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Is France ready for a gay President?
Delanoe
Paris's gay Mayor hints he may run for Presidency
"People think that homosexuality is acceptable in Paris but not in the suburbs and the provinces"
While the American Democratic Party decides whether it wants its first African American - or part African American - Presidential candidate or it's first female Presidential candidate, it seems that France is one step ahead with gay Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, mooting that France may be ready for its first gay Presidential candidate.
"People think that homosexuality is acceptable in Paris but not in the suburbs and the provinces," says Monsieur Delanoe in his book De l'audace [Courage]. "That is a false idea. As people feel that it's not a problem for me, it is no longer a problem for them."
The issue arises as opinion polls put him way ahead of Socialist Presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, who was beaten by President Bling, Sarkozy in last year's Presidential elections. As Mayor of Paris, Delanoe has inaugurated many popular innovations like the Paris Plage and the free bike scheme, which Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, was considering.
He is seen as a liberal with an authoritarian streak - maybe a prerequisite for the post of Mayor of a large city - and has drawn criticism from the far left for his calls to modernise and embrace certain aspects of the free market. Whether he can replicate his success and popularity in Paris in the less sophisticated outposts of what is a very big country remains to be seen.
