Thank you France

[Gateman_Wen]

For not ****ing us all over for once.

Victorious Macron vows to unite France after fending off Le Pen threat

President acknowledges divisions after historic 13 million votes for Le Pen’s anti-immigration party

www.theguardian.com

 

[george48]

Thank **** he won over a far right fasho

 

[george48]

WHO (le pen) was an ally of Putin...

What an unbelievable disagrace Le Pen was

 

[tacomancer]

Can we call long cut potato spears French fries again?

Also I am glad that fascism didn’t prevail in France.

 

[george48]

Can we call long cut potato spears French fries again?

Also I am glad that fascism didn’t prevail in France.

Nobody believed she would win...

But let US Take hope in the fact
that one of the worlds Most strong democracies HANDIDLY defeated a fasho

 

[Gateman_Wen]

Can we call long cut potato spears French fries again?

Also I am glad that fascism didn’t prevail in France.

No, I've still got a major case of the ass for France, i'm just pleased they didn't screw us this time.

 

[Mr Person]

Macron winning is good. That this was an issue vs. Le Pen is very very bad.

 

[Callen]

So happy for this outcome. I don't care for Macron, he reminds me of Trudeau, an elitist, but better that than a rabid plurist.

 

[Surrealistik]

So happy for this outcome. I don't care for Macron, he reminds me of Trudeau, an elitist, but better that than a rabid plurist.

The rest of the country doesn't really care for him either; it was a vote against Le Pen, not for Macron, who is infamous and despised for advancing the interests of the rich at the expense of everyone else and has faced sustained mass riots under his tenure.

Another lose/lose, bad/worse election.

 

[Callen]

The rest of the country doesn't really care for him either; it was a vote against Le Pen, not for Macron, who is infamous and despised for advancing the interests of the rich at the expense of everyone else and has faced sustained mass riots under his tenure.

Another lose/lose, bad/worse election.

Seems to me all we have of late is the best of a bad lot!

 

[Schrott]

Yes, that is great news, very good for Europe and the world. But Macron has some serious work to do with his domestic politics, or the devils head will raise again in 5 years.

Slovenia voted today, too. Kim Putler's and Orban's friend lost. Slovenia will have a EU friendly and West friendly government.

Good day for democracies

 

[Mithrae]

Can we call long cut potato spears French fries again?

No, I've still got a major case of the ass for France, i'm just pleased they didn't screw us this time.

You're pleased that they are and will remain opposed to Russia's war of aggression, but still pissed nineteen years later that they opposed one of America's wars of aggression?

 

[Gateman_Wen]

You're pleased that they are and will remain opposed to Russia's war of aggression, but still pissed nineteen years later that they opposed one of America's wars of aggression?

I've got a person grudge against France.

 

[Integrityrespec]

For not ****ing us all over for once.

Victorious Macron vows to unite France after fending off Le Pen threat

President acknowledges divisions after historic 13 million votes for Le Pen’s anti-immigration party

www.theguardian.com

I don't think macron has it in him. When the country is divided during your term it's hard to change your stripes to make that kind of change.

 

[Surrealistik]

I don't think macron has it in him. When the country is divided during your term it's hard to change your stripes to make that kind of change.

Moreover, in kowtowing to France's rich, Macron was indispensable in dividing it and empowering Le Pen.

 

[HIP56948]

The losing side was a little over 42 percent. Reminds me of the same percentage, that here, in the states, that think a certain waste-of-space is their orange Genius.
(Puke)

 

[Gateman_Wen]

I don't think macron has it in him. When the country is divided during your term it's hard to change your stripes to make that kind of change.

Oh I don't think he's gonna mend his ways, but al least he's not a fascist.

 

[Schrott]

Moreover, in kowtowing to France's rich, Macron was indispensable in dividing it and empowering Le Pen.

But you know that France has to do some serious reforms of its social systems and federal apparatus. That always hurts, when privilege get taken.
Greece had to do it, Germany had to do it, Spain had to do it and so on.....................................

Macron was to rough and could not sell what was needed. He has to change his approach, sell it better and go slower.
He thought he could use the iron broom, does not work. Hollande screwed the system up, with his socialism.
Needs fixing, but it needs the right approach.

 

[Surrealistik]

But you know that France has to do some serious reforms of its social systems and federal apparatus. That always hurts, when privilege get taken.
Greece had to do it, Germany had to do it, Spain had to do it and so on.....................................

Macron was to rough and could not sell what was needed. He has to change his approach, sell it better and go slower.
He thought he could use the iron broom, does not work. Hollande screwed the system up, with his socialism.
Needs fixing, but it needs the right approach.

While there may have arguably (or not) been a need for reforms of some kind (an alternative was increasing revenues), the core and glaring problem is that Macron cut taxes on the rich at the same time he seriously hosed literally everyone else (including via regressive fuel taxes), thus completely contradicting and undermining his claims of sheer economic necessity and bedrock French notions of solidarity and shared sacrifice. In the end, he tried to pay for his tax cuts benefitting those best off by forcing everyone else to do so, including and especially those least able, engaging in classic pain for thee, but not for me hypocrisy; ( https://jacobinmag.com/2022/04/macron-le-pen-france-election-neoliberalism-protest ).

The man was indisputably out to engineer a windfall for his major donors and benefactors, no matter who got hurt on the way.

 

[armycowboy]

Macron winning is good. That this was an issue vs. Le Pen is very very bad.

Yep, 40% voting for a literal fascist is a problem.

 

[Craig234]

Some good and/or bad news is how similar France seems to be to our situation, where a Bernie-like political figure running for president came within 1.5% of being in the top two instead of the far-right candidate. THAT would have been interesting and seeing the level of dislike for Macron I have to think he'd have had a good chance of winning if he had gotten to top two.

It's really too bad he didn't, and the story today wasn't that France had elected a Bernie-like leader, and instead is how 42% of the country supported a far-right horrible candidate that threatened so much of the world's Democratic unity. I mean it's good he was that close and that she lost the final election, but bad how well she did.

 

[Schrott]

While there may have arguably (or not) been a need for reforms of some kind (an alternative was increasing revenues), the core and glaring problem is that Macron cut taxes on the rich at the same time he seriously hosed literally everyone else (including via regressive fuel taxes), thus completely contradicting and undermining his claims of sheer economic necessity and bedrock French notions of solidarity and shared sacrifice. In the end, he tried to pay for his tax cuts benefitting those best off by forcing everyone else to do so, including and especially those least able, engaging in classic pain for thee, but not for me hypocrisy; ( https://jacobinmag.com/2022/04/macron-le-pen-france-election-neoliberalism-protest ).

The man was indisputably out to engineer a windfall for his major donors and benefactors, no matter who got hurt on the way.

I would call that a populistic view.

Hollande tried to introduce socialism and went ape with his social programs and tried to finance them with very high taxes. That did not work, never has worked, because the taxable money leaves the country. Less revenue for the Country and that goes from the bottom up, cities, counties, states and the Feds. They are not anymore competitive in the EU. But then you sit on this huge budget for what ever social cookies.
If you want to pay for that stuff you need money making taxpayers, the more the merry and you have to bring the work force into employment, so they can pay tax and do not receive tax money.
Hollande's legacy is still haunting France and Macron has not been able to find the right path and tone to correct it.
Lowering the insane taxes is a step, but then you have to lower the amount of people who are on the social hand out and that is Macron's problem and reform the system.

 

[tacomancer]

You're pleased that they are and will remain opposed to Russia's war of aggression, but still pissed nineteen years later that they opposed one of America's wars of aggression?

Oh I was just joking

 

[Craig234]

I would call that a populistic view.

Hollande tried to introduce socialism and went ape with his social programs and tried to finance them with very high taxes. That did not work, never has worked, because the taxable money leaves the country. Less revenue for the Country and that goes from the bottom up, cities, counties, states and the Feds. They are not anymore competitive in the EU. But then you sit on this huge budget for what ever social cookies.
If you want to pay for that stuff you need money making taxpayers, the more the merry and you have to bring the work force into employment, so they can pay tax and do not receive tax money.
Hollande's legacy is still haunting France and Macron has not been able to find the right path and tone to correct it.
Lowering the insane taxes is a step, but then you have to lower the amount of people who are on the social hand out and that is Macron's problem and reform the system.

This argument about 'any country that tries to tax the rich will just see the rich leave' is not entirely correct, but the point to which it is correct is why we need global agreements - like the proposed global minimum 20% income tax on billionaires - and similarly global agreements on labor to reduce a "race to the bottom" with wealthy nations competing with low-wage nations driving wages down.

 

[Surrealistik]

I would call that a populistic view.

Hollande tried to introduce socialism and went ape with his social programs and tried to finance them with very high taxes. That did not work, never has worked, because the taxable money leaves the country. Less revenue for the Country and that goes from the bottom up, cities, counties, states and the Feds. They are not anymore competitive in the EU. But then you sit on this huge budget for what ever social cookies.
If you want to pay for that stuff you need money making taxpayers, the more the merry and you have to bring the work force into employment, so they can pay tax and do not receive tax money.
Hollande's legacy is still haunting France and Macron has not been able to find the right path and tone to correct it.
Lowering the insane taxes is a step, but then you have to lower the amount of people who are on the social hand out and that is Macron's problem and reform the system.

I would call that a realistic view; whereas Macron is dabbling in voodoo economics.

The Hollande taxes that didn't work were ill-conceived, hastily implemented and/or equipped with massive loopholes; a clear failure of execution, not of concept. What destroyed his popularity in the end was his commitment to neoliberal reforms of pensions that Macron supports.

Meanwhile, Macron's unproven trickle down, pro-wealthy economics are exactly that: unproven. Over and over again across the world taxes are cut on the rich without any truly demonstrable and proven positive effects on the economy (see the Trump and Bush cuts; or an Oxford academic paper on such cuts more generally: https://academic.oup.com/ser/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ser/mwab061/6500315 ). Moreover, his own experiment with slashing taxes on the rich while increasing them on everyone else have predictably proven fruitless with nothing to show for it save massive riots and a hollowed out tax base: https://www.reuters.com/article/france-tax-idUSL5N26M3SG

Hollande's legacy has all but vanished entirely save for the deeply unpopular pension cuts that Macron deepened and worsened. Macron's tax cuts have failed utterly and demonstrably at what they set out to do, while engendering mass unrest and empowering Le Pen to dangerous heights previously undreamt. It's not that Macron is unable to find the right path, it's that he's not interested in pursuing it as per his callous and tone deaf responses to those riots he alone was responsible for, and his ongoing massive approval deficits.