French Paris Elections

[Itse]

Macron is politically similar to the Clintons, or say Tony Blair. (European politicians are always kind of a better comparison, as the relevant political questions are different this side of the Atlantic.)

Economically moderate progressive liberal, sometimes describes himself as a leftist, but is "left" is very relative here. Pro trade agreements, austerity critic, his idea of environment friendly is very Bill Clinton like. (Sort of pro environment, but really more green economy than actual green.) He's a critic of the prolonged "state of emergency" against terrorism and a strong supporter of Frances secularist tradition. Somewhat hawkish, pro military spending.

He has years of high level political experience, even hough by French standards he's a newcomer with something like five years of political history starting with Hollande's staff. He's educated in philosophy and public affairs. Macron is considered highly intelligent (some describe has 'brilliant') and an eloquent public speaker. His parents are I think both scientists and he was raised non-religious (although converted to catholisism by personal choice). Oh, and he's married to a teacher 24 years older than him, which I think is about anti-Trump as it gets

He's a former Rothschild investment banker, but could still be the least corrupt French president in decades. Certainly a big upgrade on Jacques Chirac.

Macron was arguably also the most liberal major candidate in the election, and he essentially won the election as a centrist progressive. I think something other major parties in Europe should pay attention to the fact that the conservative/liberal axis essentially took over the election. I believe we're going to see more of that. Parties and candidates trying to run primarily on economic policies are going to have a hard time in the coming years.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Itse

Macron is politically similar to the Clintons, or say Tony Blair. (European politicians are always kind of a better comparison, as the relevant political questions are different this side of the Atlantic.)

Moderate liberal, describes himself as a leftist, but is "left" is very relative here. Pro trade agreements, austerity critic, his idea of environment friendly is very Bill Clinton like. (Sort of pro environment, but really more green economy than actual green.) He's a critic of the prolonged "state of emergency" against terrorism and a strong supporter of Frances secularist tradition.

He has years of high level political experience and is educated in philosophy and public affairs. Macron is considered highly intelligent and an eloquent public speaker. His parents are I think both scientists and he was raised non-religious (although converted to catholisism by personal choice).

Oh, and he's married to a teacher 24 years older than him, which I think is about anti-Trump as it gets

So the perfect person to make this whole thing repeat itself in 5 years?

[Itse]

Originally Posted by peter12

So the perfect person to make this whole thing repeat itself in 5 years?

Okay I'm slow here, I don't get it?

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Its a good result, but I still have concerns that the radical party still managed to garner about a third of the votes. They're effectively blocked right now from policy, but this certainly gives then a narrative that their side is growing and gives them a larger more well funded bully pulpit.

Obviously there's reason to be concerned, but I hope this election does more to suck the air out of the far rights bubble. They got crushed in the most decisive 2nd round loss since the elder Le Pen got crushed by Chirac in 2002. This to me does more to strengthen the storyline that the National Front is a loud and somewhat obnoxious minority, not the silent majority that all populists claim to represent.

I also think Trumps gong show of a presidency will give a solid boost to liberals in many coming European elections.

Another storyline from this election that I think could become extremely important, is that Russias last-minute attempt to support the hard right candidate was pretty commonly accepted as fact, not conspiracy theory. This is likely to make it much, much harder to affect elections in the future, and it could turn into a major PR issue for the far-right.

I could also see it becoming a major point of internal conflict within the far-right. After all, they're generally speaking nationalists, so being seen as puppets of a foreign power is unlikely to sit well with everybody.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Itse

...

Another storyline from this election that I think could become extremely important, is that Russias last-minute attempt to support the hard right candidate was pretty commonly accepted as fact, not conspiracy theory. This is likely to make it much, much harder to affect elections in the future, and it could turn into a major PR issue for the far-right....

All the media has to do is start every story with "The Russian Candidate for the right wing party...." no matter what country is holding an election.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

How like Trump? Pro EU, pro immigration, not a moron, doesn't tweet nonsense, doesn't actively engage in conspiracy theories...

I'm very confused what you mean

Rich, cares little about the working class, not trusted and from all accounts is a total asshat.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Rich, cares little about the working class, not trusted and from all accounts is a total asshat.

His personal wealth is estimated to be some tens of millions, which isn't that special for a modern top politician. He was probably the least wealthy candidate in the election. For comparison, Marine Le Pens estimated personal wealth is about ten times that of Macrons.

As for "total asshat", sounds like you've listened to some all-liberals-are-devils nonsense.

Macrons personal charm and social skills are considered his strenghts. He's described as someone who can "make you feel like what you're saying is very intelligent", "a genius in human relationships" etc. Trudeau or Obama are probably better comparisons, politicians with disarming personal charm.

Really the biggest questionmark about Macron is to what extent he's a puppet for the super-rich in the finance sector. There's a lot about his meteoric rise that makes it look like he was hand-picked by someone to be groomed for a major role in politics.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Itse

Okay I'm slow here, I don't get it?



Obviously there's reason to be concerned, but I hope this election does more to suck the air out of the far rights bubble. They got crushed in the most decisive 2nd round loss since the elder Le Pen got crushed by Chirac in 2002. This to me does more to strengthen the storyline that the National Front is a loud and somewhat obnoxious minority, not the silent majority that all populists claim to represent.

I also think Trumps gong show of a presidency will give a solid boost to liberals in many coming European elections.

Another storyline from this election that I think could become extremely important, is that Russias last-minute attempt to support the hard right candidate was pretty commonly accepted as fact, not conspiracy theory. This is likely to make it much, much harder to affect elections in the future, and it could turn into a major PR issue for the far-right.

I could also see it becoming a major point of internal conflict within the far-right. After all, they're generally speaking nationalists, so being seen as puppets of a foreign power is unlikely to sit well with everybody.

An 11 million voter block that follows Le Pen aren't all crazies or dummies, that's the concern, and clearly her narrative resonated with a lot of people.

This presidency is going to define the next 30 years in terms of France and the Eurozone.

I would expect that if the Terrorists are Saavy that they are going to up their game. They want a radical right wing anti-immigration anti-muslim government in place it creates a fertile breeding ground.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

An 11 million voter block that follows Le Pen aren't all crazies or dummies, that's the concern, and clearly her narrative resonated with a lot of people.

It's pretty much the same map as America and Britain.

Rural people vote for Trump, Brexit, La Pen.
Urban people don't.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Trump supporters: "####ing elections: how do they work?"

[CaptainCrunch]

there's no way that's real.

[Looch City]

T_D is full of Russian trolls. Can't wait until the day that subreddit is banned and all this meddling finally unfolded.

[chemgear]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/w...-prepared.html

Everyone saw the hackers coming.

The National Security Agency in Washington picked up the signs. So did Emmanuel Macron’s bare-bones technology team. And mindful of what happened in the American presidential campaign, the team created dozens of false email accounts, complete with phony documents, to confuse the attackers.

The Russians, for their part, were rushed and a bit sloppy, leaving a trail of evidence that was not enough to prove for certain they were working for the government of President Vladimir V. Putin but which strongly suggested they were part of his broader “information warfare” campaign.

Even before then, the Macron campaign had begun looking for ways to make life a little harder for the Russians, showing a level of skill and ingenuity that was missing in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and at the Democratic National Committee, which had minimal security protections and for months ignored F.B.I. warnings that its computer system had been penetrated.

“We went on a counteroffensive,” said Mr. Mahjoubi. “We couldn’t guarantee 100 percent protection” from the attacks, “so we asked: what can we do?” Mr. Mahjoubi opted for a classic “cyber-blurring” strategy, well known to banks and corporations, creating false email accounts and filled them with phony documents the way a bank teller keeps fake bills in the cash drawer in case of a robbery.

“We created false accounts, with false content, as traps. We did this massively, to create the obligation for them to verify, to determine whether it was a real account,” Mr. Mahjoubi said. “I don’t think we prevented them. We just slowed them down,” he said. “Even if it made them lose one minute, we’re happy,” he said.

Mr. Mahjoubi refused to reveal the nature of the false documents that were created, or to say whether, in the Friday document dump that was the result of the hacking campaign, there were false documents created by the Macron campaign.

But he did note that in the mishmash that constituted the Friday dump, there were some authentic documents, some phony documents of the hackers’ own manufacture, some stolen documents from various companies, and some false emails created by the campaign.