Baloogan posted:

this thread is for discussions pétaining to one (1) french election.

zegermans posted:

Why are French politicians incapable of not loving things

Peanut President posted:

France has always been fascist, embrace it, imo.

exmarx posted:

Nanomashoes posted:

Mélenchon isn't a fascist, and he is going to be elected.

Nanomashoes posted:

Agnosticnixie posted:

"Based on my experience Le Pen has been president since 2000" - a very convincing argument

Seriously reading this thread you'd think Le Pen has the majority of seats at the national assembly rather than the PS (she has 2).

Jose posted:

Guaiana get a vote?

sexpig by night posted:

except for Trump the issue was he constantly over-performed polls and had that whole 'hidden Trump support' thing going, and Le Pen is performing exactly like polling shows and that's not good for her?

Condiv posted:

"polling was right this time! that must mean it's fixed and we can trust it again!!"

LinYutang posted:

vive le gauche

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/856432274593558529

mister magpie posted:

Is Paris a really conservative city? What's the Le Pen appeal there?

quote:

Macron’s success raises the question of whether center-left regimes are foundering under the weight of an unpopular platform or simply unpopular leaders. Although crucial blocs of voters in many countries undoubtedly favor retreating from global institutions like NATO and the European Union, it’s not clear whether such views actually command a majority in any country, perhaps not even in the United Kingdom, where multiple surveys indicate that most voters, faced with a weakening pound, wish Brexit had failed.

In France, the doomed Socialist Party machine of President François Hollande and his former prime minister Manuel Valls, instead of clinging to vanity and suffering defeat at the hands of Marine Le Pen’s National Front brownshirts, concluded that fascism could be stopped in its tracks, but only through drastic action: dismantling the party system, committing suicide as a ruling class, and effectively endorsing a younger spokesman with a full head of hair.

[...]

The New York Times recently glossed Macron as someone with the “profile” of an “insider” but the “policies” of an “outsider.” The truth is closer to the opposite. Macron successfully branded himself as an outsider while boosting an agenda that differs little from his predecessor. Most impressively, Macron managed to co-opt the millenarian, apocalyptic rhetoric of his opponents on the extreme right and the extreme left.

[...]

English-language publications typically translate En Marche!, the name of Macron’s centrist coalition, as “forward,” but “forward” fails to convey the name’s explosive, eschatological ring. “En Marche” means not simply “forward” — a slogan that, à la benighted Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s Jeb!, might suggest continuity with the old regime — but something closer to “turned on” or “on the march.” It’s not that Macron has fooled voters into thinking he’s a bomb-thrower — they know perfectly well that he’s pushing a neoliberal agenda. Macron might not sound totally believable when he calls for smashing the system, but change-hungry voters still appreciate the feeling of being targeted. Authenticity isn’t the only thing rewarded in politics; effort is rewarded, too.

[...]

It’s hard not to draw an unfavorable comparison between the center-left strategy in France and the center-left strategy in the United States, where leaders of the Democratic Party are mostly digging in, apparently unwilling to contemplate a hard reboot of personnel. Democratic Party regulars are fired up, but the party’s leaders, who remain unpopular, seem to be having difficulty capitalizing on that enthusiasm. Trump, by all accounts, has had a miserable first 100 days in office, with innumerable controversies and no major accomplishments. Nevertheless, some analysts say his approval ratings, in the low 40s, are consistent with narrow re-election. The Republican Party, which controls the entire federal government and most levers of power in the states, is deeply unpopular, but the Democratic Party, which controls nothing, is even less popular, according to some polls. The irony is that the Democratic Party’s platform on issues like health care, education, and immigration is as popular — and as progressive — as it’s ever been.

quote:

One of Mr. Mélenchon’s top aides derided the candidate’s critics in a telephone interview Tuesday. “You’ve got to look at where the criticism is coming from,” said Éric Coquerel, a member of the Paris regional council.

“It’s coming from those whose policies have favored the development of the National Front, from the Socialist Party,” said Mr. Coquerel, referring to the quarrel that divided the French left for five years: the governing Socialists’ mild pro-market turn, seen as a betrayal by France’s far left.

“We don’t want to help Marine Le Pen, but we don’t want to endorse Mr. Macron,” he said.

“He’s the candidate of free trade,” Mr. Coquerel said. “He’s going to assist in the Uberization of society. Everything we are going to fight against in the coming months. There’s no possible rapprochement.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/world/europe/france-melenchon-macron-le-pen.html

quote:

If an additional sign was needed to show that the mobilization against the presence of the National Front in the second round of the presidential election is much lower than that of 2002, the unions have just given it . Fifteen years ago, all the unions, with the exception of FO, had demonstrated together against the extreme right. In 2017, there will be no single parade.

http://www.lemonde.fr/election-pres...25_4854003.html

Top City Homo posted:

neoliberals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkKwyjsJGxk

Helical Nightmares posted:

Evidently this is what a French skinhead looks like

Vox Nihili posted:

i think macron resisted her hex, but theres really no way to be sure

Baloogan posted:

i know a couple of peeps who did twitter bot army pro trump things who were unable to really get into the whole french thing because to do french nationalism right you need to know french which is pretty lol