#France Presidential Election 2022

[prodgermmath]

The Great Internet Schism of 2025, caused when user “PRodgerMMath” added an entry for Tarrare to the Heroes Wiki.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

On 7/31/2019 Trump has a private meeting with Putin. On 8/3/2019, just 3 days after his private meeting with Putin, Trump issues a request for a list of top US spies. By 2021 the CIA reports an unusually high number of their agents are being captured and/or being murdered. During the search executed at Mar A Lago the FBI find more documents with lists of U.S. informants on them.

A Timeline

• FBI wiretapped Russian gambling ring headquartered at Trump Tower for two years - March 21, 2017

• Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - May 15, 2017

• Trump, Putin Meet For 2 Hours In Helsinki - July 16, 2018

• Rand Paul Goes To Russia And Delivers Letter For Trump, Marking Our Era Of Irony - August 9, 2018

• Following the Money: Trump and Russia-Linked Transactions From the Campaign to the Presidential Inauguration - December 17, 2018

• The US extracted a top spy from Russia after Trump revealed classified information to the Russians in an Oval Office meeting - September 10, 2019

• Trump’s Loose Lips Force US to Extract Spy From Kremlin - September 10, 2019

• Was Mar-a-Lago Trespasser a Tourist or a Spy? A Judge Said Her Story Didn’t Hold Up. - November 25, 2019

• Trump downplays massive cyber hack on government after Pompeo links attack to Russia - December 19, 2020

• Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years, former KGB spy says - January 29, 2021

• There was Trump-Russia collusion — and Trump pardoned the colluder - April 17, 2021

• Longtime GOP operatives charged with funneling Russian national’s money to Trump, RNC - September 20, 2021

• Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants - October 5, 2021

• Files Seized From Trump Are Part of Espionage Act Inquiry - August 12, 2022

• Ex-Clinton aide implies 'President of France' file found at Trump's home during Mar-a-Lago raid could be valuable to Putin as 'kompromat' - August 13, 2022

• Inventing Anna: The tale of a fake heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI investigation - August 22, 2022

• Russians used a US firm to funnel funds to GOP in 2018. Dems say the FEC let them get away with it - October 30, 2022

• Trump makes shocking comments about trusting Putin over US 'intelligence lowlifes' - January 31, 2023

• Russia's Prigozhin admits links to what US says was election meddling troll farm - February 14, 2023

• GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump- February 17, 2023

• Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources - October 5, 2023

• 'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president - April 24, 2024

🤔🤔🤔

[chlochette-sunde]

So, the French government just got revoked.

What happened in the previous episodes?

French presidential elections are held in two rounds. Any candidate supported by at least 500 mayors can participate in the first round. The two candidates with the most votes then face off in a second round.

Twice, President Macron has been elected thanks to votes cast against his opponent in the second round: far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Both times, Macron promised centrist policies (neither left nor right) but ultimately implemented very liberal policies benefiting primarily the wealthiest in the country. He also used far-right tactics to “pacify” strikes and social movements, like the Yellow Vests protests and the controversial pension reform.

Last June, European elections were held to elect new Members of the European Parliament, using a single-round voting system. In France, over 70% of voters participated in the 2022 presidential elections, but only around 50% turned out for the 2024 European elections.

And the result? A political earthquake.

For the first time, the far-right party came in first, securing 30% of the votes.

Following this shocking result, President Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly. This is within the French President's powers, but no one understood why he did it—it seemed like political suicide. With the far-right's surge in the European elections, it was reasonable to expect them to gain ground in the legislative elections as well.

Yet Macron went ahead, and legislative elections were scheduled with less than three weeks’ notice.

Surprisingly, the left-wing parties managed to unite under one banner: the New Popular Front (NFP). This was no small feat, as these parties often clash over priorities—ranging from left-wing liberals and ecologists to communists and the “insubordinates”.

Since October 2023, the latter group had been outspoken in their defense of Palestine, which led to accusations of antisemitism and then earned the NFP labels like “far-left extremists” from the far-right, the media, and even the government.

It seemed hopeless. Everything appeared stacked against the left, and many feared the country would fall into the far-right's hands.

The results

More than 70% of the eligible voters participated, a high turnout compared to the 2022 legislative elections (54%) and the 2024 European elections, especially considering the short notice and timing just before the summer holidays.

In the end, the far-right gained 142 seats (an increase of 53). However, the NFP surprised everyone by winning 193 seats (42 more than before) and emerging as the election's victors.

The new National Assembly looked like this:

193 seats for the left-wing (NFP)

166 seats for Macron's party

142 seats for the far-right

47 seats for the traditional right-wing party

This distribution left no single party with an absolute majority.

Under these circumstances, Macron was expected to appoint a Prime Minister capable of building a government that could pass laws in the National Assembly. Traditionally, the Prime Minister is aligned with the majority party in the Assembly.

Instead, Macron refused to name a left-wing Prime Minister, fearing such a government would be unstable due to the lack of an absolute majority. He delayed the decision until after the Olympic Games, and in early September, he appointed a Prime Minister from the traditional right-wing party—which holds a minority in the Assembly.

The first major test for this government was the 2025 budget. While the government initially proposed a strict austerity budget, the NFP successfully amended it to reflect their priorities. The government, having abstained from participating in the discussions, ultimately voted against the amended version, sending the budget back for further debate.

Then, rather than resubmitting a revised budget to the Assembly, the government decided to impose it unilaterally, as allowed by the Constitution. However, this move automatically led the government to engage its responsibility. Two days later (today), the opposition in the National Assembly responded by holding a “no confidence” vote, ultimately revoking the government and canceling the budget. (If no 2025 budget is passed, the 2024 budget will roll over by default.)

How is the far-right doing?

When the new government was formed in September, the far-right party chose not to immediately revoke it. Their strategy was to pressure the government into proposing laws aligned with far-right ideas. While initially successful, this approach backfired: the far-right quickly came to be seen as part of the establishment, losing their “outsider” status, which hurt their image.

Meanwhile, the far-right party is embroiled in a major legal scandal. They are accused of misusing public funds intended for hiring parliamentary assistants, instead diverting the money to party-related expenses (like bodyguards and so on). A verdict is expected in March 2025, and their leader, Marine Le Pen, faces the possibility of a 5-year ineligibility.

What happens next?

President Macron must now appoint a new Prime Minister to form a government. However, given his unpredictability, it’s possible he might try to keep the current government in place until he’s legally allowed to dissolve the Assembly again—one year after the last dissolution.

The left-wing is calling for Macron to resign, which would trigger new presidential elections. Due to their actual troubles with justice, anticipated presidential elections could also be an opportunity for the far-right party. While the National Assembly has the power to vote for the President’s resignation, the conditions to do so are difficult to meet.

And that’s the current state of French politics.

[mapsontheweb]

Results of the second round of the 2022 presidential elections in France.

by KevinGis

[justforbooks]

Jean-Marie Le Pen

Leader of the Front National who took the far right into the mainstream of French politics

On the evening of 21 April 2002 the result of the first round of voting in the French presidential election was announced. It had been widely, though not universally, assumed that the outcome would see the field reduced to two contenders: the incumbent conservative president, Jacques Chirac, and the socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, with whom Chirac had uneasily shared power for five years.

A shudder of shock, shame, disbelief and, in many places, delight, swept the country when it became clear that Chirac would face not Jospin, but Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right, xenophobic and racist Front National (FN), who has died aged 96. Jospin was beaten into third place and eliminated.

It hardly mattered that hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the days that followed and that Chirac was eventually re-elected in a landslide, thanks largely to the ballots of appalled and penitent voters of the left. Le Pen, who had won 0.74% of the vote when he first stood for president in 1974, obtained 16.86% in the first round and 17.79% in the second.

If his overall impact were to be measured only in seats won during his years as president of the FN at local, regional, national or European elections, it could be minimised. His success, until standing down in 2011, lay in taking the far right into the mainstream of French politics and in dragging conservative discourse to the right.

At one point during the 2012 presidential contest, there seemed to be a real chance that his successor as head of the FN (since reinvented as the National Rally), his much more personable daughter Marine, might repeat her father’s exploit and reach the second round – this time at the expense of the sitting conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

In the event, the victor was the socialist François Hollande, while the FN established itself as France’s third political force.

In 2017, representatives of the traditional right and left were seen off in the first round, and it took another mould-breaker, Emmanuel Macron, at the head of the newly formed centrist party En Marche!, to defeat Marine by 66% to 34%. Jean-Marie’s granddaughter Marion Maréchal-Le Pen also emerged as a prominent figure in the party.

The rebranding of the FN as the National Rally in 2018 marked an attempt to appeal to a broader range of voters. The margins between Macron and Marine were narrower still in 2022; and the National Rally’s gains continued, with the party at one point seeming to be on course to win a majority in parliament in summer 2024.

Though Jean-Marie had positioned his party to benefit from the surge in nationalism and populism felt in much of Europe and the US, he received little credit for having done so. Marine wanted to detoxify the FN of overt racism, and Jean-Marie’s third reference to the gas chambers of the Holocaust as being a detail of history led in 2015 to his expulsion from the party of which he was by then honorary president. When his daughter ran for president, it was largely as “Marine”, and in May 2018 Marion dropped the Le Pen from her surname.

Jean-Marie continued as an MEP until 2019, casting a malignant shadow over the political life of France and Europe, just as he had for decades. He seemed politically indestructible: evidence and often proof was assembled that he was a racist, liar, bully and torturer, but it seemed to have little effect on his overall popularity. He was prosecuted on several occasions, the most recent instance coming last year, in a case concerning the misuse of EU parliament funds.

Le Pen’s own electoral successes were modest – regular election to the European parliament, three spells as a member of the National Assembly, election to regional assemblies – but his name entered the political lexicon when the lepénisation des esprits, the spread of Le Pen’s ideas into people’s minds, became shorthand for the ratchet effect of the causes he espoused. He would mock his political opponents for stealing his programme, asking why people should vote for the copy when they could have the real thing.

Often portrayed as a boorish oaf, Le Pen was no fool: he was an intelligent man with a gift for demagoguery. Anyone who heard him speak, as he would do for an hour or more at a time without notes at the FN’s May Day celebration or his party’s annual fête on the edge of Paris – mixing heavy sarcasm with mockery, abuse and a vision of an all-white France – had to acknowledge the brutal power of his oratory.

His use of language was often elegant and effective, even if his excesses regularly got him into trouble with the courts. The potential flaws in his economic programme – drastic tax cuts, extra spending on French citizens but not foreigners, a return to the franc, exit from the European Union, protectionist measures – did not worry his backers.

His message was aimed at the resentful petites gens who felt neglected, ignored and discriminated against. Once, their votes had gone to the Communist party; millions switched to Le Pen, who offered them a world in which immigrants were the cause of their ills, and once they had been expelled – and abortion outlawed, the guillotine restored and the police given drastic powers – all would be well. He was successful in federating a variety of social categories: reactionary Catholics and pagan romantics, skinheads and members of the haute bourgeoisie, unemployed factory workers in the north and well-heeled wine growers in the Midi.

Born in the Breton fishing village of La Trinité-sur-Mer, he had the birth name of Jean. He reportedly changed it when he first stood for election. His parents were Jean, a fisherman who died after a mine was caught in his net when his son was 14, and Anne-Marie (nee Hervé), a seamstress.

At university in Paris, he studied politics and law, and led a ­rightwing student group with a reputation for violent and racist behaviour. It was widely thought that the loss of his left eye was the result of a fight, and his account of the circumstances varied over the years. More recently he said it was the result of an accident while he was erecting a marquee for a political meeting.

In 1953, he volunteered for military service in Indochina, now Vietnam, enrolling as a parachutist in the Foreign Legion and attending officer training school. Demobilised after two years, at the age of 27 he became his country’s youngest member of parliament as a backer of Pierre Poujade, whose support for small shopkeepers and businessmen, and hostility to tax prefigured elements of Le Pen’s later policies. He soon fell out with Poujade, and in 1956 again enlisted, serving in north Africa. Allegations that he was involved in the torture of Algerian prisoners dogged him for years.

Re-elected in 1958, he lost his parliamentary seat in 1962 and spent most of the 1960s engaged in far-right politics and in running a business devoted to the sale of recordings of rightwing political figures. In 1972, he founded the FN, and two years later made his first presidential bid.

Le Pen’s circumstances were transformed in 1976 when Hubert Lambert, a wealthy admirer, died and left him a fortune and a mansion in Paris. Lambert was heir to a cement fortune, but was physically frail, with psychological troubles. For years there was controversy over the manner of his death at 42. Members of his family sought to have the will annulled, and eventually the legacy was split with another claimant.

Le Pen’s new wealth did not enable him to find enough sponsors to run for president in 1981, but throughout the 1980s and 90s elections showed considerable underlying support: 14.3% in the 1988 presidential vote, 15% in 1995; almost 10% in the elections of 1986 and 1998; 15% in 1997 (though only 10% in the 2007 presidentials). Many on the conventional right, though not Chirac, were ready to flirt politically with a man who commanded such support.

The first round of the 2002 presidential election marked the high point of Le Pen’s long and turbulent career. In the legislative elections that followed, his candidates scored respectably but won no parliamentary seats. Inevitably, the question of his succession arose, but Le Pen made it clear he planned to continue: with the presidential term reduced to five years, he would be a mere 79 in 2007.

Marine was given an enhanced role, to the discontent of some of his older and more traditionally minded supporters. After the defection of his chief lieutenant, Bruno Mégret, in the late 90s, no obvious successors emerged: none of the possible contenders had a fraction of his charisma.

Marine took as a priority the task of humanising her father’s image, and began increasingly to take over as his political heir. She set about “de-demonising” the FN, and became an altogether more formidable figure, with Jean-Marie marginalised in the battle for the soul and legacy of their party.

In September 2024, father and daughter were among 25 people charged with embezzling funds for fake jobs for European parliament assistants between 2004 and 2016. Jean-Marie’s health had been poor, and he did not appear in court. The verdicts are expected shortly.

He married Pierrette Lalanne in 1960, and they had three daughters, Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine.

After an acrimonious divorce in 1987, Pierrette denounced Le Pen, and posed for Playboy when he refused to pay alimony. In 1991 he married Jany (Jeanne-Marie) Paschos. She and his daughters survive him.

🔔 Jean-Marie Le Pen, politician, born 20 June 1928; died 7 January 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[lordadmiralfarsight]

So, this is something I've been sitting on for a good while. Mainly because I got too heated each time to write a post about it.

On the 7th of February 2024, France organized a memorial service for the Franco-Israeli killed in the 7/10 attack. That was a good thing but, like many people in France, I personnally felt that it was a bit late. Still, better a memorial service than nothing at all. A nice touch was inviting the famillies of hostages and putting them front and center. That was positive, in my opinion, and a good show of solidarity.

So, you might be wondering what about this has me heated. Two words : Far left. or, in three words : La France Insoumise. LFI is a far left party that has a worrying amount of weight in France, right now. They have some of the common hallmarks : revolution fetishism, radicalist talking points, repeated attempts to delegitimize the election system (like Mélenchon claiming the 2022 presidential election was "stolen" when he ranked 3rd), etc... Recently they have also refused to condemn Hamas' attack. While they didn't openly support it like some fring trotskyist parties, they refused to condemn it, and at least one of their PMs went to Tunisia to basically parrot Islamist talking points blaming Israel for everything. They have overwhelmingly expressed support for "Palestinian liberation", because saying they support Hamas wouldn't be good press, so they skirt around it. But everyone gets the message, really. So, what did they do for that memorial service ? Well first off they participated against the wishes of the famillies of the victims and hostages. That's bad, but it gets worse. Because of course. See, their main representative in Parliament, Mathilde Panot, felt the need to also put front and center Palestinian victims. Now, I do believe Palestinian victims of this war should be remembered, and honored (provided they weren't terrorists). But ... is the memorial fro the 7/10 victims really the place ? No, no it fucking isn't. And that's what has me heated : this was a memorial for Jewish victims, and they were looking to appropriate it. And it gets even worse ! Because you see, Miss Panot had the perfect exemple : two Franco-Palestinian kids from her constituency that had died in Gaza. Why is that worse ? Because of why the kids were there. They were there because their mother fled to Gaza, from ISIS, after embezzeling money meant for Syrian refugees. Let me rephrase : the mother created a charity to support the victims of the Syrian civil war and of ISIS attacks, then made off with the money to deliver it entirely to ISIS. Then had kids with her ISIS assigned jihadi husband. And when ISIS collapsed, she sought refuge with Hamas. And because of that, her kids were in harm's way when Hamas launched a pogrom. And LFI thought that THIS was the correct exemple to bring to that memorial service. Is it tragic the kids died ? Yes. But maybe, just maybe, putting their terrorism enabling mother up as an exemple of martyred mother, during a memorial for the victims of an antisemitic pogrom perpetrated by said terrorism enabler's allies is a profoundly shitty thing to do. And that, among other things, is why most of France considers LFI to be antisemitic.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mollie Reilly at HuffPost:

Steve Kerr, the head coach of the four-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the gold medal-winning Team USA men’s basketball team, spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Monday and took a cue from his star player’s signature celebration to take a jab at former President Donald Trump. “In the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump, ‘Night night!‘” Kerr said at the end of his speech about why he is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, clasping his hands together in the mock sleepy gesture made famous by the Warriors’ star point guard. Curry, who recently helped the U.S. secure a gold medal over France by making four three-pointers in the last few minutes of the Olympics men’s basketball final, has been deploying his now-famous “Night night” gesture since the 2022 NBA playoffs. Curry pulled out the taunt in the final minutes of the game against France and even wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with the catchphrase in French after Team USA’s victory.

During his remarks on Monday, Kerr said he agreed to speak at the convention because the 2024 election is “too important” to stay quiet. “I know speaking about politics these days comes with risks. I can see the ‘Shut up and whistle’ tweets being fired off right now. But I also knew, as soon as I was asked, that it was too important as an American citizen not to speak up in an election of this magnitude,” he said. “I believe that leaders must display dignity,” he said. “I believe that leaders must tell the truth. I believe that leaders should be able to laugh at themselves. I believe leaders must care for and love the people they are leading. I believe leaders must possess knowledge but with full awareness that none of us has all the answers.” “With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, I see all of those qualities.” He also referenced Walz’s days as a high school football coach. “Coach to coach: That guy’s awesome.” Kerr said, before jokingly offering some analysis of Walz’s coaching history.

Golden State Warriors and USA Men’s Basketball coach Steve Kerr’s DNC speech last night was a fiery one. #DNC2024

[darkmaga-returns]

If a ceasefire is reached in Ukraine, the West is considering “exiling” Volodymyr Zelensky to London, writes Do Rzeczy, citing a report out of the Spanish daily El Mundo via government sources in Kyiv. 

A rumor has been circulating in diplomatic circles in the Ukrainian capital for two weeks that if a ceasefire occurs, the West will convince Zelensky to “exile” himself to the U.K. and presidential elections will be held in Ukraine.

European peacekeeping forces, mainly troops from Great Britain and France, would then be deployed in Ukraine. Kyiv could also count on “rapid” accession to the European Union and aid for the country’s post-war reconstruction.

Ukraine had a bad November, with Russia occupying the largest amount of territory in Ukraine since March 2022, mainly in the east of the country, near Pokrovsk, according to experts from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The group says Moscow has occupied a total of 68,500 square kilometers since the beginning of the war, or about 19 percent of Ukraine’s entire pre-2014 territory, including the annexed Crimea and part of Donbas.

Senior aides of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have met with officials from Kyiv, as the incoming president has made ending the conflict a top priority of his administration, while Zelensky is clearly tired of war. 

[mariacallous]

A politician who praised notorious Romanian antisemites and Nazi collaborators has won the first round of his country’s presidential election.

Calin Georgescu ran independently after leaving Romania’s far-right party, Alliance for the Union of Romanians, following his comments and amid accusations that he was pro-Putin. He will now face a liberal reformer, Elena Lasconi, in next week’s runoff; it will be the first election since the end of communism in which Romania’s centrist party is not an option.

Georgescu’s outsized showing — he took home 22% of the vote, far more than the 10% polls had suggested he would win — comes amid a wave of electoral successes for right-wing populists across Europe and beyond. In Germany, a far-right political party won a state election for the first time since the Holocaust this fall; weeks later, a far-right party founded by former Nazis won Austria’s national election.

Geert Wilders, an anti-immigrant right-wing politicians, came in first in the Netherlands’ national election last December, not long after a politician once photographed wearing a Nazi armband won Italy’s election. And the far right in France posted stronger-than-expected results in the country’s surprise elections this summer.

Unlike those parties and politicians, which traded on anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic sentiment, Georgescu — a 62-year-old former soil scientist — did not outline a thorough policy platform during the campaign. He gained attention for his social media posts, particularly on TikTok, the video app accused by lawmakers in the United States and Europe of promoting antisemitism and allowing foreign actors to covertly influence elections.

Georgescu previously went viral with his praise for two fascists who led Romania in the 1930s and ’40s.

Speaking on a primetime news show in February 2022, Georgescu, a sustainability expert formerly affiliated with the United Nations, explained why he had cited Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a national “hero,” saying Codreanu “fought for the morality of the human being.”

The comment immediately drew widespread condemnation, including from Jewish groups, because Codreanu led the fiercely antisemitic Legionnaire Movement, which espoused an extreme version of ethnic and religious nationalism that involved political murders and acts of terrorism, until his execution in 1938.

Two years later, the group entered the government of Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu, where it stayed until the following January, when it mounted a pogrom in the capital of Bucharest in which more than 120 Jews were killed and several synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed. The pogrom was intended as an uprising against Antonescu’s government, which the Legionnaire Movement believed was insufficiently aggressive in pursuing a campaign against Romanian Jews.

Georgescu also referred to Antonescu, under whose rule at least 280,000 Jews were killed and who was executed in 1946 for war crimes, as a “martyr.” 

His opponent Lasconi, a former journalist, ran on an anti-corruption platform but also holds some socially conservative views on topics including marriage. Lasconi’s daughter, Oana, is an anti-Zionist activist who posted a photo on Instagram hugging and kissing her mother while wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian headscarf, in the run-up to the first-round elections. If she wins she would become the first female president in the country’s history.

There are around 8,900 Jews currently living in Romania, according to the World Jewish Congress. Romanians head to the polls again on Dec. 8 for the runoff.

[pompadourpink]

hi!! what do French people think about the elections results? Is it good or bad? Is it what they wanted or not? How’s everything in France now?

Hello,

I have exclusively seen very good reactions, but I'm sure there are bad ones that you look for - for example, a TV presenter named Cyril Hanouna threatened to leave the country (and the left used it as an argument because no one likes him).

The new popular front was pessimistic to the point that there were talks of them withdrawing to give Macron's party (Ensemble) more traction and the far right is so used to their voters being the most active ones at the urns that they were convinced that Bardella (RN), their candidate, was going to be the next prime minister.

Leftist candidate Méluchon (LFI) would have made the second round at the 2022 presidential election if the left had united back then and they still didn't do it. Therefore, the fact that they organised this quickly and had this result truly is a surprise.

The current prime minister (Attal, a private school kid who was briefly minister of education) tried to quit but Macron turned down his request so we get to take a breath and focus on the Euro since we made the semi-finals and the oncoming Olympic games (if you were considering coming, I would advise you not to as it will be extremely crowded, hot and expensive; heatwaves in western Europe are not for the weak). Méluchon has announced that their first priority was to cancel the retirement reform that was passed forcefully in 2023.

We'll see what happens. Hope this helps! x

[femrobespierre]

"Kamala Harris is a leftist" people would explode if they saw what's considered a leftist in France. one presidential candidate (far left) said on national TV that billionaires are thieves. Another one (left. Like regular left) said that we should taxe inheritance above 12 million € at a 100% rate (meaning taking everything above 12 millions). He scored 22% of votes in the 2022 presidential election

[warningsine]

French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Veteran politician Michel Barnie as prime minister on Thursday, September 5, after almost two months of deadlock following legislative elections that produced no clear majority in Parliament.

At 73, Barnier is the oldest premier in the history of modern France and has been tasked with forming "a unifying government in the service of the country," the presidency said in a statement. In a striking contrast, the former foreign minister succeeds Gabriel Attal, 35, a man less than half his age and who served only eight months in office.

A right-wing former minister and European commissioner, Barnier was the European Union's negotiator on Brexit. He has been all but invisible in French political life since failing to win his party's nomination to challenge Macron for the presidency in 2022.

France had been without a permanent government since the July 7 polls, in which the left formed the largest faction in a hung parliament with Macron's centrists and the far right comprising the other major groups. Amid the political deadlock Macron, who has less than three years of his term remaining, ran down the clock as the Olympics and Paralympics took place in Paris, to the growing frustration of opponents.

Radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon declared the "election has been stolen," after Barnier's appointment was announced. "It's not the Nouveau Front Populaire, which came out on top in the [legislative] elections, that will have the prime minister and the responsibility of standing before the deputies," reacted the La France Insoumise leader on his YouTube channel on Thursday.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure decried the decision as the beginning of "a regime crisis" in a post on X. "The democratic denial has reached its apogee: a prime minister from the party that came fourth and didn't even take part in the republican front [against the far right]. We're entering a regime crisis."

Macron's centrist faction and the far right make up the two other major groups in the Assemblée Nationale, finishing second and third respectively.

Far right to judge 'on evidence'

Conservative ex-minister Xavier Bertrand and former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve had been seen as favorites in recent days. But both figures fell by the wayside with the mathematics of France's new parliament stacked against them. Both risked facing a no-confidence motion that could garner support from both the left bloc and the far right.

Macron appears to be counting on the far-right Rassemblement National of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen not to block the appointment of Barnier. "We will wait to see Mr Barnier's policy speech" to parliament, said Le Pen, the leader in parliament of the RN, the party that holds the most seats in the lower house following July snap polls. RN party leader Jordan Bardella said Barnier would be judged "on evidence" when he addresses parliament.

Greens leader Marine Tondelier countered: "We know in the end who decides. Her name is Marine Le Pen. She is the one to whom Macron has decided to submit."

Record-length caretaker government

Never in the history of the Fifth Republic – which began with constitutional reform in 1958 – had France gone so long without a permanent government, leaving the previous administration led by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in place as caretakers.

To the fury of the left, Macron refused to accept the nomination of a left-wing premier, arguing such a figure would have no chance of surviving a confidence motion in parliament. France's left-wing New Popular Front alliance had demanded that the president pick their candidate Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and civil servant with a history of left-wing activism.

The new prime minister will face the most delicate of tasks in seeking to agree legislation in a highly polarised Assemblée Nationale at a time of immense challenges. An October 1 deadline is now looming for the new government to file a draft budget law for 2025. With debts piling up to 110% of annual output, France has this year suffered a credit rating cut from Standard and Poor's and been told off by the European Commission for excessive deficits.

Barnier's "task looks tough, but difficulty has never scared him," said former prime minister Edouard Philippe, who earlier this week announced he would seek to succeed Macron in the next presidential election. Speaking to Le Figaro and using rugby parlance, Attal expressed hope his successor could "convert the try" of the policies whose implementation he could not complete during his time in office.

[beardedmrbean]

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's parliament will try to elect a president on Thursday, with officials seeing better chances of success in a political landscape shaken by Israel's war with Hezbollah and the toppling of the group's ally Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

The post, reserved for a Maronite Christian in the country's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in October, 2022. None of the political groups in the 128-seat parliament have enough seats to impose their choice, and they have so far been unable to agree on a consensus candidate.

The vote marks the first test of Lebanon's power balance since the Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah - which propelled its then Christian ally Aoun to the presidency in 2016 - emerged badly pummelled from the war with Israel.

It takes place against a backdrop of historic change in the wider Middle East, where the Assad-led Syrian state exercised sway over Lebanon for decades, both directly and through allies such as Hezbollah.

Reflecting the shifts, Hezbollah and its ally the Shi'ite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri have dropped their insistence on Suleiman Frangieh, their declared candidate for the last two years, and are ready to go with a less divisive figure, three senior sources familiar with their thinking said.

Candidates in focus include army commander General Joseph Aoun - said by Lebanese politicians to enjoy U.S. approval - Jihad Azour, a senior International Monetary Fund official who formerly served as finance minister, and Major-General Elias al-Baysari - head of General Security, a state security agency.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he felt happy because "God willing, tomorrow we will have a new president", according to a statement from his office.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also expressed hope in comments to France Inter radio, saying the election was "a prerequisite for the continuation of this dynamic of peace" and also for Lebanon's economic and social recovery.

However, two of the sources and an analyst cautioned that it was not yet certain any candidate would be elected. To win, a candidate must secure 86 votes in a first round, or 65 in a second round.

Reflecting Western and regional interest in the vote, French and Saudi envoys met Lebanese politicians in Beirut on Wednesday. Four Lebanese political sources who met the Saudi envoy, Prince Yazid bin Farhan, last week said he spelt out preferred qualifications which signal Saudi support for Aoun.

Saudi Arabia was once a big player in Lebanon, vying with Tehran for influence in Beirut, before seeing its role eclipsed by Iran and Hezbollah.

HEZBOLLAH STILL SEEN WITH SWAY

Aoun, head of Lebanon's U.S.-backed army, would still need 86 votes because his election requires a constitutional amendment, as he is a still-serving state employee, Berri has said.

A State Department spokesperson said it was "up to Lebanon to choose its next president, not the United States or any external actor".

"We have been consistent in our efforts to press Lebanon to elect a new president, which we see as important to strengthening Lebanon’s political institutions," the spokesperson said.

Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa said last week there was "no veto" on Aoun. But the sources said Hezbollah, designated a terrorist group by the United States, will not support Aoun.

Aoun has a key role in shoring up the ceasefire brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.

Still reeling from a financial collapse in 2019, Lebanon desperately needs foreign aid to rebuild.

Much of the damage is in Shi'ite majority areas.

Hezbollah, its supply line to Iran severed by Assad's ousting, has urged Arab and international support for Lebanon.

Lebanon's Maronite Bishops called on lawmakers to elect a president, urging a "national awakening".

Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Annahar newspaper, was not certain anyone would be elected, even after the major shift in the balance of power in Lebanon, where Hezbollah's weapons have long been a source of division.

Underlining the influence Hezbollah and Amal still wield, he said the only way a president could be elected would be if they agreed on Aoun or Azour. But if they tried to install their preferred candidate, this would "sever the oxygen from Lebanon".

Saudi Minister Faisal bin Farhan said last October that Riyadh had never fully disengaged from Lebanon and that outside countries should not tell Lebanese what to do.

Backup link

[dertaglichedan]

Rumors Swirl About The West Planning To 'Exile' Zelensky

If a ceasefire is reached in Ukraine, the West is considering “exiling” Volodymyr Zelensky to London, writes Do Rzeczy, citing a report out of the Spanish daily El Mundo via government sources in Kyiv. 

A rumor has been circulating in diplomatic circles in the Ukrainian capital for two weeks that if a ceasefire occurs, the West will convince Zelensky to “exile” himself to the U.K. and presidential elections will be held in Ukraine.

European peacekeeping forces, mainly troops from Great Britain and France, would then be deployed in Ukraine. Kyiv could also count on “rapid” accession to the European Union and aid for the country’s post-war reconstruction.

Ukraine had a bad November, with Russia occupying the largest amount of territory in Ukraine since March 2022, mainly in the east of the country, near Pokrovsk, according to experts from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The group says Moscow has occupied a total of 68,500 square kilometers since the beginning of the war, or about 19 percent of Ukraine’s entire pre-2014 territory, including the annexed Crimea and part of Donbas.

Senior aides of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have met with officials from Kyiv, as the incoming president has made ending the conflict a top priority of his administration, while Zelensky is clearly tired of war. 

Head of MI6, Richard Moore, raised alarm bells over the dangerous situation the world is currently facing. After meeting with his French counterpart, Nicholas Lerner, last week, he told the press, “Nicholas and I are in no doubt about the stakes in Ukraine: If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there.”  

At the same time, the U.S. is pushing Ukraine to begin recruitment of 18-25 year olds to bolster Ukraine’s armed forces, but there are concerns about the country’s demographic future should his young cohort be sent to the front.

Read more here...

[learnwithmearticles]

France Election

The French 2024 election saw an amazing turnout from voters who ended up keeping the far-right out of the majority in the National Assembly.

This is not a landslide victory, but it does prove promising for the future if we can maintain this success.

French Parties

France has three main parties, here referred to as the ‘left’, ‘centrist’, and ‘right’ for convenience.

The left is primarily the New Popular Front (NFP). Their goals include limiting inflation on staple food items, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing public sector salaries and welfare benefits. They also aim to end the 2023 French pension reform law, which raised the retirement age to 64 and required someone to have worked at least 43 years. 

The center, or Les Centristes, is that which President Emmanuel Macron considers himself part of. Their goal is finding a compromise between socialism and capitalism, supporting a competitive economy as well as social welfare, and developing public transit and cleaner energy. Macron has praised the pursuit of decarbonized energy and vied for incentive policies supporting electric energy. He is harshly criticized for economic-related policies, such as heavy tax breaks for the richest citizens, the pension reform law, and putting his personal success above the French people.

The right are called the National Rally or, until 2018, the National Front. It is the most strongly xenophobic, and its goals include vilifying the European Union, increasing control and regulation of immigration, and feigning support for queer people while opposing same-sex marriage.

Election Results

The election saw the left win 182 seats in the National Assembly, while centrists won 163 and the right won 143, with smaller political factions making up the remainder. An absolute majority would be at 289 seats, so in the years to come we will likely see a lot of contention around the proposals, debating, and passing of laws.

This does mean the next Prime Minister will likely be elected -by Macron- from the politically left. This will be difficult, as many of Macron’s affiliates view leaders from the left as too extreme.

Popular veteran of left-wing politics, Jean-Luc Mélanchon, is an unlikely candidate due to how divisive he has been considered, despite coming in third in the 2022 presidential election. Marine Tondelier is another possible candidate, and currently the National Secretary of the Green Party. There is also François Ruffin, particularly known for disagreeing with Mélanchon based on views of what democracy should be. These are only a few of the people Macron has to consider to eventually fill the position.

Another important change is illuminated by the events surrounding the Pension Reform Bill. When Macron pushed it through, two no-confidence motions came from the National Assembly. If either had passed, Macron would have been forced to make major changes to the government, such as completely replacing his government appointments. While neither passed, one was only nine votes from the majority. With even more seats held by those who don’t align with Macron, we can expect potential future motions like this to be more successful. 

In other sectors, we might see large change with the left now rising in numbers in the National Assembly. Before the election, an interview with Sarah Legrain from the NPF indicated a belief in the National Assembly’s responsibility towards arts and culture. This responsibility includes not only improving access to the arts, but working towards an economy in which arts and culture can thrive.

Will conditions improve for people in France due to this election? With how recent it is, we can’t be sure. The fallout of this hectic decision from Macron to hold the reelection is yet to be fully realized. However, we can see specific examples of how the left might focus their attention in places like the economy, culture, and welfare.

Macron’s second and final term will end in 2027. With the hopeful turnout of this election, we can hope that French voters remain united and able to push their country further towards progress when the next election comes.

What Can This Mean for US elections?

Key information we can take from this is in the example of the French politicians. Between the first and second round of voting, more than 200 left-leaning candidates withdrew to avoid risking a split vote.

Similarly, many voters in the U.S. are having to deal with the dilemma of voting for the “least bad” options over voting for the “best” option. Third-party candidates, as discussed before on this page, are extremely unlikely to win a primary presidential election. Their popularity is in a middle ground because they are known enough to raise hopes of big changes, but not enough to stand against the two disproportionately powerful U.S. parties.

Additional Resources

1. Macron Energy Views

2. National Rally Views

3. Election Results

4. Events of the Pension Reform Bill

5. Potential Prime Ministers

6. Sarah Legrain Interview

[helshades]

Hello, I would like to know what will happen tomorrow if the motion is voted negative? and in this case will there be strikes in paris? and also are the blockades in the universities useful, or are the gatherings more effective?

Well, there is a fair chance it won't be adopted anyhow, since the number of right-wing M.P.s willing to sign in their name is likely to be insufficient to garner the required 287 votes.

You see, the historical major party on the Right—roughly speaking, it corresponds to the English Tories or the Republicans in the U.S.—which was founded by national monument General de Gaulle (the French Churchill, though I'd argue a lot less conservative in the end than Sir Winston was), barely survived the last presidential election: from nearly a quarter of the votes back in 2017, it dropped to a shocking 4.78% in 2022. The few people who stayed are basically fossils willing to be faithful to le parti du Général, whereas the ones that fled left spread between Macron's camp and Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National.

To put it succinctly, the Republicans (the name of the party since the very Atlantist former President Nicolas Sarkozy changed it from U.M.P.) are dead afraid they'd lose what they managed to scrap up during the legislative elections of 2022, which designated députés for each constituency, for a total of 577 members or Parliament in the National Assembly. For decades, the Republicans had collected a vast amount of seats; during the previous legislature, they had 112 of them. Since last year, they only got 61.

Should the motion de censure be adopted this time (it's not the first one this session, but the rest were rejected, chiefly because of L.R.), the government will fall: the Republicans will have to run for office again, when their popularity is at an all-time low as they've appeared to compromise and pactise with the government. Indeed, even though they're officially part of the opposition, they've consistently voted in favour of the presidential majority—and their electors have noticed, and not necessarily appreciated.

In a superb, very droll, but also very fiendish move, the leader of the far-right parliamentary group in the Assembly made an official announcement to promise the Republicans that in case they voted the motion (this time it's being proffered by the very benign, very moderate centrists at the L.I.O.T. group so that everyone could vote it, as the Left wouldn't vote any motion concocted by the R.N.), the R.N. would not run candidates against any of L.R.'s own in the upcoming legislative elections...

Since the crowds that have been rioting for three days and counting keep clamouring for M.P.s to vote the motion to destitute the government, I reckon the uprising will only intensify should it fail to pass nonetheless. As for the strikes, people have been on strike since January. On Tuesday 7th March, they broke a record for the number of protesters in the streets (3.5 million across the country), but most of all, workers have been striking in all sectors with their best efforts—the problem being the sheer state of everybody's finances after two disastrous lockdowns during Covid, plus an aggravating number of ill-advised governmental decisions.

This is no secret, though, the one thing that ever could bend a government, the one true democracy, is the strike. At this scale, we're talking general, unlimited striking, to paralyse a country's infrastructures and industry, and therefore its economy. In France, that represents about 2 billion euros per day. That means cutting supply for shareholders and industry captains, the great capitalists who alone have the power to tell Macron to back off and retire his own bill.

So the real question is, will people be able to prolong and extend the strike, when Macron is evidently determined to letting things go till they rot and the strikers can't hold it any longer. It's also possible that people rioting too close for the personal comfort of wealthy folk in the nicer neighbourhoods may prompt some to ask for appeasement and compromise. By the way, did you know Emmanuel Macron will welcome King Charles in the palace of Versailles next Monday? I do hope some people can take a hint.