France 2012: the official thread

[Leftbehind]

Can someone explain to this complete novice regarding current French politics, what the key differences between DSK, Hollande, Aubry and Royal's platforms are?

From the earlier (much appreciated) write-up and responses since I gather that Royal is some discredited populist on the left of the party, Aubry's seen as a unity leader, and DSK is on the neoliberal - almost Blairite - right? So how about Hollande?

The Right's a fair bit easier to distinguish between.

[Leftbehind]

Excellent, thanks for that.

[Leftbehind]

So what's this "Porschegate"?

DSK photographed driving a Porsche (which wasn't even his, in the end). French people tend to think left-wingers don't have the right to be wealthy.

It's not just the French, no-one likes a champagne socialist.

[Leftbehind]

It's not just the French, no-one likes a champagne socialist.

Of course. People always prefer a neoliberal hack who act like rednecks, to a guy who are not ashamed to live comfortably and whose policies whould actually help the poor.

No, the Right prefer that. The Left prefer socialists that help the poor but tend to be understandably turned off by socialists that live too comfortably, parading their opulent purchases (see: Two Jags). So neither side are enthused by champagne socialists, yet the neoliberal redneck doesn't alienate his vote.

[Leftbehind]

Oh, damn, I actually never knew that Le Penis' first name was actually 'Marion' and not 'Marine'.

News to me 'n all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ER_g3VYBI

[Leftbehind]

And I also consider myself to be a pretty old-styled leftist.

Really?

Yes, really. I'm not exactly a fan of Third Way politics and one of my main concern is restoring the Welfare State as it was in its glory days, the 1960-70s. My adhesion to social-democracy and rejection of socialism has nothing to do with the "new left" rhetoric, because the "new left" is far to the right of real social-democracy.

Aren't you conflating two different movements here? The historical New Left and the Third-Way/"modernisers" that've co-opted European social democratic/labour parties?

But beyond that, I didn't find much to disagree with in your post.

Good to see Melenchon returning slowly to a respectable number.

[Leftbehind]

Nowhere to watch these debates subtitled? I'd love to see them.

Am I remembering correctly that the BBC showed some of the last election's debates? I remember them being run-off one's, but they might've shown some of the previous ones too - I missed them all. 

[Leftbehind]

Actually, in this video, Hollande answers that question directly:
"I hadn't requested to meet with David Cameron, today my priority was to meet my fellow friends from the Labour party, and maybe one day - if I manage to convince the French on May 6th - then I will meet Cameron. But for now, as you know, Cameron and Merkel and the Spanish conservative leader Rajoy are all backing Sarkozy."

[Leftbehind]

F my non-existent language skills.

[Leftbehind]

Hollande seems pretty good as far as European social democrats go.

[Leftbehind]

Good to see Mélenchon rise to a more competitive level. I wouldn't be worried for Hollande until I seen a dropping off of the second-round leads.

[Leftbehind]

So what figure did BVA have for Mélenchon? Either way, I hope the direction of travel for him continues!

[Leftbehind]

Well it may be true he can't win, but then neither can Le Pen and yet Sarko's desperately trying to court her vote; so hopefully Mélenchon can at least have that effect.

[Leftbehind]

Well it may be true he can't win, but then neither can Le Pen and yet Sarko's desperately trying to court her vote; so hopefully Mélenchon can at least have that effect.

...so that Hollande is forced to look like an extremist, loses votes to the centre and allows Sarko to win. Great idea.

"Hollande is forced to look an extremist" = appealing to the Left. If he did that to the point he'd be alienating centrist voters, he'd inevitably gain those Left voters, making it nowhere near the losing strategy you purport it to be and one where the Left doesn't overly worry itself about appealing to the centre - I do think that'd be great, yeah.

[Leftbehind]

Why introduce that lunatic?

[Leftbehind]

It's pretty ridiculous that no pollster's polled these hypothetical match-ups.

[Leftbehind]

It's pretty ridiculous that no pollster's polled these hypothetical match-ups.

Not, it isn't. The likelihood of such scenario is neglectable.

*Negligible. Of course it is. Putting aside its likeliness, it's interesting to see on a psephological basis the potential support levels each could garner, and to compare them to historical trends. Most people interested in polling would also be interested in seeing such a run-off's effects. It's not as if there's a plethora of candidates to make this a difficult task, this election's been conveniently condensed down to five candidates, two of which - the likely contenders - having been (extensively) polled already.

[Leftbehind]

Any with English? Pretty sure the BBC broadcast the last debate, but it seems we can't even expect that anymore.