French may vote in Brit president

10.02.38: FRANCE WAS last night braced for a fiery election campaign after its fastest-growing party chose the daughter of a British grocer living in the Dordogne as its candidate for president.

Margarite Ratchett, 41, became the first Briton to run for president since the European Union enforced new citizenship rules.

She won attention when she clubbed President Jacques Dubois with her handbag. Enraged by the corruption and political cowardice that has crippled the French economy, she lashed out during a debate on the rural anarchy that forced her father to close his shop. Her gesture led to her adoption by the Good Housekeeping party.

While 43% resent her as "an interfering Anglo-Saxon", 48% regard her as a new Joan of Arc. TAM