According to Wikipedia

The 2007 French presidential election will be the ninth such election of the Fifth French Republic. It is assumed that the first round of voting will take place on Sunday, April 22, 2007, with a second round (if necessary, which usually is the case) on Sunday, May 6, 2007.

Apparently the two main candidates for the election at this point are Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.We are lucky enough to have reasonably reliable birth data for both of them with what appear to be accurate birth times.

Ségolène Royal

According to Wikipedia

Ségolène Royal was selected by the French Socialist Party on November 17, 2006 to be the party’s candidate for the election. She is the first woman to represent a major French party in a Presidential contest.

Royal was born September 22 1953 at 4:10 pm in Dakar, Senegal according to Astrotheme

Natal Chart Analysis

Royal actually has a pretty decent chart from a Hellenistic astrological perspective.This is a day chart with the Sun in an earth sign, so her primary trigon lord is her angular Venus in the 7^th house conjunct the fixed star regulus.Her secondary trigon lord is a bit more mediocre Moon in Pisces in the succedent 2^nd house, and the cooperating lord is her succedent Mars in Virgo in the 8^th.These are not spectacular trigon lords, but they do indicate someone who is carried fourth well in her early years and moderately well later in life.

Her ascendant is in Aquarius and the ruler is an exalted Saturn in Libra in the 9^th house.This is a very well positioned Saturn in her chart that is acting in her favor since Saturn’s malefic nature is tempered considerably by its placement in a day chart, above the horizon and in a diurnal sign that is ruled by an angular benefic.As if this placement is not strong enough already Saturn is also enclosed by the rays of the two benefics Venus and Jupiter which cast their partile rays immediately before and after Saturn, thus bonifying it and rendering its significations even more positive and constructive in her life.The only thing that could make Saturn better positioned is if it was not in a cadent house. Certainly such a strong Saturn placement in the 9th house in her chart is what evokes some of the statements in Wikipedia’s current biography of her regarding some of her political stances

She is known for her admiration for some of Tony Blair’s “Third Way” politics, for her controversial insistence on “law and order” issues and for her support of devolution and participatory democracy.

So Segolene Royal’s more positive placements in her chart are her very well positioned Saturn, her Jupiter in Gemini in the 5^th house of Good Fortune, and her reasonably well placed primary trigon lord Venus in the 7^th.She actually has better positioned trigon lords than Sarkozy, although what she lacks are the strong placements of the Lot of Fortune and its lord which his chart exhibits.Royal’s Lot of Fortune is in Leo in the 7^th, which is good, but the lord is the Sun which is in the succedent 8^th house, or the 2^nd derivative house from Fortune itself.This may provide fortunate circumstances surrounding relationships and finances, but it does not provide much in the way of outstanding professional or political success, at least not to the extent that one would expect in a presidential chart.Ultimately the natal indications are mixed and it would take some rather striking transits and time lords occurring at the time of the election in order to catapult the person who assumes this chart into the presidency.

Nicolas Sarkozy

According to Wikipedia Sarkozy is

…the head of the centre-right party UMP and Minister of the Interior. He is a declared candidate for the Presidency of the Republic in the 2007 election and was chosen on 14 January 2007 as the UMP’s candidate.

Sarkozy was born January 28 1955 at approximately 10:00 pm in Paris according to Astrotheme

Sarkozy was born at night with the Moon in Aries in the 8^th whole sign house.His primary trigon lord is his succedent Jupiter in the 11^th house, exalted in Cancer, conjunct Uranus and the Lot of Fortune, but retrograde.A succedent trigon lord placement is generally seen as sort of mediocre, but the exalted status and co-presence with the Lot would seem to raise his fortunes substantially, although its retrograde status promises reversals at various points in time.This position would seem to portend to his knack for forging bonds with powerful people, but the retrograde brings to mind past episodes such as his spurning of Jacques Chirac during the 1995 election by backing his opponent and then the subsequent political fallout that ensued when Chirac won the election and Sarkozy suddenly found himself out of favor in the major political circles.Sarkozy’s secondary trigon lord is his cadent Sun in the 6^th house in Aquarius, with a likewise cadent and considerably malefic Saturn in the 3^rd house in Scorpio acting as the cooperating lord.

It is a night chart, thus placing the nocturnal planets Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Moon in a more favorable and constructive position in his chart, while the out of sect malefic Saturn has its nature augmented for the worse.Saturn is definitely the more difficult planet to watch out for in Sarkozy’s chart, and this is demonstrated a bit in his early life by his more negative interactions and feelings towards his father who abandoned and apparently refused to support his family financially during Sarkozy’s childhood.As a general rule Saturn tends to be more malefic in its significations in a night chart, and this has important implications because of the somewhat pivotal role that Saturn plays in Sarkozy’s life.This cadent Saturn placement is Sarkozy’s most difficult placement in his chart, but it is also one of the most pivotal.Its position in a night chart and in the sign of a malefic renders Saturn a bit more problematic than usual, and this placement would probably cause quite a bit of havoc in his life if not for the superior trine from Jupiter in Cancer which ameliorates Saturn to some degree.

Still, the decently placed primary trigon lord and poorly placed secondary lord would generally signify a delineation to the effect of someone who is carried fourth well in the first part of his life, but who is later reduced in reputation or suffers a fall from grace.However, these somewhat weak trigon lord placements could be counteracted substantially by favorable Fortune placements, and indeed this appears to be the case in this chart.

As stated earlier, Sarkozy’s Lot of Fortune is in Cancer in the 11^th house with his exalted Jupiter.The ruler of Fortune is the Moon in Aries in the 10^th house relative to the Lot of Fortune.The Moon is applying to Mars in Aries, and Mars is acting as a constructive malefic since its nature is tempered in this nocturnal chart, and it is also the lord of the Lot of Spirit.This combination of having the lord of Fortune in the 10^th relative to Fortune, and conjunct the ruler of the 10^th from Fortune which is also the ruler of the Lot of Spirit makes for a very powerful combination for eminence and success with regards to one’s career and reputation.The 2^nd century Hellenistic astrologer Vettius Valens says that

It is better, then, to find the ruler of Spirit upon the Lot of Fortune or the tenth zoidion from this, which is the Midheaven; for in this way the nativities become brilliant and notable.(Vettius Valens, The Anthology, Book 2, part 1, trans. Robert Schmidt, Project Hindsight, 1994, pg. 30)

When activated by certain time-lord techniques this combination has historically been the portent that provides Sarkozy with his political successes throughout the course of his career.

Ultimately it seems like Sarkozy has the more eminent of the two charts from a natal standpoint.While Royal’s trigon lords and domicile lord of the ascendant are stronger than Sarkozy’s, I believe that his auspicious Fortune placement trumps that because it is simply so strong, and because it is clearly indicative of career and social eminence while Royal’s are not as much.

Transits, Profections and Election Day

There is apparently a sort of primary election that occurs on April 22 in order to narrow down the candidates, and then there is a final election on May 6^th in which the final few candidates face off.This will probably be the decisive day in which Royal and Sarkozy face off against one another, and so it is the time-lords and the transits on this and the surrounding time period that should tell us the end results of the election.Below are the natal charts with the transits for May 6^th on the outside of the wheel.

Sarkozy’s Transits and Profections

Sarkozy is in a 5^th house profection year.Basically this means that all of the trine configurations in his chart are activated this year.The main profections that are active this year are the ascendant in Virgo handing over to Capricorn and thus the ruler Saturn since that sign is void natally; the Moon as the sect light and Mars handing over to Leo and his natal Pluto; the Sun and Mercury handing over to the Midheaven; Jupiter, Uranus and Fortune handing over to Saturn; Venus handing over to the Moon and Mars; and finally the Midheaven handing over to Libra and his natal Neptune.

The closest transiting aspect that Sarkozy has on the final election day is transiting Mars at 23 Pisces trine his natal Jupiter at 23 Cancer, which is kind of interesting because there appears to be some sort of recurrence going on here. According to Wikipedia

On 31 May 2005 the main French news radio station France Info reported a rumour that Sarkozy was to be reappointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin without resigning from the UMP leadership. This was confirmed on 2 June 2005, when the members of the government were officially announced.

Approximately two years ago on June 2nd when this announcement/reappointment was made Mars was also at 23 degrees of Pisces trining Sarkozy’s natal Jupiter, and Venus was similarly also at 27/28 Gemini conjunct his natal midheaven. If history is any measure of the future then this is simply a recurrence for Sarkozy which bodes quite well for his prospects with regards to this presidential election.

There are only really two compelling points that seem to go against Sarkozy at this time in my opinion. The first is that this is the 12 year anniversary of Sarkozy’s spurning of Chirac during the 1995 election and his subsequent falling out of political favor for a brief period of time as a result of that. This means that all of the same profections that were active that year are also active again in this year, and there is often a sort of similarity in the themes that people encounter in these recurring 12 year cycles, although this is augmented for better or worse depending on the transits at the time.

On the one hand this could indicate a similar fall from grace as the one that he experienced the last time that this configuration occurred in his chart. But conversely it could also indicate more of a scenario where he has come full circle since that last incident 12 years ago when he kind of hit rock bottom and then had to crawl his way back up the political ladder, and now it is time for the fruits of those efforts to become apparent.

The other thing that could perhaps be seen as an issue is Sarkozy’s Saturn square Saturn transit. He is in a 5th house profection year this year, and thus when you start from the ascendant you end up in Capricorn which is void natally and thus activates Saturn in his chart both natally and in transit. Additionally, his sect light, the Moon, and Mars profect 5 signs over from Aries to activate Leo this year where his natal Pluto is placed, and the major transit going on at the time of the election in that sign is Saturn stationing at 18 Leo in the middle of April and making a superior square to his natal Saturn in the 3rd house. This could be seen as a very difficult and challenging sort of transit to deal with, albeit extremely important, especially when transiting Saturn in Leo is activated by the Moon, Mars and the ascendant by profection, and his natal Saturn is activated as a time-lord through other Hellenistic techniques as well.

However in Sarkozy’s case I think that the Saturn square may simply be indicating the natural challenges involved in assuming such an office, and it is notable to point out that his political career actually began 30 years ago under the same configuration when he became councilor in the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Thus, what he is experiencing right now is the Saturn return of his political career when he was first appointed to a public office. George Bush went through something similar during the 2004 presidential election in the U.S. when he had his natal Saturn return in the 12th house in Cancer at the time of the election, and as we all know, he still won. It would appear that this could be the case with Sarkozy as well.

Royal’s Transits and Profections

Segolene Royal is in a 6th house profection year, so all of the planets that share a 1st house/6th house relationship with one another are activated this year. Her ascendant profects to the 6th house where her natal Uranus is located, her Moon profects to the 7th house where her Venus, Pluto and Lot of Fortune are placed, her Jupiter profects to the midheaven in Scorpio, her Sun and Mars hand over to the ascendant, her Leo planets hand over to Saturn which is the ruler of her void natal 12th house, and finally her Mercury, Neptune and Saturn hand over to her Moon.

Segolene’s profections are a bit more difficult than Sarkozy’s because this year they are activating all of the planetary combinations that were in aversion to one another or didn’t have any aspectual relationship with one another in her birth chart. In certain areas this may prove to be quite good, for example with Jupiter profecting to her natal 10th house, but in other areas it is not very good, for example with the ascendant handing over to Uranus in the 6th house, or her 7th house placements of Venus, Pluto and the Lot of Fortune handing over to the 12th house.

On the day of the election the closest aspect in Segolen’s chart is a sextile from transiting Venus to her natal Venus, which is the well placed primary trigon lord of her sect light, and this is complimented a bit by the trine that transiting Pluto in Sagittarius is making from her 11th house to her Venus as well.

Unfortunately, other than that there really aren’t many seriously positive or auspicious things going on in this chart from the perspective of the transits though. She does have transiting Uranus applying to a trine with her midheaven within a degree or so, but the closer aspect at the time of the election is transiting Saturn in her 7th house squaring her Midheaven. Saturn actually stations direct in mid-April at 18 Leo square to her natal midheaven at 18 Scorpio, so actually this entire 2 month period leading up to the election and just after it is largely characterized by this considerably difficult and frustrating transit of Saturn to her midheaven, almost symbolizing some sort of Saturn type character or opponent that is somehow impeding her career in a sense.

We also might note that right around the day of the election she is having this irritable sort of transit of Mars conjoining her Moon, and since a general delineation of such a transit is often something to the effect of some sort of emotional upset or aggravation, we might conclude that this is an indication of the type of emotional turmoil that one would go through if you were to go through a situation such as an election like this and lose. Combined with other difficult transits that are going on during this time such as transiting Pluto squaring her Sun, and transiting Mars opposing her Sun a few days later during the transfer of power from the current president to the new one, it would seem like the transits at the time of the election are simply not helping Segolene Royal out enough in order to guarantee a victory.

Conclusions and Outcome

In the end it would appear that even though Segolene Royal does have a number of strong points in her chart there are not enough auspicious indications by transit, profection or other time-lord techniques during the time of the current election to indicate a victory for her, and it would appear that ultimately Nicolas Sarkozy will win the 2007 French presidential election according to my interpretation of the astrology underlying the event.

Interestingly though, I don’t think that this is the last that we will hear of Segolene Royal, and I wouldn’t by surprised to see her running for the presidency again the next time around in 2012. In fact, after taking a cursory look at her chart during that time frame I would actually venture to say that it would seem like she would have a much better chance of winning the election in 2012 than she does now. That will have to be the subject of future predictions though.

Alea iacta est. Sic itur ad astra. Videant consules ne quid detrimenti capiat respublica.

Article tags: Lot of Fortune, Nicolas Sarkozy, Political astrology, Predictions, Ségolène Royal

About Chris Brennan

Chris is a practicing astrologer from Denver, Colorado, USA. He is the former President of the Association for Young Astrologers, as well as the former Research Director of the National Council for Geocosmic Research. He offers personal consultations and teaches online classes through his website at www.ChrisBrennanAstrologer.com.