If French voters are asking themselves why Ford car worker, union leader and anti-capitalist Philippe Poutou is standing in the presidential election, they will hardly be reassured to learn that so is he.
The genial Poutou, 44, who could be described quite fairly as one of the fringe fringe candidates, astonished viewers of a television programme featuring four rival candidates on Wednesday night by declaring that he "never wanted a political career". He said he was only standing because a predecessor had told him "go on, it's your turn to do it and be pissed off".
We are seeing a lot more of Poutou, candidate for the New Anti-capitalist party, these days thanks to one of the quirks of French presidential elections that means as voting day approaches, a law kicks in giving every candidate equal air time on radio and television. It's not just the length of time they're given, but the quality … meaning no shunting the no-hopers off to midnight slots.
Thus, some 3.4m people watched Poutou, who is forecast to get between 0.5% and 1% of votes, admitting that political campaigning was "harder than working in a factory", that it wasn't a "dream or personal ambition" to become president and "for eight months he'd been pissed off having to give interviews". In fact, he added, he woke up every morning and thought "Shit, I'm a candidate!" (Judging by audience figures it was more compelling viewing than the French Cup football match on a rival channel.)
Poutou's campaign broadcast is equally irreverent, featuring a gameshow in which two contestants have to guess the name of the anti-capitalist candidate. One keeps guessing "General de Gaulle". The other, when told the candidate works in the automobile industry responds "Schumacher".
The French media isn't quite sure whether to laugh or criticise Poutou's "sense of humour and ability to poke fun at himself", as one French magazine described it.
Poutou stands no chance of being elected, and doesn't want to be. Like the other no-hope candidates he is using the election to air his party's political views. These are a national retirement age of 60, a wage increase of €300 a month for all workers, a minimum monthly wage of €1,700, a 32-hour working week, a ban on all redundancies, requisition of the banks and an end to nuclear power.
Poutou is at least pragmatic. Although opposed to the mainstream left Parti Socialiste, he says he will support its candidate, François Hollande, in an eventual run off with Nicolas Sarkozy.
"Today, what we say is that we must remove Sarkozy and his entire gang," he told Le Monde.
After his television performance on Wednesday night, the audience applauded; an extremely rare occurrence in a political debate. If this happens Poutou may find himself picking up the sympathy vote.
He certainly raised a laugh by explaining his discomfort at being in the spotlight. "I'm not used to being on my own. When we go and invade the boss's office we do it in a group," he said. "When we occupy, it's as a group. We go on strike as a group".
