#Le Marin

[blueskipper-photography]

Sails over Le Marin / 25.03.2023 12:54 ©2023 blueskipper

[fidjiefidjie]

Bon Soir 🆕️⚓️ 🌊 💟

Saodaj' 🎶 Le Marin

(Laz)

[booasaur]

Something really amazing happened in France, and I think it'd help us in the US to learn about it. Forgive the long read, but I think this is genuinely great both because of what happened and how.

So as some of you might have seen, in a decision historians will debate for years (mostly to figure out just WTF he was thinking, even though he is alive right now and can be asked), the French president, Emmanuel Macron, currently in power and THREE YEARS before the scheduled election, seeing the far right rise in popularity decided to dissolve the assembly and hold snap elections.

577 seats were up for grabs. Remember that number. Since half of that is 288.5, 289 seats are needed for a majority.

The first round happened last week and boy, was it bad. The far right made HUGE gains. It won or was in first place in so many races. And Macron's party ended up third!

Overall, this is how things ended up after the first round:

Far right bloc: 33%

Left bloc: 28%

Macron's centrist party: 20%

Conservatives: 7%

The way the French system works is that if a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, they win outright, and some of the far right did manage that. But, many races went to a runoff.

Immediate projections after were that the far right bloc might win anywhere from 240 to 310 seats, a catastrophe.

A shameful swing to the far right leading to the first time they'll be in power since the 1940s? Yes, but maybe not??

This is where things get interesting.

Unusually, a lot of these runoffs are 3-way, instead of a simpler 2-way choice. And in pretty much every case, that helps the far right.

So on June 30th, the night of the first round, this is how things went down:

Immediately, the left parties put out the call: anywhere they were third, they withdrew and their voters would go over to whoever was running against the far right candidate. Their goal: form a "republican front" to block the far right. The far right cannot get 289 seats.

Macron's bloc was not so...motivated. Different people put out different instructions: in some places, if they were third, they should drop out, but only to help the center left, not far left, in other places, see how far you are, only then drop out, that kind of thing.

The conservative party simply said they won't drop out and won't give their voters instruction either way in races they're not involved in.

Late night developments:

More people in Macron's party are now beginning to realize the situation and starting to coalesce around whichever candidate can beat the far right one. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Macron's party, says clearly the priority is to block the far right. BUT, some Macron spokespeople on TV say they'll form a coalition only with the center left and conservatives, splitting the left bloc if needed. Some individual Macronists still saying they won't drop out, even if there's no hope of winning.

Lol.

So, now July 1st:

Only half so far. In one race, where the sister of Marine Le Pen (the far right leader and the face of their movement) was leading, the third place Macronist refused to bow out.

Excellent quote from another Macronist:

Perhaps realizing the same thing, that Macronist in the race against the Le Pen sister now drops out.

In some places, third place Macronists are dropping out DESPITE Macron bewilderingly telling them NOT to?

Halfway through the day:

Of the 311 3-way or 4-way runoffs, the number is down to 135 because of these candidates dropping out: 121 Left, 56 Macronists, 1 conservative.

Oh, there was this, in case people had any doubts about how terrible the far right are:

And to show the selflessness of the left:

July 2:

The deadline to decide if they want to stay in a runoff is today.

A dozen new third place Macronists who said they'd stay in have now dropped out. One got a call from both the PM Attal AND Macron to drop out, signalling the dawning understanding of the importance of this moment.

Even some conservative party members are now backing the left candidate who faces the far right.

A Macronist who had 30.55% of the vote in the first round and came in third to the far right's 33.11% and left's 32.73% and who would have been tempted to stay has dropped out.

The deadline to stay in or not has now passed.

Look at these far right shenanigans!

Macron still being a freaking loser:

July 3rd:

In the end, of the 311 3- or 4-way run offs, only 91 left. Some polls come out that have the far right getting between 190 to 220 seats.

July 4th:

New polls say the balance of the voting itself isn't transferring between the left and center and predictions have risen for the far right, now predicted to get between 210 and 250 seats.

July 5th:

New polls again, left voters now predicted to do better transferring vote to the centrists, decreasing the far right projections again.

However, scandalous reporting emerges: while Attal was trying to fend off the far right, Macron was not only NOT taking the far right seriously, he was undermining efforts to defeat them. His team shrugged off the first round results and celebrated a BIRTHDAY as the results were still coming in?

July 6th:

A few runoffs happened yesterday, nothing much unexpected, some left and center wins.

July 7th:

The day of reckoning. At this point, the expectations are that the far right won't come close to that 289 number but could still easily have the most seats.

GUYS.

It's over and the left are in the lead!

A LOT of cases where a leftist or centrist was 2nd in the first round and now won.

Amazing:

SO many lessons to take from this.

First, you have to vote! You have to. You can't do anything without voting. The freaking French, who'll protest for anything, are showing up to vote. If you're trying to achieve any kind of result and it's not going to happen by January 2025, you have to vote now.

But just as importantly, the left and center (and even conservative) parties made very key decisions. They were all lucky that Attal, who Macron chose, saw the big picture, bigger than indeed Macron could. A stupid selfish centrist leader could have still ruined everything if it were up to him.

TL;DR: After a disastrous first round in the national French elections where the far right was on the cusp of taking power, the left and center formed a strong coalition and through the power of voting and unity, overcame the far right AND their selfish centrist president to win.

[tunneldweller]

DING DONG THE SHITHEAD'S DEAD

[destiel-news-channel]

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'France's left wing parties are projected to win the election while the far-right is projected to only come in third.' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

source

This is a huge surprise considering the results of the first round!

[incorrect-primarchs-quotes]

[destielmemenews]

"Le Pen was notably convicted in 1990 for a radio remark made three years earlier in which he referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail in World War II history.” In 2015, he repeated the remark, saying he “did not at all” regret it, triggering the ire of his daughter — by then the party leader — and a new conviction in 2016.

He also was convicted for a 1988 remark linking in a play on words a Cabinet minister with the Nazi crematory ovens, and for a 1989 comment blaming the “Jewish international” for helping seed “this anti-national spirit.”

In another setback, Le Pen lost his European Parliament seat in 2002 for a year for assaulting a Socialist politician during a 1997 election campaign." - Associated Press

"A fervent defender of French Algeria, Le Pen was repeatedly accused - as supported by archives as well as victims' and witnesses’ testimonies - of having practised torture as an intelligence officer during the Algerian War.

On several occasions, Le Pen admitted his role. “We were given a police mission and we accomplished it, according to an imperative of efficiency that requires illegal means,” he said in May 1957.

“If violence must be used to discover a nest of bombs, if one man must be tortured to save a hundred, torture is inevitable, and therefore, in the abnormal conditions in which we are asked to act, it is just.”" - Middle East Eye

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[unofficial-sean]

Jellyfish of Puget Sound

[thebellekeys]

europeans be like “omg north americans are so racist it’s horrible” and then elect fascists

[vg-k]

. 𓏸𓈒 ℬut͜͡terflყ ݁ 𐚁

@astroke

[blueskipper-photography]

Plage de Cap Macré / Le Marin ©2023 blueskipper

[fidjiefidjie]

😉 Humour du jour 🤣

Miss France 🇲🇫 2025 🥳

Source: Davynimal

👋 Bel après-midi

[rapha-reads]

Ça va être un massacre dimanche prochain, putain. Les résultats du premier tour sont affligeants. Et j'arrive même pas à me réjouir que le taux de participation soit en hausse, vu ce que 34% de la populace votante a mis dans son enveloppe. Désespérant.

Dimanche prochain, pas de conneries, tout le monde va voter NFP. C'est pas le moment de déconner.

Enfin, bref. Un gros câlin à nous tous gauchiasses. On en a bien besoin.

[northameicanblog]

Îlet du Gosier, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe: The Islet of Gosier is an islet one kilometer long and located a few hundred meters off the coast of the town of the same name, Gosier in Guadeloupe. It takes its name from that of the commune of Gosier. It was the large-gullet water pelicans that once hunted in its nourishing lagoon that gave it this name. Wikipédia

[thebusylilbee]

les ami-es... JE JUBILE !!!