French Left Rallies Around Election Campaign

[KingOrfeo]

(A story with "French" and "Left" in it -- what a chain-rattler 'round here! )

From In These Times:

Wednesday Apr 18, 2012 8:51 am

French Left Rallies Around Election Campaign

By Bhaskar Sunkara

"We're back—the France of revolution!"

Speaking to tens of thousands last weekend, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's words weren't expected to resonate in this year's French presidential election. Yet the energy around his campaign has galvanized the Left in the lead-up to Sunday's first round of voting.

Of course, the France of popular imagination has always been a revolutionary country. The storming of the Bastille, the Paris Commune, May ‘68 all color outside perceptions. A less savory reality, however, simmers beneath the surface. For years, the far-right National Front has been the country's third party. By combining economic populism with immigrant bashing, their candidate, Marine Le Pen, was well-positioned to match the success of Netherland's Freedom Party and others within the surging European right. The combination of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopularity and a bland Socialist Party opposition seemed to destine as much.

But then came Mélenchon. The unassuming former Socialist minister broke ranks to help lead the Left Front, a grouping linchpinned by the French Communist Party and other disaffected socialists. Recent polls put them at over 16 percent, a remarkable rise few saw coming.

Though 2010 witnessed mass strikes in response to planned pension reforms, since then the French anti-austerity movement has lagged behind others in Europe, despite low public confidence in Sarkozy.

Le Pen rushed in to fill the void. She opposes the euro and attacks big banks, seeking to rally voters around a new nationalism—one with little room for immigrants, especially France’s large Muslim population.

Mélenchon has taken on the National Front directly, even on these sensitive issues. Highlighting the plight of the undocumented, he attacked attempts to divide workers on the basis of immigration status.

The people who work in this country and who do not have papers must have papers, because once they have papers they can protect themselves, they can defend themselves, they can unionize, they can go to the police station when they have a problem, whereas today they're forced to hide, and we have in a certain sense a sort of internal offshoring. Giving papers to workers without papers means protecting the social legislation of our country.

Speaking to In These Times, University College London professor Philippe Marlière explored the Left Front’s strategy:

Mélenchon is targeting Le Pen's policies and designates the National Front as the 'major enemy’ because he thinks that there cannot be any left-wing revival in France and in Europe if a strong extreme right can keep blurring the political lines between left and right by developing freely a narrative which concentrates on 'race' and so-called 'clashes of civilization' between South and North or between Islam and the 'West.’

It is only by recreating a clear divide between left and right on socioeconomic issues that the Left will be able to reconnect with the working and lower middle-class. His radical reformist views on capitalism and the current crisis have enabled him to do just that: he has been attracting young and working-class voters and stopping Le Pen from setting the agenda on immigration and law-and-order issues.

Yet the coalition is a threat to more than the Right. Mélenchon’s platform is bold and openly radical. He dismisses Socialist candidate François Hollande as “bourgeois” and proposes a shorter work week, higher minimum wage, a jobs program, selective nationalizations, and a 100 percent tax on earnings over 300,000 euros.

Hollande has been forced leftward—rhetorically, at least.

But even with Left Front gains, the center-left Socialist Party is expected to oust President Sarkozy and implement a milder version of his austerity package. They have, after all, pledged to balance the national budget by 2017.

Debates rage within the French left about what posture to adopt towards this prospective Socialist government. Some want to wield influence from within, believing that a strong first round showing may lead to an offer of a powerful cabinet position for the young coalition.

Others would oppose such an alliance, which would potentially see the Left Front be a junior partner in an austerity-minded administration. Mélenchon, for his part, has rejected such a possibility.

Still, it remains to be seen whether enthusiasm around Mélenchon will transition into an effective opposition movement, his stated intention. "We are not here to fight for one candidate, but for a cause, bigger than us."

And many mainstream observers are taking him seriously. The ever reasonable David Frum sees Mélenchon as a demagogue, as threatening as Le Pen. Even a Financial Times headline worries that "France faces revival of radical left."

Perhaps the international left should look seriously at the Left Front, as well.

Emphasis added.

 

[JuanVato]

should be fun...

I wonder how long Carla stays with Nicky after his tenure is over.

Perhaps they need a "Buffet tax" on their uber wealthy?

 

[KingOrfeo]

I wonder how long Carla stays with Nicky after his tenure is over.

Perhaps they need a "Buffet tax" on their uber wealthy?

Oh, I'm sure they must have one already . . . the French invented the buffet . . .

 

[unregistered]

 

[KRCummings]

I don't know why even the French give a shit about the French.

 

[KingOrfeo]

The French had the first Communist Revolution.

Didn't last long, though . . .

 

[KingOrfeo]

I don't know why even the French give a shit about the French.

There are rather a lot of things you don't know, KR, but it might be better to keep that to yourself in the future.

 

[KRCummings]

There are rather a lot of things you don't know, KR, but it might be better to keep that to yourself in the future.

Unlike yourself and many others here, I don't have a problem admitting I don't know everything. I have never met or even heard of someone who wasn't ignorant of most things. People who say they are not are liars.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Unlike yourself and many others here, I don't have a problem admitting I don't know everything. I have never met or even heard of someone who wasn't ignorant of most things. People who say they are not are liars.

That's no excuse to flaunt your ignorance -- the French have always mattered in European-and-therefore-global history and always will matter, at least as much as the Germans or the British, and what they think about politics is not dismissable. (If they were Italian, it would be dismissable.)

 

[KRCummings]

That's no excuse to flaunt your ignorance -- the French have always mattered in European-and-therefore-global history and always will matter, at least as much as the Germans or the British, and what they think about politics is not dismissable. (If they were Italian, it would be dismissable.)

Yeah, see people make fun of the French. It's like humor and stuff. They all smell, they're rude, they hate Americans, they're cheese eating surrender monkeys. It's called a joke, son and it was pretty obvious so before you go around lecturing on ignorance you may wanna check yourself.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Yeah, see people make fun of the French. It's like humor and stuff. They all smell, they're rude, they hate Americans, they're cheese eating surrender monkeys. It's called a joke, son and it was pretty obvious so before you go around lecturing on ignorance you may wanna check yourself.

Don't try to joke either, KR, it is beyond your capacity; the results are only ever funny in the sense that a dog grown too fat to lick its own nuts is funny until it gives up trying.

 

[eyer]

Don't try to joke either, KR, it is beyond your capacity; the results are only ever funny in the sense that a dog grown too fat to lick its own nuts is funny until it gives up trying.

I will definitely vote for everyone else on this board standing-down..

...because you got the comedy act nailed, bro!

 

[renard_ruse]

The Front National's polling has hovered roughly between 15 and 20% since at least last July, which is pretty much where they have been for the past 20 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_French_presidential_election,_2012

Melenchon's party has grown in popularity, but looking at the polls it would appear most of that growth has come at the expense of the Socialist Party not from the Front National or Sarkozy.

 

[renard_ruse]

I appears to be nothing more than a redistribution of votes that already were going to go to the "left" anyway.

 

[renard_ruse]

http://www.actionfrancaise.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FNJ-droite-gauche.jpg

 

[KingOrfeo]

The Front National's polling has hovered roughly between 15 and 20% since at least last July, which is pretty much where they have been for the past 20 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_French_presidential_election,_2012

Melenchon's party has grown in popularity, but looking at the polls it would appear most of that growth has come at the expense of the Socialist Party not from the Front National or Sarkozy.

I appears to be nothing more than a redistribution of votes that already were going to go to the "left" anyway.

That's exactly how American movement conservatism got started. Reorganization of existing votes/parties can change a lot.

 

[Freija]

That's exactly how American movement conservatism got started. Reorganization of existing votes/parties can change a lot.

The French see the first ballot in the Presidential election is their opportunity to be charmingly obnoxious, voting for whatever obscure party makes them think they're really expressing their democratic voice. They assume that the second ballot will be between the UMP and the PS and that they will do their serious voting then.
In 2002, that all went pear-shaped for the left when Jospin didn't get through to the second round. Of course, once people realized they had to choose between Le Pen and Chirac, almost the whole electorate came out and voted Chirac. There is always a risk that Mélenchon will sidetrack enough left wing votes for the same sort of thing to happen again.

 

[Adre]

French fries, French kissing. What did any of you fuckers invent?

 

[ForkedTongue]

http://www.actionfrancaise.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FNJ-droite-gauche.jpg

FNJ is the fucking french Hitler Youth.

 

[KingOrfeo]

FNJ is the fucking french Hitler Youth.

One should always at least suspect something like that of any party proclaiming itself "neither right nor left."

 

[ForkedTongue]

One should always at least suspect something like that of any party proclaiming itself "neither right nor left."

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_national_de_la_jeunesse

Scroll down to the bottom and what are they listed as? Extreme right. It's the youth movement of neo fascist front national. "neither right nor left, french." FFS.

 

[torchthebitch]

the French have always mattered in European-and-therefore-global history and always will matter, ... and what they think about politics is not dismissable. (If they were Italian, it would be dismissable.)

Given the current difficulty with the Euro, the future political direction of France will be very important to European economic, and therefore political, stability. This will ripple into global financial stability.

Who knows? Maybe Europe will promote global manufacturing like they did in 1939.

 

[renard_ruse]

That's exactly how American movement conservatism got started. Reorganization of existing votes/parties can change a lot.

Fine, but its really got nothing to do the National Front one way or the other.

 

[renard_ruse]

FNJ is the fucking french Hitler Youth.

The hysterical left calls anyone they don't like "Hitler" or "fascist." The're always angry too.

I'd try some anger management classes if I were you. High blood pressure is not good for you.

 

[renard_ruse]

The French see the first ballot in the Presidential election is their opportunity to be charmingly obnoxious, voting for whatever obscure party makes them think they're really expressing their democratic voice. They assume that the second ballot will be between the UMP and the PS and that they will do their serious voting then.
In 2002, that all went pear-shaped for the left when Jospin didn't get through to the second round. Of course, once people realized they had to choose between Le Pen and Chirac, almost the whole electorate came out and voted Chirac. There is always a risk that Mélenchon will sidetrack enough left wing votes for the same sort of thing to happen again.

And the reason round two was so lopsided was because Le Pen couldn't even mount a real campaign. The anti-democratic extreme left mobs were allowed to completely disrupt the election by Chirac and the political establishment. I challenge you what would have happened if Le Pen had been allowed the chance to run a real campaign without the intimidation and mob violence.