The "Modem" of François Bayrou

Remember François Bayrou, the "third man"? He has been busy as a bee, forming a new party with which to sting Sarkozy's UMP candidates in the upcoming legislative elections on June 10. The new party was originally called the "Parti démocrate". But the initials PD in French are pronounced "pé dé" (like "pay day") which is short for "pédéraste" - I trust everyone understands what that is. So he changed the name to "Mouvement démocrate" and now this has been cleverly shortened to "Modem". Bayrou says he founded this party as a "resistance movement":

"We have a duty to resist. I resisted yesterday, I resist today, I will resist tomorrow. Resistance is what France needs."

He said he felt an obligation toward the 6.8 million people who voted for him on April 22.

"Do we answer their demands... or do we desert them? There are times when it is necessary to change and to open the door so that more citizens can participate in the common effort."

The new party has drawn to it such personalities as ecologist Corinne Lepage, former minister of equal opportunity, Algerian-born Azouz Begag and Jean-Luc Bennhamias, deputy of the Green Party in the European Parliament.

Three quarters of the elected officials of the UDF party (Bayrou's old party) have rallied to Nicolas Sarkozy with the result that on June 10, 23 out of 29 incumbent UDF officials will become candidates under the label "presidential majority."

Note: Though he doesn't say so, Bayrou seems to be attempting get revenge for these 23 defections to Sarkozy. He does admit, however, to wanting to establish a "counter-power" to Sarko's immense power:

"L'UMP is going to hold, with no exception, all the levers of command in France. Of course they will obtain an absolute majority." François Bayrou denounced the "great collusion between the president-elect and the great financial and media power structures. All of that constitutes a power such as France has never known. In opposition to this power there must be counter-powers, not necessarily negative or destructive counter-powers."

"I want to establish a new rule of the game (...): when something is good we say so, when it is not we vote no."

A few days after making the above comments Bayrou said he would be glad to talk with Nicolas Sarkozy if he were invited:

"If Nicolas Sarkozy called me, I would talk to him... He is president of the Republic. He is the one in charge of the nation's most important and precious resources."

"I have a consistent attitude. I will make judgments according to the bills that are presented to us, instead of being one of those who knows in advance how he will vote."

Mr. Bayrou is presenting himself as a defender of "democracy" anxious to insure that the citizens have some parliamentarians "who do not vote automatically."

Nicolas Sarkozy is "president of the Republic, I have confidence in him. I am not ambushing him, but I want to remain free to support what needs to be supported, and to draw attention to things that are troubling."

François Bayrou insists that his new party will have candidates in all the voting districts. Yesterday he announced that he already had 52,000 new registered voters. These people, he said, have dreamt "for a long time of a party that is neither the ossified Socialist Party, nor the UMP (qualify it as you will), but a new political movement, a new way."

Note: The French legislative elections also consist of two rounds of voting. If, in the second round, a "Modem" candidate for a seat in parliament opposes an UMP candidate, will Bayrou advise his constituents to vote Modem or UMP? Some are even wondering if Bayrou will have his candidates "desist" on the second round - that is, renounce their candidacy.

But Bayrou claims he wants to create a new parliamentary force. Possibly he would soften his ambitions if he were offered a ministerial post? That is mere speculation on my part. To me, he sounds jealous, and unwilling to take a back seat, a little like Jimmy Carter in American politics who meddled in the affairs of State, long after he had been voted out of office.

This post was based on three Yahoo articles:

Creating the "Modem"

Creating a counter-power

Fifty-two thousand adherents