Feb 2, 2007 11:06 AM

McDonald's-Destroying Anarchist Runs For French President

In 1999, José Bové plowed a bulldozer into a local McDonald’s. 8 years later? He’s running for president on the ticket of the ‘Slow Ego Party’. He is the walrus-moustached farmer whose fight against McDonald’s and globalisation saw him hailed as a modern-day Asterix leading the Gauls. But José Bové yesterday left his sheep farm […]

In 1999, José Bové plowed a bulldozer into a local McDonald's. 8 years later? He's running for president on the ticket of the 'Slow Ego Party'.

He is the walrus-moustached farmer whose fight against McDonald's and globalisation saw him hailed as a modern-day Asterix leading the Gauls. But José Bové yesterday left his sheep farm in southern France, strolled into a labour exchange in a rundown north Paris suburb, took a draw on his trademark pipe and announced he was running for president.
The self-styled country bumpkin who rose to stardom in 1999 for dismantling a half-built McDonald's in the fight against "crap food" is now coming to the rescue of the riot-hit concrete jungles of France's urban housing estates. "I will be the spokesman of the voiceless," he announced yesterday.

A pipe smoker, an anarchist and a hater of crappy McDonald's food? France could do worse. ToM's officially endorsed candidate for the upcoming French elections!

Champion of the oppressed takes on greatest challenge - the French presidency [The Guardian] (Thanks Mark!)

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