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".
Macron's political choices and views are very much on the far-right side. It's repackaged in a somewhat more palatable way, but according to a lot of French people (myself included) he's one of the main reasons why the RN is so prevalent these days
This is a good point, & a good example of this was when he passed an immigration bill that was, to put it very mildly, controversial within his own party, and backed by the RN. " Ms Le Pen welcomed the amended bill, calling it an "ideological victory" for the far-right." www.bbc.com/news/world-e...
To add to what others already commented: I don't think something like the European left exists in this size in the US. The NFP includes communists and socialists while macron's economics are very much neoliberal. Also their positions on foreign policy are very differebt from his.
Macron's a conservative man. His party has steadily shifted right almost as soon as he got into office. Ensemble is basically the new center right party of France.
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.
