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!

Which is why the one nation Tories like my parents jumped ship to Lib Dems and won't come back with the sorry state of potential new Tory leaders like that Covid lockdown breaking clown Jenrick or that joke Braverman or Kemi.

The Front Populaire isn't far left. The former French president François Hollande was a FP candidate (not sure if he got in, I would think so) as were many others from the centre/centre left. They had a manifesto, which contained nothing Marxist, and Mélanchon is not going to be PM.

Will RN reciprocate now though? Hopefully not, and things will settle down.

Am waiting for the next ATC strike any day now. Probably postponed until after the elections!

Honestly this interchangeable right/far right stuff amongst many in the UK just demonstrates how ignorant many are to world politics; to actual far right governance.

I think I recognise your posting style Cheerful Bunny!

I disagree about jubilation over the Labour landslide. The Tories (and the SNP and Reform UK) lost it. Labour and the LibDems have filled the vacuum.

Do you honestly believe that the politics of other countries, particularly our closest European allies, have no bearing or impact on the UK? That's a little bit naive to say the least. And if European countries had no influence then why did we have an EU referendum? We are still their trading partners. We are part of NATO together and the threat of Russia and China makes that partnership even more significant. Domestic politics influence international relations.

We're not controlling the vote in France; or trying to cause or prevent regime change there! But we have the right to our opinion about politics in a country that is very nearby, and with which we interact a lot.

South Africa has less direct influence on the UK, and is much further away- though many of us follow their politics too.

I've been pretty fucking concerned about the elections in (non-Western) India, and was somewhat relieved to see the vile Modi's party lose its absolute majority. But again, they're not next door to us.

Vive La France!

Yes. They need to sort out the issues that are leading to people feeling the far right are the only solution. Manipulating the democratic system, which is effectively what the did, is not dealing with the root cause and is not a sustainable solution. In fact, its likely to make things worse, as people who voted for the far right, or may have considered it, feel even more alienated and aggrieved by what was such an obvious manipulation.

There will be legitimate grievances that are causing people to turn to the far right and there is a need to deal with those, rather than just call people thick and racist. We' ll never get a cohesive society that way.

Thank god for that. Well done France

She used to be best friend with Putin, she had to have her presidential candidate leaflets pulped in a hurry in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine as they had her shaking hands with him as main picture - not a great look anymore... She did go to Crimea to endorse the 2014 "referendum" too... So we all now on what axis she is.

Glad though I agree with the person who said we should not be complacent. There will still be over 1/4 of the Assemblee Nationale represented by the RN, which is probably 30-40 more than they had last time.

Yes this. Mélenchon is ghastly but hopefully he'll be reined-in by the centre left and thank fuck the RN have been blocked.

We did tell them to fuck off. The only way to do it was to rally under one banner. with one goal: defeat the far right. We French have always voted tactilely; this is not new.
RN is a fascist party; Jean Marie Le Pen was a torturer, during the Algerian War of Independence. My late father ( a conscript in the same war) hated him with a vengeance because he knew him for who he was. A vile human being.

In what sense is Farage far right? What do you think right wing means?

Can I ask how you would describe for instance a party that believed in high taxes, investment in healthcare, education, pensions and renationalisation but also believed in very strong law and order and wanted to leave the EU and have very low levels of immigration from the EU. Would you say that was left or right wing?

Would it surprise you if I said that those are the beliefs of the communist former trade union leader Arthur Scargill? He believed immigration into the UK from the EU lowered workers wages and was bad for the working class and reduced the amount the state could spend on improving the conditions of the working class.

Is Scargill far right or far left in your opinion? What makes him left or right?

Where are you seeing hard left?

The whole RN thing is a Russian influence designed to create Instability.

I wish Russia will just fuck off.

Ah, the usual half truths.

Just read Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto and see for yourself what the two have in common (hint: a s _ m)

Marx was a Jew and a massive anti-Semite. Strange but true.

The burning of his books is a good example of the revolution eating its own children. All of them do.

The nazis started as Marxists and once Jews were singled out as the group responsible for the Germany’s demise, the eugenics followed, in line with the ideas of that period - eugenics was massive then and Hitler read a lot of it.

(Marie Stopes also loved it, in case you support Plant Parenthood…;)

And the idea was born of the Jews corrupting the German nation (back then nations were referred to as ‘race’) both on economic and biological level. We all know what followed.

Whether it’s nazism, fascism or communism really only depends on which class of people you pick as the enemy and what means you choose to get rid of them. The singling out and hatred are the same, whether it’s Hitler, Stalin or Mao.

So long it is far left what a joy right? 🥱

Unfortunately, i don’t think it’s as simple as all far right voters being racists and fascists. The picture is more nuanced than that, it may be about historic treatment (class, economic, etc.) and feelings of grievance that are ‘managed’ by politicians such as Farage, who may seem to offer an answer to it all. Same goes for the far left, look at Chavez, who admitted to keeping the working class poor - he was incredibly popular in his day.

May I say a Massive Well Done to anyone who understands the french electoral system. I find it utterly baffling and I am a fluent French speaker.

The only ignorant myth I can see is the tired old one that the Nazis were somehow left wing because they happened to have socialist in their name.

"I for one am not going to apologise for hating racists and fascists. I think that should be the response of any decent person."

Virtue ✅ Signalled ✅

Have a 🥇

Socialism is not communism. Any extremes in politics are dangerous.
We have had socialist governments in France. No piles of bodies have been found yet.