Posted on 10/14/2013 7:15:39 AM PDT by don-o
AFP - France's mainstream political parties were Monday scratching their heads over what to do about a surge by the Front National (FN) after a breakthrough by-election win for the far-right party.
The ruling Socialist party and the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, face humiliating reverses in municipal and European elections next year if the FN can sustain its current standing in the eyes of an electorate thoroughly fed-up with record unemployment, rising taxes and a perceived increase in crime and insecurity.
A poll published last week suggested the FN could emerge as the best-supported party in the European elections with 24 percent of those asked declaring themselves ready to back the party led by Marine Le Pen, the daughter of FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.
That shock survey was followed on Sunday by a spectacular victory for the FN in a local by-election in Brignoles, where FN candidate Laurent Lopez claimed 53.9 percent of the vote in a run-off against the UMP candidate.
"The left and the mainstream right are blaming each other for what is happening, but the reality is they've both been knocked sideways," said Nonna Mayer, the Research Director at the National Research Centre CNRS. "Neither of them know what to do."
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Our demographics are just as ugly. We need the a party that addresses the problem of immigration, legal and illegal, unfettered by political correctness.
I think there are about equal numbers of avowed evangelicals and Catholics in France now, and neither group worships for the sake of impressing their neighbors so they are probably more serious than in the past.
Yet it’s not that odd that the “land of romantic love” gives a cold shoulder to the idea of non heterosexual analogues. This is the land of viva la difference after all. In the name of tolerance they will put up with private shack-ups of any kind, but draw a big fat line at pulling it into formal mainstream ideas of marriage. They could do worse. The USA is actually more loveless than France, wild French romantic adventurism notwithstanding.
Many French didn’t particularly mind when the Germans deported Jews to the death camps in WWII. Of course there were many, many heroic examples of French acting bravely and honorably as well. As always it’s a mixed story.
Big Charles martel fan myself, but you also have to give kudos to his grandson Charlemagne.
The anti gay marriage movement in France takes as it’s number one premise is the idea of two parents (one of each sex) for kids. Said another way - it’s way more kid focused than it is what two consenting adults choose to do with each other. I think it’s a movement of conscience and one of religious principle and one that really doesn’t stem from notions of romance one way or another.
That kind of despicable behavior is a sad ignorance of how God works. Jews bring blessings to a society; it is part of a divine promise to diasporized Jews. You dump your Jews, you dump a lot of your brains. And Christians bring blessings too, but in a different manner (through the gospel opportunity).
Family friendly France... well if the stats back it up I won’t argue. I’m always happy to hear news that’s better than what I thought.
I remember a "Doonesbury" strip about 30 years ago. socialist Bernie Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, VT, and France has an election about the same time.
The line "As Burlington, VT goes, so does France." comes to mind and that indeed, France finally starting to wise-up.
Gallic Ping.
Le Pen is not a “conservative” as we know it.
She is against the EURO and against the EU in the name of French nationalism, she is in favor of re-establishing French, not EU, control over immigration and borders. On the other hand, she is for state-power, and a strong French Gov’t used to control and coordinate French business. As far as I can tell, she is not for low taxes or limited government in any way.
Agreed.
Not so much stats - more just my impressions from reading French newspapers and following some Facebook groups devoted to this issue. That is to say - my personal take aways.
The French effectively destroyed the Catholic Church in the Revolution. They detest religion there as much as they love big government.
However I think it is fair to say that under Le Pen, taxes would be lower. She would likely repeal the extremist taxes put into place by Hollande which have essentially driven every single French business out of the country. Also, the EU requires payments from its member states, so France would not need tax revenue to cover that.
The party is kind of a wild card in my eyes. It’s not Jobbik or anything like that, and looking at the disaster that has been both mainsteam parties, I would say the French are likely to give it a shot. There aren’t really any other options. That being said, the party is in no way conservative. It really doesn’t even go as far right as Linda Graham.
Sad, and sorry state of affairs in a rathole country.
Since 2011, when she was elected president of the party founded by her father, Jean-Marie, Ms Le Pen has tried to shed the FN’s image as a movement of ageing bigots, anti-Semites and young skinheads. She has recruited a swathe of younger candidates for the local elections next March and the European elections two months later. One opinion poll this week for the first time put the FN top for the European elections. She has even chosen a 31-year-old graduate of France’s elite Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Florian Phillipot, as her deputy. All this forms a strategy to appeal beyond the fringes to disillusioned voters on both the right and the left.
Now Ms Le Pen says she no longer wants the party to be described as “extreme right”. On October 2nd she threatened to sue anyone who calls the FN that. The extreme-right label, she argues, applies only to anti-democratic movements. It is, she says, a slur designed to tarnish her party by linking it to neo-Nazis. She is not even keen on the label right-wing, arguing that the new cleavage in French politics is not between left and right but between nationalism and globalism. Under her aegis the FN shares most of the views of Le Pen père on immigration and security, as well as an anti-elite anti-intellectualism. Yet, where he was for tax-cutting and trimming the state, she argues for higher taxes on the rich and a stronger state as a bulwark against globalisation.
“Wha’ hapen?!?!”
~Fred Willard, little kids on 1970’s sitcoms, and every Leftist when a Conservative wins anything...an argument, an election....etc
Time to take bets on Frexit and the French franc?
Read it all. It is worth it.
After a 200 year binge on socialism are the French coming to their senses?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.