Latest news France: wine

ELECTION SELECTION

Local elections held throughout France in March dealt a blow to Sarkozy and his Union pour un Mouvement Populaire party as the left gained in popularity. The Socialists came out with 49.6 per cent of the vote in the final round of the municipal elections against 47.5
per cent for the UMP.While the Socialists retained France’s first and third cities of Paris and Lyon, Sarkozy’s party kept hold of Marseille, traditionally a stronghold for the left.

The elections come at a difficult time for Sarkozy who has lost some 30 points in the opinion polls since the
beginning of the year.

BIENVENUE SUR FACEBOOK

The popular social networking phenomenon, Facebook, launched a French version of the website following German and Spanish translations earlier this year. Several
terms remain in English such as the term ‘to poke’ and there has been some critiscism that the translation is a
half-hearted effort.

GOOGLE GOES FRENCH

French technology giant, Thomson, is leading a consortium to build a European rival to US internet search engine Google. The EU approved a €99 million grant of French state aid to assist the development of Quaero.
Originally a Franco-German initiative, Germany is continuing with their own version, Theseus.

SARKO IN LONDON

Nicolas Sarkozy’s state visit to London in March was a first for the President – and his new wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The newlyweds were welcomed at Windsor Castle by the
Queen and Sarkozy gave a talk to both houses at Westminster. The main topics up for discussion – other tha
Mrs Sarkozy’s Dior wardrobe – were the formulation of a nuclear power alliance between France and Britain as well as talks of greater cooperation on immigration, defence and the economy.

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