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 Koorb France. March 20 2012 02:25. Posts 215 | Profile # |
ON THE ROAD TO THE SECOND ROUND
So, during these two weeks of interlude between the first and the second round, N. Sarkozy and F. Hollande kept campaigning in a context where the voters of Marine Le Pen (17,9 % in the first round) were the people to care for. Hollande claimed that the policies is advocating should reassure them, and didn't make them concessions (even though his discourse has became slightly tougher on immigration these last couple of days).
Sarkozy on the other hand has openly called the National Front voters to vote for him, and he held most of his latest political meetings in cities and regions in which the National Front had its best results. His ministry of defence, Gérard Longuet, has even gave an interview to a far-right newspaper, Minute, in which he advocated a reconciliation between the Union for a Popular Movement and the National Front in order to prevent Hollande from being elected president. This particular interview created a ruckus among the Union for a Popular Movement members, because for more than thirty years, the prominent right party in France (Rally for The Republic, now known as the Union for a Popular Movement) never allowed itself to have anyhting to do with the National Front (it is called the policy of the "Cordon Sanitaire", i.e. the sanitary cordon).
On May 2nd, both candidates battled each other in the traditional Presidential debate. So far, since its inception in the 1974 election, this debate never reversed the trends (which currently say that Hollande is the favourite of the election). The debate was quite heated, and according to most of journalists, there were no winner or loser. See how the voters perceived the debate here (in French).
This period also had its pieces of drama, the worst of it being that, during this last week, two journalists from two national media (the newspaper Mediapart and the news channel BFM TV) were attacked by Sarkozy's supporters during his meetings.
Concerning the notable candidates who didn't make it to the second round, Marine Le Pen (17,9 % in the first round) asked her voters to leave the ballot blank on May 1st (according to the opinion polls, most of them should vote for N. Sarkozy though). Jean-Luc Mélenchon (11,11 % in the first round) called for a unimous vote for Hollande right after the first round. François Bayrou (9,13 % in the first round) announced on May 3rd that he would vote for Hollande, but didn't asked his voters to do the same.
The most recent opinion polls give Hollande elected president with 53,5%. The second round will take place on May 6th, and the official results will be released at 08:00 PM CET.
Further reading:
CNN.com : France's presidential rivals trade insults in debate
Time.com : French Presidential Election: Marine Le Pen Haunts the Sarkozy-Hollande Debate
Time.com: A Dangerous Game: Why Sarkozy’s Bid for Far-Right Votes May Backfire
FIRST ROUND RESULTS
- François Hollande - Socialist Party : 28,63%
- Nicolas Sarkozy - Union for a Popular Movement : 27,18%
- Marine Le Pen - National Front : 17,9%
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon - Left Front : 11,11%
- François Bayrou - Democratic Movement : 9,13%
- Eva Joly - Europe Ecology The Greens : 2,31%
- The Others : less than 2%
François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy proceed to the second round, which is scheduled to take place on May 6th. While this outcome was quite expected by the opinion polls, the huge upset is the score of National Front's Marine Le Pen. Not only she is way higher than expected, but she also realised the best score ever for her party (even higher than her father in 2002, when he made it to the second round), which turn the National Front into one of the most powerful Far-Right party in Europe.
Both Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Eva Joly are now supporting François Hollande for the second round. Marine Le Pen announced on May 1st that she will leave the ballot blank, hence don't giving any directive to her voters.François Bayrou has yet to speak his mind, he is scheduled to make an announcement either tomorrow or friday.
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I just realised that there wasn't a thread about the ongoing presidential election in France, so I figured that I would start one. After all, it might be a good opportunity to give an insight to foreigners.
Why does it matter? (at least for us French people)
France has a semi-presidential system, meaning that the president is more than a purely ceremonial figurehead, he actually rules the day-to-day administration of the country alongside the prime minister. However, unlike in a true presidential system (like in the USA), the governement is responsible to the legislature and can be forced to resign through a motion of no confidence. But, make no mistake, the particularity of the French system is that the president has proportionally more powers than most of his occidental counterparts, because there aren't lots of counter powers. Even though there were a few progress in terms of decentralisation in the past decades, the régions have nowhere near as much prerogatives than Germany's länders or USA's states. And more importantly, the fact that the legislative elections (in which the members of parliament are elected) are held right after the presidential election makes it very unlikely that the elected president's party can't provide an absolute majority. And once this absolute majority is obtained, it's virtually impossible for the opposition to have any kind of political weight, even if it has an overwhelming support from the population. So basically, the elected president is assured to be the most prominent if not the only policy-maker of the country for his/her 5-year term.
How does it work?
Well it's pretty simple. Under the Fifth Republic's Constitution, Any French citizen who is over 18 years old and not deprived of his civil rights is eligible, but at first, he/she has to be sponsored by 500 elected officials (mayors, regional and general councilors, senators, MPs, members of the European parliament... for a total of nearly 42,000 in the whole country). This particular disposition was meant to prevent ridiculous candidates, but nowadays it comes under scrutiny as some little parties's candidates struggle to obtain them, and sometimes fail to do so. In this 2012 election, it's notably the case of Dominique de Villepin (Prime Minister from 2005 to 2007, who is more known over the Atlantic as the Foreign Minister who opposed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the UN) who won't be able to participate in the election.
Then, on April 22nd, the first round will take place by universal suffrage (one citizen, one vote), and the two candidates who earned the most votes will proceed to the second round. The latter will take place on May 6th, and of course will decide who gets to rule the country for the five next years.
Now, let's have a look on the candidates.
Nicolas Sarkozy - Union for a Popular Movement - Center-Right/Right/Far-Right
The current president, who runs for a second term. At the beginning of his political career, he was the long-time mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthiest town in France, which allowed him to meet and to develop friendships with press groups and industrial groups CEOs. Before his presidency, he was the president of the General council of the Hauts-de-Seine (wealthiest département of the country as well), and the minister of the interior.
During his first term, he notably did a high-scale fiscal reform (a fiscal stimulus package that allegedly aimed at reviving the economic growth) featuring the removal of the inheritance tax, a tax cap for the richest households, and a tax exemption on overtime. Not only it didn't had any significant impact on the growth (not helped by the 2008 financial crisis and the ongoing debt crisis though), but the Court of Audit (an independant institution charged with conducting financial and legislative audits) claim that this reform actually increased the public debt twice as luch as the financial crisis itself. Sarkozy's first term also featured lots of laws aimed at decrease the crime. Another major policy of his term was the RGPP (General Review of Public Policies), a series of measures aiming to reduce public spending while increasing the efficiency and quality of public action, which notably consists in replacing only one civil servant for two retiring.
Concerning the foreign policy, he began by a rapprochement with the USA, and lately did the same with Germany (Germany which had become his economic model). Sarkozy didn't support the Arab Spring at first (the Tunisian president Ben Ali being a traditionnal ally of France right-wing parties), and tried to make it even by leading the war in Lybia.
For his second presidential campaign, he chose to keep the winning combination of his 2007 campaign: he tries to seduce the voters who are usually voting for the far-right National Front, and in the meantime makes consensual proposals aiming at every categories of voters. He is against the gay marriage, and recently threatened to pull France out of the Schengen agreement if the European Union doesn't do any progress with regard to the management of migration flows (he wants to divide by two the legal immigration as well). He also wants to add a budgetary discipline rule in the constitution itself and to create a tax on financial transactions. He is also a strong advocate of Nuclear power plants. Last but no least, he wants to renegotiate tax treaties with foreign countries, so that expatriates who pay less taxes in their country of residence pay the difference to France.
It should be noted that, seen from France (I don't know how Germans feel it), Angela Merkel is regarded as a strong a somewhat inappropriate support of Nicolas Sarkozy, since she is expected to participate in at least one of his political meetings.
He is expected to be at around 25-28% in the first round (proceeding to the second), and to lose the second round with 42-46%.
François Hollande - Socialist Party - Center-Left/Left
The main outsider, who is also regarded as the favorite of the election by the opinion polls. He used to be the first secretary of the Socialist Party for roughly eleven years, from 1997 to 2008, and is currently the president of the General Council of Corrèze as well as a Member of Parliament. As the first secretary of the party, he built himself the reputation of someone able to make people from different political views working together, but at the prize of flabby consensus and of a relative inertia.
When François Hollande announced that would be a candidate in the primary election to select the Socialist Party candidate a year ago, it was safe to say that basically noone thought that he would succeed, since Dominique Strauss-Kahn was heavily favorite. We all know how things turned out for DSK, meaning that Hollande is truly a candidate by default for the Socialist Party (his most dangerous opponents in the primary being the current first secretary and her total lack of charism, and the loser of the 2007 presidential election second round).
His list of policies includes the creation of a band of income tax set to 75% for the income exceeding 1,000,000 € per year, the separation of retail activities from riskier investment-banking businesses, raising taxes for big corporations, banks and the wealthy, creating 60,000 teaching jobs, bringing the official retirement age back down to 60 from 62 for those who have contributed more than 41 years, granting marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples. Hollande also claims that he won't ratify the European budgetary discipline Treaty in its current state (which he believes to be too much emphasized on the austerity), and that he wants to add provisions concerning economic growth. This particular policy alledgedly led some high-profile European heads of states and governements such as Angela Merkel and David Cameron to boycott him and to refuse to meet him prior to the election. He also advocates reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity generation from 75 to 50% in favor of renewable energy sources.
Even though he was very high in the opinion polls a few eeks ago, he's slowly and steadily losing ground to Sarkozy, notably because he cultivates an uncertainty about several of his policies. He is expected to be at around 28-30% in the first round (proceeding to the second), and to win the second round with 54-58%.
Fun fact #1: the Socialist Party's candidate for the last presidential election, Ségolène Royal, has been François Hollande's domestic partner for 30 years or so, and they had four kids together.
Fun fact #2: His tendancy to seek flabby consensus granted him the infamous nickname Flanby.
Marine Le Pen - National Front - Far-Right
If her name sounds familiar to you, it's because her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been the face of the far-right currents in France for the last 40 years, and infamously reached the second round of the 2002 Presidential Election. As the new leader of the National Front, she has worked to mitigate the notorious reputation of the party, and to makes it look more like a regular right-wing movement. However, her list of policies fits right with the traditionnal National Front policy: pulling France out of the Schengen agreement and out of the Euro (and take back the Franc as the national currency in order to print more money), decreasing France's contribution to the European budget... She's also an advocate of the concentration of powers in government, and want a drastic decrease of legal immigration.
She is expected to be at around 10-20% in the first round (not proceeding to the second). Though it should be noted that the National Front's candidate score is almost always underestimated in opinion polls, because interviewees sometimes won't diclose that they are going to vote for a far-right current (the best example being the polls failing to see Jean-Marie Le Pen being at the second round of the 2002 election).
François Bayrou - Democratic Movement - Centrist
François Bayrou is a former long-time ally of the prominent right-wing party Rally for the Republic, who decided in 2002 to reject the merge of his centrist party in the Union for a Popular Movement (Rally for the Republic plus several little rigth-wing parties). He made a little score in the 2002 Presidential election (6,84%), and became more and more isolated in the political scene, as he criticised both the Union for a Popular Movement and the Socialist Party (he denounces the de facto two-party system). In the 2007 presidential election, he took the political establishment by surprise with a 18,57% score in the first round (a clear third behind the front-runners), which made him the much courted man in the country, since both the second round candidates wanted him to join them (though he didn't ask his voters to vote for one over the other).
In this 2012 election, he claims that he wants France to take a greater role in the European Union's affairs, to promote job creation, an improvement of educational standards, improved conditions in the troubled suburbs, a decrease of government spending, a balanced budget and a stronger European Union.
He is expected to be at around 11-13% in the first round (not proceeding to the second).
Jean-Luc Mélenchon - Left Front - Left/Far-Left
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, senator of the Essone department, is a former prominent member of the Socialist Party who took the German's Linkspartei as an example to create the Left Party. For the Presidential election, he's running as the candidate of the Left Front, an electoral coalition composed by the Left Party, the Communist Party, and several little far-left and ecologist parties.
As such, his main promises include the increase of the minimum wage from roughly 1400 € per month to 1700 € per month, to set a tight control on the rent as well as creating a financial transaction tax (0,1% on the purchase of a share). He is opposed to any kind of golden rule on the deficits. About the energy mix, he wants to organise a public referendum on the gradual phasing out of nuclear power. Concerning social issues, he supports the gay marriage as well as voting right for the foreigners in local elections.
He is expected to be at around 10% in the first round (not proceeding to the second), which is taking most commentators by surprise, as far-left movements were usually at 3 to 5% in the two last elections.
Eva Joly - Europe Ecology-The Greens - Left/Far-Left
Eva Joly is quite an atypical candidate. While most of the politicians in charge in the country have been in politics for years (and will probably keep doing so until their retirement), she came very late to politics. Before that, she made her name as an anti-corruption judge who wasn't affraid of working on high-profile cases that disturbed the establishment (the businessman and former socialist minister Bernard Tapie, the bank Crédit Lyonnais, and most famously the Elf Aquitaine case). She became EELV's candidate by winning its primary, and notably advocates an energetic transition from nuclear to renewable energies as well as a wider "ecological transition". She would like to create an European market of eurobonds allowing part of the public debt of each country to be europeanised. She wants to bring back the retirement at the age of 60, she supports gay marriage, and want to get rid of the Budgetary discipline European treaty (which would be replaced by a "Ecological and Social Developement Pact"). Quite interestingly, she's one of the only two candidates who don't want to specifically favor French industry, as she'd rather favor the European firms in general (the other being the far-left candidate from Workers Struggle, Nathalie Arthaud).
Before the campaign really kicks off, Europe Ecology-The Greens signed an agreemeent with the Socialist Party which granted them sixty easy spots for the parliament in the next legislative elections, while in exchange the Greens agreed to reduce their requirements concerning the closure of nuclear plants. Eva Joly hadn't been informed of the negociations until after the agreement was signed, which led to some controversy among the Greens, especially since the agreement tempered with the Greens anti-nuclear commitment. The Socialist Party was criticised as well (for its weakness in the negociations), since it was offering a lot (60 potential spots of MP) and was given a few (a blurry agreement with a candidate who was already very low in the polls). Several local Socialist Party leaders disclosed that they wouldn't respect the agreement (notably the mayor of Lyon, Gérard Collomb), and now that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is decently high in the polls, it's not impossible that the agreement never enters into force.
She is expected to be at around 2-5% in the first round (not proceeding to the second).
Fun fact #1: She is the only candidate who is not French by birth (she's Norwegian).
There are four more competitors (three from Trotskyist Communist parties, and a right/far-right candidate who wants to pull France out of the European Union), but since all of them are around 1%in the polls, I won't be go into more detail about them.
Just so you know, the campaign is currently suspended because of the dramatic events that occurred in Toulouse this morning (three children and an adult killed in a shooting in a school, which perpetrator is believed to be the murderer of three paratroopers killed last week, see this thread). I'll try to keep the OP updated as much as possible.
I wasn't able to find any website in English gathering exhaustive and comparative informations about the candidates yet, so for the moment I can only link you ressources in French: Voxe.org (thanks to FranzP for the heads-up!), Le Figaro, and Le Monde, three policies comparator.Last edit: 2012-05-04 04:33:56 |
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| Koorb France. March 20 2012 02:25. Posts 215 | Profile # | |
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| ClanRH.TV United States. March 20 2012 02:29. Posts 412 | Profile # |
| Very informative...Thanks! |
| | "Don't take life to seriouly because you'll never get out alive." :ban: |
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 Seldentar United States. March 20 2012 02:32. Posts 887 | Profile # |
| Thx for information!! Very good post Last edit: 2012-03-20 02:33:39 |
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| FranzP France. March 20 2012 02:41. Posts 260 | Profile # |
Great post Koorb !
Maybe you can post a link to voxe.org in the OP, because even though it's not in english it's one of the most comprehensive knowledge bas to compare programs. |
| | "Cyberhacking is kind of like masturbation I guess, all countries do it but nobody actually talks about it. China just was accidentally doing it with the door wide open." Newbistic | |
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| Nouar France. March 20 2012 02:43. Posts 1732 | Profile # |
Good thread, looks pretty neutral, so it's fine.
Personnally, I couldn't care less about left or right, I just don't want to be inflicted 5 more years of Sarkozy. It's independant of his policies, just his way of doing things, and announcing everything and its opposite every few years, enforcing laws several times, making grand declarations every time something small happens, and generally diverting the public attention from important matters not in his favor and try to talk about something else instead.
That, and the iron hammer he holds over his whole party, where no other opinion can be heard, surprisingly.
Add to that the various insults he told left and right, the last one being telling a journalist he "didn't give a fuck about what he said, dickhead" last week...
I doubt the left side would do better, I just don't want him again.
For the US guys out there, imagine a George W Bush, with the same kind of lobbies behind him, liberty-tightening policy and shocking statements, but smart. (much too smart, even arrogant in fact.)
Hmmmm, this sounds much too anti for my taste but.... I'll let it like that, it's true after all >< Overall I'm pretty neutral as far as policies go, just him I have a problem with.
And for a funny ending : Laure Manaudou just declared the killings mentioned were the fault of video games ! After the shitstorm which obviously ensued, she left twitter saying "too much negativity here" lol.Last edit: 2012-03-20 02:47:39 |
| | WC3L.NoiR | EffOrt you're a fucking baller § |
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| Acertos France. March 20 2012 02:50. Posts 438 | Profile # |
Well actually Sarkozy did a lot of things, he moved his ass not like Chirac the previous one.
And i think in the economic situation we are in, Bayrou or Sarko or Holand wont change much because there is no money.
But still i can't forgive sarko about his friendship with dictators, weapons dealer, his friends from the biggest companies and all the money he had with the Bettencour case and the bombing case (takkedine). |
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| WhiteDog France. March 20 2012 02:51. Posts 3756 | Profile Blog # |
On March 20 2012 02:50 Acertos wrote:
Well actually Sarkozy did a lot of things, he moved his ass not like Chirac the previous one.
And i think in the economic situation we are in, Bayrou or Sarko or Holand wont change much because there is no money.
But still i can't forgive sarko about his friendship with dictators, weapons dealer, his friends from the biggest companies and all the money he had with the Bettencour case and the bombing case (takkedine).
What did he do exactly ?
Enlight me.Last edit: 2012-03-20 02:51:53 |
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| Nouar France. March 20 2012 02:56. Posts 1732 | Profile # |
On March 20 2012 02:51 WhiteDog wrote:
Show nested quote +On March 20 2012 02:50 Acertos wrote:
Well actually Sarkozy did a lot of things, he moved his ass not like Chirac the previous one.
And i think in the economic situation we are in, Bayrou or Sarko or Holand wont change much because there is no money.
But still i can't forgive sarko about his friendship with dictators, weapons dealer, his friends from the biggest companies and all the money he had with the Bettencour case and the bombing case (takkedine).
What did he do exactly ? Enlight me.
TEPA, HADOPI, pension reform, integral veil, universities, RGPP (caused me to move X times since I'm a soldier), increasing TVA, those are the big ones that come to my mind right now.
He DID things. Good or bad, hmmmmmmm.....Last edit: 2012-03-20 02:57:47 |
| | WC3L.NoiR | EffOrt you're a fucking baller § |
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 Wegandi United States. March 20 2012 03:12. Posts 1087 | Profile # |
Interesting. I find all the candidates to be rather abhorrent myself. I would kindly ask all Frenchmen to do their country proud and vote for their greatest Statesman, long-dead now, but even in death vastly superior to the buffoons you have running now. 
http://bastiat2012.fr/
SOMMAIRE
INSTITUTIONS
Proposition 1 – Clarifier le préambule de la Constitution
Proposition 2 – Referendum d’initiative populaire
Proposition 3 – Suppression du département
Proposition 4 – Réduction du nombre d’élus nationaux
Proposition 5 – Suppression des ministères et des commissions inutiles
Proposition 6 – Flat tax pour les dépenses locales et TVA pour les dépenses nationales et Européennes
Proposition 7 – Europe confédérale à forte subsidiarité
Proposition 8 – Mise à la disposition du public des données d’Etat
MONNAIE ET BANQUE
Proposition 9 – Abolir la banque centrale
Proposition 10 – Banques libres et responsables
TRAVAIL
Proposition 11 – Salaire complet
Proposition 12 – Abolition du salaire minimum
Proposition 13 – Simplification du droit du travail
Proposition 14 – Mettre en concurrence l’assurance chômage, la formation et l’aide à l’emploi.
Proposition 15 – Supprimer le statut de fonctionnaire
Proposition 16 – Rendre leur indépendance aux syndicats
ENTREPRISE
Proposition 17 – Interdiction des subventions à des entreprises privées
Proposition 18 – Mettre fin à tous les monopoles d’État et participations dans des entreprises privées
Proposition 19 – Supprimer les restrictions à la concurrence
Proposition 20 – En finir avec les politiques de relance keynésienne
SOINS ET RETRAITES
Proposition 21 – Abolition du monopole des pharmacies.
Proposition 22 – Libre choix de sa retraite
SOLIDARITÉ
Proposition 23 – Réserver l’aide sociale d’État aux cas d’extrême urgence
Proposition 24 – Laisser les Français choisir leurs associations philanthropiques
LOGEMENT ET TRANSPORT
Proposition 25 – Abolition de la réglementation sur les taxis
Proposition 26 – Libération des transports en commun
Proposition 27 – Simplifier les permis de construire
Proposition 28 – Rétablir le droit de propriété en matière de location
ÉDUCATION ET INSTRUCTION
Proposition 29 – Choix de l’instruction
SANCTUARISER LA VIE PRIVÉE
Proposition 30 – Dépénalisation de la drogue
Proposition 31 – Retour du mariage au sein de la société
CULTURE ET INFORMATION
Proposition 32 – Supprimer les subventions à la presse
Proposition 33 – Supprimer les subventions aux associations
Proposition 34 – Rétablir la liberté d’expression
Proposition 35 – Internet libre
Proposition 36 – Privatiser l’ensemble des télés et radios d’Etat
JUSTICE ET SÉCURITÉ
Proposition 37 – Permettre à chacun de se défendre
Proposition 38 – Recentrer la police sur ses fonctions |
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| scFoX France. March 20 2012 03:22. Posts 253 | Profile # |
Very nice summary of the electoral situation. Great work!
I personally think Hollande will have trouble holding the distance; he has to cater to a lot of people and it shows in his propositions. Sarkozy's in his element as a presidential candidate and he's going to destroy him in the second round debate. Of course, if one of the minor parties manages to make it to the second round like in 2002, all bets are off.
What's worrying is that Mélenchon is gaining ground. If Marine le Pen gets a high score like her father in previous elections, it's nearly a third of votes for the extremes. |
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| Saumure France. March 20 2012 03:36. Posts 202 | Profile # |
Sorry, but this is not objective at all... Reading this you could think that Hollande's plans are pretty nice.
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| iwearcapes France. March 20 2012 03:42. Posts 143 | Profile Blog # |
| stephano for prezxzzzzzzzzzzz |
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| chuky500 France. March 20 2012 03:45. Posts 387 | Profile Blog # |
A short description of the french "metagame" :
France doesn't have a two party system.
The left wing has been winning every election since 2007 and off the top of my head won most elections between 2002 and 2007, but failed to elect a left wing president in last 2 presidential elections.
One year ago the big parties of the left wing were the Socialist Party and the Green party but in november the Green party allied with the socialists and agreed to continue building more nuclear plants and only closing one old plant, trading that for more possible members of the parliament at the upcoming election. The socialists were the ones who asked the Green party to water-down their nuclear program. Earlier this month the socialists allied with Chevenement (a left-centrist) and they agreed that they would not decrease the nuclear part. The green party was at 11% in the polls last year now the Green party is at 2%.
Mélenchon represents the Left Front and came from 3% last year to 12% now. He has an ecologist plan and wants a referendum on the nuclear question.
Mélenchon is the most charismatic candidate in this election, compared to previous elections were you had several charismatic candidates. Sarkozy lost his credit during his mandate, the socialists wanted Strauss-Kahn as their candidate, the green party discredited themselves by agreeing with the socialists to not close nuclear plants and build new ones, and the FN's candidate (extreme right) is the daughter of Le Pen and she tries to water down her extremist program.
While previously judging Melenchon's program ridiculous, this month Sarkozy and Hollande added propositions from Melenchon's program, giving him more credibility. Sarkozy announced he would tax rich people fleeing France while Hollande announced he'd add a tax for people who earn more than 1 million a year.
In 2002, there were several left parties that did a good score and the socialist candidate who was the expected winner didn't manage to win the election because it had a lower score than expected. In 2007 and now in 2012 the socialist party asks people for the "useful vote" meaning to not vote for a small party that represents your ideas but to vote for them to be sure the left wing has a candidate for the 2nd round. But this time we aren't in the same configuration since the socialists are at 28% in the polls while Le Pen is at 16%.
A big election happened in 2005, the referendum about the European constitution. French people voted against with 55% of votes. Mélenchon was representing the No on the left, Dupont-Aignan on the right. Socialists, Green, Centrists, and right wing voted Yes. 2 years later the members of the parliament passed the treaty of Lisbon (newer version of the European constitution), bypassing the referendum. Mélenchon with the Left Front is the major party representing the No.
In February, the socialists wanted to vote for the MES (a European treaty linked to the Merkel-Sarkozy rigor about deficit) but since it wasn't popular they decided to abstain from voting, thus letting it pass. This vote is in the same direction as their vote for the Yes for the treaty of Lisbon. The Green Party, despite having voted Yes for the treaty of Lisbon, voted No this time.
About the right wing tbh I don't know too much.
The National Front (extreme right) changed leader, now their candidate is the daughter of Le Pen. She tries not to be as extremist as her father to gain more electors but Sarkozy at the same time tries to attract her electors by talking about immigration.
She's not as charismatic as her father and the important point of her campaign was when she had a debate with Melenchon and refused to talk to him, while he attacked her program about abortion and poor people.
tl;dr : the socialist party wanted Dominique Strauss Kahn as their candidate but have Hollande who was their 2nd choice. The Green Party allied with the socialist and agreed to discard their antinuclear program for more members at the parliament. The FN (far right) changed leader and isn't as strong in the polls as previous years. Melenchon is gaining popularity.Last edit: 2012-03-20 04:42:41 |
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| Geiko France. March 20 2012 03:46. Posts 1606 | Profile Blog # |
| This is OP is misguiding. You're not even trying to hide your political preference even though you present this to be some sort of unbiased account of the French elections. The information given about Sarkozy is highly selective (you only focus on the negative aspects) and sometimes even downright false. |
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| dafunk France. March 20 2012 03:51. Posts 467 | Profile # |
| Love him or hate him, Mélenchon is the only candidate with a real program. |
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| WhiteDog France. March 20 2012 04:07. Posts 3756 | Profile Blog # |
On March 20 2012 02:56 Nouar wrote:
Show nested quote +On March 20 2012 02:51 WhiteDog wrote:
On March 20 2012 02:50 Acertos wrote:
Well actually Sarkozy did a lot of things, he moved his ass not like Chirac the previous one.
And i think in the economic situation we are in, Bayrou or Sarko or Holand wont change much because there is no money.
But still i can't forgive sarko about his friendship with dictators, weapons dealer, his friends from the biggest companies and all the money he had with the Bettencour case and the bombing case (takkedine).
What did he do exactly ? Enlight me.
TEPA, HADOPI, pension reform, integral veil, universities, RGPP (caused me to move X times since I'm a soldier), increasing TVA, those are the big ones that come to my mind right now. He DID things. Good or bad, hmmmmmmm.....
That's why I personnally think he did nothing. All that seems like bullshit to me, reforming universities in a country where half the students are in "les grandes écoles", increasing TVA, after decreasing TVA for restaurant, and it didn't even do shit considering our debt (it's too small), not replacing half of the state workers while the court of audit released a document showing that it cost more than it benefit us, and that it's a huge fallacy.
With Sarkozy it's all talk and nothing actually do shit in regard to our country. |
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| FranzP France. March 20 2012 04:15. Posts 260 | Profile # |
Lol guys don't start to throw shit at each other. We know we can be assholes when it comes to politics. Let's stay classy and civil, we will only precipitate the downfall (into closeness) of the thread if we don't.
If you think Koorb is wrong, just point them out and link to an 'unbiased' (not the figaro or l'humanité) source.Last edit: 2012-03-20 04:15:44 |
| | "Cyberhacking is kind of like masturbation I guess, all countries do it but nobody actually talks about it. China just was accidentally doing it with the door wide open." Newbistic | |
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| teddyoojo Germany. March 20 2012 04:20. Posts 2793 | Profile Blog # |
melenchon is looking angry :D
as long as you guys dont elect this crazy le pen thing its cool  |
| | MKP, INnoVation, aLive, !! grubby moon khaldor xlord |
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| yaxv Denmark. March 20 2012 04:20. Posts 38 | Profile # |
Hi Koorb, really nice thread, gives me a little insight on French policy (it's weird in these Internet days that I could easily have found tonnes of info online, but sometimes your best sources are those website you visit frequently).
Anyway, what are the French people's opinions on "France taking a greater role in the European Union's affairs"? In Germany we've seen people demonstrating against the recent economic support to Greece - do French people make a correlation between "greater role in the EU" and "giving more money to other European countries"? |
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