Socialist voters face a nervous wait for the results of today's presidential election runoff between Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande after final opinion polls following Wednesday's fiery television debate revealed a late surge in favour of the outgoing president, who has trailed his leftwing rival throughout the race.The polls indicated that Hollande was still on track to win the second round runoff vote, but revealed that the gap between the presidential rivals had narrowed from 10 percentage points a week ago to between four and six.

Le Pen is going to cast a white ballot! Maybe now you could like her :P "I will not grant my trust, or a mandate, to these two candidates, On Sunday, I will cast a blank ballot"

Learn the French presidential candidates' stances on everything from economy and migration to foreign policy and the EU

It is extremely helpful, sums up everything in a neatly divided table. Have a look! :D

For those who don't really know about Mormonism, here is a great video about it. I hope you all know that Romney is a Mormon, and it is believed that "his Mormonism could be 'the x-factor' that costs him the election in a tight race against Barack Obama for the White House in November." If you don't feel like watching a 25 minute video, the article under is more or less the same thing, but less entertaining.

Here's the link for the same video but posted on youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljYhySE7FJQ

Sarkozy launched into the final phase last week with his "Letter to the French People," a 16-page "vision of France and its future." This personal format, borrowed from his Socialist Party predecessor Francois Mitterrand, who called on the French to re-elect him in 1988 in "A Letter to All French People," reads largely like a right-wing manifesto, and portrays a country stricken with dangers, threatened by uncertainties and by the -- unnamed -- Islamic fundamentalism, referred to as an "extremist ideology whose goal is to destroy our Western values."

This comment above was taken from der Spiegel, published on the 10th.

"French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) polls show that the French see Sarkozy as more presidential than Hollande by a wide margin, but that Hollande is seen by a wide margin as more understanding of the French and sympathetic." ---> Thanks to this course I could now analyze why these results take place :P

Watch campaign ads in the 2012 presidential campaign and track campaign ad spending by candidates and interest groups. Super interesting site, I didn't know Romney was spending THAT much on ads (more than all the other candidates combined), it's crazy! Plus, if anyone still couldn't find ads for the position papers, there are plenty here, enjoy!

Rick Santorum plans no campaign events today and will spend time with his wife and ailing daughter Bella.

Meant to post this days ago. A pretty good article summarizing what's coming up next in France's elections on April 22 and May 6. Also, on page 2 there's a hint of the underdog effect, except the voters are not undecided, they're just sending a message.

Why didn't my tags work? :/

To add more humour into our lives :P

Oh and of course Santorum is the one being laughed at the most!

Since this presidency came a bit early (3 years too early), here's a brief summary to Wulff's resignation back in February, which also comes as a disadvatage to Merkel. I'm trying to find videos since they're always more entertaining, but here's what I got so far. P.S: Sorry for bombarding you with so many pages on a Sunday!

By Gareth Jones and Alice Baghdjian BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans resoundingly elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from communist East Germany, as president of the European Union's largest country on Sunday, posing a potential political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

According to an opinion poll, 80% trust Gauck, yet two thirds think he'd be an "uncomfortable" president for the country's political parties.

I had no idea Germany was even electing a new president, so I was totally surprised when I read news headlines today morning.

Speaker of Bundestag lower house of parliament says 72-year-old won 991 votes in federal assembly German MPs have elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from east Germany, as the president of the EU's largest country by a large majority in a first round of voting.