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Post by librarylady on Apr 11, 2022 23:12:21 GMT
French President Emmanuel Macron will face Marine Le Pen in the second round of the country's presidential election, setting up a rematch of their runoff contest in 2017. Centrist Macron and Le Pen, a long-time standard-bearer for the French far-right, were the top two candidates in the first round of Sunday's vote, picking up 27.8% and 23.2% of the ballots respectively, according to the French Interior Ministry. Twelve candidates ran for the top job. Since none of them received more than 50% of the ballots in the first round, the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff on April 24.
The first round of the 2022 contest was marked by voter apathy, with participation estimated at 73.3%, according to an analysis by pollster Ifop-Fiducial for French broadcasters TF1 and LCI -- the lowest in a first round in 20 years. |
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Post by gar on Apr 11, 2022 23:18:05 GMT
I’ve been hoping sleepingbooty might pop in and give us the benefit of her wisdom on the French elections. |
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garcia5050
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,770 
Location: So. Calif.
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Post by garcia5050 on Apr 12, 2022 4:10:49 GMT
73% is voter apathy? They still put the U.S. to shame.
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Post by gar on Apr 12, 2022 6:28:39 GMT
73% is voter apathy? They still put the U.S. to shame. I thought the same! 73% doesn't say apathy to me. I wonder what their 'usual' figures are. |
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Post by sleepingbooty on Apr 12, 2022 9:42:41 GMT
73% is voter apathy? They still put the U.S. to shame. I thought the same! 73% doesn't say apathy to me. I wonder what their 'usual' figures are. There are no usual figures. It fluctuates but it's been going down steadily (as in many Western democracies, alas). Mélenchon, one of the far-left candidates, nearly made it. Many left-wing voters decided to throw their support to him as he was the most viable option to block Marine Le Pen for the runoff. This was probably the most interesting aspect to the first round. He got 21.95%, pretty close to Le Pen's 23.15. This first round confirms the new tripolarisation of French politics after the very sudden loss of the two traditional main parties' (main right wing and left wing parties) sphere of influence over the past decade: the "centrist" liberal side which leans heavily right-wing in terms of social rights and benefits, the nationalist and populist side (with 2 main candidates for this election: Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour) and the more radical left side. The other big loss is for the environmental party EELV who finished below 5% despite having done pretty well and having been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Clearly, their anti-nuclear stance (and possible past scandals regarding homeopathy/traditional medecine) has cost them some votes. Le Pen might claim she no longer wants France to leave the EU but most of her programme isn't applicable without leaving the EU for basic legal reasons so it doesn't add up. Macron has done significant damage to the French social standards and the rich have benefitted signicantly under his leadership so the Manichean good vs bad scenario doesn't work here. I don't know a single person happy with either of these two candidates. It's really a matter of how many people will turn up only to avoid the extreme right take-over. Best-case scenario: Macron wins the presidency but his party loses the parliamentary elections which will be held in June and the left rises in those to keep some balance through strong opposition. |
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maryannscraps
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,791
Aug 28, 2017 12:51:28 GMT
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Post by maryannscraps on Apr 12, 2022 11:48:40 GMT
Thanks sleepingbooty for some context. I don't really know that much about French politics - I'm off to do some more reading. |
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Post by gar on Apr 12, 2022 13:18:56 GMT
sleepingbooty, thanks so much for your information...you're in a bit of a no win situation it seems. Fingers crossed for the best case scenario you described!
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Post by sleepingbooty on Apr 12, 2022 15:09:02 GMT
sleepingbooty , thanks so much for your information...you're in a bit of a no win situation it seems. Fingers crossed for the best case scenario you described! It's a no-win situation indeed but one loss scenario is significantly worse than the other. Marine Le Pen inherited the extreme right wing party from her father and is no better than him although she has worked hard to soften the party's image (and it has worked, clearly). She has financial ties to Putin as well (hasn't even fully reimbursed the loan she got for the 2017 presidential campaign and had to get financed through Hungary for this year's which we all know is another direct financial link to Putin). Don't mind me sitting here slightly depressed but unsurprised (we got so close with Mélenchon, zut alors, he's not my cup of tea but ugh, I'm so tired of extreme right runoffs and voting to block instead of voting for a programme I at least kind of adhere to). I'm just going to pretend to be living in a bubble for the next couple of weeks! All's well, all's well, all's well...  |
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Post by gar on Apr 12, 2022 16:04:14 GMT
sleepingbooty , thanks so much for your information...you're in a bit of a no win situation it seems. Fingers crossed for the best case scenario you described! It's a no-win situation indeed but one loss scenario is significantly worse than the other. Marine Le Pen inherited the extreme right wing party from her father and is no better than him although she has worked hard to soften the party's image (and it has worked, clearly). She has financial ties to Putin as well (hasn't even fully reimbursed the loan she got for the 2017 presidential campaign and had to get financed through Hungary for this year's which we all know is another direct financial link to Putin). Don't mind me sitting here slightly depressed but unsurprised (we got so close with Mélenchon, zut alors, he's not my cup of tea but ugh, I'm so tired of extreme right runoffs and voting to block instead of voting for a programme I at least kind of adhere to). I'm just going to pretend to be living in a bubble for the next couple of weeks! All's well, all's well, all's well... I agree, from what little I know, Mm Le Pen would not be good news  |
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Post by sleepingbooty on Apr 14, 2022 19:10:35 GMT
My favourite take on our second round (runoff) so far: Ziggy, a cat food brand, taking politics to a whole other level. Context: France still does the traditional campaign posters with specific public spaces where they can be hung. They are almost always the candidate's portrait with their campaign motto. Here's what one of these public candidate poster spaces looks like during the election. "Liberté, égalité, plus de pâtée" which is a take on the motto of the French Republic (Liberté, égalité, fraternité) meaning "Freedom, equality, more wet food" vs "Travailler moins pour manger plus" which is a take on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's very capitalistic 2007 campaign motto (Travailler plus pour gagner plus = Work more to earn more) meaning "Work less to eat more" Cast your vote! May the best kitty win...  |
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