sidney
Army Intelligence
Bounty's #1 Fan
Proud Member of the Triple A Brigade
Posts: 16,005
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Post by sidney on Apr 24, 2022 18:35:49 GMT -5
Hi Morgan! How are you feeling about the election results? Breathing a breath of relief? Or were you hoping for a change?
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Post by Morgan on Apr 25, 2022 13:30:06 GMT -5
Hi Sidney! I feel much better indeed, thanks for asking! I am soooooo relieved Emmanuel Macron got elected again!!!! I really like him! But I have to admit that this was really scary this year, and I wasn't that confident in Macron winning again...
I remember 20 years ago, the far-right reached the second round of our presidential election for the first time. Litterally everybody was shocked, we all took to the streets to protest, and that year, Jacques Chirac got re-elected with 82% of the votes. At the time, we were certain that we would stop the Le Pen family, no matter what. We have a history of Resistance (even though we got trampled in WWII ^^)
After that, we got the usual candidates: one from the right (Sarkozy) then one from the left (Holland). The thing is that both were terrible... They were so bad that people couldn't recognize themselves in either parties. Some people started to turn to Le Pen again... and the press also started to treat the FN (far-right party) as a "normal" party, because so many people started to vote for them in all the regional elections... That was the beginning of the end...
5 years ago, Macron decided to step in. He left Holland's government team to create his own party, with ideas taken both from the left and from the right. Personnally, I thought that was genius, as I couldn't see anyone with enough shoulders to support the job, either on the left or the right. Macron positionned himself in-between, and I liked it. But the other political parties were furious, saying that he stole their ideas. Hence the actual hate they all gave Macron over the last 5 years. He had a very bumpy ride, with first the Yellow Vest protests, then a huge strike that lasted for months, then Covid, and last but not least, the war in Ukraine!
I, for one, am happy he was in command to deal with all this. So I am glad he got re-elected. But that was too close for comfort this time. Because of some outside influences (Trump in the US, Brexit, to name only a few), it became kind of "cool" to vote for the far-right.
I am appalled by some of my fellow citizens, who seem to have forgotten their history lessons, and how bad the far-right is, and that nothing good could ever come from it.
Macron will definitely have a difficult term yet again, having to battle both the far-right and the far-left, who, for some reason, tend to vote for each other... go figure...
Anyway, we have what we can call a third round in June, to elect the members of the National Assembly. If Macron doesn't get a majority of the seats, he will be forced to take a Prime Minister from another party, and it will be impossible for him to pass any law or decision...
That being said, this is only my point of view, I am not an expert in any ways ;-)
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sidney
Army Intelligence
Bounty's #1 Fan
Proud Member of the Triple A Brigade
Posts: 16,005
|
Post by sidney on Apr 25, 2022 16:43:26 GMT -5
When I saw he was elected tonight, I was so happy for France. I know no politician is perfect, but I didn't want Le Pen in. I was scared and I don't even live there.
I was scared for the States when Trump was elected and then amazed that he gets away with everything he did that was just undeniably wrong. I can't believe people will defend him no matter what and create alternative facts. I just kept waiting for good to prevail and it never did. My innocent view that good and honourable will always win in the end was completely obliterated.
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Apr 28, 2022 21:22:14 GMT -5
I heard an in-depth podcast on Le Pen the other day when I was driving on NPR. It is crazy how so many of those ideas are becoming mainstream again. I am glad that Macron won too, but that was a close race...
Another decade and who knows what might happen.
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Post by Morgan on May 1, 2022 14:44:29 GMT -5
Yes, me too Sidney, I can't believe Trump got away with everything he did. And even though he's not in the White House anymore, he unleashed a kind of beast that is eating democracy from the inside. Some people are now ok with being openly racist, or to create alternate facts. It will take time to heal, but in my opinion, it is necessary that the people responsible for the chaos pay and get convicted.
This is beginning to happen in France too, with Le Pen being depicted in the media as "a nice lady who has cats, and shares a house with her best friend; see, she's cool". Far-rightism is being normalized, and this is extremely scary and dangerous.
And as HD said, it is very worrying, because in 5 years, Macron will not be able to run for a 3rd term, and if neither the "regular" left nor the "regular" right manage to rise to their standards again, we will be faced with a populist president, and this will mean that the EU will be in danger of falling appart. And the EU is what has kept peace in Europe for decades... well that was until that bully Putin decided that peace lasted long enough...
Scary times...
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