Mmmh...I think that the problem is that in France Presidential election, you directly elect a person. You do not vote for a party knowing in advance who will become president if that party wins. It looks similar, but in fact it really changes the dynamics within a party. And if someone is seen as "potential candidate/president", he cannot be picked on charisma alone, as was for example the case of Obama in 2008: he needs local support, from the local federations, and the other MP.
Basically, you can picture the French political system as feudal. You might be the wisest lord around, if you have no land and no vassals, then you will need to fight to get it, no one will happily hand it to you even if it becomes obvious you are the best person for the job. And the wars to get some ground within a party are bloody - except in the FN where it is an actual monarchy.
So that old left-wing MP...if s/he exists (I put the s/ because I am polite, French politics aren't exactly known for gender parity), chances are s/he already tried to run in the past, and made so many enemies in the process that it would require a miracle to be designated now.
If it ever gets translated/subbed, you should watch the series Baron Noir. It is the best possible way to try and understand how a French political party works, and what the influences within it can be.
edited 11th Apr '16 1:28:40 PM by Julep
There was one, of sorts, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but he left the party to create his own a while back. Now the PS has Les Frondeurs, aka its left-wing that disagrees with the most liberal decisions of the government, but they do not have a true leader yet. It might change, but I am not holding my breath.
Isn't the US' definition of "liberal" identical to everyone else's definition of "moderate democratic socialist?"
Aaaanyway, so in France, you won't see a Corbyn/Sanders/Trump rise up from "the outside" and hijack his party's agenda? That's interesting to know. (Yes, I know that the Le Pen[ises] were Trump before he ever called for that wall, but they also didn't try to hijack the then-UMP - they went the Start My Own route.)
Well, we have our own guy with a Trumpesque platform
, but unlike yours he's insignificant (I'm linking to a forum thread because I don't want to give his site more pageviews).
I hate Trump, but he is nowhere near as crazy as this guy.
The guy participates in dinners organized by far-far-far-right newspapers, the kind that the entire (current) Front National finds too extreme - and for once I think they sincerely mean that. The kind of newspaper where a guy who claims that gas chambers were a lie gets a standing ovation.
So...Trump is a toxic human being, but even I can't compare it to this waste of semen.
Oh my God! Another Ignatius! And this one's got an actual particle in his name!
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.I stopped updating with the political news because they have been really boring.
- There are a few strikes against a reform of the work legislation, and a Podemos-like movement called Nuit Debout, but it is neither negligible nor overwhelming.
- The government is in full-on "let's start Hollande's 2017 campaign" mode, except for Economy minister Macron who would rather go alone (and would probably do better) and created a political movement that is neither right nor left.
- On the right-wing, campaigning time. I think 12 candidates are declared, and Sarkozy hasn't yet, so it will soon make thirteen (except if he gets convicted of something). It is going to be messy, but entertaining in a depressing kind of way. Right now they are trying to get known, they aren't to the "insulting each other" part yet, but considering the protagonists it will happen.
- Sadly no translations, but if you ever wondered why so many people are tired of politicians in France, this is why
. The Hauts de France (former Nord Pas de Calais) region council (happens once a month) is only FN & LR because the left-wing removed itself from the second turn of the election so Le Pen would not win. It was horrifying, they spent the whole time debating inane rules ("how much will the break last?" "why do people who are against a decision sometimes have to raise their hands first and sometimes have to raise their hands last?" (the latter because the automatic vote system was broken so they raised hands)). Then the FN left over allegations of an insult. Our democracy, ladies and gentlemen. As Le Petit Journal reminded the viewers, there are more people living in this region than in Denmark, so the decisions they should take here are kinda important.
edited 29th Apr '16 7:30:15 AM by Julep
It's expected that, faced with a choice between right and far-right, many left-wing voters will vote for the right-wing candidate to avoid getting the far-right. The presidential election in 2002 is a perfect example: Chirac would never have gotten 82% of votes without a massive backlash against Le Pennote from left-wing voters (like me). But if there is a left-wing candidate, those same voters will choose him or her. So the math here is basically PS < LR < FN < LR + PS.
In the second round of an election, it's first past the post. The presidential election is the only one where only 2 candidates may advance to the second round, regardless of their scores. In the others, candidates may advance if they get a minimum score (percentage of enrolled voters). Also, the regional elections are by list (with a bonus to the best-scoring), unlike the legislative elections.
French democracy is made so that, assemblies aside, the winner should never have to broken an alliance with someone else to rule. And since the legislative elections happen just after the presidency, the president usually gets a large majority in the assembly anyway, so what happened in Spain is very unlikely in France (unless Le Pen becomes president).
This rule is especially prominent for regional and municipal elections.
Quick update on the situation in France: it's a shitstorm. Repeated strikes to oppose the El Khomri law that would reform Working Rights to make France a more liberal country - in the European meaning of "liberal", as in, roughly, "capitalist". All (employees) syndicates are against it, although the PS-leaning one (CFDT) seems to be mellowing down. Trains and planes are affected, oil refineries are blocked, and apparently some nuclear plants stopped functioning too, so there might be some electricity shortages if it continues. It is not a "civil war" though, there are no riots in the streets, it is just a HUGE opposition to the government, which is striking because those usually happened under right-wing ones.
On the left, Hollande seems determined to be candidate to next year's election, despite all polls predicting a humiliating defeat - as a matter of fact, if the stars are aligned, he could end up in fifth position in the first round (beaten by Le Pen (far right), Sarkozy/Juppé (right), Bayrou (center-right) and Mélenchon (left). Minister of economy Emmanuel Macron seems to have the same ambitions - he is not a socialist party member - but today it was revealed he had some issues with taxes in the last two years, which might hurt his popularity - even though according to most analysts he did nothing wrong, he just had a disagreement that was not settled in his favor, and as such did not commit fraud.
On the right, Sarkozy still isn't officially candidate to the primaries, and apparently delayed the announcement because of the strikes - as it is Sarkozy, he wants all the available mediatic space when he speaks. Polls still place Juppé before him with a comfortable margin (more than 10 points). Not much else to say.
On the far right, there was a gathering organized by the Mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard, who is not a member of the Front National yet shares a lot of their ideas and was elected with their support. He wanted to create a new right-wing political movement, and during these gathering, themes such as "Le Grand Remplacement" (aka the theory that North-African populations are planning to replace the "White Frenchs" little by little through the use of immigration, keyword being "planning") and the future Civil War between true Frenchmen and muslims + collaborators were discussed. Lovely.
On the far left, right now everyone is allied against the El Khomri law. However, in a few months, we will learn that they have five different candidates, as usual, instead of having only one to gather all votes and make a significant enough score to get 2nd round hopes. You get the NPA (New Anticapitalist Party, trotskist), LO (Workers' Struggle, even more trotskist), PCF (French Communist Party), PDG (Left-Wing Party), and usually one or two others you only hear about every five years when they somehow manage to have a candidate.
The 2016 Football Euro is getting closer, and I am curious to see what the government will do if the syndicates keep blocking the country when a few million visitors are on French territory to watch games and cheer for their team.
Note that the syndicates are not above some very petty reactions: they blocked the distribution of all but one newspapers one day because only this one agreed to publish one of their open letters. Some would call that blackmailing. So with foreign fans who don't give a crap about the El Khomri law...

What do you mean by MP? Member of the Parliament?