Going Global Part 20: Sego v. Sarko

The French election results are in! Sort of.

Yesterday a record number of voters in France turned out for the first round of presidential elections, narrowing the field down to two candidates: Nicolas Sarkozy (from the right) and Ségolène Royal (from the left).

French elections are generally more colorful—and, consequently, more fun to watch—than the American variety. For instance, Royal's longtime partner and the father of her four children, François Holland, is the head of the French Socialist party and a political rival (he was once considered a front runner to succeed Jacques Chirac). Meanwhile, Sarkozy, who has run largely on a platform of economic liberalization, has been blamed by some for inciting the riots in 2005, when he suggested turning a power hose on unruly youth.

Max Chafkin

Senior writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.