Monday, April 23, 2012

The French elections (update)

One of the more interesting things Chris Hedges said in his speech at Harvard is that in USA, it is impossible to vote for someone for President who doesn't represent the views of Goldman Sachs.  And except for arguably Ron Paul, (arguably!) he is right.  Both major parties are owned by the Wall Street interests and both are informed by neoliberalism.

So yesterday, we did have an election in France where neoliberalism was on the ballot in the platform of Socialist candidate François Hollande.  He came in first.  Sarkozy, the little neoliberal puppet came in second which is a bit of a shock since he is the incumbent.  And then there is Marine Le Pen, the daughter of France's most notorious right-winger who came in third.

The next election round pits the top two finishers so in order to win, little neoliberal Sarkozy must capture the votes of the right.  But Le Pen's followers are nationalists which means most of them detest neoliberalism in all its manifestations.  And suddenly, left-right doesn't describe as much as it once did.

François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election

Socialist challenger beats Nicolas Sarkozy, but final runoff vote on knife edge after historic high vote for Marine Le Pen

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 April 2012

François Hollande has moved a step closer to becoming the first Socialist president of France in a generation by beating the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the first round of elections. But the surprisingly high vote for the extreme-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, boosted the overall figures for the right and meant that the final runoff vote on 6 May remains on a knife edge.

Partial results showed Hollande – a former Socialist party leader, rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal – with a clear lead at more than 28%, compared with Sarkozy on 27%. It is one of the left's best ever results and will raise momentum for next month's final runoff where only the two candidates will compete against each other. The Socialist party is seeking to return to the presidency for the first time since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988.

Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum. The final vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up.

Hollande told cheering supporters in his rural fiefdom of Corrèze in south-west France that he was best-placed to lead France towards change, saying the vote marked a "rejection" of Sarkozy and a "sanction" against his five years in office. He said France clearly wanted to "close one page and open another". He reiterated his opposition to austerity alone as the only way out of Europe's crisis: "My final duty, and I know I'm being watched from beyond our borders, is to put Europe back on the path of growth and employment."

A key victory of the night was for the Front National's Le Pen, who came third with around 18% of the vote, beating her father Jean-Marie's record success in 2002, and placing herself firmly at the heart of rightwing politics in France. She said "the battle of France has just begun" and "nothing will be the same again". more

8 comments:

  1. As a frenchy I can tell you that Hollande has nothing to do with socialism, he is as much neoliberal as Sarkozy, so what Chris Hedges says about elections in the US is also real for France

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  2. Sorry to read that. He SAID he is against neoliberalism so what was I to think? And he sure is scaring the conservatives over here.

    BTW, you do not have to be a Socialist to be against neoliberalism—at least not in USA.

    Thanks for the comment.

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    1. Yes he said to the people he wanted to go on war with the "finance" but he also said in the city in London, that he wasn't "dangerous" and underlined the fact that the so called socialist in France have helped to pass laws in favour of neoliberalism. In my opinion it makes it pretty clear that those are just words, i think we can see this campaign as a marketing plan. Both candidates defend the same model but they aim different segments so they take different postures.

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    2. Boy, that sounds familiar—and yes, I am sorry to read that but in fact, it doesn't surprise me—it takes VERY large ones to stand up to the banksters and so far, only Iceland and Argentina have actually done so. I was SO hoping France would join them.

      Thanks for the update. According to one finance site I regularly visit, his victory was already depressing the markets this morning.

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  3. No way can a candidate for chef of goverment in a Europe or North America at this point in history be the representitave of the 99%. The "Democratic" system won´t allow a non elite candidate. In our "Democratic" countries they are all pre selected by the banksters.

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    1. Yes indeed, you have that right. But surprisingly, it doesn't have to be that way—history is actually full of examples where citizens have restricted the power of the moneychangers. The banksters don't lose very often, but once in a while they do.

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  4. Here is an interesting document written in english if you want to understand what banksters plan to do with Hollande. http://info-resistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/le-plan-des-financierChevreux-Hollande.pdf

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    1. Thanks for that. I am half-way through it and am reminded once again how freaking cynical and frightening the banksters really are. Yes I really DO remember what they did to Mitterrand. On the other hand, like most bullies, the banksters WILL back down in the face of determined opposition.

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