France news and discussions

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wjfox
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Re: France news and discussions

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Maximus
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Re: France news and discussions

Post by Maximus »

French election: Far-right Le Pen closes in on Macron ahead of vote
The least a president might expect, when juggling a war in Europe with an election at home, is a bounce in the polls.

But Emmanuel Macron has discovered that all the energy he spent dealing with Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has been of little help in France's unpredictable vote.

"Nothing is impossible," President Macron has warned, as polls suggest his far-right rival is closer than ever before to winning the presidency.

A month ago, Marine Le Pen was trailing President Macron by 10 points and fighting for a place in the second round against him.

Now she's seen as the clear favourite to challenge him for the presidency after Sunday's first round. If she does make it through to the 24 April run-off, opinion polls suggest for the first time that a Le Pen victory is within the margin of error. For this, the National Rally leader can thank two men once seen as dangerous for her campaign: her far-right rival, Eric Zemmour, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, now an international pariah.

"I would say that [Zemmour's] campaign was destroyed by Ukraine," said Gilles Paris, an election specialist for French daily Le Monde.

"His pro-Russian attitude was a burden, while Marine Le Pen was smart enough to pivot to a more moderate point of view. She was ready to accept refugees [immediately], while it took two days for Zemmour to understand that these refugees were well accepted in France."

Ms Le Pen has since picked up a good part of Eric Zemmour's votes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61029655

This could poke one massive hole in the West's response to Russia's war. I don't buy her so-called "moderation", she's owned by Putin through-and-through https://www.thedailybeast.com/frances-m ... ref=scroll.
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Re: France news and discussions

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Macron and Le Pen through to second round - exit polls

19:01
Breaking

And the first exit polls are in: they show Emmanuel Macron garnered 28.1% of the votes in the first round of voting, while rival Marine Le Pen received 23.3% of the votes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60940767


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Re: France news and discussions

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We do not want Le Pen anywhere near the French government, didn't WW2 teach us about the far-right wing?
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Re: France news and discussions

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There were a few polls which had Jean Luc nearly tied with her, I'm really surprised the left managed to consolidate around someone in the end, it almost worked as he did better than the last elections. To my understanding, Mélenchon is an actual socialist who wishes to form a new French Republic, addressing the higher cost of living, but at the cost of NATO membership and possibly even EU membership as well. In that vein, the far-left & far-right have been campaigning on similar issues, including economic issues which explains Le Pen's surge as well.

It's one of those moments where the centrist candidate is better for international stability, as the other options would risk further destabilizing the current moment. So now, it's up to Macron to address some economic woes of the working class, so they don't become swayed by the false promises of a demagogue.
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Re: France news and discussions

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Macron finishes ahead of far-right leader Le Pen in first round of French presidential election
Source: Washington Post

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron appeared to clinch the top spot in the French presidential election on Sunday, for the moment holding off a nationalist challenge that would shake global politics. But far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s close second-place finish sets up a competitive runoff election on April 24.

With 97 percent of votes counted, Macron was ahead with 27 percent of the vote share and Le Pen with 24 percent. Far-left contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon was on track to come in third at 22 percent — progressively near Le Pen as the night continued, but seemingly not enough to make the runoff.

Macron, a centrist running for a second five-year term, faces a far tougher race than when he trounced Le Pen by more than 30 percentage points in the 2017 presidential runoff.

The latest polls of voter intention suggest he would now win by only four to six percentage points in a second round against her — reflecting dissatisfaction with his presidency, public concern about the rising cost of living and an effort by Le Pen to moderate her image.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... ults-2022/
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Re: France news and discussions

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I know that the opening paragraphs to the article below are just a restatement of things already said in this thread. Still, it is such a nice summary I thought that I would cite it anyway.

French Get Déjà Vu as Presidential Race Pits Macron, Le Pen in Runoff
by Cain Burdeau
April 11, 2022

https://www.courthousenews.com/french-g ... in-runoff/

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen are headed to a second-round runoff in two weeks after they picked up the most ballots Sunday in the first round of the presidential election.

The same match-up happened five years ago in the last presidential runoff, but this time around polls suggest Le Pen has a better chance to prevail.

With her deep ties to Europe’s xenophobic and nationalist far-right movements, a Le Pen win would not just be a major upset but a historic shock to the European Union. France is the EU’s second-largest economy, the bloc’s only nuclear-armed military and, along with Germany, has great sway in steering the 27-state project, which increasingly aims to make a united Europe a global power.

In Sunday’s contest, Macron picked up about 27.8% of the vote and Le Pen took in 23.2%. Far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon came in third with nearly 22%.

For the second presidential election in a row, France’s traditional big-tent parties on the left and right — the Socialists and Republicans — failed miserably as voters across nearly all age groups were lured by the more extreme voices of Le Pen and Melenchon. The traditional mainstream parties have also obviously lost votes to Macron, a former Socialist who created his own party in 2017.
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Re: France news and discussions

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Macron uses climate change to attack Le Pen
April 16, 2022

In a bid to woo left-wing voters for the final round of the French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron on Saturday slammed his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen as a “climate skeptic”and trumpeted his own plans to build a green economy.

Speaking in Marseille at his only large rally ahead of the April 24 vote, the liberal incumbent billed the election as a "civilizational choice” and vowed to turn France into a “great environmental nation.”

"The choice today is clear. The far-right is a climate-skeptic project, a project that wants to leave Europe's climate ambitions, that wants to destroy windmills," Macron told nearly 3,000 people.

Dedicating most of his speech to his environmental ambitions, Macron painted his opponent’s idea to dismantle wind farms and impose a moratorium on new wind and solar energy projects in France while building new nuclear power plants as out of touch and dangerous.
https://www.politico.eu/article/france- ... ck-le-pen/
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Re: France news and discussions

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...that wants to destroy windmills," Macron told nearly 3,000 people.
He, the leader of France, seriously said that? I hope it was a case of mistranslation. Maybe he meant to say wind turbines.

*potential cringe*
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Re: France news and discussions

Post by caltrek »

raklian wrote: Sun Apr 17, 2022 2:58 pm

...that wants to destroy windmills," Macron told nearly 3,000 people.
He, the leader of France, seriously said that? I hope it was a case of mistranslation. Maybe he meant to say wind turbines.

*potential cringe*
The way I read it is that Macron is criticizing the far right because they, the far right, want to "destroy windmills." Not so surprising, given the far right's usual opposition to alternative energy sources across the planet.
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