Lefties and left-of-center people: Who do you support in the French election?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hamon (normal)

2) He has enough populist appeal to have some political capital should he get into office, while Hamon will be saddled with Hollande's legacy, no matter how much he tries to distance himself.

God this is absurd. Macron was a Government Minister who thought up and enacted Hollande's policies and his whole economic program is to triple down on nice pragmatic managerial post-ideological neoliberal centrist bullsh*t. Hamon resigned from said government because he disagreed with basically everything it was doing economically. But somehow Hamon is "saddled with Hollande's legacy"?

[Antonio the Sixth]

First off sorry for the tone of my previous post, that was completely uncalled-for. It's just the effect Macron has on me.

The policies that Macron helped enact as Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs aren't exactly the ones that are the source of Hollande's unpopularity.

What makes you say that? I mean, we can discuss for years about the reasons of Hollande's unpopularity (when your approval % is lower than the legal age to vote, you must have screwed up more than one thing), but it's pretty clear that the reason why he's become so unpopular among the left is that he betrayed the entire economic program on which he ran and ended up doubling down on neoliberal voodoo economics, with tax breaks for corporations, tax hikes for the middle class (through the VAT), deregulation of the labor market, etc. There's a reason Hamon kicked Valls' ass in the primary last month: it was a rejection exactly of all the policies that the Hollande/Valls/Macron unholy trinity championed. (Hollande himself has made hints that he really supports Macron, even though he can't say so in public.)

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Hollande's 2012 platform was full of symbolic, feel-good measures rehashed from the French left's past or from the fads of the moment, intended as a synthesis of different currents of the PS electorate. Hamon's platform proposes a genuinely bold new vision to fundamentally transform French society in a more egalitarian direction (UBI, taxing the means of production, sharing work-hours...).

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Since I just answered that, I'd like to know what the hell you find promising in Macron's proposal of tripling-down on neoliberalism except with a younger and more "hip" face.

[Antonio the Sixth]

1) Hamon
2) Melehcon



Better than the horribles and the jokers) Macron
basically equal in horribleness) Fillon and Le Pen

gun to my head if its a Fillon and Le Pen run-off, I may have to vote Le Pen because she'd basically be powerless since I doubt National Front has a chance of gaining a substantial coalition in government.

That's what they said about Trump.

are you illiterate?

how about literally the words right next to those words?

Trump has a major political party with control of every lever of power under his control.

the situation could not be more different in the case of National Front.

Thanks for responding: When I was phone banking during the election, I had a progressive Democrat tell me she was voting for Trump because the Congressional Republicans would never listen to him. Remember, back then people thought Ryan would be 100% anti-Trump and that meant the presidency was powerless.

That's not really comparable to a Le Pen + LR majority cohabitation, though. LR would have no interest in Le Pen succeeding with her agenda (or at least the parts of it on which they disagree), whereas T***p and Ryan's political fates are tied together.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The trouble with the "impotent powerless Le Pen" theory is that I presume Le Pen will make every effort to hobble the parliamentary aspects of France by really testing the constitution. Heck, PS have laid the carpet for such a move, with their endless state of emergency. I wouldn't be surprised if she makes Erdogan like attempts to change the constitution to turn France into a full presidential system.

That's a very valid concern to have, especially since De Gaulle provided the unfortunate constitutional precedent of the President modifying the Constitution by Referendum without actually respecting the amending procedure (mostly because the Constitutional Council was a rump at the time). That said, I'm hoping that the CC would be more willing to stand up to a Le Pen presidency, considering they'd all be PS and LR appointees.

[Antonio the Sixth]

i am sick of right-wingers holding their nose and left-wingers always playing "holier than thou"-characters.

Yeah, how dare left-wingers want a left-wing candidate...

All the way with Benoit.

There are some good potential slogans in French:

Benoît, on y croit!
Benoît, c'est mon choix!
Benoît, on est tous avec toi!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hamon.

But if Macron made the runoff and I were French I'd yell things like "MON ROI EST VIVANT" in reference to him.

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[Antonio the Sixth]

Hamon.

But if Macron made the runoff and I were French I'd yell things like "MON ROI EST VIVANT" in reference to him.

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Is this in reference to his terrible French grammar, his use of Google Translate, or are you just now recognizing how utterly bizarre BRTD is?

"MON ROI EST VIVANT!" would make more sense in French, right?

The translation is correct. It's just even more cringeworthy to read it in another language.