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Post by bjd on Jul 8, 2024 5:19:57 GMT
It's a bit reminiscent of the paralysis of the Fourth Republic During the Fourth Republic, the president was just a figurehead. De Gaulle's constitution gave the president a lot more power so it won't be quite the same. We'll see how it goes but in any case there can't be another election for a year, according to the rules.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 8, 2024 5:58:02 GMT
Yes, the 4th Republic was replaced by the 5th Republic to (partially) correct the problems from back then. Of course one of the goals of the left is to move on to the 6th Republic, and I am certainly not opposed to that. We need a 21st century constitution and not an outdated one from the mid 20th century.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2024 13:23:14 GMT
I was wondering if the surprising - and somewhat encouraging - election results in France and England might have been in part spurred by people observing what is happening in the US and reacting defensively in response.
But of course, it’s not all about US, though many ‘murcans think America is the center (and envy) envy of the world….
Congrats to the people of democracies that head off the sharp right turn.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 8, 2024 15:27:35 GMT
Sometimes that is true, For example, the change in the French constitution this year to include abortion rights as a permanent feature was inspired by American politics. It should be mentioned that some legislators who support abortion rights voted against this change because they felt that abortion rights were already sufficiently protected and that this was just grandstanding overkill. I am not an expert, but they might be right.
But as for the recent British and French elections, I don't think they were influenced by American politics. We all pay a lot of attention to such things, but most of us wrote off the United States several years ago as any sort of model to follow or anything to worry about in terms of their domestic politics. It is just a global fluke that no longer really concerns us since their politics make no sense.
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Meanwhile, as for France, the dust is still settling of course. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal handed in his resignation today (as per election results) but was told to remain on duty along with the rest of the government until further notice. It is possible that this will last as a caretaker government until after the Olympics. Macron is not obliged to go any faster as long as new laws are not being voted.
The left is far from ready to present their strategy yet since they will probably rip each other apart first. The hardliners and the "reasonable" elements need to insult and threaten each other until they figure out what they need to so to convince 289 parliamentarians to agree on anything when they only have 180 votes in their own camp.
The Macron camp will finally be convinced (since they are the only option), but they will never let the left forget that in the previous parliament, the left said that they would NEVER vote for any government proposals even if they agreed with them. And that is what forced the Macron camp to get their support from the right wing Republicans when they couldn't pass a law by decree.
Ideological paralysis!
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Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2024 17:54:01 GMT
Kerouac said
Even when Trump is threatening to pull the US out of NATO and cozies up to Orban and Putin and Kim and Xi?
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Post by whatagain on Jul 8, 2024 18:04:15 GMT
One fact remains that whilst RN is third in terms of seats, they won with 37% of the votes.
One on every three frogs is rotten these days.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 8, 2024 18:09:50 GMT
The rise in nationalism is happening everywhere, the deform party and Nigel sh*tbag Farage are the British version.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 8, 2024 18:35:39 GMT
Even when Trump is threatening to pull the US out of NATO Unfortunately, when I say that Europe has written off the US, that includes its participation in NATO, but considering all of its military bases in Europe, pulling out of NATO would be just as sticky and long and expensive as the UK pulling out of the EU. One of every three frogs is rotten these days. Probably not true. So many of these people have absolutely no political knowledge other than what they have read on social media or heard at the café about "throwing the bums out." About half of them used to vote for the left with just as little understanding. If I were sufficiently naive, I might hope that after having voted in both directions over the past 10 years, they might finally understand that there is no political party that can solve their problems just by snapping their fingers. (But what would they do then?)
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Post by lugg on Jul 8, 2024 18:59:46 GMT
The rise in nationalism is happening everywhere, the deform party and Nigel sh*tbag Farage are the British version. So true and their share of the vote makes it even more scary. But I am so pleased that tactical voting in France led to the result . Now for what happens next ... both there and here
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2024 14:40:08 GMT
This is a rather dry overview of the French economy, but the hair spikes of the presenter are a constant source of fascination.
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Post by bjd on Aug 10, 2024 16:04:54 GMT
Well, hair spikes aside, he is going on about the same old economic things that have led to climate problems -- growth at all cost. So people will lose jobs because of AI, but they can work in the fashion and tourist industries. He is also behind in geopolitics -- no more French soldiers in the Sahel. And Macron will be out in 2027 and who knows who will be next?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 4, 2024 16:00:10 GMT
Macron might finally name a new prime minister today after more than 50 days. The political microsphere is in total outrage about the delay because they seem to have never heard of Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain or Germany. I wouldn't say that normal people don't really care, but they are not losing sleep over it. They expect to be disappointed no matter what, just like every time.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 4, 2024 18:51:32 GMT
oooh the anticipointment....
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Post by bjd on Sept 5, 2024 11:43:29 GMT
So we have a new prime minister: Michel Barnier, at 73 the oldest PM ever, after the youngest, Gabriel Attal. He was the EU's main guy in discussions with Britain about Brexit.
I must say I don't understand why Macron picked a guy from the right, given that the left won more seats in parliament. Catering to the National Front, visibly.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 5, 2024 13:46:46 GMT
I can speculate a bit about this. I think that Michel Barnier might have been offered as a sacrifice since he will almost certainly receive a no-confidence vote very quickly and be forced to resign. And since he is old and has no future political ambitions, he won't mind. The following prime minister will probably be the real one, and both Macron and the opposition will know that they have to be more careful the second time around.
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Post by bjd on Sept 5, 2024 14:09:06 GMT
Here is one point of view:
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