French Presidential election

[Avatar]

I think WE the English should be able to vote in the French General Election

[Charean]

This is definately of concern to the US... I am surprised that the backlash didn't happen before now.

There is a rise of right wingers in the States... but we have the pendulum effect... it swings back and forth and we have congress to (hopefully) balance it out. When you have a Republican president and a majority Republican congress... the country will backlash and swing violently the other way - and so it goes, back and forth till we hit middle ground... or thereabouts.

Is that the case with the French as well?? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

[johnny]

they elected him and now they're sorry they did it ?????
well, i never had a high opinion of the french and it keeps just getting better and better

[Melusine]

Originally posted by khazadman: i think the right is going to get more votes than the french want to admit.there is a backlash building around the western countries to the policies of the left.and liberalized immigration laws seems to be the #1 problem.look what it's done for us.we have millions of them here in the u.s.

Actually, that's not true. Le Pen has won little new voters in comparison to last time, and a LOT of people have voted left. It's just that on the right, there's only Chirac and Le Pen, whereas on the left, there were five or six candidates. So the leftist votes were just more splintered, causing Le Pen to be able to get a "majority" of votes.

[Melusine]

Originally posted by johnny: they elected him and now they're sorry they did it ????? well, i never had a high opinion of the french and it keeps just getting better and better

Wow, that's such a nuanced opinion
What about all the Dutch supporting Fortuyn? What the hell does nationality have to do with anything? Voters make stupid mistakes everywhere in Europe, it's not just the French

Anyway, for a part I can see where you're coming from, but try and look at it this way: the French were HIGHLY disappointed in the current government, and voting Le Pen was their way to demonstrate their discontent - they never actually expected him to get anywhere! It was meant as a sort of wake up call, if you will. Not the smartest way to do it, true, but it explains how they could vote for him first and then regret it. I mean, the masses are easily influenced in any country and lots of voters make stupid decisions, the whole point of democracies being that even stupid people get to vote. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Kaz]

Originally posted by Donut: In Germany, the law and order movement of Ronald Schill a magistrate known as "judge merciless" - won 19 per cent of the vote in Hamburg last September.[/QB]

Does this count as far right? I know Schill has some very, very strict policies regarding law and punishment, but I'm not sure on his viewpoint on immigration and similar. Right, certainly, but far right?

In 1928 the Nazi Party won 18.3% of the national vote (remarkably similar to Le Pen's vote). In 1933 this rose to 37.2% and Hitler never looked back. Admittedly the world has changed since then but this is no time for apathy. [/QB]

If I remember my history lessons correctly, this was also due to a number of other factors. Among others, Germany was experiencing a severe depression, I believe unemployment rate reached 30% in the end of 1932. Hitler promised that he'd do something about it. Also, he played on the people's nostalgia: "the good old days, when we still had a monarchy". I believe that the more extremist terms of his policy (the Holocaust) came to view later, when he was firmly entrenched. Not sure about this though, as well (okay, I wasn't really listening during history).

[Sir ReGiN]

Just that this guy gets one vote is frightening. Haven't people learnt from the second world war?
I mean, sure there'll always be old "patriots" that share the same views with men like this and will probarbly vote for them, but 20%?!
As Donut pointed out, there have been lots of these right-wing fascist leaders plopping out around the world..
Truly frightening.

[johnny]

Originally posted by Melusine: quote: Originally posted by johnny: they elected him and now they're sorry they did it ????? well, i never had a high opinion of the french and it keeps just getting better and better

Wow, that's such a nuanced opinion
What about all the Dutch supporting Fortuyn? What the hell does nationality have to do with anything? Voters make stupid mistakes everywhere in Europe, it's not just the French

Anyway, for a part I can see where you're coming from, but try and look at it this way: the French were HIGHLY disappointed in the current government, and voting Le Pen was their way to demonstrate their discontent - they never actually expected him to get anywhere! It was meant as a sort of wake up call, if you will. Not the smartest way to do it, true, but it explains how they could vote for him first and then regret it. I mean, the masses are easily influenced in any country and lots of voters make stupid decisions, the whole point of democracies being that even stupid people get to vote. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [/QUOTE]you're not comparing fortuyn with le pen, are you ??? I never heard him say he would deport all foreigners back to their original countries. He is a freak, don't get me wrong, but i think it's not right to compare him with le pen

[Melusine]

Originally posted by johnny: you're not comparing fortuyn with le pen, are you ??? I never heard him say he would deport all foreigners back to their original countries. He is a freak, don't get me wrong, but i think it's not right to compare him with le pen

No, I am not comparing Fortuyn to Le Pen, though he DOES take a similar stance on immigrants. I was comparing the gullible voters in France to the gullible voters in Holland.

[Neb]

In Denmark the Danish Peoples Party, although technically not in government, has a huge influence on the centre-right coalition government.

To be fair to the Danish people, we keep hearing in the news about what awful crime the immigrants have committed now. If an immigrant murders someone it's on the front of the newspapers, if a Dane does it it's probably just a footnote somewhere....

I doubt that even Danes would be dumb enough to vote for this party as they number, or at least HAVE numbered, some serious psychos amongst them. One guy promised to throw out all male muslims and sell the females as prostitutes to some 3rd world country!

What a psycho, eh? Someone get me outta here.....