French elections - Macron re-elected

[elijah]

French Election Opens Up as Marine Le Pen Surges

President Emmanuel Macron’s belated entry into the campaign and his focus on Ukraine have left him vulnerable to a strong challenge from the right.

 

President Emmanuel Macron of France at a campaign rally on Saturday on the outskirts of Paris. Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

By Roger Cohen

April 4, 2022Updated 3:20 p.m. ET

PARIS — At last, Emmanuel Macron stepped forth. The French president entered a vast arena this weekend, plunged into darkness and lit only by spotlights and glow sticks, before a crowd of 30,000 supporters in a domed stadium in the Paris suburbs.

It was a highly choreographed appearance — his first campaign rally for an election now less than a week away — with something of the air of a rock concert. But Mr. Macron had come to sound an alarm.

Do not think “it’s all decided, that it’s all going to go well,” he told the crowd, a belated acknowledgment that a presidential election that had seemed almost certain to return him to power is suddenly wide open.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday’s campaign rally was Mr. Macron’s first for an election that is now less than a week away.Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

The diplomatic attempt to end the war in Ukraine has been time-consuming for Mr. Macron, so much so that he has had little time for the French election, only to awaken to the growing danger that France could lurch to the anti-immigrant right, with its Moscow-friendly politics and its skepticism of NATO.

Marine Le Pen, the hard-right leader making her third attempt to gain power, has surged over the past couple of weeks, as her patient focus on cost-of-living issues has resonated with the millions of French people struggling to make ends meet after an increase of more than 35 percent in gas prices over the past year.

The most recent poll from the respected Ifop-Fiducial groupshowed Ms. Le Pen gaining 21.5 percent of the vote in the first round of voting next Sunday, almost double the vote share of the fading extreme-right upstart Éric Zemmour, with 11 percent, and closing the gap on Mr. Macron with 28 percent. The two leading candidates go through to a runoff on April 24.

 

 

Marine Le Pen, the hard-right leader making her third attempt to gain power, has surged over the past couple of weeks.Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times

More worrying for Mr. Macron, the poll suggested he would edge Ms. Le Pen by just 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent in the second round. In the last presidential election, in 2017, Mr. Macron trounced Ms. Le Pen by 66.1 percent to 33.9 percent in the runoff.

“It’s an illusion that this election is won for Mr. Macron,” said Nicolas Tenzer, an author who teaches political science at Sciences Po university. “With a high abstention rate, which is possible, and the level of hatred toward the president among some people, there could be a real surprise. The idea that Le Pen wins is not impossible.”

Édouard Philippe, a former prime minister in Mr. Macron’s government, warned this past week that “of course Ms. Le Pen can win.”

 

A migrant family waiting for emergency accommodation with a host family last year in front of the Paris City Hall. With Ms. Le Pen gaining momentum, there are fears that France could lurch toward the anti-immigrant right.Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times

This notion would have seemed ridiculous a month ago. Ms. Le Pen looked like a has-been after trying and failing in 2012 and 2017. Mr. Zemmour, a glib anti-immigrant TV pundit turned politician with more than a touch of Donald Trump about him, had upstaged her on the right of the political spectrum by suggesting that Islam and France were incompatible.

Now, however, Mr. Zemmour’s campaign appears to be sinking in a welter of bombast, as Ms. Le Pen, who said last year that “Ukraine belongs to Russia’s sphere of influence,” reaps the benefits of her milquetoast makeover.

Mr. Zemmour may in the end have done Ms. Le Pen a service. By outflanking her on the right, by becoming the go-to candidate for outright xenophobia, he has helped the candidate of the National Rally (formerly the National Front) in her “banalization” quest — the attempt to gain legitimacy and look more “presidential” by becoming part of the French political mainstream.

Mr. Macron has fallen two or three percentage points in polls over the past week, increasingly criticized for his refusal to debate other candidates and his general air of having more important matters on his mind, like war and peace in Europe, than the laborious machinations of French democracy.

A front-page cartoon in the daily newspaper Le Monde last week showed Mr. Macron clutching his cellphone and turning away from the crowd at a rally. “Vladimir, I’m just finishing with this chore and I’ll call you back,” he says.

 

Supporters of Ms. Le Pen sticking campaign posters next to those of Éric Zemmour, another far-right candidate, in Vigneux-De-Bretagne, in western France. Credit...Jeremias Gonzalez/Associated Press

With a colorless prime minister in Jean Castex — Mr. Macron has tended to be wary of anyone who might impinge on his aura — there have been few other compelling political figures able to carry the president’s campaign in his absence. His centrist political party, La République en Marche, has gained no traction in municipal and regional politics. It is widely viewed as a mere vessel for Mr. Macron’s agenda.

His government’s wide use of consulting firms, including McKinsey — involving spending of more than $1.1 billion, some of it on the best ways to confront Covid-19 — has also led to a wave of criticism of Mr. Macron in recent days. A former banker, Mr. Macron has often been attacked as “the president of the rich” in a country with deeply ambivalent feelings about wealth and capitalism.

Still, Mr. Macron has proved adept at occupying the entire central spectrum of French politics through his insistence that freeing up the economy is compatible with maintaining, and even increasing, the French state’s role in social protection. Prominent figures of the center-left and center-right attended his rally on Saturday.

Over the course of the past five years, he has shown both faces of his politics, first simplifying the labyrinthine labor code and spurring a start-up business culture, then adopting a policy of “whatever it costs” to save people’s livelihoods during the coronavirus pandemic. His handling of that crisis, after a slow start, is widely viewed as successful.

“He absolutely proved up to the task,” Mr. Tenzer said.

 

Mr. Macron adopted a policy of “whatever it costs” to save people’s livelihoods during the pandemic.Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Still, much of the left feels betrayed by his policies, whether on the environment, the economy or the place of Islam in French society, and Mr. Macron was at pains on Saturday to counter the view that his heart lies on the right. Citing investments in education, promising to raise minimum pensions and give a tax-free bonus to employees this summer, Mr. Macron proclaimed his concern for those whose salaries vanish in “gasoline, bills, rents.”

It felt like catch-up time after Mr. Macron had judged that his image as a statesman-peacemaker would be enough to ensure him a second term. Vincent Martigny, a professor of political science at the University of Nice, said of Mr. Macron that “his choice to remain head of state until the end prevented him from becoming a real candidate.”

The worrying scenario for Mr. Macron is that Mr. Zemmour’s vote would go to Ms. Le Pen in a runoff, and that she would be further bolstered by the wide section of the left that feels betrayed or just viscerally hostile toward the president, as well as by some center-right voters for whom immigration is a core issue.

 

Mr. Macron entered a vast arena this weekend, plunged into darkness and lit only by cellphone lights and glow sticks, before a crowd of 30,000 supporters.Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

On the president’s first campaign foray into the provinces, a visit to Dijon last week where he spent time in a working-class area, accompanied by the socialist mayor, Mr. Macron offered this explanation of his sometimes seesawing policies: “When you walk you need two legs. One on the left, and one on the right. And you have to place one after the other in order to advance.”

It was the sort of clever phrase that infuriates Mr. Macron’s opponents, leaving them unsure what angle to attack him from.

Ms. Le Pen has focused relentlessly on economic issues, promising to reduce gas and electricity prices, tax the hiring of foreign employees to favor nationals, preserve the 35-hour week and maintain the retirement age at 62, whereas Mr. Macron wants to raise it to 65.

Mr. Macron has warned that the French will have to “work harder,” a phrase dear to the former center-right president Nicolas Sarkozy, and so a means to lure Mr. Sarkozy’s faithful followers to the Macron camp.

Mr. Macron has fallen two or three percentage points in polls over the past week.Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

If Ms. Le Pen has wanted to appear a softened politician, she is by no means as transformed from the anti-immigrant zealot she was as she likes to suggest. Her program includes a plan to hold a referendum that would lead to a change in the Constitution that would bar policies that lead to “the installation on national territory of a number of foreigners so large that it would change the composition and identity of the French people.”

“France, land of immigration, is finished,” she said in February. She also said the French must not allow their country to “be buried under the veil of multiculturalism.” In September 2021, she declared: “French delinquents in prison, foreigners on a plane!”

 

 

I went to a rally held by Marine Le Pen, the far-right French presidential candidate who is rising in the polls.

Here’s what I heard 

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The working-class vote is essentially split between Ms. Le Pen and the hard-left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has also been gaining ground in recent polls as the electorate begins to focus on what vote would be most effective in propelling a candidate into the second round. But at around 15 percent, Mr. Mélenchon appears to be well adrift still from Ms. Le Pen in the race for the runoff.

 

 

 

 

Image

 

The hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon with supporters last month in Paris. Credit...Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via Shutterstock

The French left has proved chronically split to the point of near political irrelevance for the first time since the Fifth Republic’s foundation in 1958. The Socialist Party, whose candidate François Hollande won the 2012 election and governed until 2017, has collapsed, with just 1.5 percent of the vote in the Ifop-Fiducial poll.

Although Ms. Le Pen has tried to distance herself a little from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whom she met in Moscow in 2017, and whose policies she had backed until the war in Ukraine, she remains allergic to hard-line measures toward Russia. A victory by her would threaten European unity, alarm French allies from Washington to Warsaw, and confront the European Union with its biggest crisis since Brexit.

“Do we want to die?” she asked in a recent television debate, when asked if France should cut off oil and gas imports from Russia. “Economically, we would die!”

She added: “We have to think of our people.”

 

 

 

[elijah]

In light of Orban and Vuchich (proRussian puppets) wins, a win for Le Pen in France would be a huge blow to the West and EU. Judging by the recent polls, Le Pen (who was at one point directly financed by Putin) could very much win the presidency and as a result kill the EU - at least in its present form. The salope would hand over Europe to her greatest pal. In that sense, I really, really want Macron to have a huge victory. Let us remember that Putin organised the yellow vest protests just to spite him. Macron has been the leading force/voice of Europe, especially after Merkel who's decisions come back to haunt us. A EUcentric France is vital for Europe at this very moment so hopefully gorgeous and sexy Macron is reelected.

[karbatal]

There are millions of people in our very countries who are racists, misogynistic, homophobes. And who vote for this people. Precisely because the world is changing (at least our west centered world) into a place where those fascist ideas are becoming a thing of the past. It’s the violent (and dangerous) defense of the cornered animal. 
 

I doubt this person wins because polls change once there are only two candidates in the second round. But just the mere fact that this party and similar parties exist in 2022 Europe is truly bitter and devastating.

[luckystar90]

4 hours ago, elijah said:

In light of Orban and Vuchich (proRussian puppets) wins, a win for Le Pen in France would be a huge blow to the West and EU. Judging by the recent polls, Le Pen (who was at one point directly financed by Putin) could very much win the presidency and as a result kill the EU - at least in its present form. The salope would hand over Europe to her greatest pal. In that sense, I really, really want Macron to have a huge victory. Let us remember that Putin organised the yellow vest protests just to spite him. Macron has been the leading force/voice of Europe, especially after Merkel who's decisions come back to haunt us. A EUcentric France is vital for Europe at this very moment so hopefully gorgeous and sexy Macron is reelected.

The problem is that even if you wouldn't want to vote for Macron again, you'd feel inclined to do it because of all the reasons you mentioned and to stop the far-right, again. The election becomes rather unauthentic when people vote like this. I'm not sure Macron would be the best, but he's certainly the least bad choice when the rest is either useless, incompetent or dangerous. Yuck.

[Raider of the lost Ark]

43 minutes ago, luckystar90 said:

The problem is that even if you wouldn't want to vote for Macron again, you'd feel inclined to do it because of all the reasons you mentioned and to stop the far-right, again. The election becomes rather unauthentic when people vote like this. I'm not sure Macron would be the best, but he's certainly the least bad choice when the rest is either useless, incompetent or dangerous. Yuck.

In the end it has always been this way with direct elections. You almost always vote for the lesser of two evils. 

[Raider of the lost Ark]

What happened to that Zemmour guy? In a report yesterday evening they said he has just as many votes as Le Pen. Ever since he entered the race, she lost votes, he gained. He is a horrible person. Compared to him, Le Pen comes across rather civilized. But I guess she has mellowed down a bit ever since Brexit. 

[elijah]

8 hours ago, luckystar90 said:

The problem is that even if you wouldn't want to vote for Macron again, you'd feel inclined to do it because of all the reasons you mentioned and to stop the far-right, again. The election becomes rather unauthentic when people vote like this. I'm not sure Macron would be the best, but he's certainly the least bad choice when the rest is either useless, incompetent or dangerous. Yuck.

Hope you are right that most French people would vote for "the lesser evil". However many researchers say that not as many French ppl would actually go and support Macron on the second round. That could result in a scary situation.

[beta_test]

and seems Macron is re-elected

[elijah]

Viva la France! Viva Macron 

[sotos8]

if only ,the fact that he is even battling a far right and not the socialists is a huge blow in democracy and keeping in mind the huge absention in elections it says that the public is sick of them all

[Cyber-Raga]

2 hours ago, elijah said:

Viva la France! Viva Macron 

+1

[Camacho]

 

[karbatal]

Far right is a big problem in Europe now. This woman is a complete nightmare, just like her nazi father was.

Good for Slovenia. Their president was a complete bastard. 

[sotos8]

Macron holds talks with far-right Marine Le Pen and Socialist party chiefs https://t.co/5Qg2VuNNlP

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 21, 2022

[sotos8]

Apparently, Macron suggested forming a govt of national unity with Le Pen. This is massive. From rallying the country against a far-right presidency to welcoming them into his government over the span of a month. I wonder how liberal pundits will feel about this betrayal.

[promise to try]

I´m surprised that nobody is talking about what is happening in France...any french follower here that can explain the situation better ? do you think he is going to resign? I´ve read somewhere that maybe it should be time to start with the sixth republic... 

[Rain]

13 hours ago, promise to try said:

I´m surprised that nobody is talking about what is happening in France...any french follower here that can explain the situation better ? do you think he is going to resign? I´ve read somewhere that maybe it should be time to start with the sixth republic... 

Well basically the govermnent has decided to shit on demorcracy. They forced a law to push the age of retirement from 62 to 64 without letting the parliament vote.

Macron is NOT going to resign as he is 100% megalomaniac.

Edited March 29 by Rain

[karbatal]

I don’t recall another politician turning “suddenly” into such a useless person. Suicide of his political career and legacy.   I put quote mark on suddenly because surely French people knew years ago. But for us this is APPALLING 

[promise to try]

the newspapers don´t talk about this anymore: has this protest finished?

[luckystar90]

2 hours ago, promise to try said:

the newspapers don´t talk about this anymore: has this protest finished?

No, it's still going. Talks with government have failed and I believe the plan is to wait until everyone is tired and the situation goes back to normal by itself. Which is a scary game to play as people are seriously fed up with not being heard or considered.

[Sanctuary1995]

6 hours ago, promise to try said:

the newspapers don´t talk about this anymore: has this protest finished?

Mais pas du tout!!!

 

[promise to try]

22 minutes ago, Sanctuary1995 said:

Mais pas du tout!!!

 

great!!!

[jonski43]

10 hours ago, luckystar90 said:

No, it's still going. Talks with government have failed and I believe the plan is to wait until everyone is tired and the situation goes back to normal by itself. Which is a scary game to play as people are seriously fed up with not being heard or considered.

Friend lived in Paris for ten years and said that although there were always protests, they didn't seem to have any effect and change anything.

Would you agree?

[Sanctuary1995]

I mean I am all into being able to express the public opinion in the form of protesting, but in all fairness, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 is not a big fucking deal. 64 is still lower than other Western European countries. 

I was walking around that arrondisement of Paris when I took that pic, earlier that day I met up with a friend who lives in Marais, is a graphic designer-freelancer, who has nothing to do with these protests... he said that people just don't wanna work

[promise to try]

but are the protests only because of  rishing the retirement´s age? do you think if they have decided it in the parliament the protests would have been smaller?

[Rain]

22 hours ago, Sanctuary1995 said:

I mean I am all into being able to express the public opinion in the form of protesting, but in all fairness, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 is not a big fucking deal. 64 is still lower than other Western European countries. 

I was walking around that arrondisement of Paris when I took that pic, earlier that day I met up with a friend who lives in Marais, is a graphic designer-freelancer, who has nothing to do with these protests... he said that people just don't wanna work

wtf.

It is a big deal. We're not fucking machines. And since when we should copy stupid laws of other countries?

People wanna work as long as the game is not rigged and everyone gets their fair share. Which is certainly not the case.
Your friend seems really disconnected from reality. Let me explain.

- Those who don't wanna work are the shareholders and people in power who get richer and richer while 90% of population is getting poorer even though they are working.

- The unemployment rate is high. When you're over 50 years old you're basically unemployable.

- Raising the age means more illnesses and cost more for the society.

etc.

No matter how you look at it, raising the retirement age does not make sense. Do you not see the world we're living in? I mean come on.

Also we are supposed to be a democracy and nobody wants this law, the government should respect the democratic process but they don't. And let's not even begin to talk about the unprecedented repression and violences that are going on.

[promise to try]

I don´t know about you. I´m a techaer, and I don´t see myself doing a good work when I´m 67 years old...I need a lot of energy and I´m afraid I won´t have it

[karbatal]

12 hours ago, Rain said:

wtf.

It is a big deal. We're not fucking machines. And since when we should copy stupid laws of other countries?

People wanna work as long as the game is not rigged and everyone gets their fair share. Which is certainly not the case.
Your friend seems really disconnected from reality. Let me explain.

- Those who don't wanna work are the shareholders and people in power who get richer and richer while 90% of population is getting poorer even though they are working.

- The unemployment rate is high. When you're over 50 years old you're basically unemployable.

- Raising the age means more illnesses and cost more for the society.

etc.

No matter how you look at it, raising the retirement age does not make sense. Do you not see the world we're living in? I mean come on.

Also we are supposed to be a democracy and nobody wants this law, the government should respect the democratic process but they don't. And let's not even begin to talk about the unprecedented repression and violences that are going on.

Yes to all.

 

[Toni]

This is wild!

 

 

 

 

[promise to try]

uf.is it true that is happening also in belgium?