Word Of The Week

scrutin

The election is over ; voting has ended. Everyone knows who won : Nicholas Sarkozy. CNN is fond of saying he was the conservative candidate. That's true in a sense ; he's a law-and-order type, and a capitalist who believes in less government oversight of business. But he's still French. I think most Americans would look at him and not think "conservative" in the current, twisted, neo-con religious right sense. Not even in the Reagan capitalist, traditional values sense. He's French. Long tradition of strong labor, universal health care, decent education, paved streets, public art, real vacations, etc. None of that is likely to change drastically.

And Sarkozy himself said that while France is still a friend of the USA, friends can and will disagree about things. Like Iraq. My neighbor (a Chirac supporter and now a Sarkozy supporter) told me yesterday that the right candidate won, and now he's going to get to work to convince Bush that he needs to do something about the climate change issue. I hope Sarkozy has a good sense of humor.

Because, you see, Sarkozy is not really an American-style "conservative." He's French.

Ok, so today's word is another word for the whole election thing. Scrutin, a masculine noun, is the word for the whole election process. Not the campaign, but the process of voting, counting, and announcing the results. It comes from the latin scrutinium, which means to search, to determine results.

Le scrutin est fermé. Voting has ended.

Image from : www.auray.fr