French elections 2017: completing the hat-trick?

Gonna have to say I'm skeptical of anti-inequality policies being the atrocity that unites the far left and the far right against the virtous centre though. Le Pen chasing some measures because they're popular isn't really confirmation of the horseshoe theory imo.

yes. melenchon can't help it if le pen co-opted his (any many other candidates') stances on retirement at 60, topping up pensions and the minimum wage, etc. which she did because she has no actual positive ideas of her own about the economy.

she had lots of other ideas tho. i.e. le pen wanted to end gay marriage and adoption, bring back longer and stronger prison sentences and compulsory military service. she wanted explicit discrimination in health and housing in preference of french-born people.

if you want to say their stances on europe were the same i dunno what to say to that - they were not. melenchon wanted debt forgiveness, to create a partnership with southern european nations against austerity, and an end to the EU stability pact by replacing the 'golden rule' of deficits under 3% of GDP with a 'green rule' that resource consumption be sustainable. le pen's "proposal" if you can call it that was to leave the EU and return to the franc.

https://apnews.com/96dd4386101b4208896f949f3c5a943e/US-watched-Russia-penetrate-French-systems-during-election

hottttt

Nah, they're both monstrous depending on the situation, and not always for the same reasons.

― pomenitul, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're full of shit. This is from the piece mark s linked to.

Will some poor Muslims vote for Le Pen because they support the FN’s populist agenda? A bit difficult because the FN is still racist. Will they vote for Macron to fight racism? Not necessarily because Macron embodies, according to both Melenchon and Marine Le Pen, the global world of finance. The most probable option is that they will abstain, as many of them told me in Dreux.

I don't think you can pronounce judgement. Macron or Le Pen have nothing to offer a section of the electorate.

Re: that last link, what does everyone think of Russia's influence (or lack thereof) in this election, anyway? Was the fact that traditional media couldn't report on stuff when it happened actually a positive (I imagine many of the ppl who could be influenced by it to be older and not good with compooters)?

the leak was certainly timed to coincide with the blackout, so they obviously thought it would help, or at least create uncertainty.

uncertainty seemed to be the best they could hope for given it was 9gb of often literally off topic stuff, not even from the campaign. it was an uphill battle for them because macron was a relatively late arrival without much of a paper trail.

some NPR interviewee opined that Putin wasn't really trying hard to influence the French election, so much as to reinforce his domestic narrative of Russia's global power and to flash a hint at his concealed intelligence capabilities to a foreign audience.

A win they wanted to lose (US)
A not-win they were ambivalent (NL)
A loss they wanted to win (FR)
RU needs a win like a junky needs a fix

— the grugq (@thegrugq) May 8, 2017

…and Germany, you’re next. https://t.co/49R8KZLRdR

— the grugq (@thegrugq) May 8, 2017

DM'd an ex in Paris, "What the fuck have you idiots done?" She said this, pic.twitter.com/84TpR9bxzn

— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) May 9, 2017

Putin will happy enough with the UK election.

Not sure what's going on here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/09/marion-marechal-le-pen-pegged-future-front-national-leader-quits/

This is excellent news. Marion seemed way smarter and reasonable than her aunt. She seemed the only one in FN able to go fully mainstream

Reasonable? I wouldn't say that. She was openly more radical than her aunt, while the latter was trying to make the FN more 'normal' Marion was there to keep the hardcore fanbase motivated.

Yeah. Poor wording. I meant that she seemed more able to reason, more rational and hence more dangerous than MLP

valls says he's standing as an En Marche candidate in june. and hollande apparently voted for macron.... in the first round!!

None of this surprising, is it?

i dunno man, if i was hamon i'd kinda hope the current president, from my own party, would vote for me??

Next it'll turn out Hamon voted Macron in the first round too.

you should write for gorafi :)

How is Mélenchon Nationalist?

Alex - please explain to us how the economy works.

And picking a country which is economically more successful than most others and criticising its economic policy says everything about the economic knowledge of Mr. Mélenchon.

Yeah, couldn't imagine why anyone in Europe would have issues with German economic policy rn -_-

Yeah, couldn't imagine why anyone in Europe would have issues with German economic policy rn -_-

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, May 10, 2017 2:44 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

☚(ﾟヮﾟ☚)

that post makes me think more highly of Mélenchon tbh

'necessary reforms'

http://cepr.net/images/Book2_16029_image001.png

That said, "German economic success" is demonstrably responsible for the imbalance in the eurozone. This isn't controversial. It runs huge surpluses, which necessarily means huge deficits for others.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/11584031/Germanys-record-trade-surplus-is-a-bigger-threat-to-euro-than-Greece.html

This is the fifth consecutive year that Germany’s surplus has been above 6pc of GDP. The EU’s Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure states that the Commission should launch infringement proceedings if this occurs for three years in a row, unless there is a clear reason not to.

Article was written in 2015. Last year's surplus surpassed any of the previous years.

I am happy that the French were wise enough not to follow this rat catcher. Unlike the Germans in 1933.

― Alex in Spree-Athen (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, May 10, 2017 9:44 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ya I think some further study of the phenomenon of Nazism and personality of Hitler may be in order hear

From the FN through PEGIDA to Golden Dawn, we've got actual fascists knocking down our doors, no need to play "what's the 2017 equivalent".

The Valls fall-out is sad/hilarious

About two thirds of the German trade surplus comes from the trade with extra EU countries. That does not create any imbalance within the EU. And the reason for this surplus is the weak euro. The reason for the weak euro are the low interest rates in the Euro zone. That falls into the responsability of the ECB and the national central banks. The German Bundesbank has always been against low interest rates but they could not convince the majority of the member states. And if you look at the Eurostat 2016 trade data you will notice that the Netherlands have the surplus in EU intra trade not Germany. And the UK has a huge trade deficit within the EU and with the extra EU. I have not heard any complaints from the UK concerning the German trade surplus yet. France btw has a positive balance with the extra EU countries, and is therefore not doing so bad overall.

...that the Netherlands have the highest surplus in EU intra trade not Germany...

I have not heard any complaints from the UK concerning the German trade surplus yet

File under: codes that have not universally been cracked, maybe

the more we see of macron the more it seems he will govern like david cameron

dmacron

minus the bringing up the Smiths all the time, I'm guessing, considering Mozza's stance.

Unsurprisingly Macron is a fan of the French chanson:

"Dans sa discothèque, le candidat "assume des goûts très classiques", de Charles Aznavour, à Johnny Hallyday en passant par Léo Ferré."

There is neither Brel nor Gainsbourg there so that is rather average and predictable.

Eyes on Austria -- mainstream right party just called for new elections, their lead candidate (the awful teenage foreign minister) has been flirting hard right for quite some time now and has finagled a deal whereby he picks his own government from whatever party he wants. There's a mutual admiration society between this dude and Orban.

massive wins for macron's party, raising fears that his nu-napoleonic rule will roll on untrammelled

unless my eyes are deceiving me, the socialists and the republicans aren't even cracking the top 4 in a huge number of constituencies

R.I.P. public service and workers rights

i think huge numbers of these LREM candidates are political novices drawn from corporate upper management :(

yeah, also lawyers, doctors, etc.

One party state.

yeah they seem to be pulling a Germany here, in a way

there's an unsavoury whiff of "let's hand off the messy issues of governing to our betters"

Did something happen with Melenchon, why did his party do so much worse than he did in the presidential election?

complete bollocks - they're likely to have a comfortable majority in Parliament. Big deal. This is pretty much always the case after a Presidential election. Didnt hear anyone complaining in 2012 when PS held the Presidency, the Parliament and the Senate (not the case for LREM and very unlikely given the electoral system for that chamber).

i am totally ignorant of how the senate works in france.. i tht they were appointed or something

elected by local/regional counsellors - so in practice, senators are old men with deep local connections.