UPDATE: What is happening in France today?
Left candidates who came in 3rd are dropping out of the runoffs to block the far-right.
*Many* Macronists, including incumbents, are doing the same when they came in third. But... many said they won't. (I'd say about half/half right now? Deadline tmrw.)
THE sentence of the day: A Macronist incumbent in the Marseille region came in 3rd in her seat. She just dropped out to support the left. She said, about why she's maneuvering to block the far-right:
"Defeats happen, but you can never recover from dishonor."
Another example of Macronists dropping out (the big thing to watch today):
The "Hautes-Alpes" has 2 seats, both currently held by Macron's party.
Yesterday, Macron's candidates arrived third in each district, behind the RN & the PS. They've both said they're dropping out.
But, again, some Macronists are not dropping out at this hour in places where they are third & RN can win.
See these two districts as example. Far-right under 35% in each... but that'd be enough in a 3-way.
A Macronist who came in 3rd place in southern France says he is dropping out to block the far-right.
Results here: RN 36%, left 29%, Macronist 25%.
What's interesting...: He said as he dropped out that he got calls to *not* do so, including from Macron.
lemonde.fr/politique/li...
Is there a reason Macron doesn't want to work with the left to block the far right?
Seems like "maximize non right wing seats" via coalition would be the no brainer option.
What would a strong left look like in France vs a Macron France?
It's probably just my US lens, but it seems more like they'd be natural allies in this scenario than "give the keys to the Nazis instead".
Unless you're power hungry, in which case maximize *my* seats might take precedence. I'm getting the sense Macron might not just be in it to save the country from the far right...
The centre-right always imagine they can manipulate and maybe even control the far-right. That was the rationale behind Macron calling the snap election, to pull their voters to heel. They're wrong, obviously, but even so, they're under no such illusions about the left.
Macron is flipping to being a Le Penn crony.
He fucked up worse than David Cameron and now he's trying to become a bit player in a new Putinist Vichy regime.
yeah it's weird the coverage here, but what I read is that both parties immediately came out and suggested their third place finishes will drop
yet I see no coverage of that
that is not correct.
Macronists took a few hours, but they did end up articulating an approach of dropping out (as I've posted many times), but with vague exceptions that are now playing out, & some Macronist leaders are not instructing drop outs in key districts.
Where did you read that? I saw very clear & early messages from the parties in NFP and more ambiguous & varied messages from Ensemble that included "depends if LFI". That may have changed since last night but even if so it wasn't "immediately".
Edouard Phillippe, Macron’s 1st PM, just said:
Where Macronists are not in runoff, people should vote for a candidate of Left bloc, *if* that candidate is center-left (so PS+Green, not LFI).
Said his candidates shld drop out if in 3rd place, behind such center-left candidates.
Yes, LFI is one of the members of the NFP that clearly pledged to desist when necessary to prevent RN winning - I don't remember it from last night but saw reference to Melenchon saying so. It's Ensemble that had some ambiguous "desist... Unless it benefits LFI, then depends" messages
The left meeting the center halfway and the center complaining that they aren't meeting 3/4ths of the way and refusing to play.
Tale as old as fucking time.
This remember me of a 1987 Michel Noir quote. Speaking about possible agreement with the FN for the second turn he said: « Mieux vaut perdre les élections que perdre son âme » (Better to lose the election than to lose one's soul)
This is a great example of how the left loses to the right by splitting ourselves along degrees of policy instead focusing of defeating those who absolutely destroy any progressive change. Good on the left candidates for narrowing that field and I hope they are actively campaigning as well
In US politics, we see a lot of instances where the center of the party DNC actively works to stamp out candidates they feel are too far out of line from the most conservative tenets of the party and supporting an aging cadre of politicians to the detriment of their own success
centrists _are_ conservatives, proven literally everywhere, especially in the past 2 decades; all Western "democracies" are fucked as a result (UK, Canada, Australia, etc)
they’ve always done that. and we, leftists, have always voted for political opponents when needing to save the country. they don’t offer us the same grace (we have to fight and nag and they don’t all do it in the end).
All my adult life I’ve had to vote for the right.
