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Post by patricklondon on May 9, 2017 10:44:28 GMT
His professional focus has been a bit technocratic. Remains to be seen how he can present his plans in such a way that what he thinks the country needs chimes with what enough of the people think they need. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on May 9, 2017 14:14:08 GMT
Yeah -- what Patrick said.
The article is generally admiring of Macron and seems to share his optimism. From what I can tell, and from the results of the election, Macron as the-only-sane-choice candidate was not as deeply hated and mistrusted as that same candidate in the US's presidential election. Do those of you living and voting in France think that might lead to at least of honeymoon period of acceptance for Macron?
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Post by bjd on May 9, 2017 15:53:10 GMT
I would hope so but last night on the France24 debate, a Melenchon spokesman was talking about class struggle. I'm not sure that everyone in France is ready to give up their ideological point of view and try to adapt to a more centrist view of things.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2017 16:11:58 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2017 17:02:34 GMT
No comment necessary.
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Post by lagatta on May 10, 2017 23:34:01 GMT
I don't recognise the bloke. And why do they make NO attempt to pronounce Macron's name correctly. It isn't a hard sound for anglophones to master.
How on earth is she going to deport terror suspects who were born French citizens? Or at worst, Belgians...
And I don't think anyone, except Muslim fundamentalists, is soft on djihadis.
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Post by patricklondon on May 11, 2017 6:30:12 GMT
Katie Hopkins is just someone who rants in cheap tabloids for a living. That's her shtick. She knows her living depends on her being (as she herself put it in an interview) "a total cowbag". Whoever the shouty bloke is, he's just one of those people who rants on Youtube. Either way, neither is of any account, even by comparison with Nigel Farage. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 21:38:10 GMT
It appears that the new name of the Front National is going to be Les Patriotes.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 11, 2017 22:06:49 GMT
the new name of the Front National is going to be Les Patriotes.
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Post by lagatta on May 12, 2017 0:26:39 GMT
Yes, here in Québec Les Patriotes were one of the myriad liberal-democratic movements in the first half of the 19th century. And they had a counterpart in Upper Canada, what is part of what is now Ontario. One will find similar movements throughout Europe and the Americas at least at the time (and I hope people more informed of the history of other continents will weigh in). Les Patriotes in Québec basically sought home rule, like the Irish. They welcomed francophones, anglophones, Indigenous peoples and new immigrants (especially the Irish at the time).
Now Victor Hugo is rolling round in his grave.
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Post by bjd on May 12, 2017 4:29:35 GMT
A more apt name would have been Les Nationalistes. Of course the implication being that anyone who does not support their ideology is not patriotic.
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Post by patricklondon on May 12, 2017 7:07:01 GMT
Way back in the eighteenth century or so a "patriot" was what today we might call a democrat or at least a "civic nationalist" - someone who believed in a community of citizens rather than allegiance to a monarch (that's what Dr. Johnson meant when he talked about patriotism being "the last refuge of the scoundrel" - he had the likes of Wilkes and Tom Paine in mind). So are the FN recasting themselves as modern Jacobins? Meanwhile, according to Le Monde, Macron is already running into trouble over nominations for the parliamentary elections: the centrist MoDem movement hasn't got nearly as many nominations under this banner as their leader thought justified by standing down as a presidential candidate in Macron's favour, and he thinks far too many have gone to Socialist Party re-treads. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by lagatta on May 12, 2017 14:33:19 GMT
Nationaliste has a very loaded meaning in France, including insinuations of racism, antisemitism and collaboration. Indeed, it would be logical for the Front national to morph into a Mouvement nationaliste, but that wouldn't stop the accusations against them.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2017 17:16:03 GMT
Meanwhile, according to Le Monde, Macron is already running into trouble over nominations for the parliamentary elections: the centrist MoDem movement hasn't got nearly as many nominations under this banner as their leader thought justified by standing down as a presidential candidate in Macron's favour, and he thinks far too many have gone to Socialist Party re-treads. For the last 20 years, François Bayrou of the MoDem has seemed like a reasonable and intelligent politician in times of crisis. And each time he is rising in public opinion, he suddenly explodes in flight like the space shuttle with sudden delusions about being the only person with the right answer to the problems of France. Should I mention that the MoDem does not have a single MP in the current legislature? I am afraid that he is bipolar.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2017 17:49:56 GMT
Well, our new president was finally inaugurated today, a week after the election. There are no inaugural balls or anything to organise. I wonder if the United States could save money if they did things a bit faster.
Wikipedia says this:
"Only" ?
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Post by bixaorellana on May 14, 2017 18:10:26 GMT
There are no inaugural balls or anything to organise. I wonder if the United States could save money if they did things a bit faster. Wikipedia says this: "Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative". Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner. source
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2017 18:48:27 GMT
Brigitte Macron seems to be popular in many places, in great part because of the signal that has been sent to the world that it is all right for older women to love younger men. The reverse has always been accepted, but of course that's because it is still a man's world.
However, there is an additional story that should be told that will help to explain why she is even more wildly popular in France, and that is the story of Gabrielle Russier. She was a high school literature teacher in Marseille, separated from her husband and raising two children. She met a 16 year old student, Christian Rossi, who seemed much older than his years, in the demonstrations during May 1968, and they fell in love. Half of the class thought that the situation was just fine. After accepting the situation at first,the boy's parents (both progressive university professors) had her arrested for statutory rape. There was prison involved for Gabrielle, and also psychiatric internment for the boy, but the full trial had not yet taken place. And in any case, Gabrielle Russier committed suicide before then, at the age of just 32. A lot of the country was enraged.
The story was made into an extremely popular film a couple of years later, starring Annie Girardot and with a magnificent theme song by Charles Aznavour, Mourir d'Aimer -- also the title of the movie "To Die of Love."
Ever since that time, there has been great indulgence by the French at the idea of a schoolboy falling in love with his teacher. After all, it has happened to a huge percentage of schoolboys even though most of them never acted on their feelings.
Here is a brief excerpt of the original film:
This is the hit song by Charles Aznavour:
There was a TV movie remake many years later:
In any case, the case of Gabrielle Russier has ensured that most people in France completely accept what happened between Emmanuel Macron and his teacher.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 16:38:32 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on May 16, 2017 22:06:21 GMT
It must be lovely for Macron to have gotten the A-okay from such a distinguished elder statesman.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2017 4:48:01 GMT
French television is already having a bit of fun.
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Post by mossie on May 17, 2017 6:50:44 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on May 23, 2017 16:41:13 GMT
I compared the list of candidates for my district to the list from 2012.
In 2012, there were 16 candidates. In the runoff, the Socialist candidate won with almost 73% of the vote. In 2017, there are 20 candidates (and other parts of Paris have even more). Only 4 names are the same as the list from 2012.
The winner from 2012 is running as a dissident this time. He wasn't going to run after supporting Macron, who wans't going to field a candidate here so that the new Socialist could easily win. But at the last minute the Macron camp filed the name of a candidate, so my old MP who should retire apparently had a little fit and filed his name as well. So hard for these discredited politicians to let go of politics! So we have a Socialist and a dissident Socialist. So stupid.
I am really anxious to receive the campaign material because I have no idea who most of these people are, and the list that I downloaded doesn't have the name of their parties.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 25, 2017 13:43:48 GMT
I see that Macron and Trump spent an hour and a half at their private lunch. At least they probably both had a good chuckle about both being elected president of their country the very first time they ever stood for office.
Macron did not break loose from the super-glue handshake as quickly as I would have liked, but when he did pull his hand away, he did so very energetically.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 25, 2017 18:00:42 GMT
From Reuters:
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 25, 2017 18:57:12 GMT
I have had a tremendous amount of respect for the French ever since the Iraq war veto. I remember cheering a French minister speaking with passion and determination at the UN (?)when the case had been brought before the council with 'evidence' in a 'dosier' about weapons of mass destruction...Of course Bush and Blair ignored everybody...even their own people.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 6, 2017 14:06:17 GMT
I received my envelope of electoral material today. My district has "only" 20 candidates. No fewer than 4 'green' candidates, which explains why the Greens never progress -- they can't agree on anything. Another four candidates are just described as 'miscellaneous' so you really wonder why they even bother. To get time off work? At the moment, a Macron landslide is projected and everybody is pretty much dumbfounded that this could have ever happened considering how arthritic French politics have been since the middle of the 20th century. The cover of one of the local news magazines sums up the situation pretty well.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 10, 2017 20:19:11 GMT
Okay, after the UK, French legislative election tomorrow. Let's see what happens.
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Post by bjd on Jun 11, 2017 5:09:54 GMT
I am worried about the predictions for a landslide. Does that mean potential R en Marche voters won't bother going because it's sewn up in advance? I got my envelope of papers the other day (only one Green candidate), but yesterday on the boards outside a voting office, I noticed several posters for people whose papers hadn't been included. There was a Parti Animaliste with a picture of a cat!
I heard that the company in Lyon in charge of sending out the election information screwed up and didn't send anything in Pyrénées Orientales.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 11, 2017 5:32:12 GMT
My envelope was very sloppy inside, but since they hire unemployed people for this job and having to put in 24 leaflets and 24 ballots probably wears some of them out by the 10th envelope.
Anyway, I'm going to be very curious about the result in my district. I have long been represented by one of the Socialist "elephants" and former Minister of the Interior in the "cohabitation" Jospin government under President Chirac -- Daniel Vaillant (who also looks like an elephant). He was also #2 of the Socialist party when François Hollande was First Secretary. So an absolute and total Socialist elephant. He was elected with 72% of the vote last time. A couple of months ago, he decided that he wouldn't run for re-election, and he also put his support behind Macron for the presidential election. The Socialists chose a new young candidate for the legislative elections, and while En Marche would probably not have fielded a candidate against Vaillant if he had decided to continue, they did designate a candidate against this new Socialist. And then Vaillant changed his mind and decided to run again anyway. So he is an "independent" candidate now claiming that he is part of the presidential minority. I don't think he has any chance of winning and even though I liked him over the years, I won't be voting for him this time. So I can't wait to see what percentage he will get today instead of 72%...
If my mother were still alive, I might have voted for him anyway, because it was due to his personal intervention after the 5th rejection that I received that I got my mother into a municipal nursing home for which she was not officially eligible.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 11, 2017 5:40:21 GMT
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