First results in the French presidential elections are due in at 8pm local time, apparently. The best summary of why this is interesting is probably SatireWire's, which is disturbing in some vague sense (if not as disturbing as why I'm writing about French politics after 1am).

Obviously I'm not French, and what with uni and having a life and all I haven't been paying close enough attention to French politics to be able to comment in any great detail with particular authority. Nonetheless - and I never thought I'd have to say this after all those nuclear tests in the Pacific - I hope Chirac gets in. le Pen bothers me - and I'd thought the One Hit Wonder of Australian politics that was Hanson was bad. At least we never had to worry that One Nation was a serious contender.

It's not just his anti-everything-right-and-pure stance, or the fact that I distrust right wing politics. I distrust left wing politics too, after all, and he's French so an obnoxious personality is assumed. What I really don't like is fervent nationalism, which he has.

Nationalism was a huge causal factor in World War One. (And France remembers the world wars so fondly, doesn't it?) I've been reading a lot about it for History, and nothing I've read makes me think it's a good thing. Nationalism, fervent patriotism, leads to discrimination, to violence, to political unrest and to war. These are not a few of my favourite things.

So go to, Jacques, go to.