French Politics

Macron seems like the obvious no-brainer. Aside from being a convinced European (with both Melencon and MLP being enemies of the EU), he has also proven himself as the one man who will actually attempt to reform France.

He's floundered in other domestic fronts. That said, maybe his commitment to the EU might be enough to keep him in office. Assuming the French citizenry look at how badly the UK is doing now and remember that both le Pen and Melenchon want to Frexit.

Disgusted, but not surprised

If only his "reforms" weren't more of the same on corporatism and autoritarianism...

Edited by Medinoc on Jan 26th 2021 at 12:56:32 PM

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Right now all Macron has for him is "not being a Frexiter". That said, if we consider the policy of the four last presidents and their administrations regarding government-owned businesses...

• Is it profitable?
  • No, it's providing an essential service
    • "break the monopoly" so our rich friends can take over the market
    • Claim an European Union directive made us do it, while we were the ones pushing for such directive in the first place
  • Yes
    • Sell it to our rich friends
    • Claim an European Union directive made us do it, too.

Can you spot the part that poisons the minds of opponents with thoughts of Frexit?

Edited by Medinoc on Jan 26th 2021 at 1:20:15 PM

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Yeah, "Blame the EU" was a popular Tory strategy in the UK too. And well...yeah.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Breaking monopolies like those of the highly inefficient SNCF is just one of the many commendable things Macron did. His attempts to reform France's sclerotic pension system are another. I'd give him credit for tackling reforms that had partly been overdue for decades.

Let's not forget also that the policy of all successive governments since 2000 (and possibly before) concerning the healthcare system have brought us to the current situation regarding the COVID, where almost every medical industry, from masks manufacturing to vaccine research, has been outsourced or heavily reduced.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

You talk like it actually made them more efficient in any way, rather than simply more expensive for users.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Exactly.

The only thing that's more efficient after privatizing infrastructure (rail, roads) or essential goods and service (water, health) is generating profit for private interests. Usually, quality decreases while prices increase.

Yeah, slowly and quietly cutting corners and funding on public services, leading them to become inefficient, so you can step in, say "see, this monopoly is inefficient, we should totally privatize this !" has been the usual course of a bunch of presidents in a row, and Macron's no exception to that. I'm don't see what's commendable with going exactly along with the dogma of destroying public services. And I find it even harder to swallow in this period of COVID where it demonstrably made everything worse.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 26th 2021 at 7:57:44 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Well I feel lied to by Miraculous Ladybug, making it sound like France is tolerant and open-minded.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

yeah, we haven't exactly lived up to our motto "Freedom, Equality, Fraternity" for a while. It got especially blatant under Macron's term with how brutal the police repression of the manifestation was, and, more importantly, how unwavering the government's been on his policies.

I wasn't around for it so I asked people older than me if this level of contestation has historically ever made a government budge and was very surprised to hear that back in the day, global scale protests and strikes actually used to get the government to reconsider what they were doing - the protests from 2006 about the CPE were far, far tamer than this ever was and got the goverment from then to back down on the proposal, same goes for the proposal on the retirement laws in 1995. Wide-scale protests being globally ignored seems to go back to that time sarkozy pushed back the age for retirement around the early tens.

If I wanted to go for needlessly dark humor I'd say "oh but we are very tolerant, look at our minister of interior, we've got a rapist in the government !" but there's really nothing funny about that.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 27th 2021 at 8:14:57 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Except the SNCF was already both highly inefficient and expensive before Macron came along. From what I have read, it had already accumulated a debt of 45bn despite providing below average service compared to other institutions in other countries.

And considering what kind of privileges its' employees enjoyed e.g. retiring before they are 60 that is hardly surprising.

"has been the usual course of a bunch of presidents in a row" wasn't an optionnal part of my sentence. Saying "but the problems predates Macron" isn't that good a retort to it, because I just said as much too.

Unchecked neoliberalism isn't a new thing in France. it's been the overall course for at least three different presidents, and I'm only stopping at Chirac because I'm geniunely too young to really have a perspective on it. Macron doesn't personally bear the faults of Hollande and Sarkozy (although he actually might in the case of Hollande, considering he's the guy we have to thank for Macron becoming From Nobody to Nightmare in the span of three years tops) but he doesn't bring anything new to the table.

His "reforms" are simply the logical trajectory of neoliberalism's habit of destroying public services to make it a private thing, which usually leads to an increase in price for at best the same thing than before. It's nothing new under the sun, and it's SILL not the solution we need, something that was already apparent four years ago.

Because yeah, as it turns out, as inefficient the SNCF might be, it turns out that so far, breaking the monopoly hasn't produced anything valuable for the consumers, and the SNCF is still far more efficient than whatever is now trying to compete with it.

What kind of correlation is that. Like, really. How would the service provided by SNCF be fundamentally better if the employees were in average three months older than they are now.

In a country where there isn't enough jobs for everyone, how does making the same people work longer solves anything ?

The healthcare and scientific research are currently in the same situation. They don't have the privileges, but they've been through the same batch of neolberal "reforms". I'm not buying that really, the privileges of SNCF's employees is the root cause of everything bad with the SNCF.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 30th 2021 at 7:53:13 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Huh. so this just happened. So the minister of interior and certified asshole Gerald Darmanin really got into a tv debate with Marine Lepen in order to defend the separatist law project where they slowly choke out the right of filming anything embarassing such as cops comitting atrocities. Apparently the plan was to look pale in comparison to marine to make it look like their position really wasn't that authoritarian by using the good old islamic scapegoat whenever we need a distraction from actual problems like Covid, the situation of students, the economy in general...

But Darmanin being Darmanin, we instead witnessed the current government engagin in a pissing contest to prove they're somehow even more racist and authoritarian than the designated racist authoritarian party, culminating in calling marine le pen "too soft" and geniunely suggesting her to take some vitamins as she's the one that actually has to take the defense of Islam. (thankfully only for a moment, as depending of which part of the debate was happening she occasionally managed to out-racist Darmanin, but it really begs the question as to why this is happening in the first place).

at this point, I don't even feel like blaming people voting for Marine. LREM is making a very convincing case that they really are Not So Different in their attempt to gather as many votes as possible to consolidate their power base, I can't fault people for losing faith in the current government.

The only thing that salvages this whole thing is the face Marine is making during the whole section. She really looks like "Wait, Am I awake ? Like, the cameras as here, right ? and when I look down, I see my feet. I can still read the pages in the book, right ? So Why is Dad suddenly younger than me right now ?"

Edited by Yumil on Feb 11th 2021 at 12:45:07 PM

"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 don't speak or read French, so I'll trust your take on it, but damn... That is one hell of "What the fuck!?" moment when I read your post. I mean did the current government forget that they got voted because the French do not want Le Pen? What is the point of trying to out-racist and authoritarian her!?! This is something I expect from a skit or an onion article.

Edited by SteamKnight on Feb 11th 2021 at 8:16:14 PM

I'm not as witty as I think I am. It's a scientifically-proven fact.

A neoliberal going to the right to preserve their unpopular economic program?

Oh my, it must be a day ending in -y.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

Wouldn't a law against filming cops be handily struck down by the Constitutional Council, and failing that, the European Court of Human Rights?

Minor nitpick: The days end in -i here.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

You need verlan for the last one, though.

why yes, we HAVE been pretty strongly condemned by human rights groups for the previous law that did exactly that a month or two ago and several governments asking us "what the shit, France ?" because it was exactly as anticonstitutionnal as you said.

But hey, it's not like this government was capable of relenting on anything they do. They've repeatedly shown they won't because they take being elected as a carte blanche to do what they want.

Edited by Yumil on Feb 11th 2021 at 8:57:14 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

The worst part of it is, that according to the latest polls, we may still be heading toward a second round of elections between Le Pen and Macron (i.e. the same as in 2017, far right against... whatever Macron is). Of course, a lot can happen in the next year, but the fact that the opposition is currently either in shambles or unpalatable does not help.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Touche lol.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

I had a titanic facepalm this evening seeing the reactions by the political class about Sarkozy scoring a year behind the bars. Spoiler alert: they almost all disapprove. Including the far right (logical considering their corruption, yet so ironic for the party of toughness on crime I think I have hemochromatosis now), to LREM, and of course to Jean-Luc "Why cannot there be anyone else on the left?!" Mélenchon.

Come on! That's Sarkozy we're talking about! That dude is so corrupt, I'm pretty sure the grass under him turns purple when he walks!

wait, even melenchon is finding a way to frown at this ?

Dear lord it is about time he seriously retires. He was pretty convincing during the 2017 election but now he's ever since he's just been a collection of bad takes.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 2nd 2021 at 9:17:13 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Ayup, something about Macron removing one of his main rivals from politics by force. Y'know, because Sarkozy isn't already Deader Than Disco...

To think I actually voted for that guy! I was willing to brush over his flaws, but now his whole rhetoric is based over being even more contrarian than a toddler stuck in the "No!" phase, no matter how little sense it makes.