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.

  • Takapapatapaka ( Takapapatapaka@tarte.nuage-libre.fr ) Français
    5·
    1 day ago

    I think the protests are a double-edged sword : a lot of people are shocked by the repression, and discovering the awful state of some schools, and it shows a massive demand for social justice, so on one side, it radicalizes people toward the left. On the other side, some typically conservative people are angry because of the protests being showed as only riots by mass medias, and they are asking for more repression and less social justice, so it radicalizes people toward the right. The question is which of those effect will be more powerful. From what i see around me though, the people it radicalizes towards left were partly apolitical or centrists persons, with no clear leftists views, while people asking for a more repressive state were already far-right or close to it. So i’m hopeful.

    Otherwise, the election is like in many places of the world : traditional parties wo were just different flavours of neoliberalism collapsed, in favor of more anticapitalist parties on one side, and fascist-leaning parties on the other one. I really hope Mélenchon and LFI can make the cut, even though i despise their republicanism and patriotism, the organization of their core party, and the campism of some of their members.

    • Hirom ( Hirom@beehaw.org ) Français
      3·
      1 day ago

      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.

      • Bad ( Bad@jlai.lu ) Français
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Melanchon’s position on foreign policy, including on Ukraine where he seems accomodate Russia, probably anger many.

        Fresh from this weekend, but same as always:

        Jean-Luc Mélenchon a dit refuser « qu’on envisage une paix avec des concessions territoriales en Ukraine, sans qu’on demande aux populations concernées si elles sont d’accord pour se trouver de ce côté-ci de la frontière ou de l’autre ».

        S’il y a des concessions territoriales, ce que nous ne demandons pas, mais s’il y en a, alors les habitants doivent pouvoir décider et s’autodéterminer" (Panot)

        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:

        Les liens repris avec l’opposition russe nous ont fait découvrir un tableau affligeant. Nous venons de rompre politiquement avec SergueÏ Oudaltsov parce qu’il s’est prononcé pour la guerre. […] nous avons aussitôt pris contact avec la minorité restée fidèle à l’idéal commun.

        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 🙏

      • PatteBlanche ( PatteBlanche@jlai.lu ) Français
        3·
        1 day ago

        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.

        • Hirom ( Hirom@beehaw.org ) Français
          1·
          1 day ago

          Melenchon isn’t a divise character among the left, he IS the left.

          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.

          Polls aren’t reliable.

          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.

  • inlandempire ( inlandempire@jlai.lu ) Français
    2·
    1 day ago

    for my instance brothers and sisters and nonbinary siblings: 🇫🇷 Corrigez moi si je dis des conneries dessous

    🇺🇸 Hey welcome, I don’t know where to start so instead I’ll just share random thoughts

    • don’t hesitate to ask your french inlaws and partner about it, french people are very varied so the more perspectives you get the better, it’s possible they do not share the same views as our instance members (we lean quite fairly left and are for the most part LFI/Mélenchon sympathisers)
    • we love to discuss politics while eating (but first we must discuss unrelated foods and cooking methods while eating), bonus if you have a racist uncle that starts yapping after too many drinks at 4pm (and you haven’t even eaten dessert yet) you’re as close to the french sunday lunch experience as possible)
    • Mélenchon’s strategy is “conflictuality” as in no compromises on their political stances, clear guidelines and program to apply and no giving up on any part of it, very smart analysis of the power (im)balance between classes and the political issues and strategies that can arise from it, and embraced strategy of breaking from the current status quo
    • This strategy works very well with lower class and young people who also happen to vote a lot less (retired people vote A LOT so right wing parties appeal to them), so there’s a huge “reservoir” of ballots available for the taken to turn elections around BUT Mélenchon’s party La France Insoumise (LFI) also gathers most of the votes from highly educated people
    • each of Mélenchon’s campaigns have been underrated by polls and mainsteam (billionnaire owned) media, you can theorize (but not prove it) that its manufactured so they’d rather not have a candidate be too popular and heard by people, he threatens their bourgeois status
    • yet he has consistently overperformed compared to polls, for 2027, he is currently already polled at ~20% for the first round, at a similar time (late october) in other elections, he was polled at ~10% (2021, got 21,9% in 2022), ~12% (2016, got 19,5% in 2017), ~7% (2011, got 11% in 2012), there’s a huge distrust in poll results because they seem to be very flawed and used influence public opinion
    • imagine if Mamdani (elected at 50,78%, polled between 45% and 50% from October to December) was instead polled at ~30% throughout the campaign and still won at 51%, this would be a huge failure from poll institutes, this is the current state of things in france
    • this gigantic article (you gotta use a translator sorry) goes in depth why Mélenchon is going to win despite the polls https://blogs.mediapart.fr/eliot-thibault/blog/011126/pourquoi-melenchon-va-faire-25-et-sera-au-2nd-tour you can also translate this series of tweets from september https://nitter.mizuki.st/badmulch/status/2103042887688896582#m

    Then there was the student and union protests. Are these helping bring awareness to the other parties to get their shit together?

    I’d personally say not really, LFI / Mélenchon have always been listening to those, and are encouraging students (and protesters in general) to voice their concerns because they believe a change in the status quo will not only happen with their election, they need a general protest / strike for things to change (he said in a meeting it would be a failure if there’s no general protest / strike after he gets elected)

    The students and protesters have been met with insane disdain from the government and right wing parties imo, most of them (including mainstream medias) are focusing on rioters, minimizing police brutality (there’s never been so many people arrested in a protest, and they were in majority minors)

    Anyway don’t hesitate if you have specific questions

    • ABetterTomorrow ( ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works ) OPFrançais
      1·
      11 hours ago

      Thank you for sharing all of this.

      You triggered some good memories of times at the dinner table with my in laws. I know exactly what you mean, it’s the center stage of everything. I do get interesting opinions from my in laws. The mother is from a big family from Alsace and the father is the only child with high educated parents from Marseille. They agree 90% of the time but how to get to that 90% they agree 60% of the time. I hope that makes sense. My partner has that crazy uncle (not racist….i think) who get his own box of wine and thinks everything can be solved with music, mostly metal music ha.

      I see where you coming from and I think that aligns my mindset. Your later points are interesting because I am realizing I know even less. I’m going to auto translate (I’m slacking on my French lessons :/ ) to learn more.

      Thank you again for sharing.

      [edit] BTW I’m in one of the biggest French communities in the US, they lean LFI and they tend to fly back (if not online voting at the Embassy) to vote every time.