English link https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/...uncement-of-far-right-alliance_6674684_5.html
maybe behind paywall.
maybe behind paywall.
Here are two English language websites which breakdown the political parties in France, good for me as I was having problems with the acronyms 
and more ...
about-france.com
en.wikipedia.org
and more ...
The main political parties in France - About-France.com
An overview of the main political parties in France, and a comparison with British and US political parties
List of political parties in France - Wikipedia
Saturday's news.
- Today was protest day against the RN. According to one of the main French unions, around 640k people were on the streets all around the country, in a mostly pacific demonstration. 1 Third of that according to the Ministry of Interior.
- LFI did not nominate some current députés as candidates. Strangely those were people who opposed Mélenchon on several topics, like Gaza, feminism, or internal political choices. How strange!
- François Hollande, former French President from 2012 to 2017, decided to be a part of the New Popular Front, ans was invested as candidate by the Socialist Party in his historical circonscription of rural Corrèze. This move surprised everyone, but is seen as a serious engagement from the former President.
Aaaaaand they nominated Quattennens - who was condemned for domestic abuse in 2022. He's not being nominated as part of the Popular Front, though, only by LFI.
Sigh. Melechon really is one of those politicians who could best serve both his country and his party by being ... elsewhere.
Corrèze is really rural. If you find yourself in Corrèze, you’re probably lost. There’s an old joke that even the cows in Corrèze are lost. I drove through it last summer (not quite lost, but not sure where I was heading either). It is very pretty, though.
He's the main reason why I hesitated voting LFI before, and his behavior reflected in some of his militants - not so much nowadays, fortunately.
What I find ironic is that he admires the South American left wing leaders, like Castro, Chavez ... and Lula. Thing is, Lula's first two governments were all about negotiating with the existing political powers - including the center and the center right - while trying to advance social support.
(With a few hours left before the nomination deadlines, Quatennens decided to not present himself)
Sunday news.
We have a popular comic here, Guillaume Meurice, who until recently had a slot on our public radio, Radio France. His shtick was going in the streets, interviewing people about some current matter, mainly political, and presenting it in an humorous way. Most often, it was a way to have the point of view of far-right leaning people, who responded candidly with their awful views, not realizing how awful they sound when they tell it 'like it is'.
Since Macron's Dissolution, every interview of would-be voters I've heard on the radio has been like a sad, serious, cringe inducing Meurice's skit. That's a bit depressing, because there's no funny twist at the end, just the realization that those people are looking at proto-fascists as a way to improve our country's situation.
Note: Guillaume Meurice has been recently sacked from the public radio for 'disloyalty', because he first told a joke on air that was flagged as antisemitic, "People are looking for a scary Halloween costume, and these days the scariest is a Benyamin Netanyahou costume, you know, like a Nazi, but without the foreskin". After an official warning, he sued to be cleared for any wrongdoing, and won. So he repeated the joke on air, and was fired. And to be clear, I don´t consider that mocking Netanyahou is antisemitic at all.
- Eric Ciotti, president of Les Républicains, has been confirmed in his role by Justice, on the basis of the party's statutes. Let's say that the clownish situation is far from over, now that all LR candidates will be able to have the pretty logo on the ballot, wether they are supported by RN or not.
- Protests against the RN continued today, with a few close encounters between some black blocks and the police. Nothing too bad from what I saw reported.
- On the Left, the drama continued a bit regarding the selection of candidates by LFI. Quattenens, as a convicted wife-beater (, left his spot to his second in command. The rejected candidates are still rejected ( for their critics of Mélenchon), and should be competing as independent candidates. Hopefully, it won´t make their circonscription turning Right.
- Mélenchon is currently criticized for wanting the Premier role if the Union Populaire wins, but he's surprisingly mellow about it, promising to follow the alliance's democratic decisions after the vote. If true, that would be a power move for the Union, and give it a lot of legitimacy and appeal to would-be Left voters. Mélenchon is a bit repulsive for some (see @breubreubreu 's comment above), due to his extreme and anti-collaborative leftist views in politics.
- Candidacy declarations should be over now, but we will have a full pundit commented list tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.
- French athletes are clearly positioning themselves, at least the ones who call to oppose the Far Right, like soccer players currently playing the in the Euro in Germany (Killian Mbappé), or Olympic athletes preparing for Paris this summer.
We have a popular comic here, Guillaume Meurice, who until recently had a slot on our public radio, Radio France. His shtick was going in the streets, interviewing people about some current matter, mainly political, and presenting it in an humorous way. Most often, it was a way to have the point of view of far-right leaning people, who responded candidly with their awful views, not realizing how awful they sound when they tell it 'like it is'.
Since Macron's Dissolution, every interview of would-be voters I've heard on the radio has been like a sad, serious, cringe inducing Meurice's skit. That's a bit depressing, because there's no funny twist at the end, just the realization that those people are looking at proto-fascists as a way to improve our country's situation.
Note: Guillaume Meurice has been recently sacked from the public radio for 'disloyalty', because he first told a joke on air that was flagged as antisemitic, "People are looking for a scary Halloween costume, and these days the scariest is a Benyamin Netanyahou costume, you know, like a Nazi, but without the foreskin". After an official warning, he sued to be cleared for any wrongdoing, and won. So he repeated the joke on air, and was fired. And to be clear, I don´t consider that mocking Netanyahou is antisemitic at all.
Mocking Netanyahu for his policies? Not antisemitic.
Mocking Netanyahu by referring to a specific characteristic of Judaism (circumcision) unrelated to his policies? Absolutely antisemitic.
No, he was cleared of accusations of antisemitism by the judicial system, the prosecutor found nothing in the case brought against him by several Israel faux-nez that had standing.
The (bitter) irony is seeing some of the Charlie cartoonists turn against him when these same people have a no punches pulled policy in the matter of political caricature, especially concerning islam.
A lot of these antisemitism accusations are just weaponized moral panics by Israel propagandists and lobbies in France.
Sure, and I disagree with their findings, much as I think Alfred Dreyfus was innocent despite being convicted, OJ Simpson was guilty despite being acquitted, and there’s no individual right to own guns in the US Constitution despite the Supreme Court finding otherwise. I’ve seen enough judges get things wrong over the years to know that a judicial finding isn’t the end of the analysis. Apparently this guy’s employer didn’t agree with the judicial findings, either.
A lot of folks are weaponizing charges of antisemitism these days; it reminds me a lot of when the Republicans nominated Sarah Palin for VP and suddenly pretended to care about sexism. It’s bad, disingenuous, and is ultimately harmful to Jews. A lot of folks are also quick to handwave away genuine antisemitism. We Jews are stuck in the middle between a lot of people who don’t really care about Jews or antisemitism, but are content to use us however they deem politically expedient. It sucks all around.
In this case, the “joke” "People are looking for a scary Halloween costume, and these days the scariest is a Benyamin Netanyahou costume, you know, like a Nazi, but without the foreskin" is explicitly antisemitic. Let’s break it down:
- Netanyahu is the scariest Halloween costume. This is fine; it’s just set-up for a joke.
- “Like a Nazi” is an obnoxious, facile comparison, but is not per se antisemitic.
- ”but without the foreskin.” Here we go. The reference to “foreskin” serves specifically and only to remind us that Netanyahu is Jewish. So he might as well be saying, “like a Nazi, but Jewish.“ How is that not explicitly antisemitic? It’s precisely as bigoted and offensive as saying that Caitlyn Jenner is just like Marjorie Taylor Greene, except that Jenner has or had a penis. Disliking a person’s politics or actions simply does not give a free pass to bigotry against that person.
Morning news.
- The manifestos are out, and without detailing them, they are the usual lot of promises and financing details for those promises. The left wants to tax the richs to pay for Healthcare, Education and Security, The Far-Right breaks past promises but will increase Security, and the Center is pledging to not raise the tax while improving Security. There is a recurrent theme here.
- The Left is the only block vaguely talking about the environment, repeating the same objectives that were given by the Greens in the EU elections, and in the previous elections. This subject has vanished from the collective French mind for this election cycle. Again. So depressing.
- On the Left also, there is no clear Premier candidate. Yes, Mélenchon is the logical choice if LFI keeps the leadership within the coalition, but even that is far from sure. The other parties find him too divisive (with reason), so the PS is proposing to make the elected Left députés vote immediately after the Elections to propose and choose who will be the Premier. That's unprecedented, so everyone is dubious of the process.
- Bardella is warning us: with no Majority, he'll refuse to be Premier. He clearly does not want to be in charge of an ungovernable country, that would break his image of projected competence and efficiency.
- Les Républicains (members of the party) keep fighting Les Républicains (the party itself). Ciotti is finally the only one LR candidate with official support from Bardella's RN. The other 70 or so proposed candidates preferred to follow the lead of the historical LR leaders and refused any alliance with Le Pen's party.
- On this day in 1940, broadcasting from London, General De Gaulle called all the French to resist against the Nazi invader. 84 years later, the country is ready to give the keys to a party founded by Waffen SS Pierre Bousquet and would-be De Gaulle murderer Jean-Marie Le Pen.
On the matter, the object of nuclear energy is politely left out of the manifesto. It's very divisive among the left. The Greens are full against, LFI mostly against, Socialists are mostly in favor, Communists full in favor.
How are things on the misinformation front? With all the divisiveness, would appear that France would be fertile ground to sow chaos for strategic gain.
You mean, like Moldovan citizens, paid by Russia, painting Blue David's stars across Paris right after the 7 October Massacre, or painting coffins on the Eiffel tower saying "French soldiers in Ukraine"?
Maybe the other Russian fake news campaign about the Olympics? Or the one about the EU Green Deal or Migration Pact?
Yes, fertile ground indeed.
Morning news.
- Serge Klarsfeld, famed Nazi hunter, son of an Holocaust victim, declared that he would prefer to vote for the RN ("a pro-jews party") rather than the Left Union ("an anti-jews party") in case of a duel between the 2 sides for these Elections. His son Arno Klarsfeld, famed Human Rights attorney, declared that the RN is no longer an antisemitic party, and that Mélenchon's LFI is now a Far Right antisemitic party.
- Rather than ignoring the Environmental issues for this Election cycle, the RN is actively blaming the green policies from France and the EU. Reducing our emissions, pushing for greener mobility, building or improving homes to reach energy-neutrality, are efforts that are causing distress to a lot of people, mainly because of the cost left to the population. Surfing on the discontent is easy, and fighting those policies is a good way to secure the farmers' vote, as well as the car-dependent rural population, who fell already left off by the government. It's becoming hard to have an hospital near you in some regions, or sometimes even a doctor, and basic postal services, schools, or groceries, are scarce in a lot of rural towns. Adding the proposed environmental measures, the RN is fueling the fire the same way they were fueling the Yellow Vests movement in 2018-19.
- The financing of the Popular Union manifesto should be published tonight. I expect harsh critics from all sides, especially Macron's followers, like our current Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
Well, considering some of the arguments currently being made by Israeli politicians, apparently these days it's entirely fine to support parties supporting genocide as long as it's not genocide of Jews. Other semites are fair game. Zionists suck.
Then, when clean water becomes a problem due to their lack of environmental policies combined with climate change, they won't take any responsibility. Instead they'll blame it on some left-wing conspiracy or some other shit.
Gotta love people that, on purpose or not, mix up racism, anti-semitism, anti-zionism, criticism to Israel's government and defense of Palestinians ...
"'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."
While LFI definitely needs to fix things with regards to antisemitism (as all parties on the left frequently must), thinking that the RN will be friendly to Jews is so terribly misguided. Yes, at the moment they’re fixated on the Muslim community, so Jews are pretty much ignored. But once they’ve dealt with them? Oh, you better believe it’s going to be time to fire up the old antisemitism again.
Morning news.
- Current Premier Gabriel Attal is leading the campaign for the Center block. He and the other leaders of the block are all in agreement that Macron must not be mentioned anywhere in the Election propaganda, because he makes every voter angry, including on his own side. Macron's last 2 years as president will be so lonely...
- The Left has presented their detailed financing plan, and aim for collecting more taxes from the top 8% earners. This would provide enough for Education and Healthcare, and pushing for higher minimal wages would increase VAT collection through increased consumer spending.
- Voters have been taken by surprise by an Election planned during the first weekend of the Summer vacation period. More than 1 million requests for vote by procuration (asking for someone else to cast your vote) have already been filed, with 9 days to spare. In 2022, 1 million votes were cast that way in total.
The Medef (the employers' """union""") president said that the economical plans of the far right would be a disaster - and the same, if not worse, for the left's plans. And that was before the plans were even published in details.
Now, it's totally expected to see associations like this bash the left, but it tells a lot that the far right plans are not good for them either.
Now, it's totally expected to see associations like this bash the left, but it tells a lot that the far right plans are not good for them either.
There's no surer way to get me to disregard someone's statement about a policy than to make it without actually knowing the policy.
Series of cartoons in Mediapart : https://www.mediapart.fr/studio/portfolios/rions-tant-qu-peut
The first polls are out.
74% of the voters know for sure who they'll vote for. 31.5% for the Far Right, 29.5% for the Left, 19.5% for the current Presidential majority. Of course, it's not possible to transpose a national poll to the 577 local elections that will fill the Assemblée Nationale, but we may be heading to a split vote between the 3 blocks, and the country is not politically used to this. Interesting times ahead.
Note that the Left is not rallying all their voters from the EU elections. Mélenchon is apparently scaring some of the PS voters towards the center.
74% of the voters know for sure who they'll vote for. 31.5% for the Far Right, 29.5% for the Left, 19.5% for the current Presidential majority. Of course, it's not possible to transpose a national poll to the 577 local elections that will fill the Assemblée Nationale, but we may be heading to a split vote between the 3 blocks, and the country is not politically used to this. Interesting times ahead.
Note that the Left is not rallying all their voters from the EU elections. Mélenchon is apparently scaring some of the PS voters towards the center.
Do I get the impression you trust the polling in France? We Americans are still holding our noses and waiting.
The polls for the EU elections were very good, all major pollers were within 1 point of the results on their latest poll.
Of course, those elections are tricky, because the campaign is so short and unexpected by everyone. And as I said, our system does not allow a real projection from a general poll to the final composition of the Assemblée. 30% is cool for a candidate, but then on the second turn, if all your opponents agree that you must lose, you lose. That is the historical "republican dam" that prevented RN wins so far, when political enemies (reluctantly) left only one candidate against them.
Of course, those elections are tricky, because the campaign is so short and unexpected by everyone. And as I said, our system does not allow a real projection from a general poll to the final composition of the Assemblée. 30% is cool for a candidate, but then on the second turn, if all your opponents agree that you must lose, you lose. That is the historical "republican dam" that prevented RN wins so far, when political enemies (reluctantly) left only one candidate against them.
Of course Macron is now defending his choice for new parliamentary elections by claiming that there was "no other choice" (there was), thus trying to weasel himself out of responsibility.
If he doesn't want to be president anymore, he should just say so.
If he doesn't want to be president anymore, he should just say so.
Oh, that's another procedure altogether. One that he may pull off in a year or so.
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The city market was full of people campaigning for the local New Popular Front and the Macron candidates - mainly the former. Think that it'll go for any of them, the far right got "only" 12% of the votes during the EU elections and the other candidates are your usual actually far left, tiny parties like "The Worker's Fight".
Morning(ish) news.
- Macron wrote a letter to the French, repeating what he already told after the EU elections, "the country could no longer be governed because of the extreme blocks", 'I trust you to elect a stable majority", then he repeated the campaign points of his side, mentioning all the things he will do in 2 years that could not be done in 7.
- There will be 2 debates on TV this week, Tuesday and Thursday, with the leaders of each block. The New Popular Front chose to not send Mélenchon, but a different leader to each debate. Which seems to bother the 2 others, because they probably counted on the presence of the universally despised Left leader to score some easy points.
- Bardella proposed a very Far Right populist manifesto. End of immigration, civil service jobs reserved to nationals ( and not citizens with dual citizenship), less EU regulations, fewer weapons to Ukraine (especially those that could hit Russia), more nuclear power plants (this is divisive in France), but less EVs, more babies, and no screen time in school.
The Guardian wrote up an Editorial piece on the snap today which helps us filthy foreigners:
www.theguardian.com
The Guardian view on Macron’s snap election: France on the brink | Editorial
Editorial: A week from polling day, the president’s reckless gamble is proving a gift to Marine Le Pen and the radical right
www.theguardian.com
Macron is now basically saying that not voting for him is going to bring "civil war":
www.theguardian.com
Gotta side with Melenchon on this one. Macron is sounding more like a maniac every day.
Emmanuel Macron: win for far left or far right ‘will spark civil war’
French president’s comments made on podcast as RN releases manifesto pledging to ‘limit immigration’
www.theguardian.com
Gotta side with Melenchon on this one. Macron is sounding more like a maniac every day.
Macron looks more and more like an insecure man, and the reports saying he was deeply influenced by a small clique of Right-leaning advisors make me think he has been gaslighted from the inside of the Élysée Palace.Macron is now basically saying that not voting for him is going to bring "civil war":
Emmanuel Macron: win for far left or far right ‘will spark civil war’
French president’s comments made on podcast as RN releases manifesto pledging to ‘limit immigration’
Gotta side with Melenchon on this one. Macron is sounding more like a maniac every day.
French (gift) article from Le Monde, if you can translate it:
Pierre Charon, « baron noir » de la Macronie
L’ancien homme à tout faire de Jacques Chirac à la Mairie de Paris et de Nicolas Sarkozy à l’Elysée est devenu l’un des « visiteurs du soir » d’Emmanuel Macron. Il fait partie de ceux qui ont œuvré pour convaincre le président de dissoudre.
The main reason why I don't like Mélenchon / wouldn't vote for him for president has nothing to do with his ideology. It's because he's the kind of person that will put it in first place, and will not take well criticisms from the other side of the aisle. This means that he risks making misjudged calls in an executive role.
Funny thing is, that's exactly what Macron did, and now that his plan backfired he's digging deeper.
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On the Bardella / RN program, it's way more explicitly far right than what LePen was putting forward during the presidential elections. Probably they are testing just how far they can push it.
If they win with this program, it's "great" (for them, not us). If they lose or see a backlash, they still 1) know the boundaries that the population has, and 2) pushed them a bit closer to the acceptable.
One reason European Gen Z voters may be increasingly supporting right-wing parties. They make promises to benefit them.
Read in CNN: https://apple.news/AuZcPF6dTTPG-_iBg3aln8g
The other part is that they're young and unaware of the history of some of these parties:
Also a factor, the right-wing parties have Gen Z people running social media, which is the most effective way to reach a generation which will gravitate to someone like Andrew Tate for their exploits on social media or view Nigel Farage making jokes about melons.
Read in CNN: https://apple.news/AuZcPF6dTTPG-_iBg3aln8g
The other part is that they're young and unaware of the history of some of these parties:
Also a factor, the right-wing parties have Gen Z people running social media, which is the most effective way to reach a generation which will gravitate to someone like Andrew Tate for their exploits on social media or view Nigel Farage making jokes about melons.
The RN is busy abandoning everything "social". Only racist and authoritarian stuff remains now. This is a caricatural replay in fast forward mode of the US culture war : hey middle classe, votre against your interests as long as brown people get the shaft (and everything "woke").
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I am deeply concerned about Macron's state of mind since a meeting he imposed on top managers of state and other public services in March. In a nutshell, he said that if his reforms were ill received by the people, it's because the deep state (my words) were busy sabotaging those precious reforms.
I thought : is he recycling complotists' crazy theories ? Is he so detached from reality that he cannot imagine other reasons why his reforms are unpopular ? etc. Spoiler : I am the CFO of French public healthcare in a northern "département" of France.
From the Huffington Post : https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/polit...ifier-plus-vite-l-action-publique_231114.html
From Le Monde : https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...ir-la-culture-du-resultat_6221645_823448.html
I realised that this man lived in a parallel universe where he is perfect and everyone else and every other institutions are flawed, etc. This man is crazy as in medically crazy.
I thought : is he recycling complotists' crazy theories ? Is he so detached from reality that he cannot imagine other reasons why his reforms are unpopular ? etc. Spoiler : I am the CFO of French public healthcare in a northern "département" of France.
From the Huffington Post : https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/polit...ifier-plus-vite-l-action-publique_231114.html
From Le Monde : https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...ir-la-culture-du-resultat_6221645_823448.html
I realised that this man lived in a parallel universe where he is perfect and everyone else and every other institutions are flawed, etc. This man is crazy as in medically crazy.
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I am going to make a generalization, the rich are crazy, all of them, greed is a stunning corrupter. No politician should be worth as much as Trump, Sunak, Macron, and a few others and hold office. Once their personal wealth exceeds some limit, they need to step aside while in office, re: Orban, Putin, Modi. And, I want everyone to have a pony ...
IMHO, there should be a compulsory psychological test for all positions of power to keep malignant narcissists out of positions of responsibility.
Alternatively, maybe a complete ban on biologically male humans from holding a position of power past approx. 65 years of age. They seem to have a high chance of going nuts in their old age.
SuinusLatinus
Ars Tribunus Militum
On the other hand, being wealthy makes you less corruptible. IMO, it's not the wealth that's the problem, it's the mindset linked to it. If you got wealthy by being corrupt, you'll continue so. Even if you weren't corrupt, maybe it gets to your head and you see yourself as being inherently better, more worthy and intelligent, than anyone else, and that leads you to taking stupid, harmful decisions.