Hundreds of thousands of people are marching against the far-right in France today, as the far-right has never been so close to power.
Images from Paris’s March, where a lot of signs are focusing on demanding that left leaders stay united to counter the far-right:
Left Coalition now has platform. Includes:
—rollback Macron retirement reform & cuts to unemployment benefits
—↑ min wage
—↑ daycare spots
—repeal Macron immigration restrictions
—bring back wealth tax & exit tax
—carbon neutrality plan
—200K public housing/year
more: www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
Anyone is “fine” to be when the alternative is the far right- l am not French but if l were, l would vote for whatever is NOT Le Pen, especially in the run-off.
The beauty is that there are multiple choices! Unlike USA where we often have bad and worse, in France you might luck out and get to vote for someone good. Just saying that it's not a binary, most voters can pick from people who are both not-fascist AND not-fascist-enablers.
I can't help but think that a good way to keep the far right out of power would have been for Macron not to deliberately engineer a situation likely to put them in power.
I don’t know who “the liberals” are meant to be in this situation. The center-left party, the PS, is in the coalition. The Macronists are not, but they’re not center-left to start with.
the Macronists are by their own description "centrist liberals" and the "Socialist Party" is not liberal socialist and/or social democratic.
Just because Macron's a bigoted reactionary hack doesn't stop him being a liberal, it just means your understanding of liberalism is way off.
Is there a quick précis on what JLM is up to? I keep seeing obviously humorous signs to the effect of, “Seize power, and also Mélenchon’s phone” or a cartoon drawing of the Front Populaire as a house of cards w/text bubble reading, “Jean-Luc, tu ne touches pas!” but I missed the underlying reference
Mélenchon is well-known for angry, authoritative outbursts that damage his party's image a lot so the joke is to keep him as quiet as possible so as not to put off people who might be persuaded to vote for the leftist coalition. Though so far he's been behaving!
Definitely did: His party announced its nominees last night, and Melenchon's 'internal' critics were unexpectedly & abruptly ousted -- leading them and the rest of the left parties to talk of 'purging' and criticizing his methods. That's been the dominant story today.
Le député LFI Adrien Quatennens a annoncé renoncer à présenter sa candidature dans le Nord, contestée par les partenaires de son parti au sein du Nouveau Front populaire, en raison de sa condamnation à quatre mois de prison avec sursis pour des violences conjugales en 2022 #AFP
Any movement on where Hidalgo stands? She issued a statement after the Euro elex to the effect that Macron could not continue on as before, but called the snap election “troubling.” Could she be a bridge between the aligned left and Macron? Don’t know enough French politics to understand how…
Hidalgo is in the socialist party. She’s been hostile to the left coalition in the past, but she did endorse it the other day. She’s also very hostile to Macron, and Vice-Versa. Macronists want her out. She’s not a bridge.
I’d have thought she might lead the left, but I recall she performed poorly on the national stage several years ago. Still, her transformation of Paris to a green world capital I think has been remarkable. Thanks for reply, and breaking things down for us.
Let me guess: the cross-endorsement rates between the Popular Front and whatever Macron's party calls itself now in second rounds vs. R-Haine will be extremely low like last time?
