French President Election- The Centre Fights Back?

[vogue]

The Daily Mail (and their boneheaded readers) have been obsessed with his 24 year older wife (who was his former teacher) for weeks now.

And their headlines today....not a word on the French result...more fluff on the royals...

 

[watson]

And their headlines today....not a word on the French result...more fluff on the royals...

How about a reality check from the Guardian then?

The French presidency goes to Macron. But it’s only*a reprieve

Like someone who has narrowly escaped a heart attack, Europe can raise a glass and give thanks for the victory of Emmanuel Macron. But the glass is less than half full, and if Europe doesn’t change its ways it will only have postponed the fateful day.........

He is already being described as “Renzi 2.0”, a reference to the Italian would-be-reformist former premier Matteo Renzi. His super-ambitious target is to reduce public spending from 56% of GDP to just – wait for it – 52%. The obstacles to change in France are enormous, from powerful unions and a bloated public sector to farmers who make a habit of blocking roads with tractors. If Macron fails to reform France, in 2022 we may yet have a president Le Pen.........

It’s great that Macron also wants to reform the EU, but that’s not in his gift. With Brexit talks already turning nasty, Britain has moved from being a major ally in European reform to a massive distraction from it. Italy, with higher public debt than France, a fragile banking sector and fractured politics, may produce the next eurozone crisis. The underlying causes of the refugee crisis have not been addressed. Hungary and Poland are governed by anti-liberal populists.

Macron’s proposals for eurozone reform – a common fiscal policy, a joint finance minister, some shared debt, and completion of the banking union – will not go down well with German voters. Above all, he has promised a “Europe that protects”. Yes. But how?

So this is only a reprieve. Everything remains to be done. And Europe is still drinking in the last chance saloon.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/07/french-presidency-macron-reprieve-france-eu

 

[the big bambino]

Oh well if its the guardian ... seems for some people here if the daily mail and guardian cracked the same joke they'd condemn one for being insensitive and praise the other for its wit.

 

[MW1304]

Oh well if its the guardian ... seems for some people here if the daily mail and guardian cracked the same joke they'd condemn one for being insensitive and praise the other for its wit.

Seems you don't actually read the posts here, considering the Guardian is regularly criticised.

 

[vcs]

How about a reality check from the Guardian then?

MLP would be pretty much your dream politician, wouldn't she?

 

[the big bambino]

Seems you don't actually read the posts here, considering the Guardian is regularly criticised.

Probably for not being too guardian enough.

 

[indiaholic]

Nah.. If you think this is the bastion of liberal thought then you just don't read the posts here.

 

[sledger]

Huge relief after only 11 million people vote for a fascist

 

[vogue]

Huge relief after only 11 million people vote for a fascist

Just the start of Frances troubles ...

 

[the big bambino]

Nah.. If you think this is the bastion of liberal thought then you just don't read the posts here.

Look I think its easier to kid yourself than others.

 

[Uppercut]

Huge relief after only 11 million people vote for a fascist

Haha 65-35 is ****ing huuuuge. If it was the US it would be the biggest landslide in history by a distance.

 

[watson]

MLP would be pretty much your dream politician, wouldn't she?

If I can be politically incorrect correctly - she is a pretty hot MILF.

 

[Prince EWS]

Haha 65-35 is ****ing huuuuge. If it was the US it would be the biggest landslide in history by a distance.

Only two ever bigger victories in France too - their first election, and another instance of a Le Pen getting smashed.

The result here in the run-off isn't particularly worrying at all IMO; I think you'd have got a similar result five years ago, ten years ago etc in a match-up of two similar candidates. The concern is that Le Pen was in a run-off to begin with.

 

[Raghav]

How much is the overall voting percentage in this election... heard somewhere that is too low! is it true?

 

[vcs]

If I can be politically incorrect correctly - she is a pretty hot MILF.

Ha ha

No seriously.. her program seems to align pretty much with what you seem to want. Left-leaning economically but anti-immigration, globalization etc. You don't strike me as an alt-right type.

 

[Niall]

Macron will assemble an able team around him but they are all "technocrats" who will do little to solve the current socio-political crisis. If it were just a matter of sorting out the economy then they'd probably be fine. But France's problems go much deeper than economic malaise because the actual social fabric is currently being stretched to the max as well.

In the end the National Front, and the traditional Republican and Socialist(?) parties will play more effective politics and have En Marche for breakfast in the upper and lower houses.





And here is one of Macron's many socio-political obstacles which will simply not go away anytime soon because they are young, well educated, and have an ideological agenda grounded in French history and identity.

Tbh I wouldn't want to be a French person of any description right now as the country is pretty much cornered with no obvious escape.

I seen that when it aired, Génération Identitaire are truly awful fascists with absolutely horrific ideas, the fact Le Pen considers them to extreme to deal with says enough.

Hope people's lives improve.. Otherwise it is extremely easy for the far right or the far left to blame everything on the "other".

Yeah hope he does a good job, Melenchon who would make Corbyn and Sanders look like Enoch Powell along with Le Pen did very well with the youth vote in the first round. The kids are clearly attracted to populism whether left or right. Le Pen has always said 2022 was her main target so whether its her or her sexy but depressingly even more hardline niece they are not going away anytime soon sadly.]

 

[Uppercut]

Only two ever bigger victories in France too - their first election, and another instance of a Le Pen getting smashed.

The result here in the run-off particularly worrying at all IMO; I think you'd have got a similar result five years ago, ten years ago etc in a match-up of two similar candidates. The concern is that Le Pen was in a run-off to begin with.

Yeah, it sort of gifts her the role of 'main alternative to the current President'.

OTOH, she's only in the final two as a result of a system that, on the whole, has done a pretty good job of keeping her out. French political culture comes out of the process looking really healthy IMO. It's not just the rallying of the centre against the extremes- in a lot of countries Fillon wouldn't pay any price for blatant corruption. The rampant internet-induced polarisation that's supposed to be ruining everything just doesn't really exist.

 

[Spark]

Yeah, it sort of gifts her the role of 'main alternative to the current President'.

OTOH, she's only in the final two as a result of a system that, on the whole, has done a pretty good job of keeping her out. French political culture comes out of the process looking really healthy IMO. It's not just the rallying of the centre against the extremes- in a lot of countries Fillon wouldn't pay any price for blatant corruption. The rampant internet-induced polarisation that's supposed to be ruining everything just doesn't really exist.

In fairness, if anyone should be sanguine about apparently existential national crises, it's the French, since they seem to have had them on tap for several hundred years now.

 

[Uppercut]

In fairness, if anyone should be sanguine about apparently existential national crises, it's the French, since they seem to have had them on tap for several hundred years now.

Haha, it's a strange place. Its economy would be used as a big-state success story like the German or Swedish ones are, but it can't be because its inhabitants seem permanently convinced the country is going to the dogs.

Also the British centre-right has a weird obsession with painting it as a basket case.

 

[watson]

Ha ha

No seriously.. her program seems to align pretty much with what you seem to want. Left-leaning economically but anti-immigration, globalization etc. You don't strike me as an alt-right type.

The current political structure and ideology in countries like France, Britain, and Australia IS extreme and people don't seem to realise that. Maybe it's because the average age of this forum is quite young so people don't know any different. But relative to the pre-Thatcher, pre-Keating era we are now living in an age of extreme politics every which way you turn.

In other words, if contemporary politics wasn't so ideologically driven then Brexit, Trump and Le Pen simply wouldn't exist anywhere on the political landscape. But since one form of extreme politics always begats another form of extreme politics they are now in our face.

What I actually want is moderate politicians doing normal moderate things, but fat chance of that ever happening again in my life-time. Unfortunately everything of note will flogged-off to the highest bidder, all aspects of leisure and cultural life will be reduced to mere tradeable commodities, and immigration levels will remain at ridiculously high levels for god knows what reason other than to freeze wages and keep big business happy. The end result of all these things will be a wacking great big train wreck.