French presidential election, 2022

[Sir John Johns]

Mélenchon himself used this opportunity to start the year with some rambling against ‘the European Marian flag’ (he is obsessed with that; note that Léaument has claimed that the EU flag should be removed because it is a symbol of religious origin and, as such, an infringement on laïcité)

WTF

Surprisingly, people have claimed Marian connections in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe#Marian_interpretation

Indeed, Léaument has tweeted this lately:

https://twitter.com/ALeaument/status/1478104515303854083

The crown of the Virgin Mary on the Eiffel Tower.

Fortunately, this isn’t a crescent on the European flag otherwise the friends of variable-geometry laïcité would be in PLS [position latérale de sécurité ‘recovery position’ aka would feel unwell]

Ironically, Léaument started his political career in Bayrou’s party, the direct descendant of Robert Schuman’s Christian Democrat MRP.


He may have a point on the ‘variable-geometry laïcité’ of parts of the French political class from the elephants in the room that are the state and the churches legally not being separated in several parts of the country (Alsace-Moselle and various overseas territories) or Christian schools receiving public funding (but nobody is wanting relaunching the school war) to the Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet church in Paris being illegally occupied by the Society of Saint Pius X since 1977 (the Interior Ministry is much more responsive when it is Muslim clerics doing illegal stuff) or a LR deputy who protested five years ago the absence of the Christian crosses on the roofs of monasteries depicted on the packaging of Greek yogurts of a supermarket chain (the worst thing is that came from a deputy elected from Marseille, a city with a truckload of actual serious problems).

But, a year ago LFI was opposing the law against ‘separatism’ reinforcing the control of the state over religious organizations (criticized by Christian, Jewish and Muslim organizations alike) with Mélenchon defending then an ‘open laïcité’. Now it is using such trollish arguments for the only sake of criticizing the EU that was already used by Mélenchon in 2017 to oppose the presence of a EU flag in the National Assembly (then calling it a ‘faith community symbol’).

[Kakaobeaver]

I hope either Le Pen or Pecresse wins.

[Zinneke]

A croissant on the Eiffel Tower is a fantastic idea.

Anyway Macron getting a suprising blowback from all sides for his comments about pissing off antivaxxers.

[MaxQue]

A croissant on the Eiffel Tower is a fantastic idea.

Anyway Macron getting a suprising blowback from all sides for his comments about pissing off antivaxxers.

I think the only side he is trying to please there is electors.

[Sir John Johns]

Macron’s comments on non-vaccinated (‘I really want to piss off non-vaccinated’ and ‘an irresponsible isn’t a citizen’) made in an interview to a newspaper are said to be also an attempt to undermine the candidacy of Pécresse whose party is currently divided over the introduction of vaccine passport currently heatedly debated in parliament. Le Pen, Mélenchon and Zemmour are against said passport. But this could as well undermine Macron’s own candidacy, reminding people how arch-arrogant he can be, all of that when the management of the coronavirus new wave by the government is not above reproach; in that same interview, Macron criticized his own education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, for the way he informed teachers of the updated health protocols in schools: in the evening, on the eve of the back-to-school day and in an interview to a newspaper behind paywall...


Mélenchon’s campaign announcing, five years after Jean-Luc’s hologram, ‘a world first’: an immersive and olfactory meeting in Nantes on 16 January.

https://twitter.com/melenchon_2022/status/1478666114557169664

[parochial boy]

Might be shooting this off a bit early, but Méluche does seem to have established a slightly bigger gap in terms of being the best polling candidate of the left in recent weeks. Certainly more so than back in the Autumn when Jadot looked close to drawing even. Yannick seems to be faltering a bit at the moment, not at Hidalgo levels, but not great.

As far as Macron's plan to "emmerde" the unvaccinated, there is a social side to this to. As in, stuff like this going round demonstrating that the unvaccinated are very disproprtionately low income. That is, living in low income, badly connected areas; with (an often rather justified) a certain suspicion of the state and it's actors (victims of police violence, racism, straight out fear of deportation for certain people in Seine-Saint-Denis or the Quartiers nord of Marseille)... and so on.

As in, making the unvaccinateds' lives more difficult will disproportionately hit lower income groups in certain areas. A carefully worded campaign could make this look like just more hurting the poor and could work out well for Mélenchon - if he gets it right (and I say that as someone who really doesn't have a lot of patience for the way the anti-vax movement has delayed us from ever being able to go back to normal).

[Zinneke]

Might be shooting this off a bit early, but Méluche does seem to have established a slightly bigger gap in terms of being the best polling candidate of the left in recent weeks. Certainly more so than back in the Autumn when Jadot looked close to drawing even. Yannick seems to be faltering a bit at the moment, not at Hidalgo levels, but not great.

As far as Macron's plan to "emmerde" the unvaccinated, there is a social side to this to. As in, stuff like this going round demonstrating that the unvaccinated are very disproprtionately low income. That is, living in low income, badly connected areas; with (an often rather justified) a certain suspicion of the state and it's actors (victims of police violence, racism, straight out fear of deportation for certain people in Seine-Saint-Denis or the Quartiers nord of Marseille)... and so on.

As in, making the unvaccinateds' lives more difficult will disproportionately hit lower income groups in certain areas. A carefully worded campaign could make this look like just more hurting the poor and could work out well for Mélenchon - if he gets it right (and I say that as someone who really doesn't have a lot of patience for the way the anti-vax movement has delayed us from ever being able to go back to normal).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4omcmEQlvQ

Is telling people not to take Pfizer but getting 3 doses of it "getting it right"?

This guy is a disgusting social fascist who again is playing a tactically superb campaign to finish a solid 3rd place that the Left and working classes are supposed to celebrate. Wow we really owned the snob Macron there.

Honestly inserting the class divide into the argument against Macron reeks of the kind of cheap workerism. I tend to think being poor doesn´t excuse you from being an antivaxx arsehole. On issue such as crime of course social conditions play a huge role in crime reduction. But on the issue of public health, Macron is right to call these people out. Arguing that working class people are more vulnerable to disinformation implies forgets that the controlling variable is inevitably what their cultural background is. THe communities in 93 you speak of are subject to disinformation campaigns because they are not exposed to a common cultural sphere that we are.

The rhetoric you are going down leads to people like Djokovic´s father saying things like this you see :



Not surprised Méluche is trying to use similar undertones winking and nudging antivaxxers as oppressed working class people.

[parochial boy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4omcmEQlvQ

Is telling people not to take Pfizer but getting 3 doses of it "getting it right"?

This guy is a disgusting social fascist who again is playing a tactically superb campaign to finish a solid 3rd place that the Left and working classes are supposed to celebrate. Wow we really owned the snob Macron there.

Honestly inserting the class divide into the argument against Macron reeks of the kind of cheap workerism. I tend to think being poor doesn´t excuse you from being an antivaxx arsehole. On issue such as crime of course social conditions play a huge role in crime reduction. But on the issue of public health, Macron is right to call these people out. Arguing that working class people are more vulnerable to disinformation implies forgets that the controlling variable is inevitably what their cultural background is. THe communities in 93 you speak of are subject to disinformation campaigns because they are not exposed to a common cultural sphere that we are.

The rhetoric you are going down leads to people like Djokovic´s father saying things like this you see :



Not surprised Méluche is trying to use similar undertones winking and nudging antivaxxers as oppressed working class people.

That's kind of putting words in my mouth. I didn't say Mélenchon was "getting it right" at the moment, just that the opportunity was there - the fact that he is emerging as the clear top left candidate probably has less to do with that and as much to do with Jadot and Hidalgo's own deficiencies as much as anything else. And it's a pretty big stretch to go from the the actual consequences of restricting primarily working class people from economic life, access to mobility and so on, which principally serve to precararise them further; to defending a spoiled millionaire like Djokovic or the insane rantings of Philippot or Jean-Marie Bigard.

In that respect, it is right to bring up the fact that these measures disproportionately affect people in the most precarious situations; that access to the vaccines has been uneven so far; and right to talk about why that it is

And it isn't just because they aren't integrated as you seem to suggest. There are reasons for a Malian guy to be suspicious of the intentions of the French state towards him. Especially if he has a family member living in an irregular situation or whatever and is more worried about getting deported when he turns up to get vaccinated; or someone who doesn't speak French well enough to be able to interact with the authorities; or maybe doesn't trust a government that constantly tells them that they aren't part of French society - and none of those things are exactly unusual somewhere like La Courneuve.

[Zinneke]

And it's a pretty big stretch to go from the the actual consequences of restricting primarily working class people from economic life, access to mobility and so on, which principally serve to precararise them further; to defending a spoiled millionaire like Djokovic or the insane rantings of Philippot or Jean-Marie Bigard.

I am not saying you are defending them, I am saying that your discourse is what allows theirs to flourish. The idea that somehow antivaxxers are poor oppressed little people and that Evil Bourgeois Macron wakes up every day, drinks his cocktail of crushed Gillets Jaunes provincials, looks in the mirror and thinks "how can I piss off working class people today". Its a total caricature that actually fails to address the real structural problems with the French elite.

In that respect, it is right to bring up the fact that these measures disproportionately affect people in the most precarious situations; that access to the vaccines has been uneven so far; and right to talk about why that it is

Can you source how access to the vaccines has been uneven in a French context? The government has not charged money for the vaccine, there is no priority for rich people, and yes, it just so happens that living in a city means you have more options to travel to get vaccinated. Just like living in a city gives you more options for pretty much anything? I mean don't get me wrong territorial inequality is a massive issue in France but the idea that antivaxxers are not getting vaccinated because its too far away when the French government has made efforts to ensure rural populations have access is just plain wrong.

And it isn't just because they aren't integrated as you seem to suggest. There are reasons for a Malian guy to be suspicious of the intentions of the French state towards him. Especially if he has a family member living in an irregular situation or whatever and is more worried about getting deported when he turns up to get vaccinated; or someone who doesn't speak French well enough to be able to interact with the authorities; or maybe doesn't trust a government that constantly tells them that they aren't part of French society - and none of those things are exactly unusual somewhere like La Courneuve.

You are just trying to pull heartstrings over an individual example of a Malian guy who is undocumented when you know full well the bulk of antivaxxers are people like this :

https://twitter.com/paullarrouturou/status/1478096057989054469?s=21

Guess what? there are plenty of working class Malian immigrants who went through all the legal procedures to get documented, pay taxes towards healthcare, who have followed all the rules, who respected everything, who got the jab 3x and are STILL restricted in their freedom to access healthcare because of sh**tty antivaxxers clogging up ICU units. These are the people the Left should be defending.

Anybody who would read the above would think there are armed police ready to arrest clandestine immigrants at every vax center. There are indeed police at vaxx centers, protecting the medical personel from antivaxxers, not looking to deport immigrants. Its again playing to the American crowd that France is some kind of fascist state.

And why don't you say it : these antivaxxers are also influenced by religious extremists, be it Christian or Muslim or Jewish Orthodox. But if any leftist dares take this up they are accused of violating religious freedom.

I would also btw think the pass sanitaire/vaccine passport is the biggest load of tosh we've been sold yet. We went from saying that if 70% of the population were vaccinated it would be scrapped to a progressive changing of the goalposts by incompetent government authorities. And as it turns out the vaccine barely stops the spreading. So I actually think there are some convincing arguments to be had about the vaccine passport being a useless, freedom-infringement measure.

But fundamentally I still hold antivaxxers far more responsible for the debacle, and I have zero time for people who want to ride their favorite hobby horse, be it right-wing libertarianism or class warfare, to defend a fraction of antivaxxers and score some cheap points against Macron when everybody knows he is right to say those words (just maybe not as a President).

[Antonio the Sixth]

Might be shooting this off a bit early, but Méluche does seem to have established a slightly bigger gap in terms of being the best polling candidate of the left in recent weeks. Certainly more so than back in the Autumn when Jadot looked close to drawing even. Yannick seems to be faltering a bit at the moment, not at Hidalgo levels, but not great.

That makes it especially pathetic that he refuses to participate in a left primary, given that he'd probably win it easily. I would happily vote for him if he beat Hidalgo and others fair and square.

[parochial boy]

And it's a pretty big stretch to go from the the actual consequences of restricting primarily working class people from economic life, access to mobility and so on, which principally serve to precararise them further; to defending a spoiled millionaire like Djokovic or the insane rantings of Philippot or Jean-Marie Bigard.

I am not saying you are defending them, I am saying that your discourse is what allows theirs to flourish. The idea that somehow antivaxxers are poor oppressed little people and that Evil Bourgeois Macron wakes up every day, drinks his cocktail of crushed Gillets Jaunes provincials, looks in the mirror and thinks "how can I piss off working class people today". Its a total caricature that actually fails to address the real structural problems with the French elite.

In that respect, it is right to bring up the fact that these measures disproportionately affect people in the most precarious situations; that access to the vaccines has been uneven so far; and right to talk about why that it is

Can you source how access to the vaccines has been uneven in a French context? The government has not charged money for the vaccine, there is no priority for rich people, and yes, it just so happens that living in a city means you have more options to travel to get vaccinated. Just like living in a city gives you more options for pretty much anything? I mean don't get me wrong territorial inequality is a massive issue in France but the idea that antivaxxers are not getting vaccinated because its too far away when the French government has made efforts to ensure rural populations have access is just plain wrong.

And it isn't just because they aren't integrated as you seem to suggest. There are reasons for a Malian guy to be suspicious of the intentions of the French state towards him. Especially if he has a family member living in an irregular situation or whatever and is more worried about getting deported when he turns up to get vaccinated; or someone who doesn't speak French well enough to be able to interact with the authorities; or maybe doesn't trust a government that constantly tells them that they aren't part of French society - and none of those things are exactly unusual somewhere like La Courneuve.

You are just trying to pull heartstrings over an individual example of a Malian guy who is undocumented when you know full well the bulk of antivaxxers are people like this :

https://twitter.com/paullarrouturou/status/1478096057989054469?s=21

Guess what? there are plenty of working class Malian immigrants who went through all the legal procedures to get documented, pay taxes towards healthcare, who have followed all the rules, who respected everything, who got the jab 3x and are STILL restricted in their freedom to access healthcare because of sh**tty antivaxxers clogging up ICU units. These are the people the Left should be defending.

Anybody who would read the above would think there are armed police ready to arrest clandestine immigrants at every vax center. There are indeed police at vaxx centers, protecting the medical personel from antivaxxers, not looking to deport immigrants. Its again playing to the American crowd that France is some kind of fascist state.

And why don't you say it : these antivaxxers are also influenced by religious extremists, be it Christian or Muslim or Jewish Orthodox. But if any leftist dares take this up they are accused of violating religious freedom.

I would also btw think the pass sanitaire/vaccine passport is the biggest load of tosh we've been sold yet. We went from saying that if 70% of the population were vaccinated it would be scrapped to a progressive changing of the goalposts by incompetent government authorities. And as it turns out the vaccine barely stops the spreading. So I actually think there are some convincing arguments to be had about the vaccine passport being a useless, freedom-infringement measure.

But fundamentally I still hold antivaxxers far more responsible for the debacle, and I have zero time for people who want to ride their favorite hobby horse, be it right-wing libertarianism or class warfare, to defend a fraction of antivaxxers and score some cheap points against Macron when everybody knows he is right to say those words (just maybe not as a President).

Yes, I saw that video to, but the point is that those people are not the entirety, nor even the majority of. You know, of the ~10% of unvaccinated adults in France, only a minority are the total anti-vax weirdos that monopolise all of the media attention. The point is, clearly, that this narrative draws attention away from the many other causes of vaccine hesitation in particular among certain populations. In that respect, merely saying "well it's entirely the fault of the anti-vaxxers gnagnagna" misses part of the problem, and also absolves the government (and political figures, including Mélenchon) of their own failures. I mean, let's not forget the wholre crap about AstraZeneca earlier this year. You really think there is no hypocrisy in European governments in maintaining the line they have now at the same time as having cast doubt and misinformation about the vaccination less than 12 months ago?

I mean, I actually voted in favour of our vaccine passport here less than two months ago - my position is a not the seeminly majority one on this forum that it is time to drop all measures whatsoever. I don't even think this is Macron sitting in his cave stroking his cat and thinking of dastardly new ways to punish the poor. More, that he came up with a tactic that was a means to an end, there are certain consequences of this tactic and it is right to call them out and right to criticise them.

As for access - well, aside from the reasons that lead to more hesitancy (of which religious disinformation is one, but clearly not a majority one seeing as not even close to one in six French people is that religious for a start), there are questions of direct access to the vaccination. For example, it's no secret that public transport links and car ownership, especially in the outer reaches of the banlieues, are far worse than in the city centres or privileged suburbs. It's not just a case of hopping on the metro to your nearest vaccination centre. For example, La Courneuve has, what, one metro and one RER stop for a population of 45'000; is completely surrounded by motorways and has long standing problems with retail provisions including a shortage of pharmacies and doctor's surgeries. Of course those things are all going to present an actual phyisical barrier to being vaccinated. All the more so when you consider that people living in those places are more likely to work in service jobs (security guards, caissières, deliveroo couriers...) that mean working irregular hours; as well as less access to thinks like childcare which all make the 2+ hours it takes to go get vaccinated that much more complicated than Hypolite De Montmarson who lives in Neuilly and can easily take a couple of hours away from his home office. So yes, there are genuine questions of access.

And for the Malian guy the point stands. Eve the question of merely regularising is situation and paying taxes; somewhat complicated in a country that has all but closed off every possibility of doing so to low-skilled, non-EU migrants who don't have a hope of a succesful asylum application. All those points I made serve to show why certain people aren't vaccinated, or are more vulnerable to disinformation, as you say, that aren't simply the racist-uncle-at-the-réveillon meme that you seem to be suggesting. As in, their are structural inequalities in France, that we know, these have had an impact on levels of vaccination - and pissing off the unvaccinated is not really the way you are going to resolve that; all the more so when it has the indirect consequence of exacerbating those inequalities.

That makes it especially pathetic that he refuses to participate in a left primary, given that he'd probably win it easily. I would happily vote for him if he beat Hidalgo and others fair and square.

That's true; although part of the perspective is that a lot of Jadot and Hidalgo voters would probably just vote Mélenchon Macron, d'oh, in the case of him winning said primary (about half, based on one poll I saw). Plus a certain doubt about where vote transfers would go in his case; and his own rather massive flaws that will always hamstring his own potential. It's all hair-tearingly frustrating and I don't really know what the solution is.

[Zinneke]

I think that since the Hamon debacle a primary on the Left is pretty useless at this stage. There's no way some candidates will commit to voting for Mélenchon and his Russophile, pro-dictatorship stance after losing a primary to him if they already found it hard when Hamon won.

[MaxQue]

Might be shooting this off a bit early, but Méluche does seem to have established a slightly bigger gap in terms of being the best polling candidate of the left in recent weeks. Certainly more so than back in the Autumn when Jadot looked close to drawing even. Yannick seems to be faltering a bit at the moment, not at Hidalgo levels, but not great.

That makes it especially pathetic that he refuses to participate in a left primary, given that he'd probably win it easily. I would happily vote for him if he beat Hidalgo and others fair and square.

I don't think his ego would accept being put on equal footing with other inferior and impure left-wing candidates.

[DavidB.]

As for access - well, aside from the reasons that lead to more hesitancy (of which religious disinformation is one, but clearly not a majority one seeing as not even close to one in six French people is that religious for a start), there are questions of direct access to the vaccination. For example, it's no secret that public transport links and car ownership, especially in the outer reaches of the banlieues, are far worse than in the city centres or privileged suburbs. It's not just a case of hopping on the metro to your nearest vaccination centre. For example, La Courneuve has, what, one metro and one RER stop for a population of 45'000; is completely surrounded by motorways and has long standing problems with retail provisions including a shortage of pharmacies and doctor's surgeries. Of course those things are all going to present an actual phyisical barrier to being vaccinated. All the more so when you consider that people living in those places are more likely to work in service jobs (security guards, caissières, deliveroo couriers...) that mean working irregular hours; as well as less access to thinks like childcare which all make the 2+ hours it takes to go get vaccinated that much more complicated than Hypolite De Montmarson who lives in Neuilly and can easily take a couple of hours away from his home office. So yes, there are genuine questions of access.

As for La Courneuve, no one needs to take the metro or the RER for 2+ hours. I just looked it up because I wondered about your assertion, and it turns out you can get it right there in the neighborhood, even on Saturdays (here as well).

And yes, of course working class people are going to have more irregular working hours, and I'm the last person to tell others they should get the vaccine (I believe it should 100% be a personal choice and the passports are a disgrace to liberal democracy and should go), but given that they've been universally available since June at least, I don't think that's any inhabitant's reason not to take the vaccine at this point. In fact, it's probably significantly easier in the banlieues than it is in remote rural villages.

[parochial boy]

As for access - well, aside from the reasons that lead to more hesitancy (of which religious disinformation is one, but clearly not a majority one seeing as not even close to one in six French people is that religious for a start), there are questions of direct access to the vaccination. For example, it's no secret that public transport links and car ownership, especially in the outer reaches of the banlieues, are far worse than in the city centres or privileged suburbs. It's not just a case of hopping on the metro to your nearest vaccination centre. For example, La Courneuve has, what, one metro and one RER stop for a population of 45'000; is completely surrounded by motorways and has long standing problems with retail provisions including a shortage of pharmacies and doctor's surgeries. Of course those things are all going to present an actual phyisical barrier to being vaccinated. All the more so when you consider that people living in those places are more likely to work in service jobs (security guards, caissières, deliveroo couriers...) that mean working irregular hours; as well as less access to thinks like childcare which all make the 2+ hours it takes to go get vaccinated that much more complicated than Hypolite De Montmarson who lives in Neuilly and can easily take a couple of hours away from his home office. So yes, there are genuine questions of access.

As for La Courneuve, no one needs to take the metro or the RER for 2+ hours. I just looked it up because I wondered about your assertion, and it turns out you can get it right there in the neighborhood, even on Saturdays (here as well).

And yes, of course working class people are going to have more irregular working hours, and I'm the last person to tell others they should get the vaccine (I believe it should 100% be a personal choice and the passports are a disgrace to liberal democracy and should go), but given that they've been universally available since June at least, I don't think that's any inhabitant's reason not to take the vaccine at this point. In fact, it's probably significantly easier in the banlieues than it is in remote rural villages.

You know La Courneuve is quite big right? As in, even one or two vaccinations centres aren't going to be just walking distance for most people. And I'm sure you've taken enough public transport in your life to know that buses are far more awkward, slow and unreliable than a metro is.

The point is, if it's 30-40 minutes to get there and another 30-40 minutes at the centre it works out as around a two hour trip. For someone who is already hesitant about the vaccine, works irregular hours, has to work out what to do with the kids - then that two hour timeframe is still going to be enough of a discincentive to not go and do it. And that is still only one factor among many, as I already said. I think we all know that people that anyone who really wanted the vaccine would have it by now, but it still doesn't mean that the question of access how easy it is to just go and get one won't have had an impact on people who are more reluctant.

As for remote rural areas, I don't think anyone would deny that public service in rural France are scandalously crap. So it probably also won't be a surprise that some of the least vaccinated departments in France are very sparsely populated ones in the alps and the massif central. There are some cultural explanations for that, but they aren't the whole story

[Zinneke]

But anyway, we're getting bogged down onto technicalities : when Macron tackles the antivaxxers I don't think he is referring to undocumented migrants or people in extremely rural areas unable to get it. The latter especially may not frequent any establishent such as a bar or a cafe, and if they do something tells me that establishment doesnt force the coronapass anyway.

So I don't think this is a veiled attack on the working class. There are antivaxxers like the people in the video above who are insane and they are "antivaxxers" who like the Bogdanoff brothers, believe they know better and whilst not actively creating conspiracies or campaigning against everything, decide to not get it because of an invincibility complex. Both categories deserve no sympathy.

[buritobr]

Those who think American politics boring because there are only 2 major parties would like French politics. There is a big menu of political parties and ideologies.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Those who think American politics boring because there are only 2 major parties would like French politics. There is a big menu of political parties and ideologies.

And yet people keep voting for the same sh*t

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Those who think American politics boring because there are only 2 major parties would like French politics. There is a big menu of political parties and ideologies.

And yet people keep voting for the same sh*t

Well, it's a bit like the old cliché about American television isn't it? Countless channels, all of them terrible and with nothing worth watching on.

[Sir John Johns]

* Hidalgo has taken note of the failure of a tentative left-wing primary after Mélenchon, Jadot and Roussel have all declined to participate and is preparing to relaunch her candidacy for the umpteenth time. Taubira is possibly also planning the launch of her own presidential bid (she will make an announcement on her possible candidacy before 15 January). Meanwhile, MEP Pierre Larrouturou and twelve ecologist activists have started a hunger strike (jesus, this campaign is becoming more and more silly) in favor of a single candidacy of the left, the only mean to stop climate change or something like that.


* Pécresse is trying to pander to far-right voters with her stated intention to ‘take the Kärcher out of the basement’ to ‘clean the quartiers’ (deprived neighborhoods in banlieues) and ‘get the streets in order’, not excluding the participation of the army for specific operations against drug dealers. She also promised the building of 20,000 prison cells and the requisitioning of disused buildings to turn them into provisional detention centers for delinquents. Recycling the rhetoric of Sarkozy but somehow even more unhinged (stuff like depriving ‘kingpins, thugs, criminals and dealers’ of their citizenship) and, ironically, just few weeks after Claude Guéant, an interior minister and close associate of Sarkozy, went into jail for failing to pay the fine in the case he has been sentenced (for receiving undeclared bonuses in cash - taken from the police budget - when the chief of staff of Sarkozy, then Chirac’s Interior Minister). This must the first time since the Liberation that a former interior minister is imprisoned.


* According to Ouest-France, Jadot has his 500 signatures and so have Taubira and (apparently) Roussel while Jean Lassalle has so far 450 pledges of signature he said he easily got. Mélenchon had only some 300 signatures in early December (this is harder without the PC local officials network) while Kazib had 150 signatures against 168 for Poutou in mid-November. Le Pen said she is struggling getting the signatures (but the Le Pens are saying that at each election) while Zemmour has claimed having only 300 pledges of signatures by 6 January.


* Four days ago, Dupont-Aignan lost the spokesman of his campaign who resigned to protest over the candidate’s decision to campaign on the only topic of opposition to vaccination and social distancing measures. And, yesterday it was the only DLF deputy in the National Assembly with Dupont-Aignan, José Évrard (ex-PC, ex-FN, ex-Les Patriotes), who died of Covid, possibly contaminated by NDA himself as this last has chosen to ignore self-isolation rules...

I’m beginning to think that this Brexit party was cursed as most of its most prominent attendants have had problems since.


Not the scene of some horror movie but the party organized by Asselineau and co to celebrate Brexit on 30 January 2020. Amusing detail: these morons displayed the Union Jack upside down.

François Asselineau is currently indicted for moral harassment and sexual assault against two former male employees of his party; Jean-Frédéric Poisson has renounced to run for president and is now singing unfunny humorous songs in Zemmour’s meetings; Georges Kuzmanovic has lost his job in a video games company (supposedly for political reasons) but still absolutely nobody is giving a sh**t about his quixotic presidential bid; and for Philippot, this is summing up things pretty well:

https://twitter.com/ehouardvial/status/1477282769160052740

The guy could have remain the number two of one of the largest parties in France and, today, he is dancing to discount music wearing a pointed hat under the window of a minister in order to show medical personnel to which extent he piss them off.

(yes this was on New Year’s eve in an antivaxx protest before the Health ministry)

And has anybody some news about Jacques Cheminade?

Among participants of the Brexit party were also a former MPF eurodeputy currently investigated for having reportedly drugged a man way younger than him to sexually abuse him (Paul-Marie Coûteaux) and a Belgian essayist who is trying too hard to defend freedom of speech for Holocaust deniers (Jean Bricmont). Le Pen and the RN were probably right not going to such party.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Those who think American politics boring because there are only 2 major parties would like French politics. There is a big menu of political parties and ideologies.

And yet people keep voting for the same sh*t

Well, it's a bit like the old cliché about American television isn't it? Countless channels, all of them terrible and with nothing worth watching on.

The benefit is that with today's technology you can ignore television networks, watch whatever you want on Netflix or illegally download something.

But what would be the equivalent of that in a parliamentary democracy?

[Good Habit]

You can vote for every "online-only" party that the MSM (and the majority of people)never heared off? Although this would lead to extreme fragmentation...

[Sir John Johns]

* Guillaume Peltier has announced he is dumping Pécresse and is now supporting Éric Zemmour (strong Éric Besson vibes here):

https://twitter.com/G_Peltier/status/1480107766916296704

I have took the decision to support the only right-wing candidate, the only RPR candidate, I’m rejoining Éric Zemmour

Ignoring than when the RPR was a thing, Peltier was not a member of that party but of the FN (and MNR after Mégret split with Le Pen).

Peltier was one of the vice presidents of LR until last December when dismissed by Christian Jacob for having posted comments favorable to Zemmour just after Pécresse’s victory in the party’s internal primaries. Another vice president, Gaël Perdriau (mayor of Saint-Étienne) was dismissed from his party job the same day than Peltier but for having expressed his intention to leave LR in case Éric Ciotti was elected the party’s candidate.

Peltier has been immediately promoted to spokesman of Zemmour’s campaign. His former compadre in the La Droite forte wing of the UMP, Geoffroy Didier, is now ironically himself in charge of the communication in Pécresse’s campaign.

Peltier is consequently no longer a member of the LR caucus and some of his former colleagues have expressed some mean words against him:

https://twitter.com/AurelienPradie/status/1480127821754339332

Peltier is doing what he has always do: betraying for better sell himself. This has nothing to do with courage. Nothing to do with convictions. Zemmour is choosing for carrying his words a person who is carrying no conviction. Everything that the French are hating.

Pradié, a rising star in LR, used to be close to Peltier.

According to some journalists, Le Pen has privately said that Peltier tried a month ago to negotiate his endorsement of the RN candidate.



* Taubira will run for president if she is elected the candidate by the voters of the ‘popular primary’. Considering that other prominent left-wing candidates have all declined to participate in such process and acknowledge its results, she will have not much problems defeating the likes of Pierre Larrouturou (desperately trying to politically exist since more than two decades), Charlotte Marchandise (a nobody who won a 2017 online primary but failed to get the 500 signatures) and Anna Agueb-Porterie (a complete unknown). Still, I haven’t really understand if voters in the primary could still vote for Mélenchon, Jadot, Roussel or Hidalgo whose candidacies have been apparently registered.



* Hidalgo has expressed her support for the right to vote for foreigners residing in France in local elections. This has been a promise already made by Mitterrand in 1981 and 1988 and Hollande in 2012 but that the socialists had rapidly gave up once in office due to lack of willingness and strong opposition from the right and the far-right.

https://twitter.com/Anne_Hidalgo/status/1479246289896415233

[Sir John Johns]

Found on Twitter (source) and made with real recent declarations and ‘accomplishments’ of French politicians:



LEFT AUTHORITARIAN:

Fabien Roussel: ‘A good wine, a good meat, a good cheese: that is the French gastronomy. The best way to defend it is to enable French to have access to it.’

RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN:

Valérie Pécresse: ‘Yes, being French is to have a Christmas tree, to eat foie gras, to elect Miss France and it is the Tour de France because that is France’

RIGHT LIBERTARIAN:

A snippet from a popular cooking TV show the (largely useless) minister in charge of Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, recently participated in by preparing a ham and cheese Pithivier in the kitchens of the Ministry of Interior (sending the government’s token feminist to that peculiar show is truly a wonderful idea).

LEFT LIBERTARIAN

Éric Piolle (EELV mayor of Grenoble) (posting to the EELV mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet): ‘Dear Lyonnais friends, I can confirm that the [French] tacos are indeed from Grenoble’ [there is a typically French controversy whether such dish has been invented in Lyon or Grenoble comparable to the pain au chocolat/chocolatine name dispute or whether there is cheese in the gratin dauphinois or not].


Not sure where this one should be placed:

Go in any street of Paris or somewhere else and you will see everywhere signs in English. The creolization [some sort of ‘meeting’ between different cultures advocated by Mélenchon] is taking place. But we are also the biggest pizza consumers. And the French’s favorite dish is couscous.

[parochial boy]

Found on Twitter (source) and made with real recent declarations and ‘accomplishments’ of French politicians:

Ah, a man of taste I see. His show with Usul is one of my favourite things on youtube.