Oh, hai, France -- every so often you live up to your revolutionary past

[maeve66]

... so THANK YOU for voting more for the Nouveau Front Populaire than for either Macron or the far right.

The NFP came in first among the three main coalitions, and LePen's scum came third. The NFP got more seats than Macron did, HA. It's not a majority, but it's a huge result, considering that the Greens in England were a huge result and they got FOUR seats (up from only one, Caroline Lucas' former seat in Brighton).

Such a relief.

The NYT's coverage was ghastly. They spent more time on La France Insoumise -- being translated as France Unbowed, which is weird... I'd think of it more as France Rising Up or something like that... being "antisemitic" and "ultra radical left" with Jean-Luc Melanchon as some kind of slavering monster.

But the platform that the NFP agreed on together in the teeth of the terrible PS is pretty damn hot:

"The New Popular Front is campaigning on a platform that would raise France’s monthly minimum wage, lower the legal retirement age to 60 and freeze the price of basic necessities including food, energy and gas. Instead of drastically cutting immigration, as the far right has promised, the coalition pledged to make the asylum process more generous and smooth.

The group would also push for a cease-fire in Gaza and the liberation of hostages, and “immediately recognize” a Palestinian state. It vowed also to develop government plans to fight both antisemitism and Islamophobia."

That's from the New York Times (New York Crimes, as R-the-Elder calls them).

Also in the NYT -- a good op-ed piece by Oliver Eagleton, son of Terry Eagleton, detailing Starmer's disgusting and supple slide from "human rights lawyer" to Knight Errant of police and Purger of leftist opposition.

Comments

[springheel_jack]

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that the reactionary new york times would actually have been more keen on the National Front than Melénchon. In fact that's been pretty well true across the board - yeah, Le Pen makes people uncomfortable, but the real objection the political class has to her and the other fascists is that their economic plan is inflationary. That's because they're still naive; they've never had power. Eventally they'll figure out the part where they can't screw with bond yields, and they can have their camps. If I were French and the choice were purely binary I'd certainly vote for Macron to keep Le Pen out, but that's a wasting compromise; his very existence erodes the possibility of majoritarian politics, and if the left is sufficiently weak or divided, the fascists win. In general I'm kind of okay with the center eroding. At least people now can ask for what they want.

[springheel_jack]

Oh my god Starmer is worthless. An empty skin. Where the fuck did they find him?

[aldabra]

Human rights lawyering which is cool with the collective punishment of civilian refugees isn't worth the paper it's written on.

[sabotabby]

I'll take this good news.