The projection is in, and Emmanuel Macron has secured a clear victory over Marine Le Pen.
It s scary that Marine Le Pen was a runner-up, but this is the first time in 20 years that a French president has been elected to a second term, and the 1st time ever, it has happened, when the president had a majority in Parliament.
Macron could not have won, if the left had not voted for him over Le Pen. Many stayed home, but luckily, many understood the importance of voting against Le Pen, and her ultra-right party.
Yay (yawn) le petit fascist won reelection. Earth’s slide towards totalitarianism hits a tiny speed bump.
@moarscienceplz: Yawn indeed, you people make the word “fascist” lose all meaning, just like Republicans in the US have done with “communist”.
@1, Eh? President Macron, who does have many faults, is not a Putin-supporter (unlike Le Pen), is not anti-EU or anti-Nato, and so on… what are you babbling about ?
blf @2: I’m happy to be corrected, but my impression on limited reading is that Macron is the least of three evils (Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (a leftie, which is good, but with major issues), Macron).
“what are you babbling about ?”
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-putins-last-open-line-to-the-west/&ved=2ahUKEwiKxa_0yK73AhXidc0KHS64DYEQFnoECEAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1O5NEcmzigvaDhJ9G_63vX
And yet, Macron’s efforts sometimes gave the impression he was privileging his relationship with Moscow at the expense of his ties to European partners. His hosting of the Russian leader at the presidential summer residence on the French Riviera to discuss security issues ahead of a 2019 G7 meeting in France did not go down well, said Duclos, the former French ambassador.
“It’s normal to invite foreign leaders to the Elysée… but the private residence of the French president is an intimate environment,” Duclos said. “He hadn’t warned the Germans and the other EU states, so they were vexed. And the theme, he chose to discuss a ‘new architecture of security’ [with Putin], so everyone got suspicious because for them that means NATO. And you don’t discuss NATO with Putin.”
Some have pointed out that Macron has sometimes echoed Kremlin talking points, referring to Russia’s “contemporary traumas” or describing in 2019 the existence of a Europe stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok, a concept Putin had sketched out in an article nearly 10 years earlier.
“At one point, the French president appeared to sideline his own foreign affairs ministry, dressing down diplomats accusing them of “deep-state” resistance to engaging with Russia. Many think Macron has preferred to listen to politicians who were nostalgic for past French global influence and who were too soft on Russia, such as former ministers Hubert Védrine and Jean-Pierre Chevènement.”
Phil Moorhouse of “A Different Bias” has a warning about Macron’s win, and it’s worth viewing. He decribes this vote it’s a reprieve, not a victory. Authoritarianism is still on the rise.
@ 5. Intransitive : Authoritarianism may well be on the rise globe-wide but at least its been delayed. Better that than accelerated.
Its a small consolation but not none. Yes alot mroe need sto be done to halt and reverse that rise and sldie into horrors and yes, it really stinks that its 2022 and we’re still fighting nazi but its a set-back for the bad guys and that’s something.
Rob Grigjanis@3, “[…] Macron is the least of three evils (Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (a leftie, which is good, but with major issues), Macron)”. Modify that to include the disclaimer “of the candidates who got at least 5% in the first round” (albeit a further technical correction is needed (see below)), and I concur with that assessment. The 5% figure is important as that is the cut-off needed to obtain state funding, below that amount of the vote, and the state does not refund any expenses. Sadly, below that 5% were perhaps the most un-evil candidates, possibly including the Greens and the Socialists.
Sadly, besides the three listed, the only other candidate above the 5% threshold was überfacist Éric Zemmour, who is very Very much pro-Putin (even famously calling for a “French Putin”), etc — this is the further correction that is needed: Zemmour should be added to that list (as per my suggested corrected definition) but is worse than Le Pen, so adding that nutcase is a “technical” correction as it does not materially change the “at least 5% least-worse option” point. Le Pen only seems (and perhaps is) marginally better, e.g., Le Pen is so pro-Putin they’ve taken Russian financial loans, and famously, in this past (2022) election, had to shred their campaign leaflets because it had a picture of Le Pen greeting Putin… and then Putin invaded.
moarscienceplz@4, And? Macron also tried diplomacy with Putin after the invasion, and (both before and after brexit (e.g.)) with Trump, May, and Johnson, but didn’t do so off-the-record (unlike Trump with Putin) nor agreed-with or condoned their respective antics. Macron even trolled Putin’s acolyte Trump several times. Macron has problems, but an unusual diplomatic setting without any other history of significance of fawning over authoritarians is a case of, like I said in @1, “what are you babbling on about?”