The Presidential election victory in France of Nicolas Sarkozy has meant that, by necessity, this entry concerns representatives of Italy’s centre-right parties. Had Segolene Royal won, no doubt exactly the same problem would have reared its head, but from the other side of the political stage – and one uses the word stage advisedly.

Sarkozy’s win has put a grin on the faces of all those with a righward bent (and, perhaps a touch of good old fascism – but that’s another day’s work), with party spokesmen for the centre-right all managing to conclude that this bodes encouragingly well for Italy’s centre-right coalition, and terribly badly for the ruling centre-left coalition of Romano Prodi.

Why?

A candidate in a different country wins a Presidential race (for a position that has no similar one in your country), under a system of government significantly different to yours, and you manage to pull out of the bag:

“The overwhelming vote for Nicolas Sarkozy demonstrates the desire for change that’s crossing Europe and not only in France. The defeat of Royal is yet another proof that Europeans consider the capacity of the left to govern spent”[S.Berlusconi – 7/05/2007]

Sadly we have yet to hear the political implications in Italy of the SNP’s victories in the Scottish Election last week…