"But I’m not sure that they want to join the real world. Most of the old political crowd—they know nothing about globalization, about the economy. Not even the businessmen do. They are political, but they are not tied to politics. If they want the illusion of their nice French shelter, Sarkozy will lose.”

According to Christine Ockrent, France's top TV-journalist in a lenghthy and excellent essay about the French elections from the hand of Jane Kramer. Once you've read it you may want to reconsider putting your money on a Sarko win. The wishes of the pro-market Anglo-Saxon commentariat are miles away from the deep French attachment to the status quo. But as Ockrent correctly argues, no one is sure at this point, the float is simply too large to make any sensible prediction.