French Legislative Election 2017

[warandwar]

Macron has got his majority so there is no excuse for not passing deep labour market reforms. It'll be interesting to see whether Macron actually will liberalize the French economy or whether he'll end up as another Chirac or Sarkozy.

The French govt is not the only organization with power to govern the labour market. The real question is how willing he will be to stomp on worker's democratic rights and how strong the worker's resistance will be.

[warandwar]

^^^^^
Well said.

[warandwar]

And always remember: LREM's ace in the hole is that, being a "centre" party, they have this "everyone's second choice" thing going.  There isn't as much incentive to vote *against* them as there is with something of a more firmly "droite" or "gauche" or, of course, "FN" identity.

So...that's where a LREM/MoDem coalition could wind up with a Liverpool Council Labour share of the seats.

That is indeed the strength of the centre.

"Ce que nous* avons fait pour les derniers mois n'a aucun précédent ni équivalent."
*Macron

It is unprecedented for a staunchly centrist party to have won such an overwhelming victory over the forces of extremism. The left and the right have had their turn at the helm of every major country, time after time after time. Now it is our turn! I ask the leftists and right wingers now observe what the centre can do when it has such an overwhelming majority.

As an ideally neutral observer, I like to downplay the "our".  Especially as it disregards the "centre is in the eye of the beholder" dilemma that so often trips up centrist parties--most notoriously the Clegg Dems...

Not sure how you can be a "neutral observer" of politics!

[warandwar]

LREM is just another right-wing party, don't get all drama queen.

Girardin seems to have survived in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, but just.

"Everyone to my right is a right-winger!"

well LREM ran on the same right-wing labor reforms that basically sent PS to single digit approval ratings, so...

It's not right-wing to reform labor markets when your labor market is as stultified as France's.

Yes it is. Destroying workplace democracy is a right-wing position.

[warandwar]

Marcon is actually making Thatcherism acceptable in France is he not?

Macron's agenda is more ambitious than what the previous presidents tried, but it's by no means Thatcherism. Macron actually wants to pass a temporary stimulus package and he criticized Fillon's program for being too right-wing ("purging a country against it's own will). If Macron is a Thatcherite, what do we call Fillon? What Macron wants to do to France is more similar to what Schröder and Merkel did to Germany than what Thatcher did to the UK.

LREM is just another right-wing party, don't get all drama queen.

Girardin seems to have survived in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, but just.

"Everyone to my right is a right-winger!"

well LREM ran on the same right-wing labor reforms that basically sent PS to single digit approval ratings, so...

It's not right-wing to reform labor markets when your labor market is as stultified as France's.

Yes it is. Destroying workplace democracy is a right-wing position.

Do you have any idea about heavily regulated the French labour market is? Even Paul Krugman thinks European governments should deregulate their labour markets and the French labour market is much more regulated than your average European labour market. But Paul Krugman obviously is a raging Thatcherite. My bad.

Paul Krugman is very much a neoliberal. I'm not surprised he would think that. I'm a Marxist, I believe that the labor struggle is central to emancipation. Why would I believe in "deregulation?"

PS: Interesting article in Viewpoint about all of this

[warandwar]

Unsubmissive France did quite well in Seine-Saint-Denis. Of course, they did quite well there in the presidential election as well but I figured that was just for lack of other realistic left candidates. Do Muslims actually like Melenchon despite his assimilationist positions or is FI just getting the votes of all non-Muslims? Who were they fighting against in most of the Seine-Saint-Denis run-offs?

Muslims in Seine-Saint-Denis definitely liked Melenchon. Their class may have more to do w/ it, but I'm pretty sure the banlieus weren't too much into Macron + autres big support for the killers of Adama Traore.
(And it's not like it's a new phenomenon that Seine-Saint-Denis likes the left)

[warandwar]

Why can't Melenchon play nice with the Communists?

To be fair, the question can also exactly be asked in reverse.

Also, it's better they have two groups, that's twice the number of assisting positions, and they would have perpetually fought and eventually split rather sooner than later. And anyway, a 27-member group can't do much more than two 16-member and 15-member groups... They don't even have half a motion of no-confidence (58 seats needed) between them !

You know, at some point the left is going to have to form some semblance of unity if it is to ever have power again

That unity is going to come from the street, not from the National Assembly. Key question is if they can build NuitDebout into a larger movement, not whether their groups merge or not.

[warandwar]

Why can't Melenchon play nice with the Communists?

To be fair, the question can also exactly be asked in reverse.

Also, it's better they have two groups, that's twice the number of assisting positions, and they would have perpetually fought and eventually split rather sooner than later. And anyway, a 27-member group can't do much more than two 16-member and 15-member groups... They don't even have half a motion of no-confidence (58 seats needed) between them !

You know, at some point the left is going to have to form some semblance of unity if it is to ever have power again

That unity is going to come from the street, not from the National Assembly. Key question is if they can build NuitDebout into a larger movement, not whether their groups merge or not.

That still requires there to be a political force capable of capitalizing on a social movement like this. The PS doesn't seem like it can, while FI will always remain Mélenchon's personal vehicle.

Fair enough. What I meant was that the motivation to form unity won't come from the National Assembly. If Nuit Debout is built into a larger movement, that's when the true test will be. At this point, it's better for there to be two separate groups, for the reasons Zanas said.