Radio Londres

The primaries are over for the upcoming presidential elections in France. France has a two-tiered elections. In simple words, the entire nation goes to vote two times. Two candidates are chosen from the first round of voting. In the second round, a victor emerges with clear majority out of the two candidate chosen from the first round. I'm oversimplifying the entire process. In reality, the French system has many buts and ifs giving rise to a complex system which does not give preferential treatment. This is different from other parts of the world where the electorate do not vote twice for single post in one election.

Reading all the analysis and reports of the first round, I was surprised to hear about a ban on the social media to prevent the leaking of the election results till late in the evening. I neither know why this is necessary nor how this was accomplished. On twitter, it was different. The clever tweeple worked around this ban by employing a tag "Radio Londres" (#radiolondres). Londres is London in French. If you are thinking what is connection between a French election and London, then you are thinking just like me.

It has to do with history. During World War II, BBC set up a broadcast named Radio Londres for the occupied France. Using this hash tag is an apt homage to the past. However, it is dramatic at the same time as the conditions of France are not comparable with those days.

Tags: French Lessons,Elections