The French

Pretty concerning to see the high numbers for Le Pen among working age people

My understanding - v limited - was that Le Pen's economic proposals were solidly to the left of Macron's, and yknow, the racial policies are pretty similar so

incoherence at least has the minor advantage of not being purposeful evil

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 24 April 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Good and evil now is it.

Would have been shocking to see a major European country elect a racist anti-immigrant party dedicated to exiting the EU... errrrrr.

who said anything about good?

(bastani content warning)

Democracies only run like this for so long. pic.twitter.com/uhCZKzmk78

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) April 24, 2022

Melenchon can go fuck himself imo, but (and this is an argument fellow ukpol despairers have heard me mane again and again) it’s 100% bullshit that voting against someone you hate is seen as preferable in most democracies than voting for someone you actually want. Assuming left French voters have several more years of being blamed for Macron’s failures while he desperately panders to the right in an attempt to set things up for…whoever he wants to succeed him, I guess?

Could see Macron trying to change the constitution to go for a 3rd term tbh.

Seems like a bad idea but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was surprised to see that Le Pen's best results anywhere were in Outre-Mer constituencies like Guadeloupe and Martinique, and hugely up on 2017:

Marine Le Pen have a LARGE LEAD Overseas:

Guadeloupe: +39.2%
Martinique: +21.8%
French Guiana: +21.4%

Results not representative for the rest of the country, but still...#Presidentielles2022 pic.twitter.com/yIQvKxoe5z

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) April 24, 2022

Only analysis I found was an interview with a local pro-independence politician: apparently they really really don't like Macron there. Still I might have expected abstention rather than a huge vote for Le Pen, esp given that Melenchon won big in the first round.

Would be interesting to see the racial make-up of the votes in those constituencies? Not much of a surprise that white ppl living in those areas would enjoy fascism.

(just remembered that French policy means these numbers will never be tallied)

who said anything about good?

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 24 April 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Effectively that is what you were doing with that post. The politicians that say they occupy the centre will do a version of fascism without the rhetoric and you will tell yourself it's incompetent but not
capital evil. Just inventing justifications for your vote next time.

don't think aimless has a vote in the French elections

either way tho plenty of incoherent thinkers present in most totalitarian movements

Lol I know Aimless doesn't vote in this election but its a rehearsal for the ones he'll vote in.

Xpost White people are very much in the minority in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyane so that's not going to explain the massive Le Pen vote there. These are departements, ie fully integrated politically into metropolitan France, unlike say New Caledonia, which also has a strong independence movement. These departements don't have serious independence movements, most people there consider themselves completely French but forgotten by the Paris elites, I think that's the core of the Le Pen vote, and the Melenchon vote in the first round. And Le Pen is keen on these leftovers of French Empire and has been courting them assiduously. Tldr French racism is a complicated thing

"vote for the crook not the fascist" has been the equivalent slogan since at least 2002, when jacques chirac face off against marine's dad

as a one-off it was what it was (chirac was a massive crook (who wd be convicted after he stepped down); as a now-persistent multi-reality it's an emblem of the perma-crisis that the centre has no way to resolve (and one has to assume no plan or intention to resolve = you maintain said threat primarily to discipline yr foes on the left… and normalising the framework w/o sating the beast, by goading the far right with promises you will never quite deliver on, into a weaponised presence that isn't going away

(i tried googling to find if the slogan goes back any earlier than 2002 but its massive use in 2002 stymied the search)

I was living in France at that time and I don't think that phrase had antecedents.

Although everyone is like "phew, dodged a bullet" at the moment, 41% of French voters voted fascist. That's huge. God only knows what will happen after another five years of macronisme.

I did make that point yesterday, yeah. Not great that the demographics of working age people went for Le Pen.

"vote for the crook not the fascist" has been the equivalent slogan since at least 2002, when jacques chirac face off against marine's dad

Reminds me of Anthony Crosland's comment on the Labour Party leadership contest between Harold Wilson and George Brown, "A choice between a crook and a drunk."

he was just tired and emotional tom

le pen’s signature policies are not tremendously different from the tories or the republicans afaict?

Not sure she was arguing for French soldiers to be exonerated from shooting civilians was she?

Or for shipping asylum seekers to the middle of Africa?

Indeed and ffs

She wanted a referendum to amend the constitution to allow discriminating against non-nationals for access to jobs and welfare. A fascist move that the Tories and Republicans might like in theory, but are not actually proposing.

non-residents already have to pay for healthcare in the UK, it’s not a huge psychological next step

Huge news in France, that just two weeks ago seemed unthinkable: the four major left and center-left parties have struck a left-wide coalition deal, the first of its kind in decades, that gives them a shot to wrestle power from Macron in the June parliamentary elections.

— Taniel (@Taniel) May 4, 2022

Interesting development but colour me sceptical. There are a lot of people in the Socialist Party that hate Melenchon more than Macron. Even if such an alliance succeeds in the legislatives, the chances of it all falling apart within weeks, to Macron's ultimate benefit, are high.

Yeah the last tweet of that thread is watch this space.

On Melenchon's evolution.

Mélenchon 2017-2022: from tribune of the people to radical socialdemocrat. A short 🧵

— Paolo Gerbaudo (@paologerbaudo) June 13, 2022

It's that Jeremie Le Quorbyn again.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/14/support-jeremy-corbyn-shows-danger-french-left-claims-emmanuel/

yes. yes. YES https://t.co/sox6oaeiWS pic.twitter.com/aOIK4zYgoj

— 「𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮」 (@tara_chara) June 15, 2022

qu'en est-il des dimensions relatives dans l'espace?

The footage and the applause is so good.

‘Whereas capital works to dominate the long term through the short term… our own model seeks to harmonise the rhythms of production with those of nature… We are going to nationalise time’ — Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Amazing that any national-level political leader can talk like this https://t.co/Yb5wkepwUd

— David Broder (@broderly) June 14, 2022

Macron just lost his parliamentary majority, and Mélenchon's left-green alliance is set to win 150 to 180 seats. Gonna be hard to be Jupiter nowhttps://t.co/iwmafa1CfJ

— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) June 19, 2022

This is a more thorough assessment.

Some thoughts (to be continued as the night goes on):

1) Biggest news by far is that France's far-right finally has a bloc in parliament that matches its electoral strength. This is the logical conclusion of institutional normalisation, but 80+ députés for the RN is still huge.

— Emile Chabal (@emile_chabal) June 19, 2022

Henri Bergson to thread!

Or even just
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKcwJD3ky38

Rachel Kéké, a hotel chambermaid who led a 22-month strike, was elected as an MP with France Insoumise. Her first comments were to women cleaning workers at the National Assembly: ‘I’m going to be taking a look at their working conditions!’ https://t.co/kCxp2dgRSZ

— David Broder (@broderly) June 19, 2022

54% of people stayed away, and that's how the far-right win.

Can't say I love the analysis but it's a neat summary.

"There is, finally, a resource of another order: hatred of the police – insofar as it is a driving force. When power lets loose its henchmen, two radically different results can follow: intimidation, or the tenfold multiplication of rage."https://t.co/IlZfsPp4Qm

— Yukon Cornelius 🔥🇨🇦🔥 (@NeeedlesEye) March 30, 2023

incredible optics by a master politician.. jam through legislation to rip two years of retired life away from elderly workers with one hand then push for legalizing euthanasia of the aged with the other https://t.co/FXqQByKL9L

— yung🛠walken (@as_a_worker) April 3, 2023

Looks good.

Video summarizing last night's riot in Lyon. (not mine, I only added filters) pic.twitter.com/bcjG2NE35V

— ⛛ Anarchia! 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍⚧️🦜 (@ThCollierPerles) April 18, 2023

Guess what happened next. You won't believe!

The prosecutor is asking for 8 months imprisonment. For picking up €20 in front of a Sephora.

— meerie jesuthasan (@durianist) July 4, 2023

the night courts

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/20/france-immigration-bill-passed-controversy-emmanuel-macron-marine-le-pen

Love how this racism is described as controversial