To say a massive well done to the people of France...

[MrsBennetsPoorNerves]

For telling the far right National Rally to fuck off to the far side of fuck!!!

So relieved!

To add...I completely accept that, if we go by the dictionary definition of "tolerance", then allowing the far right to exist is probably the most accurate definition.

But if we go with that definition, then the Reform types really need to stop bleating on about people on the left being more tolerant, because clearly they are already tolerated because they are allowed to exist. My use of the word was in direct response to theirs, and to the way in which they have been using it.

It would be more accurate for them to say that what they want is for their views to be respected and not to be subjected to criticism. I will never be able to offer them that.

I’m not sure he did want this

He warned against extremes in either direction, wanted clarity and now doesn’t and overall it might be hard for the differences to be resolved between the parties

So instead of a centre that moderately implements necessary reforms, France now has left-wing extremists with unfinanceable ideas instead of right-wing extremists. France has chosen to jump out of the frying pan into the fire so as not to have to send ground troops to Ukraine. France has dramatically weakened itself and Europe, and not just politically. National debt is coming back into focus and taking over the reins.

An alliance of left-wing extremists, anti-Semites and Germany haters who immediately rioted in the streets came first. That's what it really is. That's what the French wanted, and the left in the rest of Europe is cheering. Upside down world

Mrs Bennett I don't see it as the far right demanding more tolerance than the far left.. They meet in the middle both are vile and we should start calling out the repugnant left just as much as we did to the right.
It's inconveiable that in the space of a few years in two world dominant democratic countries, UK land France that Jewish people are scared and either want to move or are publicly calling out "don't vote for them" them being the far left.

It’s like we have learned nothing from history. Push a population hard enough, make them feel threatened enough they will vote for any charismatic person they think has the answers.

We need to understand why people right across the west (it isn’t just France and the UK) are feeling so threatened. I suspect it’s a mixture of resource guarding and threats to culture, way of life. This needs to be addressed - basically the population have been pushed too far.

What we also know from history is that almost invariably in such times people blame, victimise and often exile the Jews. No wonder they are fighting so hard against anyone who threatens Israel. They can see what’s coming, just as it has for millennia.

Right now I think the Far Left if a much bigger risk across the West. People associate bad things with the Right -and see the left as warm and fluffy. but again we need to pay careful attention to history. It appears centrist politics have had their day. We need to keep asking why and address the causes if it’s not too late

I feel so bad for the Jewish community. We need to make sure that they are safe.

You are delusional. Melenchon is pro Russian and against Jews. The Jewish community in France is really worried now and many of them are contemplating to leave to Israel. Le Pen will strengthen her position by 2027. This isn't a victory for Macron at all. Its just a massive chaos and headache for EU.

I do think all sensible people should welcome Le Pen’s ambitions being thwarted.

The problem for France is that left-wing dangerous racist loons have had to be handed influence to put barriers in the way of the RN’s dangerous racist loons. It won’t end well however it develops from now.

Bizarrely the hard left and hard right have more in common than they do with the centre.

Both favour running large deficits, both are anti NATO and anti EU, both are pro Putin, both want greater state intervention, both want state controls on prices of essentials like electricity, food, gas, petrol.

Where they differ is that the right want a more nationalistic and own country first approach. Whereas the left wants a more globalist approach (except where it involves trade or investment). The right is all about reducing immigration whereas the left would increase it. The right are viewed as islamaphobic and the left as anti semetic.

How about this, OP? Paraphrased from an Andrew Neil interview:
"Melanchon's left is just as Eurosceptic as Le Pen's National Rally...They are anti Brussels, they are anti every closer union, they don't believe in European-wide defence, they're anti net zero, they're anti just about everything the British chattering classes stand for. Why you would cheer that beggars belief. This is a serious, dangerous time for France and for Europe. It's a more dangerous threat to the EU than Brexit ever was."

Our disagreement is semantic. I don't see toleration as acceptance. Whichever way we look, hateful ideas need to be in the light of day so we can challenge them. We agree, I think, at last.

No, because there is no "sister visa" either.

There are no family visas of this kind.

As a non-EU citizen, it is practically impossible to bring any family members who are not the legal spouse or biological children. Even with adopted children there are nightmarish issues, if the adoption was in a country with no mutual recognition of the adoption process with the UK.

There are no visas to bring a distantly related underage child at all. This is a completely made up story. Not to even mention how a workplace full of mentally competent people was listening to a story of their adult coworker being "married" to a Year 8 student, and, you know, no one doing anything.

As a French citizen, I can't even comprehend how anyone can find their policies reasonable. We commemorated D-day not long ago and yet, people were happy to vote fascists in.

I can’t believe my post earlier was deleted. It is very factual from where this antisemitism is coming from!

Why should we try to hide this?

We do indeed agree.

Then the story is apocryphal. But worrying all the same.

It isn't being run by left-wing extremists. It's being subjected to rivalries between left-wing extremists, right-wing extremists, mainstream left-wingers and centrists. The ones who aren't getting much of a look-in are probably the mainstream conservatives, who used to be the usual governing party.

So, in other words, France looks like being even more ungovernable than usual, Ungovernable isn't great- but it's better than becoming fascist, as looked likely a week ago.

I strongly suggest you stop calling French people, me included, idiots and stay out of a thread which does not match your far right views.
In addition. your ignorance on how France is run is staggering. France is not little England. The poor do not subsidise the rich, unlike in England.
France is 30% cheaper than United Kingdom. Jul 2024 Cost of Living. (expatistan.com)

Melanchon hasn't won; he has got enough votes (with some others) to prevent LePen and Bardella from winning.

Melanchon will not be in power; nor will he be ruling in coalition with LePen, though I suppose stranger things have happened.

The French are in for a bumpy ride, which might make the last few years at Stormont look like plain sailing. But LePen won't be in power, at which I am breathing a 'Phew!' of relief.

Well there may not be a specific visa for it, but it definitely happens. I've read of lots of instances where minors have come into the UK under some sort of irregular arrangement to live with people who are not their parents. Two that spring to mind are the very high profile stories of both Victoria Climbie and Mo Farrah. Mo Farrah was brought into the UK at 9 years old, by a woman he'd never met, using a passport that wasn't his and he proceeded to live with her for the rest of his childhood. Victoria Climbie was brought into France and then the UK by her great aunt, who claimed to be her guardian/adopted mother but there was no legitimate documentation to support this.

Look, I am not particularly interested in the finer detail of how the 14 year old Pakistani bride arrived in the UK and on what sort of visa it was. It's irrelevant. The point of the post was not how she arrived, but the fact that she was married (Islamically at least) at only 14 to someone she barely knew, and that poster's colleagues refused to be judgemental about it on the grounds of her culture.

I know very well that in very conservative Muslim communities there is often a great rush to marry young people off as soon as possible, because it's one way of making sure they don't start having sex outside of marriage. I know a Jordanian woman whose son got married at 18, to a 16 year old. (an Islamic marriage, not a legally binding British one.) She told me 'we like to see them get married young in our culture. It's easier that way.'

Whatever the truth of the matter, it's absolutely not beyond believability that this girl did marry at only 14 and did end up in the UK with her 18 year old husband. Anyone who knows the truth about conservative Muslim communities would be a bare faced liar if they tried to insist that this never happens and could never happen.

Orban is holding the line against non-Christian values

Any political leader of a country, who regards their job as 'holding the line against non-Christian values' is a MONSTER OF PURE EVIL!!!

Just as any political leader of a country (like too many), who regards their job as 'holding the line against non-Islamic values' is a MONSTER OF PURE EVIL!!!

And any political leader of a country (Modi), who regards their job as 'holding the line against non-Hindu values' is a MONSTER OF PURE EVIL!!!

Etc.

Keep your religion out of political decision-making, thank you very much, ALL leaders.

Actually the UK, despite having an official state church, is generally pretty good that way. Whereas the USA, despite having official separation of church and state, is not at the moment.

👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉

Amazing how people who think they are progressive and tolerant are just as hateful and intolerant as the people they hate

@rainymcrainrain yep absolutely intolerant of racist fuckwits!