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French far-right party top in the polls

Rainman05

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EUobserver.com / Political Affairs / France's National Front tops EU election survey

The second in line is the center-right party with 22% and the ruling party, the socialists, have just 19% support from the public. Boy they went down fast after the elections...

Now national elections are still a long way ahead but the european elections are in less than 1 year. A change in the political landscape of the EU parliament may encourage different responses in different nations.

So the main problem with this is the fact that france gets to send a lot of people to the EU parliament and the anti-euros are predicted to grow. Currently the ECR (the EU political group that is euroskeptic) and the EFD (the other euroskeptic political formation) don't have even 100 people in total from the ~700 people that make up the EU parliament.

Now. I'm also an euroskeptic in the sense that I don't think this current implementation of the EU is going the right way. However, I feel that there has been a concerted effort from the EU to get out there and engage in the national dialogue. I still think it's a bit deaf when it comes to hearing the popular demands but I think it can change. This is the major game-changer.... 4-5 months ago I believed that the EU can't change. It's dead-set to become the next USSR, structured, rigid, stupid institution. But maybe it can change... it's still very bad as it is now... I think we should vote for more things in the EU if we are to be honest. I think that there should be EU-wide referendums on issues. I also think that the way the EU addresses banking is bad, etc , but I think it can change. So would I, personally ,want to see the ECR and the EFD grow in power? Hmmm, not really... maybe let them grow a little if that means kicking the eurocommunists out of the EU parliament but overall.. not really.
 
Holy crap. I think the French just set a record for most distance traveled on the political compass within a single election cycle.

What's the matter guys? Decided the far left socialist policies weren't worth it after all?
 
Holy crap. I think the French just set a record for most distance traveled on the political compass within a single election cycle.

What's the matter guys? Decided the far left socialist policies weren't worth it after all?

The French have traditionally had strong far right support, the French National Front under Jean-Marie Le Pen being a case in point.
 
The French have traditionally had strong far right support, the French National Front under Jean-Marie Le Pen being a case in point.

Not all that much... far right support grew in these last year in the wake of the sarkozy incompetence and further now thanks to the socialists incompetence.

Holy crap. I think the French just set a record for most distance traveled on the political compass within a single election cycle.

What's the matter guys? Decided the far left socialist policies weren't worth it after all?

Well the socialist party had scandal after scandal at the start of this year. I'm sure I posted some of them at the time.
 
Not all that much... far right support grew in these last year in the wake of the sarkozy incompetence and further now thanks to the socialists incompetence.

The Far Right have been a force in French politics for a while, with their most surprising result being in 2002 well before Sarkozy when they reached the second round vote in the French Presidential Elections.

BBC News | EUROPE | France stunned by Le Pen success

Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. As noted above, he was not able to run for office in 1981, having failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting. This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the PS candidate and incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such far right views had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion as virtually the entire French political spectrum from centre-right to centre-left united in fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. More than one million people in France took part in street rallies; slogans such as "vote for the crook, not the fascist" were heard in opposition to Le Pen.
 
There always seem's to be a decent amoutn of supprt for the far right in France but when it comes to the general election they always seem to drift back to the middle.
 
The French have traditionally had strong far right support, the French National Front under Jean-Marie Le Pen being a case in point.

Any country that puts a socialist party in power TWICE doesn't exactly constitute a "historically far right support" in my book. Perhaps you have different standards though.
 
Any country that puts a socialist party in power TWICE doesn't exactly constitute a "historically far right support" in my book. Perhaps you have different standards though.

There are socialists in lots of countries but that does not mean there will not be a far right alternative or that it isn't also can't have a degree of popular support.
 
The Far Right have been a force in French politics for a while, with their most surprising result being in 2002 well before Sarkozy when they reached the second round vote in the French Presidential Elections.

BBC News | EUROPE | France stunned by Le Pen success

Well 2002 is not that far away.. 11 years ago. and Chirac won in a saddam-hussein style landslide then. So it's not quite "big support". he was just the only other alternative and people who hated Chirac with a passion contributed to the electoral count of Le Pen's father. The majority of his votes were protest votes, not pro-votes.

There will always be some people supporting some faction. The FN in france grew more during the disaster that was Sarkozy and his divide-et-divide tactics on the working class and especially now from when the socialists took power.

And all the times the FN ran in the past, they got marginal wins. So you can't say that the far right have been a force in French politics in the past... but they are starting to look stronger today and especially in the past 4-5 years.

The issue is the following.
In Italy, the 5star movement made by beppo the comedian has 30% of popular support. In France, you get around 25%. The euroskeptic party in Austria gained a few % in the polls mostly from the lost votes of the governing party and in the UK you have UKIP that is growing more vocal and more bold. I predict there will be stormy seas ahead in the EU parliament and suspect the main 2 euroskeptic political formations will exceed, together, 100 people- 110 people. They currently have around 80 in total.

I don't think the FN or the 5star or any far right party will ever get their hands on power. Too much of a stigma attached to their political position. Which would be fine if the communist parties would also have it but in western europe... there isn't that kind of a stigma attached to the eurocommunists. But thankfully there aren't that many stupid people to vote for them.
 
There are socialists in lots of countries but that does not mean there will not be a far right alternative or that it isn't also can't have a degree of popular support.

You're right, there are socialists in a lot of countries. Heck, there are socialists in the US, and the socialist-lite party owns the WH right now. But there is a huge difference between having socialists in a country and putting one in office. A country far enough left that would put one in office doesn't constitute a country with "far right support." Unless of course, you are suggesting that France is more heavily divided then we are.
 
You're right, there are socialists in a lot of countries. Heck, there are socialists in the US, and the socialist-lite party owns the WH right now. But there is a huge difference between having socialists in a country and putting one in office. A country far enough left that would put one in office doesn't constitute a country with "far right support." Unless of course, you are suggesting that France is more heavily divided then we are.

I am merely stating that when one in five voters voted for a party it constitutes significant support, and the Far Right in France has had significant support in France and continues to do so. The fact that France also has a socialist party that receives significant support does not mean that the Far Right does not enjoy significant support.
 
Well 2002 is not that far away.. 11 years ago. and Chirac won in a saddam-hussein style landslide then. So it's not quite "big support". he was just the only other alternative and people who hated Chirac with a passion contributed to the electoral count of Le Pen's father. The majority of his votes were protest votes, not pro-votes.

There will always be some people supporting some faction. The FN in france grew more during the disaster that was Sarkozy and his divide-et-divide tactics on the working class and especially now from when the socialists took power.

And all the times the FN ran in the past, they got marginal wins. So you can't say that the far right have been a force in French politics in the past... but they are starting to look stronger today and especially in the past 4-5 years.

The issue is the following.
In Italy, the 5star movement made by beppo the comedian has 30% of popular support. In France, you get around 25%. The euroskeptic party in Austria gained a few % in the polls mostly from the lost votes of the governing party and in the UK you have UKIP that is growing more vocal and more bold. I predict there will be stormy seas ahead in the EU parliament and suspect the main 2 euroskeptic political formations will exceed, together, 100 people- 110 people. They currently have around 80 in total.

I don't think the FN or the 5star or any far right party will ever get their hands on power. Too much of a stigma attached to their political position. Which would be fine if the communist parties would also have it but in western europe... there isn't that kind of a stigma attached to the eurocommunists. But thankfully there aren't that many stupid people to vote for them.

The rise of the Far Right in France has not happened overnight which is the point I was making, it has occurred over a number of decades, with increasing support based around immigration and other such issues. It certainly was no surprise to read that Far Right have a significant vote in France, nor would it be in Italy or indeed Spain, both of which have a far greater history of fascism. In terms of UKIP it's hardly fascism, they merely want to curb immigration and pull out of the EU, although there recent party conference was a bit of an embarrassment with in-fighting and sackings.
 
The rise of the Far Right in France has not happened overnight which is the point I was making, it has occurred over a number of decades, with increasing support based around immigration and other such issues. It certainly was no surprise to read that Far Right have a significant vote in France, nor would it be in Italy or indeed Spain, both of which have a far greater history of fascism. In terms of UKIP it's hardly fascism, they merely want to curb immigration and pull out of the EU, although there recent party conference was a bit of an embarrassment with in-fighting and sackings.

Well... the FN is not a fascist organization either. It's just interpreted as such by people who hate them. they're very much pro-democracy, they just want to curb immigration and pull out of the EU and the euro too.

And I wasn't making the point that they happened overnight either. Just that their support base was lethargic in the past but has bloomed in the last 4-5 years especially due to failed Sarkozy policies and the failure of the current socialist administration.
 
Most left wingers are ready to vote for right wing candidates, if it is the only way to stop far right extremists from being elected, just as we did in 2002. So I doubt that the Front National will ever win the second turn of a French presidential election. It's still worrying though, especially considering that such nationalism is not much compatible with EU-wide politics.
 
Well... the FN is not a fascist organization either. It's just interpreted as such by people who hate them. they're very much pro-democracy, they just want to curb immigration and pull out of the EU and the euro too.

And I wasn't making the point that they happened overnight either. Just that their support base was lethargic in the past but has bloomed in the last 4-5 years especially due to failed Sarkozy policies and the failure of the current socialist administration.

And again you forget to acknowledge that the FN won the first turn in 2002 (which is hardly indicative of a lethargic support base) and was badly beaten in the second turn thanks to left-wingers voting en masse for Chirac.
 
and again you forget to acknowledge that the fn won the first turn in 2002 (which is hardly indicative of a lethargic support base) and was badly beaten in the second turn thanks to left-wingers voting en masse for chirac.

what did i say in page 1:
well 2002 is not that far away.. 11 years ago. And chirac won in a saddam-hussein style landslide then. So it's not quite "big support". He was just the only other alternative and people who hated chirac with a passion contributed to the electoral count of le pen's father. The majority of his votes were protest votes, not pro-votes.

Chirac won because leftists voted for him, le pen got 18% of the vote because a lot of people protest-voted against chirac. And neither got the president they wanted.

READ before posting.
 
what did i say in page 1:


Chirac won because leftists voted for him, le pen got 18% of the vote because a lot of people protest-voted against chirac. And neither got the president they wanted.

READ before posting.

I did read what you posted and page one. Which is why I'm surprised that you still claim that they were lethargic on page two.
 
I did read what you posted and page one. Which is why I'm surprised that you still claim that they were lethargic on page two.

Why?

The 18% le pen won weren't from far right supporters only. The far right supporters were a part of the 18% but so were anti-chirac voters who wanted to do a protest-vote against chirac.

They were lethargic... more or less having single-digit support. The boost in 2002 came from people who hated the opponents of le pen more than le pen himself and his party.

It was only now, in recent years, that they broke double digits support consistently at a national level.
 
Why?

The 18% le pen won weren't from far right supporters only. The far right supporters were a part of the 18% but so were anti-chirac voters who wanted to do a protest-vote against chirac.

They were lethargic... more or less having single-digit support. The boost in 2002 came from people who hated the opponents of le pen more than le pen himself and his party.

It was only now, in recent years, that they broke double digits support consistently at a national level.
FN has had double digits support for far longer than you are willing to acknowledge. It started in the 80's iirc.

National Front (France) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Oh yes, having 2 ppl in the national parliament, 3 in the EU and 118 in regional councils is surely "big support".

The point still stands that the FN has had double digit support for far longer than you say. In 1988, Le Pen won an unprecedented 14.4% of the vote, in the 1989 European elections, the FN held on to its ten seats as it won 11.7% of the vote, etc.
 
The French have traditionally had strong far right support, the French National Front under Jean-Marie Le Pen being a case in point.

Was that the guy that offed himself in Notre Dame?
 
Oh yes, having 2 ppl in the national parliament, 3 in the EU and 118 in regional councils is surely "big support".

That has to do with the election system and where the support is. The support is fragmented across the country, where as the traditionalist parties have massive support where it matters. Basically FN spreads its crap all over France and the others concentrate it better. This leads to less seats than the polls state. It is quite common. Look at the UK, UKIP is supposedly almost as big as the Tories now days, and yet their support is so fragmented and often in areas they have no chance of winning a seat, that in reality they wont get many seats at a national election.

That is also why FN have a much better chance relatively in a Presidential election because here the distribution of their voters is not relevant.

And when push comes to shove.. this is a poll, but when an election comes around then chances are that people will not vote for FN in those numbers .. basically because of the stink the FN gives off. It is quite typical of all such far right neo-fascist racist parties across Europe.
 
Oh and such parties tend to go hot and cold, and even self destruct. Look at the Tea Party and in part UKIP.
 
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