Royal has the left and Sarkozy has the right

Au revoir — and good riddance — to the fondness for fringe-party voting that has recently plagued French politics. That was the central message of the first round of the nation's presidential elections. In a stark contrast to 2002, when 4.8 million people voted for Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front and another 11.5 million for a gallimaufry of no-hopers, an unprecedented 37 million voters turned out on April 22 to propel Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and Socialist Ségolène Royal into a May 6 runoff between mainstream right and left. The strong showing...