Pluskut Tukker posted:

Kassad posted:

Edouard Philippe's beard shows he's an energetic executive and confident in his manliness.

lost in postation posted:

lmao

Imagine being a journo trying to find an angle for the nomination story and landing on 'first bearded PM'

Cat Mattress posted:

"The west as a hole", as in, he'd turn western countries into a smoking crater.

MiddleOne posted:

That would require the state taking an active responsibility for basic human necessities which is not how the market fundamentalists of most of Europe's centre-left parties want to do things. It's the market or nothing.

LemonDrizzle posted:

Austria didn't want to be left out of the electoral fun so it's going to have an election in October:

https://twitter.com/kleinezeitung/status/864481143760048129

Another wonderful opportunity for the peoples of Europe to reject right wing nationalist politics!

The current state of play is:

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/864397841015373824

That's yer bog-standard European social democratic party on 28%, yer bog-standard European christian democrat/center right party on 28%, and your definitely-not-pining-for-the-days-of-the-SS nationalists on 26%.

GaussianCopula posted:

ÖVP is now New ÖVP, which has handed total control of all important party function to Sebastian Kurz - a 30year old who might become the next chancellor of Austria and is well known for his very refugee unfriendly stance.

ElNarez posted:

BIG NEWS IN MANUEL VALLS' CONSTITUENCY

https://twitter.com/EssonneInfo/status/864419428506664961

Pluskut Tukker posted:

MiddleOne posted:

The most fascinating thing about Kurz is that he has literally no experience outside of politics. Like the guy didn't even finish his law degree and there's not even a token job or two. I thought the bar literally couldn't get any lower on young and attractive former youth party leaders with a huge support in their local district getting slingshotted into positions of power but apparently I was wrong.

Doctor Malaver posted:

What makes it for me is that he's pushing a key.

OK hold on, I'll go from the other side. Umm, can you hold this for me? No, no, don't pull me. Do you know how much this thing costs? OK, almost there. Yeah I'll just now lie down, and... maybe prop my legs up? How's that look? All right, ready! Tonnnn

Cardiac posted:

So just like Swedish politicians, irrespective of party then? Gabriel Wikstrom comes to mind.

MiddleOne posted:

You can also fit Ebba Busch and Gustav Fridolin into this example who are both currently busy killing their respective parties.

Pluskut Tukker posted:

If I wanted to be fair to the guy, I would add that he does appear to be a reasonably accomplished piano player and this photo was apparently staged for some music magazine, but he's basically a xenophobic reactionary and a darling of the extreme right, so I don't. Besides, the photo does communicate a certain existential truth about him, which is why everybody in the Netherlands uses it.

Doctor Malaver posted:

Except for the ridiculous pose, the whole photo is very Dutch.

Hambilderberglar posted:

The ridiculous pose makes the photo so Dutch. He had so many opportunities in that entire setup to go "no wait this will make me look like a massive loving tool", but neglected to do so. Maybe this is the VOC mentaliteit Balkenende was talking about? Right now he looks like someone drew the outline of a man but forgot to include morals, dignity or a sense of shame. It's the political equivalent of a photo of a king's day reveler pissing in a canal. Blissfully unaware of his own trashiness.

Pluskut Tukker posted:

I think you may be on to something and that photo would indeed fit rather well with this collection of Dutch people photos (frequently not safe for work, lunch, or even sanity).

quote:

Emmanuel Macron is a centrist to his core
For Macron, there is no such thing as absolute truth, only the multiple journeys that seek it. Like the great French humanist philosopher Montaigne, Macron advocates the need to balance one opinion with another (hence his centrism), and maintaining a certain level of skepticism when assessing knowledge. “It’s what allows influential politics to escape nihilism and all forms of cynicism,” said Macron. “Sole truth, with all the extremism it implies, is not a way out.”

Instead, Macron suggests that we should revel in the perpetual deliberation that accompanies the search for truth, which halts the brash decision-making we sometimes see in politics today. Macron wants to strike the perfect balance between "authoritarianism and political passivity".

quote:

Emmanuel Macron says France is still reeling from the French Revolution
“Democracy is always presented as if it were incomplete, because democracy is not enough by itself,” says Macron, elaborating that there is always something missing in the democratic process; some sort of void.

“In French politics, this absence is the presence of a King, a King whom, fundamentally, I don’t think the French people wanted dead,” said Macron. “The Revolution dug a deep emotional abyss, one that was imaginary and shared: the King is no more!” According to Macron, since the Revolution France has tried to fill this void, most notably with Napoleon and then Charles de Gaulle, which was only partially successful. “The rest of the time,” said Macron, “French democracy does not manage to fill this void.”

Grapplejack posted:

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/emmanuel-macron-policies-beliefs-philosophy

Ardennes posted:

Yeah, the more that comes out about Macron he doesn't sound like even sound like a centrist....but Fillon's younger brother who happens to not like Russia.