A procrastination in of itself
The new law also seems to toughen the sentence. Hopefully the “only applies to adults” loophole is also being removed. A 17 year-old and a 12 year-old is all sorts of not okay.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Hm. I'd probably go for a softer Swiss-style solution (a closed in age exemption) rather than a total removal - while child on child sexual abuse is a common and neglected problem, teen-on-teen non-abusive one is also a thing. But certainly not for an age gap that large.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
A procrastination in of itself
You can do a close-age exemption, or you can empower your prosecuting authority to not prosecute if it’s not in the public interest (which is why the UK a doesn’t prosecute close-age cases unless there’s something else going on), both options work.
France is a long way from encountering the US problem of vote-hungry prosecutors locking up teenage couples.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
I am pretty sure that giving prosecutors that discretion is not normal for a civil law system like France's. Switzerland gives such discretion only to judges (and, when it comes to sex with children, only in certain enumerated cases, such as when they participants married afterwards); prosecutors must investigate/prosecute if they have evidence. To say nothing that the US also has a problem with homophobic bias.
Come to think about this, it seems like France's issue isn't so much the laws as much as the fact that they only exist on paper. Which is a common problem with sex las everywhere.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
So how bad is this Le Pen lady on the Nazi-o-meter? Is she a "Fuck the poor" level Nazi, or a "Fuck the poor that look different than me" level Nazi, or a "Let's actively turn France into a fascist dystopia" level Nazi, or a "Let's conquer Europe" level Nazi?
Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.
IIRC she presents a public facade of what the forum tends to call "whites-only socialism", but in reality is worse than that (though still more on the "isolationist" side than the "world conquest" one).
I have no doubts that she would equal and overtake Macron in terms of authoritarianism.
Edited by Medinoc on Jan 25th 2021 at 2:56:31 PM
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Too old for this
She also tends to change her platform depending on what she thinks will bring more votes. For instance, she has been more discreet recently about getting out of the Euro and the EU, but I'm sure she would come back to it if it regained popularity.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
I don't want to imagine what would have happened to the EU if she had been elected along with Trump and Salvini and in the wake of Brexit. The EU really dodged a bullet a few years ago.
Too old for this
We are not out of the woods yet. I am rather wary of what will happen in 2022.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Yeah... Sooner or later people will get tired of the Right using the Far-Right to scare people into voting for them in the 2nd turn...
Is our Left wing still in tatters?
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
The prolonged death of the Socialist Party has really given her too much credibility. FN is the only party (aside from LFI, which has its own problems) that can believably run on a socialist, anti-austerity platform.
When a significant group of voters don't think they have a real choice, that's fertile ground for radical politics.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I'm not going to try to predict what'll happen in 2022, but right now PS is collapsed, Olivier Faure is "who is this guy again?" and LFI hasn't managed to establish itself as an alternative.
Edited by Ramidel on Jan 25th 2021 at 9:05:46 AM
Too old for this
Add to that the fact that I strongly doubt Macron will gain much popularity from his handling of the COVID situation, and it seem we are shaping up for a Right-Far Right contest, with the Right rather weakened at the moment.
Edited by C105 on Jan 25th 2021 at 7:07:55 PM
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Essentially, le Pen has consistently run on a platform of socialism-for-white-French-only, and she's never been in government so she hasn't had to prove it yet. She can tell French voters disgusted with the "UMPS" and its consistent failure to deliver that "hey, I hear you, and I want to expand the welfare state and tell the EU to fuck off with their austerity policies."
That's what's dangerous about her. Unlike many far-right movements, she can stand for a coherent policy platform, as well as against foreigners, Islam and the EU.
As a side note, the RN also has better feminist cred than most of the major parties. They've often outperformed the other parties in promoting women candidates for office (not just le Pen herself), and gave a well-reasoned opposition to the 2016 law criminalizing the purchase of sex (essentially, they said that it would endanger the safety of sex workers by driving sex work further underground). They've successfully positioned themselves as progressive on women's and LGBT+ rights, and le Pen has done a lot to disassociate herself from her "the Holocaust didn't happen" father on Jewish rights as well.
Short form, le Pen is not Donald Trump. She is far more dangerous.
Edited by Ramidel on Jan 25th 2021 at 10:02:43 AM
Mad Archivist
Yeah, there's a bit of a Not So Different / Horseshoe effect at play where Le Pen's economic positions aren't too far different (at least superficially speaking, mind you) from far left party La France Insoumise along with both having authoritarian positions. "Socialism for whites" describes it pretty well : she talks a pretty big game of improving the people's welfare, it just so happens she's relentlessly anti-immigration/islamophobic/etc at the same time.
I dunno if I agree with the idea that Marine herself is far more dangeorus than Trump. I can follow that line of reasoning in terms of her ideas and PR, but there's one thing I'd give to trump I don't give to Marine : Trump was a better debater and a better showman.
And I don't particulalry mean that as a compliment to Trump. I mean it in a "Marine is terrible at those things" way. The 2017 presidential debate was a crowning example of it, where she just got utterly trounced by macron and made a foor of herself, but in a more day-to-day basis, it's very easy to pull a "gotcha" on her and trap her on whatever's the hot thing being debated at the moment because she doesn't have a good grasp of the topics, and she doesn't have the talent as an orator to just power through that the way trump did when he just went for humiliating Hilary Clinton in 2016.
Especially not in comparison to Macron, who, for all his flaws and dislike I have for him, he's VERY good at this exercise.
I think I've aslo seen the rumor she's just been done with politics for a while now and is just doing it out of obligation more than anything else. I even seem to recall she's started reconverting herself into being a verterinarian, passed the certification or something. It doesn't mean much, mind you, but it does speak that she doesn't have her father's will to just be "that populist politician" for the rest of her life.
Edited by Yumil on Jan 25th 2021 at 10:13:27 AM
"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."
I'm certainly no expert on France but I imagine if le Pen ever got into power her pseudo-leftist economics would go the way of the Nazis or Italian Fascists, i.e it would get cast aside to earn the support of industrialists.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jan 25th 2021 at 1:13:34 AM
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Mad Archivist
That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, but it's not news that if you drive people far enough into a corner they'll take the bait anyway because they're so tired of the Ultraliberal Center-right. 2022 isn't looking very promising as a perspective, unless the center-left suddenly rises from the ashes unannounced.
"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."
Indeed, it really sucks that France's Left is so nonviable :/
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
The Parti Socialiste had been In Name Only for quite a while (their recommending "YES" for the European Constitutional Treaty as evidence), but showing it so blatantly under Hollande/Valls precipitated its collapse.
And unfortunately, nothing credible has risen from its ashes. 
Unless some miracle happens this year, we'll likely be stuck with the Right for five more years...
Edited by Medinoc on Jan 25th 2021 at 8:26:11 PM
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Well, there's a fortunately in that unfortunately. Fortunately, Melenchon is too Hot-Blooded to make for a "credible" replacement, and he hasn't managed to grab the hearts of the disaffected left. He got too close to the Presidency as it is.
There'll be a runoff between Melenchon and le Pen in 2022. Sweet dreams!
Oh, bother.
Melenchon would be the scariest big name politician in France if le Pen wasn't around.
Edited by M84 on Jan 26th 2021 at 5:46:33 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Too old for this
This has been my nightmare scenario for a while (as the French expression goes, that would be having to chose between the plague and cholera). So far I have not been able to decide what I would do if this happened, between voting for either of them, abstaining, or leaving the country screaming.
Oh, bother.
When in doubt, there's always booze.
Unless you're not of drinking age or a teetotaller. In which case...<shrug>
Disgusted, but not surprised
Vote for Melenchon. Then run screaming.
Oy. That is the issue?
The Swiss age of consent law (para 187 if memory serves) also implicitly states that it's not about consent and Swiss courts have repeatedly affirmed that too. I don't think that it's important if you call it rape or something else, so as long as there is a law about it.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman