Presidential elections France – second round results live

This post will be used to give you live impressions from the French presidential elections by Olaf and Steeph from the studio of France24.

As soon as exit polls or results will come in we will give some update over here. Below the fold Olaf and Steeph will give some personal observations.

In the mean time, your opinion on the results as well as on the possible actions of the newly elected president are welcome in the comments.

Please respond in English since the comments will also feature on the France24 site.

First round on Sargasso.
Special France24 election site.

Other blogs doing live blogging:
Christophe Ginisty
Philippe Martin
Luca Conti (+photo’s)
Joshua Boswell
Stephane Deschanel
Nues Blog
Caroline
Anders Gjoen
Nicolas Voisin
Memoire Vive

Olaf
17:45 –
“You are from the Netherlands!”,
“Thus you helped us with the NO against the European Constitution!”, says the taxidriver who drives me at a steady 130 kilometers an hour from the airport straight to the studio of France24.
“Well”, I hesitate, and inform tell him that I voted in favour of that document.
“But come-on!”, he shouts, “before we open up the European Union to other countries, like Turkey and Ukraine – where I just arrived from – before that, we need to stabalise the work of the Union”. “It’s a mess right now!”.
He gets me confused.
“Isn’t that exactly what that constitution was all about?”, I ask.
“Ahh well”, he tells me. “politics is not my thing anyhow…”

Steeph
17:45 – Nice detail. On the way over to the hotel from the railway station, the taxi driver pointed out the house Chirac will use after leaving his office. It’s near the Seine. Very modest place, seen from the outside.
18:30 – You can feel the tension rising.
19:45 – Amazing how they switch between three versions of French24. First the English one with Olaf and me. Then the Arabic one and now the French edition. All within 10 minutes from the same room.
19:55 – 5 minutes left. People falling still.
20:05 – Silence over here. People listening to Royal. You can feel relief after such a strong battle.
20:35 – Interviewed some people. Most are wondering what will exactly happen now he’s really president. Some hope he will change the economic balance. Just a few people applauded over here when he appeared and started speaking.
20:45 – Only a very brief moment, Sarkozy removes a tear.

Photo’s
Olaf with Luca:

Caroline from Boston came in with this:

Sarkozy just after his speech looking at himself a the big screen over here:

Elections in Second Life:

Arabic interview of a blogger, and live on background:

Talking heads in three different languages: