This is an interview with France’s Secretary of State for Employment, Laurent Wauquiez, who is attending the Democratic Convention in Denver. He explains why he’s there and why Obama appeals to him more than John McCain.
About Obama, Wauquiez says in part:
“When I see a candidate who is on the cutting edge of environmental issues, the defense of the middle class, the international responsibilities of the United States, I’m interested. Our future also partly hangs in the balance at this convention.”
About the scale and the spectacle of the event, Wauquiez writes:
“The entire city has been besieged by groups that have organized a series of forums on topics ranging from environmental protection to the battle against diabetes. There are ideas we can use on how Americans manage to unify this mass mobilization. With us [French], we don’t even know how to set up such large events.”
Interview by Thierry Dupont
Translated By Sandrine Agoerges
August 27, 2008
France – L’Express – Original Article (French)
The Secretary of State for Employment, Laurent Wauquiez, is one of the French politicians have who made the trip to the convention in Denver, to attend the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for the next presidential election. Attracted by as much by the personality of the Black senator as the American savoir-faire for organizing such a mass event, he gives us his impressions and expectations.
L’EXPRESS: Is this your first American convention?
LAURENT WAUQUIEZ: Yes, this is the first time I have attended this type of event. I am here for at least two reasons. The first is that the Party plays an important role in the upcoming election, as there are two different paths open to the United States. When I see a candidate who is on the cutting edge of environmental issues, the defense of the middle class, the international responsibilities of the United States, I’m interested. Our future also partly hangs in the balance at this convention.
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