swissinfo - Swiss people in French-speaking cantons are following the French presidential elections closely, which is no surprise given their tendency to look towards Europe when relations with German speakers become strained, according to swissinfo,which interviewed journalist Jacques Pilet. He notes that while German speakers like to emphasize how they differ from Germans, the influence of German is growing in Switzerland's German-speaking regions. The situation is not the same in French-speaking areas, which have tended in recent years to vote for projects and laws that create closer ties to Europe, in contrast with German-speaking areas.
Pilet is an executive with Ringier, the country's largest media organization. [Editor's note: he founded the news magazine l'Hebdo magazine in 1981 and the newspaper Le Nouveau Quotidien in 1991, which later became the intellectual daily Le Temps. He spearheaded much of the French-language media fight to join the European Union.]
According to swissinfo there are now 160,000 French citizens living in Switzerland, one of the largest French expatriate communities.