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| 2017 French Presidential Election Thread - Round 1 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 22 2017, 12:47 AM (152 Views) | |
| Webster | Apr 22 2017, 12:47 AM Post #1 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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In June 2016, British voters pulled the initial trigger for their now-certain departure from the EU; in November, U.S. voters stunned the electoral world by electing Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States.......now French voters go to the polls on Sunday to decide who should be their next president.... |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 02:48 PM Post #46 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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--Defeated conservative candidate #Fillon says he'll vote for #Macron. Calls on supporters to vote against extreme right. #Presidentielle2017 (Douglas Herbert, France 24 News - 23 April 2017) |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 02:51 PM Post #47 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) More from Marion Maréchal Le Pen, Marine’s niece and a Front National MP. Le Pen’s progression to the second round run-off is “a historic victory for patriots and sovereignists”, she said, adding she was happy with the “clear divide” with Macron. For fifteen years, there has not been a pro-sovereignty candidate in the second round of a presidential election. This is great ideological victory. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 03:08 PM Post #48 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Fillon Concedes Defeat, Endorses Macron --Conservative candidate François Fillon has conceded defeat and called on his supporters to back Emmanuel Macron in the second round: Despite all my efforts, my determination, I have not succedded in convincing my fellow countrymen and women. The obstacles in my path were too numerous and too cruel. This defeat is mine, I accept the responsibility, it is mine and mine alone to bear. We have to choose what is best for our country. Abstention is not in my genes, above all when an extremist party is close to power. The Front National is well known for its violence its intolérance, and its programme would lead our country to bankruptcy and Europe into chaos. Extremism can can only bring unhappiness and division to France. There is no other choice than to vote against the far right. I will vote for Emmanuel Macron. I consider it my duty to tell you this frankly. It is up to you to reflect on what is best for your country, and for your children. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 03:15 PM Post #49 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Police have fired tear gas on the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris as crowds of young people, some from anarchist and anti-fascist groups, gathered to protest at Marine Le Pen’s second-place finish and her hardline, anti-immigrant policies. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 03:27 PM Post #50 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-left veteran currently credited with fourth place just behind François Fillon, has said on his Facebook page that he does not yet accept the projected results, saying they are “based on opinion polls” and urging voters to show restraint and commentators to show prudence. -Read more: https://www.facebook.com/JLMelenchon/posts/10155302394473750 |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 03:43 PM Post #51 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(Ther Guardian) Le Pen calls for "real change" --Speaking in her constituency of Hénin-Beaumont, Marine Le Pen had this to say on her advance to the second round run-off on 7 May against Emmanuel Macron: You have brought me to the second round of the presidential election. I’d like to express my most profound gratitude. The first step that should lead the French people to the l’Elysée has been taken. This is a historic result. It is also an act of French pride, the act of a people lifting their heads. It will have escaped no one that the system tried by every means possible to stifle the great political debate that must now take place. The French people now have a very simple choice: either we continue on the path to complete deregulation, or you choose France. You now have the chance to choose real change. This is what I propose: real change/ It is time to liberate the French nation from arrogant elites who want to dictate how it must behave. Because yes, I am the candidate of the people. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 03:46 PM Post #52 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Angelique Chrisafis in Paris writes with a salutary reminder that France has parliamentary elections coming soon that will determine the extent to which the new president can actually govern: Whoever wins the Macron-Le Pen race, the parliamentary elections that follow in June will be crucial. The majority in the lower house will determine how a new president could govern, and France is likely to require a new form of coalition politics. If elected, Macron – who is fielding MP candidates from his fledgling movement, En Marche! (On the Move) – would have to seek a new kind of parliamentary majority across the centre left-right divide. If Le Pen did win the presidency, she would very probably not win a parliament majority, thwarting her ability to govern. But her party hopes to increase its MPs in the 577-seat house. Currently Le Pen has only two MPs. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 04:03 PM Post #53 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Down in Nice, Oscar Lopez has been speaking to disappointed Fillon and Mélenchon voters who will now switch to Macron, and to a Le Pen supporter: “I knew it,” said Solange, 70, with a slight sigh, after being told the election results. “I voted for Fillon, and I’m disappointed. But it’s not catastrophic.” She didn’t have a lot of confidence in Macron, though she would vote for him. “He’s too young,” she said. “And he’s still a socialist, no matter what he says.” She could “never vote for Le Pen,” Solange said. “We don’t need anymore hate in this country. And she would be a catastrophe for the economy. We don’t have a choice but to vote for Macron.” Sitting outside a fast food restaurant, Montassar Rejob, 27, was similarly set against the Front National. “Le Pen wants to divide the country,” he said. “It’s going to end in civil war.” He had voted Mélenchon, “because he was the only one who had dreams,” but, like Solange, admitted that against Le Pen the choice was simple: “It will be Macron.” For Laurent, 22, the choice was not so easy - he had voted for Le Pen in the first round. “Look at what happened in Nice, what’s happening in France,” he said, explaining that one of his friends had lost his mother and grandmother in the 2016 Nice attack. “It’s shocking. Something has to happen, and Le Pen is the only one that will take action.” Still, now that she had made it through to the second round, Laurent was having doubts. “I’m not sure if maybe she’s a bit too extreme,” he said, admitting that he was against her plans to leave the European Union. “It’s complicated. I’ll have to reread their programs and think about it. Either way, it’s going to be a huge change for France.” |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 04:08 PM Post #54 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) The euro has hit a five month high, as the early polling figures from France reassure the financial markets, writes Graeme Wearden: The single currency jumped almost 2% when trading began in Asia, surging over $1.091. It also rallied 1.5% against the British pound to around 85p. Investors had been nervous that Emmanuel Macron might fail to reach the run-off, as he’s seen as the candidate best equipped to prevent Marine Le Pen winning the presidency. Dean Turner of UBS said investors will be relieved that a mainstream candidate made it through to the second round. “As things stand, Macron is on course to be the next French president, so it is likely that we see a recovery in risk appetite toward French and other European markets,” predicted Turner. He added that markets would “still be alert” to the possibility of a Le Pen victory in the second round. Jeremy Cook of currency exchange firm World First said the euro was dancing high. “This positivity is mainly as a result that if there was one match up that the anti-EU Le Pen did not want in the 2nd round it is Macron. There has not been a poll that puts her within 15% of Macron in the 2nd round,” Cook explained. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 04:23 PM Post #55 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) A word of clarification about the official interior ministry count that is underway and shows Marine Le Pen in the lead. --latest interior ministry figures with 28 million votes counted - le pen 23,6, macron 22,78, fillon 19,69, melenchon 18,43 (John Irish, Reuters - 23 April 2017) This is the ongoing actual vote count which in its early stages includes mainly rural constituencies that tend to lean to the right, while results from urban areas that lean left will come in later. The vote estimates released earlier, which are not opinion polls but partial vote counts from selected representative polling stations and are usually accurate to within a point or so, still stand. They show Macron winning on 23-24%, and Le Pen on 21-23%. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 04:37 PM Post #56 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Macron speaks, appeals for large majority --Macron: Today, the people of France have spoken. As our country confronts an unprecedented moment in its history, it has responded in the best way possible - by voting in huge numbers. It has decided to place me first in this first round. To all those who have accompanied me since April 2016, in founding and bringing En Marche! to life, I would like to say this: in the space of a year, we have changed the face of French political life. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 05:05 PM Post #57 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Macron calls for a large governing majority so he can really set about putting his programme into action: That’s why I want to construct a majority to govern and to transform, of new talents, in which all will have their place. I will not ask where they come from, but whether they agree with the renewal of our politics, the security of the French people, reforming society and relaunching the European project. You are the face of this renewal. You are the face of France’s hope. My fellow citizens, there is not more than one France. There is only one, ours, the France of patriots, in a Europe that protects and that we must reform. The task is immense, but I am ready, at your sides. Vive la République, vive la France. To all those who have accompanied me since April 2016, in founding and bringing En Marche! to life, I would like to say this: in the space of a year, we have changed the face of French political life. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 05:15 PM Post #58 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Sylvain Crépon, a sociologist specialising in the Front National, has an astute take on the Macron-Le Pen face-off for Libération: Of all the candidates Marine Le Pen could have faced in the second round, Emmanuel Macron is the one who is projected to beat her the most convincingly. For all that, he is the candidate that she would most like to confront. To understand why, we need to return to the FN’s project of reconfiguring French democracy around the question of identity ... It wants the principle divide to be between those attached to national identity (nationalists, patriots, souverainists) and those who seek to destroy it (globalists, cosmopolitans, pro-Europeans). If Le Pen can replace a supposedly outmoded left-right divide based on economic and social criteria with with this new division, she can present her party as the one true alternative to what she describes as a system of “uncontrolled globalisation”. And that is a system of which Emmanuel Macron is the perfect incarnation. |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 05:16 PM Post #59 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Here are the opening paragraphs of Angelique Chrisafis’s news story on the night’s events: The independent centrist Emmanuel Macron has topped the first round of the French presidential election and according to projections will face the far-right Front National’s Marine Le Pen in a standoff marked by anti-establishment anger that knocked France’s traditional political parties out of the race. Macron, 39, a political novice, now becomes the favourite to be elected as France’s next president. He is the youngest ever French presidential hopeful and has never run for election before. After the UK’s vote to leave the European Union and the US vote for the political novice Donald Trump as president, the French presidential race is the latest election to shake up establishment politics by kicking out the figures that stood for the status quo. The historic first-round result marked the rejection of the ruling political class – it was the first time since the postwar period that the traditional left and right ruling parties were both ejected from the race in the first round. -Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/23/macron-set-to-face-le-pen-after-first-round-of-french-presidential-election |
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| Webster | Apr 23 2017, 05:36 PM Post #60 |
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Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
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(The Guardian) Understandably, reactions from around Europe have been ecstatic. Macron, now the overwhelming favourite to become the next French president, is avowedly pro-European, while Le Pen has vowed to take France out of the euro and hold a referendum on French membership of the EU. Steffen Siebert, German chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, said it was “good that Emmanuel Macron has been successful with his positions for a strong EU and a social market economy. Good luck for the coming two weeks.” Martin Schulz, the Social Democrats’ for German chancellor and former European parliament president, also tweeted his congratulations and urged “all French democrats to unite so the nationalist does not become president”. And Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for European commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, tweeted his boss’s congratulations too, and wished Macron good luck for the second round. |
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