Jump to: [ The Soap Box______________________] Go French 2022 Presidential Election - The Abstention Dilemma Reply to topic -- -- Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 11:32 am In 2022, France will be holding new presidential elections. It is widely believed that the 2 candidates that will remain in the second -- widely believed that the 2 candidates that will remain in the second turn of the elections will be our current president E. Macron (from La République en Marche - LRM) and M. LePen (from Rassemblent National - RN, formerly Front National - FN, a far right party that has strived -- -- for decades to get more legitimacy). If such an event comes to pass, I'm wondering if I should vote for Macron (like I reluctantly did in the last presidential elections, in which France faced this very same situation) or cast a blank vote. That's the dilemma. To better understand why this is an actual dilemma and not a straight -- -- up vote for Macron, it is necessary to give a bit more context about Macron and his political strategy. In the previous election in 2017, Macron was a political outsider whose campaign focused around promises of bold changes and transcending the left/right divide, while being very short on specifics. Most -- -- politically savvy individuals recognized him as, at best, a center right figure trying to broaden his appeal. Their suspicions were quickly confirmed and since the election he and his government have been steadily drifting to the right and even dangerously close to the far right. His government has repeatedly been a relay for ideas and -- -- best strategy is obviously to bolster the left and hope for a strong leftwing or at least center left candidate. But I'm pretty sure this won't happen in time for the next election. Which leaves me with my present dilemma, cast an ever more reluctant vote for Macron, and therefore enable his disgusting strategy or cast a blank vote and risk -- -- But Bolsonaro got elected because of a mix of apathy and people underestimating how much damage that he would do. This is also valid for 2022's French elections. Macron may be damaging some stuff and, à la Sarkozy (bless that he's in jail right now), is flirting with some of the right's fringes. But it's -- -- still a lot better than anything that LePen could do. Populism of her style can and will corrode the political structures. Also, remember the legislative elections. Macron only has as much power as he has right now because his party got so many seats in the congress, through a wave of optimism. I doubt he'll get the same number -- -- Yeah, to OP smells like accelerationism. How does the system work for the French election? Those of us not in France mostly don't know. Lt_Storm -- -- Shavano wrote: Yeah, to OP smells like accelerationism. How does the system work for the French election? Those of us not in France mostly don't know. -- France mostly don't know. It's a runoff election. The top two candidates in the first election pass of to the final one. Those are likely to be Le Pen and Macron. breubreubreu -- -- defines how the government will run. He's chosen by the president but must be approved by the congress - which is elected a few months after the presidential election. This is "in theory" nowadays, since after a few presidencies in the 90's where nothing was done because the president wasn't aligned with -- -- This is "in theory" nowadays, since after a few presidencies in the 90's where nothing was done because the president wasn't aligned with the congress, the president's party tend to win the congress elections by a landslide. This is still, though, a tool that can be used to limit the president's power. -- -- defines how the government will run. He's chosen by the president but must be approved by the congress - which is elected a few months after the presidential election. This is "in theory" nowadays, since after a few presidencies in the 90's where nothing was done because the president wasn't aligned with -- -- This is "in theory" nowadays, since after a few presidencies in the 90's where nothing was done because the president wasn't aligned with the congress, the president's party tend to win the congress elections by a landslide. This is still, though, a tool that can be used to limit the president's power. -- -- to the President. He nominates the Prime Minister, decides of the goals and means of the Government. Since 2002, the Legislative and Presidential elections are synchronized (we elect the President, then his party's MPs), so the Legislative Power is aligned with the Executive. This means that the President is effectively directing the -- -- - LR - Les Républicains (Laurent Wauquiez) : they used to be the mainstream right wing party but greatly suffered from Macron's election. They're currently trying to exist by building a space to the left of LePen but still to the right of Macron and are having quite a hard time doing it considering how far Macron has drifted to the right. -- -- - MoDem - Mouvement Démocrate (François Bayrou) : A center right party, that appealed to moderate Christians and Middle Class whites. Bayrou supported Macron in the last presidential election and was instrumental in bringing him to power. They've had a falling out since then. I certainly don't like them, but I could live with them. -- -- - PS - Partie Socialist (Olivier Faure): They used to be the main left party even if they tended to be more center left than actually left. The Hollande presidency basically destroyed the party and the election of Macron was the finishing strike. As they are now they're but a shadow of what they used to be. -- -- socially progressive, obviously ecologist and kind of nebulous on their actual economic agenda. They've had some impressive success in local and European elections but so far have failed to garner significant support in national elections. They lack a strong leader figure. I voted for them numerous times and they're currently my default electoral choice. -- -- reminiscent of leaders in South America) and has lost a lot of support and disappointed a lot of his former supporters. I voted for him in the last presidential election, but probably wouldn't do so again for the reasons stated above. There are a number of other smaller parties mostly on the far right and -- -- - LR - Les Républicains (Laurent Wauquiez) : they used to be the mainstream right wing party but greatly suffered from Macron's election. They're currently trying to exist by building a space to the left of LePen but still to the right of Macron and are having quite a hard time doing it considering how far Macron has drifted to the right. -- -- - MoDem - Mouvement Démocrate (François Bayrou) : A center right party, that appealed to moderate Christians and Middle Class whites. Bayrou supported Macron in the last presidential election and was instrumental in bringing him to power. They've had a falling out since then. I certainly don't like them, but I could live with them. -- -- - PS - Partie Socialist (Olivier Faure): They used to be the main left party even if they tended to be more center left than actually left. The Hollande presidency basically destroyed the party and the election of Macron was the finishing strike. As they are now they're but a shadow of what they used to be. -- -- socially progressive, obviously ecologist and kind of nebulous on their actual economic agenda. They've had some impressive success in local and European elections but so far have failed to garner significant support in national elections. They lack a strong leader figure. I voted for them numerous times and they're currently my default electoral choice. -- -- reminiscent of leaders in South America) and has lost a lot of support and disappointed a lot of his former supporters. I voted for him in the last presidential election, but probably wouldn't do so again for the reasons stated above. There are a number of other smaller parties mostly on the far right and -- -- Partie Socialist. Would seem that the left rallying around them would be by far the best bet to get one of those 2 slots in the runoff election. Again, I know, easy to say from the outside (I'm sure there are many complexities that are hard for outsiders to see), and it only works if Partie Socialist can get good candidates to lead. -- -- Like many before him, he was a Right politician claiming to be neither Right nor Left, and he had the good fortune to be in the Presidential Election where the Left was exploding while the Right was under judicial scrutiny (François Fillon was charged for misappropriation of public money) and Le Pen was ridiculously underskilled to be a national -- -- mostly new MPs, with no political experience or baggage, as promised. With no real political experience, Macron, who had won the very first election he participated in, built a government with politicians, experts and amateurs. Some politicians left because of judicial issues, the expert Ministre of Ecology left because Macron was not interested -- -- Wasn't Macron heralded as some kind of technocrat? Like he'd be competent, even if he had little experience? That's how he sold himself during the elections, including the "neither from right or left" angle - even if he's more towards the right. He was Hollande's economy minister for a few years, and a relatively popular -- -- supposed to be the socialist's candidate, but the original candidate (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) had a big sexual scandal. Still, Hollande won the election, partially because the population was really fed up of Sarkozy. He's a bit too much to the right for the socialist party, and didn't -- -- You could say that Hollande and Valls hollowed out the socialist's left and center left - so, the whole party. The former was taken by Mélenchon during the last elections, and the latter went to Macron. Who also got the center right after a scandal involving the republican candidate hollowed his campaign. -- -- In sum, this is a revolution against politics by the non-political. Four in 10 Yellow Jackets, according to polls, voted for the far right in last year’s presidential election. Two in 10 voted far left. Many of the others have not voted for years, except to spoil their ballots. Yellow Jackets’ anger is understandable. The white-hot rage is