The narrative about the forthcoming French election includes two stories that have stood unchallenged for a long time. The first is that this is a race between two politicians only. The second is that we are going to enter a new dawn of French politics. It is now relatively safe to say that the second assumption is wrong and that the first is no longer as certain as it once was.
The political programmes of Nicolas Sarkozy on the right and Ségolène Royal on the left are hardly a testimony to post-modern politics. Ms Royal is proposing to tax the rich until the pips squeak and to impose a crippling minimum wage of €1,500 ($1,971) a month. Mr Sarkozy wants to reduce inheritance taxes in a country with one of the most favourable inheritance tax regimes in the world.
