Salut,
I’m a American with a French partner and I recently been casually reading about your presidential election. I hear bits and pieces about it when my in laws visit me and I become more confused how your politics works and how feel and talk about them. Very different from how I talk to people in political movements and events here.
I recently saw this piece this more about the far left ( https://apnews.com/article/france-election-melenchon-left-right-youth-045d056318bc6fb64a55ef25f10f1285 ) and and I mostly watch France 24 (I like the art segments).
It seems promising that someone else is becoming louder or just as loud as the far right. For a while it seemed like there wasn’t sizing up to the level as the far right campaign.
Then there was the student and union protests. Are these helping bring awareness to the other parties to get their shit together?
As I type this I realize I know less, my apologies. Just curious. Merci.
It’s too early to tell. There are 6 months to go until the election.
Melanchon’s position on foreign policy, including on Ukraine where he seems accomodate Russia, probably anger many. And he’s a divisive character even amongst the left.
RN’s potential far right candidates are very divisive too, and embroiled in scandals. But remain surprisingly popular nonetheless.
Other candidates are behind in polls, but it may change.
Fresh from this weekend, but same as always:
LFI supports and have even hosted leftist opponents of Putin, yet people still call them putinists, this is just ridiculous. Even better, the instant one of Putin’s leftist opponents sided with Russia in the Ukraine war, Mélenchon publicly renounced him, on that very day:
The only putinist in the presidential race is Le Pen. Calling her leftist opposition a “support of Putin” is helping Le Pen’s campaign by making both of them appear similar on this topic. Just because Mélenchon thinks we should press harder on peace negotiations instead of accepting people dying in a neverending war doesn’t mean he wants to throw Ukraine under the bus. Quite the opposite.
The most compelling argument imo against this nonsense is that a large number of us ground level activists would instantly stop supporting him and the party if he was actually pro-Russia / putinist in any way. Most of us are not affiliated with LFI and would distance ourselves from their presidential campaign without regrets if they strayed away from the leftist ideal of being pro-peace and anti-imperialist, with Russia being the imperial warmonger in this situation.
You do not have to repeat the opposition & mainstream media’s propaganda on Mélenchon 🙏
I don’t think he’s putinist. The criticism is that he’s too accomodating or naive with respect to Putin. He used to blame NATO as the agressor when Russia invaded Crimea. He thankfully later realized Russia was quite agressive given they launched a full scale invasion.
cf https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/politique/130726/logique-et-travers-du-non-alignement-que-lfi-veut-pour-la-france
Thanks for quoting his recent position on polling in Dombass. You’re right, it seems taken out of context by commenters. It’s still clumsy and early to discuss Ukraine giving away territory, when they’re fighting hard to avoid it.
Wow, quelle odieuse dérive autoritaire ! les goulags ne sont pas loin…
Melenchon isn’t a divise character among the left, he IS the left. I don’t think his position on Ukraine will change much.
Also RN’s candidates aren’t divisive, they’re divided. The tension between “very right wing but also racist” and the “very racist but also right wing” is growing by the day : if it continues like this there will be an actual scission before the election.
Polls aren’t reliable.
He’s popular and divisive. His position with other left-wing parties is “I am the left, just support me and drop out” and that makes alliances hard.
Sure, polls have margin of errors, and people change their mind over time… So it’s too early to tell. Polls close to the election should be more useful.