French presidential election, 2022

[H. Ross Peron]

It is also fascinating to see that the only people the candidacy of Communist Fabien Roussel seems to seduce are right-wingers (who would of course never vote for him) with pro-police, pro-‘laïcité’, pro-nuclear (‘most profitable energy’ ignoring the still unfinished Flamanville EPR with its so far twelve-year delay and its €19.1 billion overcost) and now pro-cruel hunting practices stances.

I dislike extreme laicite (esp in the current context), but going by this thread and his (google translated) French Wikipedia article, Roussel seems like the least obnoxious French Presidential candidate. Knowing where we are, I'm sure the likelihood of him saying something anti-Semitic etc. is high and I may have to eat my own words.

[H. Ross Peron]

Imagine of the run-off actually ended up being Macron vs Pecresse! I think Macron would still be heavily favoured and alot of LePen voters would stay home...but symbolically it would be a big deal to knock the two facsists (LePen and Zemmour) out of the run-off and instead have a more conventional conservative in the run-off against Macron.

It would be the most exciting run-off since Georges Pompidou vs Alain Poher in 1969 (that was a joke)

Pecresse isnt much better than Le Pen.

[H. Ross Peron]

According to the Wikipedia article on Zemmour's Reconquest Party, the party's ideology includes anti-Masonry and its youth organization is called Generation Z.

[H. Ross Peron]

* Things are going very nasty between candidates: Le Pen has called out in an interview Zemmour for having ‘Nazis’ in his campaign team; Zemmour’s team has went after Pécresse over her previous endorsement by a famous rapper who had last month called his fans to stop wishing him a happy New Year because he is a Muslim (a pretty dumb controversy previously exploited by junior minister Marlène Schiappa); Pécresse’s team has tried to expose online the ties between Zemmour and Islamist theologian Tariq Ramadan while an EELV municipal councilor has compared Roussel to Jacques Doriot, a PCF leader of the interwar period who ended up as an admirer of fascism and Nazism and a fighter on the Eastern Front in the ‘Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism’.

What was the context of this comparison to Doriot?

[H. Ross Peron]

An example of what Al is describing is the pension system, which incidentally favours the likes of CGT “blue collared” labour aristocracy (celebrated by the likes of DFB because what matters is wearing dungarees and virtue signalling you see) and their outdated privileges over e.g. tourism sector workers in the South who have to serve Dutch caravan dwellers for a living. Who is really worse off?

Not being a resident of France nor a specialist on French politics, I've largely held my peace on my own opinions regarding the French Presidential election in this thread. But let me just say this, if you want me to have sympathy for Macron in the (still hypothetical) run-off against Le Pen, maybe don't push the "privileged unionized workers line" that state-level Republicans trot out every election season against teachers and other public employees. The real enemy-in both America and France-are not to be found in the factories nor the classrooms.

[H. Ross Peron]

Perhaps if someone had Melenchon's campaign skill and Hamon's positions and demeanor, they would have made the 2nd round, and given us a real runoff based on economics. This is really upsetting actually.

Roussel on domestic policy, Hidalgo on foreign policy.

[H. Ross Peron]

Why is the west of France so pro-Macron?

Hash and Antonio can certainly explain in more detail but western France has a Europhilic, Christian Democratic center-right political tradition that made it amenable to a candidate like Macron.

[H. Ross Peron]

Mostly for my own curiosity - but the combined scores of the left wing candidates in a bunch of the large cities. Villes-centres only, but enough to profile several different "types" of large city because they aren't at all that homogenous actually. (M) indicates Macron finished first, in all the others Mélenchon did.

Grenoble - 53,5%
Lille - 53,3%
Rennes - 52,8%
Montpellier - 52,1%
Toulouse - 50,1%
Nantes - 48,7%
Strasbourg - 46,1%
Rouen - 45,8%
Besançon - 44,6%
Clermont-Ferrand - 44,2%
Saint-Etienne - 43,7%
Lyon - 43,4% (M)
Caen - 42,8% (M)
Paris - 42,3% (M)
Bordeaux - 42,3% (M - alias - Paris #2)
Nancy - 41,9% (M)
Le Havre - 41,0%
Marseille - 40,3%
Annecy - 34,2% (M)
Reims - 33,6%
Nice - 31,2% (M)
Toulon - 27,2% (Le Pen wins)

Very telling the left did better in Paris than in Marseille.

[H. Ross Peron]

Macron very strong in the debate so far. Called Le Pen Putin’s dependent.

Yeah, I like what I see so far (fortunately, German television translates in real time). However, Macron was always rhetorically strong.

German TV is airing the debate live?

[H. Ross Peron]

Le Pen narrowly lost Toulon, so the largest city she won in metropolitan France seems to be Calais which is the 69th largest city in France.

[H. Ross Peron]

Le Pen narrowly lost Toulon, so the largest city she won in metropolitan France seems to be Calais which is the 69th largest city in France.

Of course, among all French cities Le Pen won Saint-Denis in Reunion and Fort-de-France in Martinique.