The election that might make a difference and is too close to call thread - France

Carl31

I imagine if France had a 'UKIP' party of their own, the story may have been very different

As it stands, they had the equivalent of Nick Griffin in second place, that speaks volumes about the electorates current view in France. That resentment is only going to get worse now

Conrad

Macron is no socialist, according to himself he's a centrist that wants to tackle the Unions and employment protections. The socialists were of course roundly defeated.


He's better for us in terms of Brexit negotiation than Le Pen would have been as he has shored-up the EU and made it feel more secure meaning there is less paranoia around exit contagion

Conrad

In the United States, Jaguar is on the verge of overtaking Porsche in the number of sales:


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-05/jaguar-closes-on-porsche-in-the-race-for-swanky-sales

bugslet

mayonnaise wrote: »

Resounding pro-EU vote in France, a win for pro-EU Rutte in Holland with massive gains for the very pro-EU Greens there, and Merkel's CDU making gains in Schleswig-Holstein.

Good to see that irrational, xenophobia based populism remains contained within the boundaries of little england.

I think given the choice between him and Le Pen, then I'd have voted for him just to keep Le Pen out. I think there will have been an element of that thinking amongst French voters.

gfplux

Wonderful news, wonderful result.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

gfplux wrote: »

Wonderful news, wonderful result.

Just not for the French people, I suspect.

Emmanuel Macron may have won Sunday's presidential election by a comfortable margin, but even his supporters' enthusiasm is tempered by the scale of the challenge that the inexperienced politician faces in tackling France's deep-seated economic, social and security problems.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-election-morning-reactions-idUKKBN1841G7

michaels

gfplux wrote: »

Wonderful news, wonderful result.

Jeesh - that 35% of the French electorate think that voting for the national front is there best option is cause for celebration....what would be a bad result?!

I wonder if Hollande and Macron planned this - the socialists were so unpopular it looked a certainty the next president would be from the right and yet somehow it was engineered that a socialist minister got elected as president - I call that brilliant tactics.

mayonnaise

michaels wrote: »

Jeesh - that 35% of the French electorate think that voting for the national front is there best option is cause for celebration....what would be a bad result?!

As Alex Salmond says...

In France, Emmanuel Macron has taken on the far right and beaten them. In the UK, Theresa May has dumped UKIP by becoming UKIP.

So yes, wonderful result. :T

A_Medium_Size_Jock

mayonnaise wrote: »

As Alex Salmond says...

So yes, wonderful result. :T

Alex Salmond?
The Alex Salmond?
Of this and much, much more:

Scottish independence, Brexit, Donald Trump - Iain Dale reminds a spiky Alex Salmond that the SNP man has called them all wrong.

http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/iain-dale/iain-dale-reminds-salmond-trump-brexit-scotland/
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Yeah, right.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

What's in a name...yada yada yada

My hope is that 35% of French voters were voting for something more akin to ukip (don't forget we have given ukip 30+% in one national election) than the bnp/national front - the latter would be alarming.

That's the big question.

Under Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party was one of anti-Semitic holocaust deniers. While I don't subscribe to the "sins of the father" argument, the fact is she followed him into the same party.

But is it truly now more like UKIP? Certainly there are policies that are similar... leaving the EU/leaving the Euro. But what concerns me is the extent to which the FN always needs a bogeyman, which has switched from Jews to Muslims.

Further, if Marine is the acceptable, more moderate face of FN, then there is another, even younger Le Pen waiting in the wings - Marion - who is far more like her grandfather. She may be too young as yet to take the helm but already there are factions within the party that wants to return to identity politics and focus less on the EU:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/day-of-reckoning-looms-for-le-pen-as-next-generation-in-political-dynasty-her-27-year-old-niece-pays-her-dues

Clearly people will have voted Le Pen for a host of reasons and are not automatically closet racists, but the party still has the potential to cast an unpalatable shadow.