative minority government, yet our policies and programs are quite socialist. To be fair we have had Liberal party rule for most of our history that have instituted most of our government programs. Likewise in Europe, modern liberal democracies are the rule rather than the exception. I’d say that modern socialism is alive and well and preferred by progressive citizens of the world. I would welcome Mayor Delanoe to the world stage, him being a gay man is a big bonus.
Tommy, wake up: the Socialist Party (PS) is just the leader left/democratic party (= labour) in France, it’s NOT communism!!!
Frace had twice a socialist President and many times socialist Prime Minister, it’s really not Cuba or China!!! It’s very like Zapatero in Spain!
Paris is the french capital city, since 2001 the economy (tourism, finances, culture…) is good.
not only is he good, but he is the most poipular french politician with an amazing 63% good opinions…
and Tommy, Socialism in france s like Democrats in the US… No big fuss about that.