France General Discussion II: Living under Marxism

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One aspect of the new bill/law which escaped me at first: the law will only apply beginning after the 2017 elections. I knew that this was all too good to be true, we couldn't afford to let these poor, tormented souls go hungry and unemployed like that!

In other news, EELV keeps going down the sh**tter: Noël Mamère has left the party, saying that the party has become power-hungry, self-interested and run by Cecile Duflot and her clan. The leader of the party, Pascal Durand, is retiring; his 'ultimatum' to Flanby and his tough line against the government isn't appreciated by Duflot and co. He'll likely be replaced in November by Emmanuelle Cosse, an ally of Duflot and generally more pro-government.

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More anti-Roma racist horsesh**t from Oberst-Gruppenführer Manuel Valls
http://www.lemonde.fr/a-la-une/article/2013/09/25/roms-la-faute-de-manuel-valls_3484159_3208.html

'Le changement c'est maintenant' (whites-only)

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God, why won't Flanby get the f[inks] rid of that racist monster?

Because Manuel Valls is the most popular cabinet minister in the entire government (although it's dropped some lately, I would suppose as a result of UMP/FN voters being less positive about him after the UMP started criticizing him for various kinds of stuff), and certainly the most popular of the more 'visible' ministers (most people probably approve of the likes of Le Drian, Filippetti because their portfolios are low-profile in the media and they're uncontroversial). Furthermore, as disgustingly racist (and downright retarded and illegal) the Oberst-Gruppenführer's comments are, they're quite popular with the wider electorate (and a lot of mayors, who have problems with the resettlement of Romas) and only a fairly small niche circle of bobos and far-leftists actually take issue with his comments (according to a poll, only 21% condemn his comments). Tellingly, the most common response to Duflot's comments (even on Le Monde.fr, not even talking about Le Figaro here) seems to be the usual "why are the greenies annoying us"/"who does she think she is"/"why hasn't she been fired yet".

Sad as it may be, the Oberst-Gruppenführer is one of the few guys who is actually an asset for Flanby/the PS, most notably by neutralizing a common criticism of the left as being 'soft on crime' (which is often cited as one thing which sunk the PS in 2002). Flanby (and Ayrault, who might or might not still be alive) might personally find him a bit too extreme and a pain in the ass, but he's smart enough to know that firing the Oberst-Gruppenführer over this would be a PR disaster for the government and would work against the government since Valls could probably be even more of a maverick pain in the ass outside the government (besides his tough-on-crime/browns-suck image, his whole annoying 'I'M A MAVERICK I CRITICIZE THE LEFT ON KEY ISSUES LOOK AT ME' shtick works out quite well with an electorate which just *loves* politicians of his kind).

tl;dr: politics isn't about what's morally right, so let's stop being naive, kids, and take up drinking

re: http://www.leparisien.fr/politique/sondage-les-francais-soutiennent-valls-sur-les-roms-27-09-2013-3175463.php

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Fun news of the day: some obscure article in a law passed by Poison Dwarf in 2010 allows me to vote for the European Parliament... in the Ile-de-France constituency

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Apparently Cecilia whined about her being deeply hurt by something (I think invasion of her private life etc) and her life being complicated or something. And then this: organiser une fête privée à l'hôtel Fouquet's n'avait rien d'incongru, c'était une manière d'honorer Paris et la France et d'associer notre joie à un lieu que nos concitoyens aimaient (Hash's translation: organizing an exclusive party for our rich white friends when Poison Dwarf won was not incongruous, it was a way to honour Paris and France and associate our joy to a place which the French people like...)

And she also says that "she saved lives" with the Bulgarian nurses and Gaddafi in 2007. Everybody knows that Gaddafi released them because Poison Dwarf bribed him and/or he owed him something after paying for his 2007 campaign.

What a sheltered little bourgeois snob. Go back to your Upper East Side den, and stop pestering people with your rich problems nobody cares about.

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In shocking news for today:
UMP deputies continue to be sexist pigs: http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/10/09/caquetement-d-un-depute-ump-lors-de-l-intervention-d-une-elue-eelv_3492289_823448.html
Alain Delon, tax evader, homophobe and racist idiot, praises the FN: http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/10/09/alain-delon-soutient-la-progression-du-front-national_3492655_823448.html

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Gerard Collomb, Moderate Hero extraordinaire, will apparently protest with the employers' organization (MEDEF) against the government's economic policy. He's also a PS mayor running for reelection next year.

Source: http://www.lyoncapitale.fr/Journal/Lyon/Actualite/Economie/Collomb-avec-le-MEDEF-et-la-CGPME-contre-le-Gouvernement

My daily contribution to the morons who think the FN isn't a far-right party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2fOpW7lbyQ (FN MEP Bruno Gollnisch, Holocaust denier in chief, speaking at a Hungarian Nazi rally)

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The first round of the PS' "primaires citoyennes" for the munis were today, most notably in Marseille where it was a very hot and acrimonious 6 candidate race (naturally, it is Marseillais PS politics!). Apparently, PS senator Samia Ghali (from northern Marseille, and fairly pro-Guérini mafia clan) and PS deputy Patrick Mennucci (from central Marseille, pretty strongly anti-Guérini now) have qualified for the runoff, the defeated include Marie-Arlette Carlotti, a cabinet minister.

A few good articles for those interested (highly recommended):
http://www.slate.fr/france/78762/primaire-marseille-caselli-carlotti-ghali-mennucci-guerini
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/10/03/samia-ghali-la-segolene-royal-de-marseille-bouscule-la-campagne-ps_3489347_823448.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/10/09/a-marseille-le-sprint-final-des-candidats-a-la-primaire-ps_3492296_823448.html

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Marseille results:
Samia Ghali (senator, mayor of the 8th sector, pro-Guérini) 25.25%
Patrick Mennucci (deputy, mayor of the 1st sector, nowadays anti-Guérini) 20.65%
Marie-Arlette Carlotti (cabinet minister, deputy, anti-Guérini/probably Flanby/Ayrault-Zero's candidate) 19.52%
Eugène Caselli (president of the urban community, formerly pro-Guérini) 16.57%
Christophe Masse (vice-president of the general council, anti-Mennucci, pro-Guérini) 14.29%
Henri Jibrayel (deputy, anti-Ghali, formerly pro-Guérini) 3.71%

20,700 voters.

Carlotti and Jibrayel have endorsed Mennucci, since both of them (especially the latter) hate Ghali. Masse will probably support Ghali because he hates Mennucci.

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Cross-posted from the other thread...

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Well, it's a good thing for Ghali: she's now the "anti-system" and "anti-Paris" candidate... Quite funny for someone probably supported by Guérini (anti-system, eh ?...).

Well, it's basically a fight between two systems/establishments: the Paris/Solferino/Matignon PS system and the PS 13 system. 

The anti-Paris stuff is probably going to be lucrative for Ghali, I can imagine that kind of stuff playing very well. It seems that her entire runoff campaign consists of calling Mennucci the "candidate of Matignon" and bitching about that as much as possible.

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Direct quote from Samia Ghali:

Que Matignon se mêle de ces primaires me pose problème. M. Mennucci rassemble les élus, je rassemble les Marseillais. Je suis la candidate antisystème.

Hey, at least she's honest.

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Mennucci has won the primary (no numbers yet) but Ghali seems pissed off and there are rumours she won't endorse him. Even talks of dissident lists...

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Samia Ghali just gave a speech... insane stuff. No concession, no mention of his name, she recognized she had not won, but said she hadn't lost because their fight continues (etc), she bitched about how she had been alone against 5 candidates and the government, she said she was extremely disappointed in Ayrault and the government's behaviour... And then when she pronounced Ayrault and Flanby's name, there was huge booing. She strongly criticized the government's policy.

tl;dr: Samia Ghali spoke like Panzergirl, the PS is a joke party

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Mennucci 57.16%
Ghali 42.84%

24,037 voters.

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PS unity:

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BREAKING NEWS: Samia Ghali has smiled!



She has proposed a conditional endorsement of Mennucci. Very disappointing stuff Details: http://www.laprovence.com/article/edition-marseille/2591606/reconciliation-en-vue-entre-ghali-et-mennucci.html

A journalist from La Provence RTed my map of the primary runoff

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In today's news

The Crazy Lady has completely lost it again:
http://bigbrowser.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/10/24/chemin-delacroix-segolene-royal-pose-en-liberte-guidant-le-peuple/

Flanby lives in alternate reality/another planet where unemployment is going down:
http://www.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2013/10/25/ayrault-convaincu-que-la-courbe-du-chomage-va-s-inverser-avant-noel_3502681_1698637.html

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Well, a less fascist and racist immigration policy under a minister who isn't some modern day milicien would be nice; but the chance of that happening is lower than me hooking up with Aubrey Plaza tomorrow.

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Panzergirl has been watching way too much Homeland, insinuates that the freed hostages have been 'turned' and that we have a Brody amongst us!

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/live/message/527/215/891/cc6/f00/7b3/03b/fcc.html

(keeping with the theme: Panzergirl is more annoying than Dana Brody)

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New YouGov/HuffPo poll: the bottom is falling out

Flanby approval
Disapprove 76% (+7)
Approve 15% (-6)

Even PS-EELV sympathizers disapprove, 49-44. Zero stands at 74-15, government approval is at 14%. As far as I know, 15% is an all-time low for any French President. Of course it's YouGov.

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It's not only the economy. It's also has to do with the fact he's barely done anything since elected.

^^

I don't think Flanby is the worst person ever and that he's some sort of all-time horrible president, but the truth is that Flanby's unpopularity isn't only because the economy is in the sh**tter and circumstances outside of his power.
 
His economic/fiscal policy is disapproved by the right, centre and a lot of the left for varying reasons. His government is rather inexperienced and has little internal cohesion, given the public feuds between various ministers or the constant need for somebody to tell somebody else to behave or stick to the official line. For this and other reasons, the government also appears to be quite incompetent, vacillating and like a deer in the headlights. Besides gay marriage, it's hard to think of one major groundbreaking policy initiative/reform/whatever that has come out of this government (nobody cares about/aren't super enthused by the laws passed on jobs and whatever). His Prime Minister is basically AWOL and has done anything whatsoever. The right/far-right's demagoguery on immigration is successful. Flanby looked like an idiot with the Leonarda case recently. Nobody cares about Flanby's main foreign policy success (Mali) and his behaviour wrt Syria made him look like some weak fool. The whole 'président normal' bullsh**t died out very quickly when Flanby began behaving like Poison Dwarf and his predecessors. The government's response to the Cahuzac case was pretty crappy and it lost a lot of credibility.

That being said, can we cut the sensationalist bullsh**t about "losing power for 20 years"? I'm not denying 2014/2015 will be extremely bloody, and that Flanby will probably lose in 2017 if things keep going this way (probably along Ségo '07 and Chirac '88 margins, potentially Mitterrand '65); but the idea that the left will be out of power for 20 years because of Flanby is laughable. The French left isn't dead, because the French left as a thing can't die (and neither can the right).

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Interesting Ipsos poll focused on the FN, with generally reassuring results.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/11/26/le-fn-reste-dangereux-pour-la-democratie-pour-une-majorite-de-francais_3520729_823448.html

Brief overview:

• 69% (-4 since 2011, -13 since 2003) say the FN is far right. What's interesting is that the proportion of FN sympathizers who define their party as far-right has dropped from 57% in 2007 to 34% in 2011/2013; this confirms what I noted in the FN's vote in the 2007 and 2012 elections - that the post-Poison Dwarf vote for Panzerdaddy and Panzergirl is a protest ni-ni vote and less ideologically far-right than in 2002 or 1995.
• 59% (+2, -9) say the FN is dangerous for democracy. The heaviest drop has come with UMP sympathizers; those saying the FN was dangerous has fallen 18% since 2003 to 49%. You still have a quarter of FN sympathizers themselves saying the party is dangerous for democracy...
• 53% (-1, +9), nevertheless say the FN is useful. 34% of lefties agree, 67% of UMPers agree (+11 since 2011) agree and almost all (93%) FN voters do too.
• 64% say the FN isn't a credible national alternative, 67% say the FN isn't close to their concerns and only 30% say they have realistic solutions
• The only issue where a plurality say the FN's position is convincing is on maintaining local services (44-43), on all other issues a plurality say their positions are not convincing. The most popular positions for the FN are insecurity (46-48), immigration (42-52), defending rural areas (38-47). The least popular positions are dropping the Euro (21-75), lowering deficits (23-67) and unemployment (28-63). Over 50% of UMP sympathizers feel the FN positions on local services, immigration and insecurity are convincing.
• 62% say they have never voted FN and never will, 22% have already voted FN and 13% haven't voted FN but may do so. So a 35% potential. Actual+potential support is highest with men (40%), ouvriers (57%), farmers/shopkeepers/managers (45%), rural areas (42%), towns with less than 20k people (44%), people without the BAC (43%) and UMP sympathizers (43%). Lowest with women (31%), cadres (20%), greater Parisians (22%), BAC +3 (17%) and PS/FG sympathizers (17%, 12%).
• So 5% of FN sympathizers say they have never voted FN and never will. Small sample, yes, but pretty amusing. I AM MAD AS HELL AND I LOVE PANZERGIRL DEARLY BUT I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR THEM!!!!111
• 72% of the actual+potential FN voters do so/would do so primarily to express dissatisfaction, only 26% to support their ideas. 33% of those who have already voted FN did so to support their ideas. Obviously, 'support for their ideas' decreases with the frequency of FN support (72% who vote FN regularly support their ideas)

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I remember laughing hysterically with some friends in a class this summer when the prof showed us a video with him talking about how torture was so fetch, but I think we laughed mostly because his eye patch was hilarious.

Good riddance at any rate.