Minor French Presidential Hopefuls Talk Up Science, Major Contenders Go Missing. (October 6, 2006)

    Seven of France's nine candidates vying for the French presidency -- the elections are due in April-May next year -- spent last weekend in Fleurance the small village 700 kilometres south of Paris.

    The candidates had been invited to join  a retreat of the movement known as Sauvons la Recherche (SLR, Save Research) so that they might discuss what would be in store for science from each of the candidate's point of view.

According to Science's Mark Enserink the hopefuls that showed spanned, "the political spectrum from the Revolutionary Communist League--a Trotskyist group whose candidate, Olivier Besancenot, is a 32-year-old mailman--to the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF). The result was a lively, occasionally raucous exercise in democracy, with most candidates fielding tough questions for almost an hour each while they were mocked real-time by a cartoonist whose drawings were projected on a giant screen behind them."

It is at least considered a possibility that the SLR-led protest against budget cuts and poor prospects for young researchers that brought tens of thousands to the streets between February and April 2004 may have contributed to the defeat of the governing UMP in regional elections later in the year.

As a result, the French parliament  passed a bill raising the overall research budget about 20% and creating thousands of new jobs. Nevertheless, the SLR, objected to some elements of the legislation such as the new National Research Agency and says the bill falls short of requirements.

Mark Enserink's assessment of the confab:

The candidates who came to the meeting agreed--and they knew how to flatter. "You are one of the two or three keys to the future of France," said UDF leader François Bayrou, adding that if elected, he would not only offer a 10-year investment program including 5% annual budget growth but also boost the image of science in French society. "Your community has been the victim of unjust and deleterious measures," said former prime minister and PS candidate Laurent Fabius, who proposed the most detailed package, including a 10% annual budget increase and a program to boost the life sciences, with emphasis on stem cells, antibiotics, and DNA tests.

Oh yes, who didn't show?

The two leading contenders. Nicholas Sarkozy, the populist minister of the interior and the frontrunner in the conservative party (UMP), declined the invitation, and "media darling" Ségolène Royal, the leading Socialist Party (PS) candidate, although she had agreed to come months ago, cancelled at the last minute.

Apparently if you see yourself as number 1 (or even 2) scientists aren't really all that important after all.