- Title: VARIOUS: Africans in France and at home watch French elections closely
- Date: 8th May 2007
- Summary: (AD1) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) PATRICK N'GUESSAN, ABIDJAN RESIDENT, SAYING: "Both politically and economically, Africa expects a lot from France. As some politicians have said, France should review its policy when it comes to those France-Africa summits, why don't they have France-Ivory Coast or France-Senegal summits? We hope that will happen when Ségolène Royal takes power in France. That will change many things."
- Embargoed: 23rd May 2007 13:00
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- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAEJHS5L2ZLI5W5LLMDVPM8MJS1
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- Story Text: More than 2 million people of African origin live in France. Traditionally, most would vote to the left - but opinions on this Sunday's presidential run-off are divided. French Presidential candidate Segolene Royal hasn't won the election yet, but these Socialist Party supporters are already celebrating.
She's through to the second round on May 6th - something that socialists in France don't take for granted anymore after far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen beat them to it five years ago.
Now, she faces centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in the run-off, and for many Africans, both within and outside France, this is an election that matters.
After all, Sarkozy gained notoriety for his tough stance on immigration as Interior Minister, and many immigrant voters hope that Royal's approach will be softer.
"Segolene really thinks about developing Africa," says Demba M'baye, a naturalised immigrant from Mauritania who has been a committed Socialist Party supporter since the election race started last year.
"If we really want to fight immigration," Demba told Reuters after a Socialist Party rally, "then we have to help Africa develop and motivate young educated people to stay at home and build something in Africa instead of leaving."
Demba himself left his impoverished desert home in Mauritania six years ago in search of a better life, and now lives in a northern suburb of Marseilles, a sea-side city in southern France.
He got to Europe by qualifying for his country's national football squad and playing a soccer match in Spain. Then, he went underground, working on the black-market first in Spain and then sneaking into France: exactly the kind of illegal immigrant that Nicolas Sarkozy would like to deter.
But Demba made it here. He applied for and got legal papers, trained as a plumber, and now rents his own flat, pays taxes and sends money home to his family in Africa.
"I more or less make a decent living," says Demba. "It was my dream to come and live in France because I really love life here, and I love France."
Demba is one of between 2½ and 5 million people of African origin estimated to be living in France - but not all are as happy as he is.
Many of France's immigrants live in suburbs - known here as 'banlieue'. They are often soulless blocks of cheap, urban housing, and many immigrants have never lived anywhere else, even if they're second or third-generation immigrants and French citizens from birth.
In November 2005, violent riots broke out in the suburbs, with disgruntled youth protesting that they're made to live as second-class citizens.
Nicolas Sarkozy, then Interior Minister, spoke out harshly against them, saying that the protesters were 'scum', and that the suburbs needed to be cleaned with a 'power-hose'.
Today, he's softened his tone somewhat, but his often blunt rhetoric is popular with many voters - he currently tops the opinion polls.
"I wanted to give France its honour back," he told supporters at a rally a few days after the first round of voting. "You can't integrate someone else when you yourself don't know who you are anymore. You can't make other people love what you have not learned to love yourself. I want everyone's identity to be respected. I want no one to forget his roots, his history, his culture because I think differences make us richer."
Marie-Yves Nganga lives in the same city as Demba M'Baye. Born to a father from Cameroon and a mother from Mauritania, she was born and raised in one of the grittier suburbs of Marseilles.
But Marie-Yves has never voted socialist - she's an active member of Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party and spends her spare time out in the neighbourhood, persuading people to vote for him.
Today, she's at a school, and she knows how to get people to listen. "This is someone who's going to give France back its values Madame," she tells one parent. "Because when children come to school and don't say 'good day' to their teacher, it's because we've lost all our values... I'm right wing and I support Mr. Sarkozy. He wants security for our neighbourhood." The listener nods in agreement, saying that she does too.
Marie-Yves has no way of knowing whether she has another vote in the bag for Sarkozy, but she does know that she's changing perceptions here, in a neighbourhood where the majority has always voted socialist.
"People don't see what right-wing means," says Marie-Yves. "For them, the political right are rich people who don't care about the common man. So it's up to me to take the message to the neighbourhoods, to make them understand what it means to be right-wing and to trust us. Just because we're of immigrant origin doesn't mean we always have to vote left-wing or socialist."
There's also keen interest in the coming vote on the African continent, especially in francophone countries, where the vast majority of France's African immigrants originally come from.
Besides, Ségolène Royal was born in the Senegalese capital Dakar, so there's added interest there.
"Ségolène Royal, the woman from the Socialist Party, is well-placed," says Dakar resident Pape Faye, "but she's a woman, and I don't know if the French today are ready to be led by a woman, given the mentality in that country. And that's what's going to be a problem and that's going to give the advantage to Sarkozy. I think that's what's going to happen. But it would be in his best interest to change his immigration policy, because if he doesn't and becomes president, it will damage relations between France and Africa."
Patrick N'Guessan from Abdijan in Ivory Coast is more hopeful that Royal will win and improve France's relations with Africa.
"Both politically and economically, Africa expects a lot from France," says N'Guessan. "As some politicians have said, France should review its policy when it comes to those France-Africa summits, why don't they have France-Ivory Coast or France-Senegal summits? We hope that will happen when Ségolène Royal takes power in France. That will change many things."
Mamadou Fofana in Mali's capital Bamako meanwhile tends to agree with Marie-Yves. "I prefer Sarkozy for the simple reason that he at least has the courage to say what no one else says," says Fofana. "I know that with an honest president like him the affairs between France and its colonies will be addressed from equal to equal."
Back in Marseilles, Demba M'Baye and his friends sit down to enjoy a traditional Mauritanian stew of potatoes, meat and onions - a taste of the continent and life that they left behind when they moved to France.
Whether Nicolas Sarkozy or Ségolène Royal wins on Sunday, France's new leader will carry on their shoulders the expectations of millions of immigrants, who hope that he or she will work to make France a better place to live for all its people, no matter where they originally came from. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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