Jean-Marie Le Pen - 17.4% !!!

[Damien]

Because that's the system;there's no counter-power.
And it's very difficult nowadays to do a revolt or a strike.
In France if u follow a strike,ur not paid.
Read what i've written about that in the thread "italians did u know that right?"(it's in OT)

 

[Greadius]

Maybe Le Pen will send incursions into the Paris Left Bank

Its actually ironic, one of my proffessors was talking about him last week, and how he (I hope it was Le Pen) slugged a woman who was in the French Communist party.
I was thinking "He hit a French Communist, he has my vote"
Apparently many others thought the same thing

 

[roadwarrior]

Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the next Prime Minister of France will have gotten less than 25% of a general vote? I dont generally follow French politics (they are all either left-wing socialists and communists or far far right-wing fascists and neo-nazis), but this is somewhat sad/funny/French for lack of a better adjective . It is somewhat scary to think that these people actually have nuclear weapons...

 

[NY Hoya]

Originally posted by roadwarrior
Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the next Prime Minister of France will have gotten less than 25% of a general vote? I dont generally follow French politics (they are all either left-wing socialists and communists or far far right-wing fascists and neo-nazis), but this is somewhat sad/funny/French for lack of a better adjective . It is somewhat scary to think that these people actually have nuclear weapons...

In a system with more than two parties, I think you really have to have a runoff system like that in France. Remember, there were sixteen candidates running, so it's understandable that the top two candidates had less than 25% of the total vote. At least this way it's impossible for a "minority" party candidate to play the role of spoiler a la Ross Perot or Ralph Nader. At least the winner of the election in France will end up with more than 50% of the vote.

 

[roadwarrior]

There were about 10 or 15 candidates in the US election too, but most of the people realize that they are crackpots and dont deseve getting their vote.

 

[philippe]

we must invade france or they will invade uss since that pen bastard is now going to be ruler of nazi france.
i want a pen unit in civ3
stats 0/0/999999999
it concuers every civ by shocking them and murders all jews
now we must crush france
my m-16 is ready

 

[NY Hoya]

Originally posted by roadwarrior
There were about 10 or 15 candidates in the US election too, but most of the people realize that they are crackpots and dont deseve getting their vote.

yes, but you forget that we got to choose between a couple of lesser crackpots. The French don't have that luxury.

 

[damunzy]

And the world laughed at our candidates! Well, so did I but after reading this thread I am glad for Crack-smoking Drunk-driving Dubaya. Ok, it wasn't Crack but it was coke.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Originally posted by philippe
we must invade france or they will invade uss since that pen bastard is now going to be ruler of nazi france.
i want a pen unit in civ3
stats 0/0/999999999
it concuers every civ by shocking them and murders all jews
now we must crush france
my m-16 is ready

More in depth political analysis...

Ah, it is good to see my fellow denizens of the far right on the rise...Le Pen, Haider and others. At the least it provides a proper counterbalance to the evil creeping communism of the Eurocrats and socialists.
The right is right

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by philippe
we must invade france or they will invade uss since that pen bastard is now going to be ruler of nazi france.
i want a pen unit in civ3
stats 0/0/999999999
it concuers every civ by shocking them and murders all jews
now we must crush france
my m-16 is ready

Is this A/D/M? Forget politics, this guy should be in the Olympics.

 

[Akka]

Originally posted by roadwarrior
It is somewhat scary to think that these people actually have nuclear weapons...

Personnally, I find it even more scary to see that people who got nuclear weapons are the same who say :

they are all either left-wing socialists and communists or far far right-wing fascists and neo-nazis

or

I was thinking "He hit a French Communist, he has my vote"

Oh, and a last thing...

Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the next Prime Minister of France will have gotten less than 25% of a general vote?

Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the actual president of the USA has got less votes than his rival ?

 

[Zwelgje]

Originally posted by Simon Darkshade
More in depth political analysis...

Ah, it is good to see my fellow denizens of the far right on the rise...Le Pen, Haider and others. At the least it provides a proper counterbalance to the evil creeping communism of the Eurocrats and socialists.

A few years ago left wing politics took over in almost all European countries and now the right wing takes over again. It's good because it probably gives a better balance in politics when once in a while there's a major change in government

Originally posted by Simon Darkshade
The right is right

Mwoah, I don't have to agree with this do I.....

 

[damunzy]

Originally posted by Akka
Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the actual president of the USA has got less votes than his rival ?

Yes, it is not funny, it is sad. Not that the other guy, Gore was it, would have done better.

 

[Ilúvatar]

Le Pen is not in power yet and he won't get there... and if, their parliament is still dominated by the left

apart from that, Haider doesn't have any political power in Austria

 

[Hitro]

That's democracy...

Well, this shows the result of a system that also presents other views than the two main ones. The people will vote for the extreme, cause they appeal to their lower senses.

Orignally posted by roadwarrior
Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the next Prime Minister of France will have gotten less than 25% of a general vote?

No, but I still like it better than a two-party system.

The really sad thing is the number of people who abstain from such elections. Here again the abstained votes are the biggest group. That and the high turnout for the extreme right (who offer bascially nothing but polemics) shows how disappointed many people are with democracy and how fed up they are with the policital establishment, no matter weather left or right.
That's a dangerous tendency and not only in France...

 

[duke o' york]

France is indeed shocked by the result and maybe this kind of result is one of the best weapons to combat voter apathy. I hope that voters around the world have learnt that if you don't go and make your cross in the correct box then you may have to put up with someone like Le Pen. I am willing to bet that the shock of this result ensures that the voter turnout for the final round of ballots is substantially larger than it was for the initial round. Chirac suddenly finds himself in a position whereby he is guaranteed the vote of France's entire immigrant community, the entire French left and the vast majority of the centrists. He barely needs to even campaign any more. His and Jospins policies were nigh identical anyway and their competition was basically one of personality so France was always going to get the same Presidential programme regardless of which of the two was victorious. This is worrying news for European politics but ought to spur a crushing defeat for the vile Le Pen.

 

[Adebisi]

By IzeBlaZe
Well everyone in france is bad.

Oh yes, those horrible French people. What an evil man this Le Pen, supporting torture and seeing his people as worth more than others... And not to mention wanting to deport millions of people.

But wait... Isn't there another Western country that also has a similar extreme right wing party with public support, who wants to do the same? Maybe one that begins with an I?

What an incredible lack of perspective, IzeBlaZe.

----

As for the French election, it's sad to see that Le Pen was the only one who promised to deal with the problems that obviously need a solution. He wont win though, and this will hopefully be a wake-up call for the other candidates for the next round.

Reaction in Paris.

Am I the only one who finds it somewhat humorous that the next Prime Minister of France will have gotten less than 25% of a general vote? I dont generally follow French politics (they are all either left-wing socialists and communists or far far right-wing fascists and neo-nazis), but this is somewhat sad/funny/French for lack of a better adjective . It is somewhat scary to think that these people actually have nuclear weapons...

I see this as far, far more democratic than the American system. In most European countries there are at least five candidates who all are worth voting for, ie have a chance of winning.

 

[IceBlaZe]

woops double post

 

[IceBlaZe]

Originally posted by Adebisi
Oh yes, those horrible French people. What an evil man this Le Pen, supporting torture and seeing his people as worth more than others... And not to mention wanting to deport millions of people.

>>> I'm glad you didn't quote me out of context
Seriously, I meant all the candidates, and even that was said with sarcasm.

But wait... Isn't there another Western country that also has a similar extreme right wing party with public support, who wants to do the same? Maybe one that begins with an I?

>>> Almost every country has, but in Israel they do not get 18%.
anyhow, today 19% of Israel are non-jewish and with full rights.
That's equivalent to almost 12 million french.

What an incredible lack of perspective, IzeBlaZe.

>>> The only one who lacks something here is you. You should stop taking things so seriously and out of context, before making a fool out of yourself.

And stop turning everything into a middle east thread.

 

[Greadius]

Originally posted by Akka
Personnally, I find it even more scary to see that people who got nuclear weapons are the same who say

That slugging a French Communist gets my vote was a joke!
Really... well, kind of...
Come on, I'm not the only one where that wants to see French communists punched, am I?

Originally posted by Adebisi
I see this as far, far more democratic than the American system. In most European countries there are at least five candidates who all are worth voting for, ie have a chance of winning.

Why are the Democratic and Republican primaries always left out of the equation? There were about a dozen candidates trying to get both the party nominees, and four that actually had a chance, and two that emerged.
What is the difference between the primaries to weed out the loosers and the two party general election (which still allows third party candidates) as compared to the two round run-off system? It is the same thing with the same results (MOST of the time). Crackballs like Le Pen are ALWAYS on the American ballot, and usually garner less than 1% of the vote.

So who now has more of a choice, Americans in November of 2000 or the French this year?

Another thing that bothers me is how big of a 'tragedy' Le Pen's victory has been potrayed as by the BBC (which is where I get most of my world news).
That is the same orginization that has had THREE fluff pieces about that communist Annette whatshername and how nice she was. Now they have the right wing equivalent and its a tragedy? So much for independant news