• Emmanuel Macron launches outsider bid for French presidency
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[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/emmanuel-macron-outsider-bid-french-presidential-race-election[/url] [QUOTE]Emmanuel Macron, France’s rebellious former economy minister, has launched an outsider bid for the presidency, promising to lead a people’s “democratic revolution” against a “vacuous” political system. The former investment banker, 38, was unknown to the French public until two years ago, is not a member of a political party and has never run for elected office. However, he has promised to blow apart the inadequacies of a governing system that he says has failed the people. “I have seen from the inside the vacuity of the political system,” Macron thundered in a speech in Bobigny, north of Paris, on Wednesday, referring to his two years as François Hollande’s economy minister during which he criticised complacent career politicians for letting ordinary people fall by the wayside. “Our political system is blocked,” he said. The notion that a non-politician running independently – with no constituency or political party and no electoral experience – could be a serious contender for the presidency would have been unthinkable only five years ago. But Macron’s aim to capitalise on France’s deep-rooted distrust of the governing class is seen as timely in a country that has lost respect for the creaking political party apparatus, and where voters are ground down by decades of mass unemployment, inequality, the threat of terrorism and fears that the globalised market system has left people vulnerable and forgotten. Donald Trump’s election to US president last week strengthened Macron’s conviction that there is currently space for “anti-system” presidential candidates. But, in stark contrast to Trump’s appeal for an uprising against the elite, Macron, who does not deny he is part of that elite, styles himself as the respectable face of political insurgency. He presents himself as an honest, safe pair of hands with government experience.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Macron, the son of two doctors raised in the Picardy town of Amiens, studied at France’s elite postgraduate civil service school. He is an intellectual who studied philosophy, which is reflected in his speeches. He is said to have earned about €2m (£1.7m) as an investment banker before Hollande appointed him as a senior presidential adviser then later catapulting him to economy minister in 2014. Macron resigned this summer to prepare a surprise presidential bid. The left of the Socialist party has fiercely denounced his pro-business approach. Macron’s decision to announce his bid at a training centre in Bobigny, an old Communist bastion in the northern Paris banlieue, was highly significant. He wanted to show he would target places where the left has lost its traditional working-class electorate. It was also an attempt to embarrass the Socialists by criticising the discrimination and inequality that still defines France’s high-rise suburban housing estates, more than 10 years on from the riots of 2005. Macron is economically liberal and a pro-business reformist, but he is firmly on the left on social issues, including on the freedom to practise religion in a neutral state, equality and immigration. He describes himself as an idealist, keen to open up business while protecting France’s wide-reaching social safety net. Early proposals have included loosening the 35-hour limit on the working week for young people while letting older people work less. He wants more freedom for school governance and for the retirement system. He has suggested checks on the competence of government ministers, more proportional representation, and that the president should be held to account by a citizens’ jury. The timing of Macron’s announcement was key. His current support in the polls comes mainly from older and professional rightwing voters. He is competing for the same centre ground as Alain Juppé, the former prime minister who is favourite to win the first round of the French right’s primary race to chose its presidential candidate this weekend. Macron entering the ring could weaken the turnout for Juppé and throw the right’s primary race wide open. Macron is also likely to further fragment the already divided French left amid speculation that Valls could stand for president if the deeply unpopular Hollande cannot attempt a bid for re-election.[/QUOTE]
Is he the type of Europian Sanders Ive been waiting for?
[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;51380048]Is he the type of Europian Sanders Ive been waiting for?[/QUOTE] He's pretty right-wing on economics relative to the French establishment left (I don't know where he sits relative to the Gaullists, who are pretty left-wing relative to the Anglo-Saxon world as well).
[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;51380048]Is he the type of Europian Sanders Ive been waiting for?[/QUOTE] Depends on what you mean by that. Sanders' policies are more or less basic French standards, so anyone leaning left over here would be comparable to him in that regard. If you mean the whole anti-establishment thing, meh. Sanders comes from the working class and is one of the poorest senators in the US, compare that with Macron who's the son of two doctors and made a lot of money as a banker... Not really the same background, which would explain why he's relatively right-wing economically. He claims he wants to protect social safety nets but his right-wing economic stance goes against worker's rights as they currently stand so that's a bit contradictory in my book. So yeah, someone who wants things to change drastically would be better off voting for the communist party.
He will be going against Le Pen, so that will be interesting.
[QUOTE=_Axel;51380304]Depends on what you mean by that. Sanders' policies are more or less basic French standards, so anyone leaning left over here would be comparable to him in that regard. If you mean the whole anti-establishment thing, meh. Sanders comes from the working class and is one of the poorest senators in the US, compare that with Macron who's the son of two doctors and made a lot of money as a banker... Not really the same background, which would explain why he's relatively right-wing economically. He claims he wants to protect social safety nets but his right-wing economic stance goes against worker's rights as they currently stand so that's a bit contradictory in my book. So yeah, someone who wants things to change drastically would be better off voting for the communist party.[/QUOTE] I see. I guess I should clarify what I meant: I meant it as in he's actually competent and not a complete and utter moron that most politicians seen to be today while having policies I prefer.
[QUOTE=Boilrig;51380315]He will be going against Le Pen, so that will be interesting.[/QUOTE] Even more problems for her.
[QUOTE=OmniConsUme;51380641]Even more problems for her.[/QUOTE] Let us use this moment to take a page from french electoral history 2002. You'll probably remember that France has two rounds of presidential elections so that the president must be elected by the majority which more often than not requires a two-way tiebreaker. As such and back to 2002 we go, more opposition in quantity all but equates a harder time to get into tiebreakers. What happenned in 2002 was a huge surge in results for small parties, which notably involved socialist voters being split between Lionel Jospin and a more socially conservative contender in the person of Jean Pierre Chevennement, resulting in tiebreakers between Le Pen (grandaddy la faf, that is) and Jacques Chirac which went the way of the latter. This exemple is being paraded as a "failure of democracy" by the moderate left despite it being our only known instance of third parties working as intended; hey: you be the judge. Now as for Macron I feel very sorry for the politically illiterate pundits who will waste a vote for him. Maybe he has the stuff of a head of state somewhere inbetween his fraud-ass rhetoric and his predisposition to be used as a doormat, dude's a square arrivist if there is any. Literal meme candidate, only good thing he's done in his life was fuck & marry his economics teacher.
Spotting a demagogue 101: Never trust a man who wants to lead a "people's" "democratic" "revolution".
[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;51392260]Spotting a demagogue 101: Never trust a man who wants to lead a "people's" "democratic" "revolution".[/QUOTE] it doesnt mean people wont elect him or anyone claiming to toss out the lobbiests and speaks his mind
This man is PART OF THE "VACUOUS" POLITICAL SYSTEM. HOW DO YOU FIGHT IT WHEN YOU PLAY A BIG ROLE IN IT? I fucking hate this "Anti-system" wave those days, Sanders WAS anti system because what he wanted was radical, clean, and revolutionary for the US. Healthcare and Free education in france is nothing, but in the US.. I guess you could considers him as an anti system dude. He had ambition, idea. This one? This one betrayed the current french government and was unloyal to the president, he's just a pawn of the system that think he is going to make a difference. He's just a rich asshole who's going to ruin France even more and shit on worker right. He's going to do NOTHING, like most president since the last ten year. I don't want this dude elected. edit: saw how there was an opposition between "Ruin france even more and shit on worker right" and "he's going to do nothing" but i think he is going to do nothing and ruin france by doing nothing and shitting on worker right at the same time.
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