Politics in France

[andy_s]

wc98 said:

this should be of great concern. how does the turn out compare to previous elections ?

Lowest post-war turnout I think. Speaking to one of the [French] guys here and asked whether it was resignation, apathy or disengagement he said the general feeling was that everyone is fed up with politics of all hues and have given, what is in essence, a big Gallic shrug.

[scherzkeks]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Eddie Strohacker said:

Or his opponents saw the writing on the wall & didn't bother turning out.

Errr, no.

Almost the opposite.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/macron-lead-narrows...

In before Russian "hacking."

[Eddie Strohacker]

Mr GrimNasty said:

Errr, no.

Almost the opposite.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/macron-lead-narrows...

Errr yes, your link is from April

"Correspondents say opponents of Mr Macron may simply have not bothered to turn out."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40322140

[anonymous-user]

wc98 said:

Mr GrimNasty said:

Macron hasn't by any stretch of the imagination got into power with any mandate or endorsement of his policies.

"A record abstention rate which could reach 58 percent means many will question the legitimacy of his victory."

"If the predictions hold true, this will be the lowest voter turnout in French parliamentary elections under France's Fifth Republic, which began in 1958."

The French are just completely fed up with politicians altogether.

this should be of great concern. how does the turn out compare to previous elections ?

Down 10%

Once his reforms kick in, its going to be barbeques all round. Remember, this is the guy that tried to get the reforms through under Hollande that caused the last round of BBQ's. A more establishment character you could hope to find, packaged all nice and shiny. He will probably be a thorn in the side of the Brexit talks as he tries to establish his position in the EU.

[rdjohn]

smifffymoto said:

I think Macron will actually achieve very little,once the dust has settled and everybody comes back from holiday and back to work .Labour reforms will just be modified with no real change,even if the public sector jobs go the pay offs will be good and benefits raped.
Paris will riot as usual and life will go on with not alot of real change.

I wish the guy well, France is in desperate need for change. Sniffy has it nailed it. His principal support comes from the conforttable suburbs. People out in the country are being hung-out to dry. Social mobility is not recognised as an issue. The CGT carry too much clout.

Having lived here for 12-years, I am convinced that racism is a much bigger issue here, throughout the population. I saw 2-black guys last year emptying septic tanks. Even in Paris, you will tend to find Algerian women staffing tills in supermarkets, while at the back, black guy get to stack the shelves.

The army has plenty of black squadies, but I have never seen a coloured officer.

This is a very divided nation

[Eddie Strohacker]

rdjohn said:

I wish the guy well, France is in desperate need for change. Sniffy has it nailed it. His principal support comes from the conforttable suburbs. People out in the country are being hung-out to dry. Social mobility is not recognised as an issue. The CGT carry too much clout.

Having lived here for 12-years, I am convinced that racism is a much bigger issue here, throughout the population. I saw 2-black guys last year emptying septic tanks. Even in Paris, you will tend to find Algerian women staffing tills in supermarkets, while at the back, black guy get to stack the shelves.

The army has plenty of black squadies, but I have never seen a coloured officer.

This is a very divided nation

Would agree wholeheartedly with that. France has struggled for years with it's minorities.

[jjlynn27]

Murph7355 said:

The millions of people who voted for her on the basis of wanting change in the EU, despite the less savoury elements of her politics, will be the thorn. She's the mouthpiece.

Funny thing is people in UK did vote for Corbyn because of 'bribes'. But for Le Pen they voted based on wanting change in the EU. This is her manifesto;

Le Pen said:

• A 10 percent cut to income tax on three lowest revenue bands.

• Cut payroll tax for very small and medium-sized businesses and lower the corporate tax rate for SMEs.

• Lower the retirement age to 60 from the current 62, increase aid to the poorest of the elderly. Give child benefits to all without conditions. Cut by 5 percent the regulated price of gas and electricity.

• Allow each parent to give each of their children 100,000 euros tax-free every five years.

• Keep the working week to 35 hours, make overtime tax-free.

Makes JC looks like Ebezener Scrooge.

I have no idea what Macron will manage to achieve. Le Pen & Co were expecting 20 odd seats, they got 8 after promising everything to everyone.

[spaximus]

jjlynn27 said:

Murph7355 said:

The millions of people who voted for her on the basis of wanting change in the EU, despite the less savoury elements of her politics, will be the thorn. She's the mouthpiece.

Funny thing is people in UK did vote for Corbyn because of 'bribes'. But for Le Pen they voted based on wanting change in the EU. This is her manifesto;

Le Pen said:

• A 10 percent cut to income tax on three lowest revenue bands.

• Cut payroll tax for very small and medium-sized businesses and lower the corporate tax rate for SMEs.

• Lower the retirement age to 60 from the current 62, increase aid to the poorest of the elderly. Give child benefits to all without conditions. Cut by 5 percent the regulated price of gas and electricity.

• Allow each parent to give each of their children 100,000 euros tax-free every five years.

• Keep the working week to 35 hours, make overtime tax-free.

Makes JC looks like Ebezener Scrooge.

I have no idea what Macron will manage to achieve. Le Pen & Co were expecting 20 odd seats, they got 8 after promising everything to everyone.

The French saw here as a fascist and regardless the metropolitan areas had a bigger say in many ways. She was seen by a lot of poorer French as being on the money and they fear Macron will try to change the Metropolitan areas and the country areas will be screwed.

British youths were caught up in the messiah message and chose to swallow the bullst.

[ATG]

Murph7355 said:

smifffymoto said:

...
Paris will riot as usual and life will go on with not alot of real change.

Do they riot regularly?

I know they seem to enjoy a good Channel port blockade now and then (mind you, when was the last one of those? Or did they give it a break while Sangatte etc was in play?). But riots in the capital??

Yes, riots in the capital. It's the national sport. I rented a flat round the corner from Place de la Bastille in the early 2000s (i.e. economically and politically more tranquil times) and there were protest/riots every few weeks. Sensible stuff like students protesting about anaemic pension reform. And, joking aside, the frustration in the banlieue was reaching snapping point.

[ATG]

Raygun said:

Murph7355 said:

Le Pen had the EU establishment worried. And she garnered a pretty sizeable part of the vote when you consider the "non-EU" elements of her policies.

Even though France is at the forefront of the EU and has a lot of support for it, it is home to a lot of fascists,it is now and always has been, the willingness of the Vichy government in the war only has to tell you that.
Sorry if that hurts the liberal left types who thinks France can do no wrong as far as they are concerned but it's the truth.

A big FN constituency is a given in French politics. Combined with an anti-establishment protest vote in the first round of presidential elections, it's common for FN to initially do worryingly well before getting absolutely stuffed in the final round. The problem is that that process tends to eliminate the serious candidates early so the country ends up having to choose whichever non-fascist makes it into the final round. It usually becomes a lottery rather than an election.

The key thing is that the French have chosen a neo-liberal globalist. This is a grown-up choice. This is the ONLY economic model with ANY credibility on offer. Yes, it isn't a picnic for everyone and of course there have been some mammoth policy fk-ups while pursuing that path ... but only a retard or a nutcase would reject that approach altogether in the absence of a credible alternative. Trump has not articulated an alternative, the UK Brexiteer political class's economics is schizophrenic (free market, free trade, except we'll exit our key really, really free trade agreement in favour of something far more restricted and we'll also knacker our labour market), and Corbyn has just talked out-dated, childish nonsense.

[Puggit]

Guido: Macron is introducing austerity measures to meet EU's 3% deficit target for France.

https://twitter.com/EuroGuido/status/8800028400888...

[FN2TypeR]

smifffymoto said:

I think Macron will actually achieve very little,once the dust has settled and everybody comes back from holiday and back to work .Labour reforms will just be modified with no real change,even if the public sector jobs go the pay offs will be good and benefits raped.
Paris will riot as usual and life will go on with not alot of real change.

I went to a music festival in France a couple of weeks ago and we spent a night either side of the festival in Nantes and there was a fairly large protest about alleged labour reforms on the Monday night after the festival, primarily young people taking part and a lot of heavily tooled up riot police, the protestors were easily dispersed but they did spend a while throwing glasses, bricks and such forth at the police until they were broken up

It was quite amusing as to how life just went on around it - we sat outside a bar with around a fifty other people, enjoying our drinks and watching the scene unfold like it was the most normal thing in the world

[spaximus]

Puggit said:

Guido: Macron is introducing austerity measures to meet EU's 3% deficit target for France.

https://twitter.com/EuroGuido/status/8800028400888...

It has worked out fine for the Tories here and we have no history of rioting as the French do. They are in for a rough ride.

[loafer123]

Macron has balls of steel!

[smifffymoto]

I think Macron has already got one eye on a top job in the EU.

[hyphen]

loafer123 said:

Macron has balls of steel!

Trump has accepted an offer to visit France for Bastille day. So much for the UK-US special relationship!

[Murph7355]

hyphen said:

loafer123 said:

Macron has balls of steel!

Trump has accepted an offer to visit France for Bastille day. So much for the UK-US special relationship!

Possibly hasn't helped that a very vocal minority have taken it upon themselves to let him know he's not welcome here.

So much for the EU's distaste for him

[jjlynn27]

Murph7355 said:

hyphen said:

loafer123 said:

Macron has balls of steel!

Trump has accepted an offer to visit France for Bastille day. So much for the UK-US special relationship!

Possibly hasn't helped that a very vocal minority have taken it upon themselves to let him know he's not welcome here.

So much for the EU's distaste for him

While Frenchies seem to be big fans;



As for distaste, he's visiting France for Bastille day, what's that got to do with EU?

Who knows, maybe Trump's on a secret mission to persuade Macron to fight UK's corner in negotiations, because of special relationship. Front of the queue and all that. They'll probably celebrate the best deal ever with a manly handshake.

[Globs]

jjlynn27 said:

Who knows, maybe Trump's on a secret mission to persuade Macron to fight UK's corner in negotiations, because of special relationship. Front of the queue and all that. They'll probably celebrate the best deal ever with a manly handshake.

It's possible he wants to sew up France's latest commitment to bomb Syria.
After the US announced it's intention to frame Syria for the 3rd time with yet another false chemical attack and then use that as an excuse to blow the SAA away from Dier ezzor etc. both the UK and France agreed to help the bombing effort.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-eas...

The UK's Fallon is a safe bet, he hates Syria, but Macron is a bit new and may need a small 'talk' to guarantee their involvement in this illegal stitch up..

[andy_s]

Anyone see the story of the 4 Mayors that were also MPs; lost their MP seat and then awarded themselves a 400% pay increase in 'compensation for lost earnings'.

That'll go down like a cold cup of sick.