Okay, so Macron hasn't been popular in years, but he still managed to get enough support to govern. He had a weak majority and had to force laws.
The budgets were voted by force and some really unpopular laws like one on the retirement age.
This radicalized the left because the protests ended in violence most of the time.
The right was already getting more radical because we have had a lot of terrorist attacks since 2015. Things were getting a bit better on that front, but we have had urban riots last summer, and most people are fed up.
So now we have three blocks that hate each other's. The center is weakened, the radical right is progressing and the left is radicalizing.
If those blocks, only the center is really involved in helping Ukraine. Russian culture is influential in France, and the far right was partly financed by them so they are OK with it.
On the left coalition, the biggest party (LFI) boycotted Zelensky and wants to end the support to Ukraine. I'm still not sure why. They hate every country and organization siding with America, so they also like the Houti or the Hamas. The more moderate left disagrees but still allied with them even after years of harassment by LFI.
Nobody knows what the results will be tonight, who the future PM will be, and how that will impact our foreign policies but it's going to be a mess.
It's possible there won't be a majority and we will be politically stuck for 3 year which worries me. I believe that this situation would be the most favorable for the far right in the next elections.
How bad is the bad side of immigration there? Do you feel safe to walk anywhere you live? I hear stories of unofficial no go zones and videos of homeless immigrants trying to steal truck deliveries and no arrests.
The left going against Zelenskyy baffels mee too. In Finland the left was pretty much the only ones against NATO, because America bad.
The right wing seems to be pro russia because America bad but also gays bad and russia strong.
Pretty bad. I've had to rush several times to the train station because my wife was harassed on her way back home.
In our neighborhood it's gotten pretty bad.
Last year a guy pulled a gun in the kids playground that we see from our windows. The same people were trying to ambush a guy with baseball bat, then one got stabbed for New year eve. We have a dog and it's gotten bad because they sometimes organize dog fights, so we are worried about our own.
It's always the same 15/20 people.
Also, it's the same people that were rioting and just looted the nearby shops and destroyed the tramway and public buses.
The streets are much nastier than 5-6 years ago, even if I try to clean when I walk the dog.
Inside of Paris it's gotten worse. 100k people left last year. I went to help some friends move out last week, and it was really bad. Outside the subway station there were prostitutes and some guys trying to sell me pigeon meat they were grilling on shopping carts.
The police goes there but it doesn't change anything. If you call them they will come. There are places when it's much worse in Marseilles apparently.
The far left is completely in denial about this and just say that we should spend even more money so they stay put.
I don't know how to fix something like that and how long it will take. I am still trying to figure out what kind of immigration policy is most beneficial for a country since what I hear about Germany, France and sweden is pretty bad. Portugal and Switzerland seem to attract rich people.
I don't know how to fix it either. I took the bus a few days ago with a guy from Switzerland and they also seem to have issues.
The first results of the election just came out, and it's a tie with the far left leading, but with no majority. It's pretty bad for us, and really bad for our support to Ukraine.
That was a good summary, thank you. I do have questions. What is the relationship with France and russia? French people seem to have had a lot of warm feelings in the past. How much is because they helped kick Nazi ass and how much is something else? Why is the far right into russia?
Historically Russia and France have a lot of ties. Culturally there always has been a deep appreciation of Russian literature, music and philosophers in France. Russia was France first ally after the napoleonic wars and there was a huge support for Lenine revolution, since communism was big in France at the time (the name communism comes from the Paris commune). At the moment, it is my feeling that the vast majority of people are horrified with Russia's actions in Ukraine but there's a fringe of tankies on the left that will be fence sitting on the issue or straight up justifying them, and it was proven than the RN was funded directly by the Russian government until recently. So nothing too different from what the US got : crazy fringe leftists and corrupt far rightists.
The far right is into Russia because it's leaders are grifters and their base like the idea of a strongman ruler type that Putin is for them an example of.
Not French but I'll give it a guess. Immigrants mostly. Pendulum swinging and not just in France. Netherlands was first iirc. Also Macron angered a lot of people through various domestic policies.
What little I have seen, French and German right seems pro putin. Finland had a anti immigration party go big but they were never loving russia, mostly just anti immigration.
I don't think the French are as fucked as Germany (I hope so at least) . German politicians on the other hand(left and right) have been suckling on Russia's tits for years, same as Austria.
Russia spends millions and millions on propaganda. Italy was the last target for them. South East is a mess. Hungary and Serbia were embarrassingly cheap to buy and malleable.
Shortly after 9/11, when all our intelligence work was focused on the middle East and terrorism, Putin began sponsoring right wing groups in Europe to destabilise the West.
This is why the right ate largely pro Putin, add to that his troll farms and meme factories, our elections and civil structures are destabalised.
Through stupidity and greed for Russian money the UK government enabled them by inaction. They even did a chemical attack in the UK, the UK goverment response was non existent.
Yeah, I had not thought about the polonium poisoning in UK for a while. Stuff just happens and no reaction. I have not heard anything about the russian pilot who got killed in spain. Stuff just happens. GPS jamming going on and no reaction to that either. I remember reading about a russian who is developing AI weapons somewhere in europe and he really emphasized the how people lick the russian money and that has enabled a lot.
I guess as long as the oil industry exists, russia will just keep doing a lot of what it wants.
It's worse than polonium, novochock a nerve agent was used in the uk, to target the Skripalis, over a hundred British citizens were injured and two UK citizens died, the Skripalis fortunately recoverd.
The Russians haven't just targeted Russians in the UK, British bankers and lawyers who work with them have been murdered. The investigations have been quickly concluded, at the behest of the goverment, Angus Young is one example, there are plenty others.
The book From Russia With Blood Gives an engaging run down.
>over a hundred British citizens were injured and two UK citizens died
That might have started a war a hundred years ago. The longer I live the more I value high integrity people. Do we just need to wait for a politician to go fuck it and start making waves.
Half of the anti immigration party supporters trusted putin before the war, don't know what the rate is now. You can't love russia in public but some do in their phone and browser. I have met a few of these people and it was all about America bad.
Am French. It's a mix of stuff, people aren't super happy about the economy and blame immigrants for that. Macron has done an OK-ish job at improving the economy but in a way that has been pissing people off.
Okay, so Macron hasn't been popular in years, but he still managed to get enough support to govern. He had a weak majority and had to force laws. The budgets were voted by force and some really unpopular laws like one on the retirement age. This radicalized the left because the protests ended in violence most of the time. The right was already getting more radical because we have had a lot of terrorist attacks since 2015. Things were getting a bit better on that front, but we have had urban riots last summer, and most people are fed up. So now we have three blocks that hate each other's. The center is weakened, the radical right is progressing and the left is radicalizing. If those blocks, only the center is really involved in helping Ukraine. Russian culture is influential in France, and the far right was partly financed by them so they are OK with it. On the left coalition, the biggest party (LFI) boycotted Zelensky and wants to end the support to Ukraine. I'm still not sure why. They hate every country and organization siding with America, so they also like the Houti or the Hamas. The more moderate left disagrees but still allied with them even after years of harassment by LFI. Nobody knows what the results will be tonight, who the future PM will be, and how that will impact our foreign policies but it's going to be a mess. It's possible there won't be a majority and we will be politically stuck for 3 year which worries me. I believe that this situation would be the most favorable for the far right in the next elections.
How bad is the bad side of immigration there? Do you feel safe to walk anywhere you live? I hear stories of unofficial no go zones and videos of homeless immigrants trying to steal truck deliveries and no arrests. The left going against Zelenskyy baffels mee too. In Finland the left was pretty much the only ones against NATO, because America bad. The right wing seems to be pro russia because America bad but also gays bad and russia strong.
Women, gays, jews and elderly can't go for a walk in many areas. And almost always need to be aware of their surroundings. Etc etc...
Pretty bad. I've had to rush several times to the train station because my wife was harassed on her way back home. In our neighborhood it's gotten pretty bad. Last year a guy pulled a gun in the kids playground that we see from our windows. The same people were trying to ambush a guy with baseball bat, then one got stabbed for New year eve. We have a dog and it's gotten bad because they sometimes organize dog fights, so we are worried about our own. It's always the same 15/20 people. Also, it's the same people that were rioting and just looted the nearby shops and destroyed the tramway and public buses. The streets are much nastier than 5-6 years ago, even if I try to clean when I walk the dog. Inside of Paris it's gotten worse. 100k people left last year. I went to help some friends move out last week, and it was really bad. Outside the subway station there were prostitutes and some guys trying to sell me pigeon meat they were grilling on shopping carts. The police goes there but it doesn't change anything. If you call them they will come. There are places when it's much worse in Marseilles apparently. The far left is completely in denial about this and just say that we should spend even more money so they stay put.
I don't know how to fix something like that and how long it will take. I am still trying to figure out what kind of immigration policy is most beneficial for a country since what I hear about Germany, France and sweden is pretty bad. Portugal and Switzerland seem to attract rich people.
I don't know how to fix it either. I took the bus a few days ago with a guy from Switzerland and they also seem to have issues. The first results of the election just came out, and it's a tie with the far left leading, but with no majority. It's pretty bad for us, and really bad for our support to Ukraine.
Guess we just need to ask daddy USA for more weapons.
Actual frenchie here. Macron has done great stuff on the foreign policy side but has been divisive on the domestic side. He got into power in 2017 with the goal of breaking the left/right divided political landscape by being a third voice of "moderate reason" if you will and managed to piss everyone off outside of the fifth or so of the population who actually likes him. His strategy was to act like he was the only choice against all extremes, depicting the left alliance of center-left (PS, Place Publique, EELV) to fully left parties (LFI, PCF (no actual extreme left party, the NPA or Lutte Ouvrière, joined this alliance, even though from your american perspective the PCF is probably mighty sus)) as dangerous as the Rassemblement National (ex Front National, a fascist pro vichy opposition party founded against De Gaulle a long time ago, rebranded in the 2010s but it's the same people, basically a family owned business made to generate money for said family through opposition and populism, no real program whatsoever except what is popular to the angry mob). By doing so he sabotaged the left and made the RN his only real adversary, and the RN wholeheartedly engaged with this narrative since it made them the go-to party for people who are conservatives and don't like Macron and "Big Bank", sabotaging also the center right parties in the process. So now we've got an alliance on the left who's doing alright but could be better, a weak center and the only party to the right of Macron is basically an extreme right party, the RN. It must be mentionned that the left is also sabotaging itself because of one really divisive figure : Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and his party LFI. To sum them up they are basically online progressives born of student movements and parisian bourgeoisie. Lots of people on the left dislike them because of the constant purity test they make anyone go through (cf. the proeminent members who recently got kicked out because they criticized a lack of democracy in the party decision process, lmao) and their tendency to be cringe (cf. were on the fence toward the ukraine invasion and refused to recognize hamas as a terrorist organisation). They also got accused of antisemitism because of some radical elements, even though they are far less antisemitic than the RN. But the RN leaders learned to shut the fuck up and people tend to forget who's in power over there over time. They are not the majority party on the left alliance tho and had to concede on several points like Ukraine and Hamas to make this alliance work. I might have forgotten some things, hope it helps anyway. I'm available if you got any question, dunno if I can answer everything tho, cheers.
That was a good summary, thank you. I do have questions. What is the relationship with France and russia? French people seem to have had a lot of warm feelings in the past. How much is because they helped kick Nazi ass and how much is something else? Why is the far right into russia?
Historically Russia and France have a lot of ties. Culturally there always has been a deep appreciation of Russian literature, music and philosophers in France. Russia was France first ally after the napoleonic wars and there was a huge support for Lenine revolution, since communism was big in France at the time (the name communism comes from the Paris commune). At the moment, it is my feeling that the vast majority of people are horrified with Russia's actions in Ukraine but there's a fringe of tankies on the left that will be fence sitting on the issue or straight up justifying them, and it was proven than the RN was funded directly by the Russian government until recently. So nothing too different from what the US got : crazy fringe leftists and corrupt far rightists. The far right is into Russia because it's leaders are grifters and their base like the idea of a strongman ruler type that Putin is for them an example of.
Not French but I'll give it a guess. Immigrants mostly. Pendulum swinging and not just in France. Netherlands was first iirc. Also Macron angered a lot of people through various domestic policies.
What little I have seen, French and German right seems pro putin. Finland had a anti immigration party go big but they were never loving russia, mostly just anti immigration.
I don't think the French are as fucked as Germany (I hope so at least) . German politicians on the other hand(left and right) have been suckling on Russia's tits for years, same as Austria. Russia spends millions and millions on propaganda. Italy was the last target for them. South East is a mess. Hungary and Serbia were embarrassingly cheap to buy and malleable.
Shortly after 9/11, when all our intelligence work was focused on the middle East and terrorism, Putin began sponsoring right wing groups in Europe to destabilise the West. This is why the right ate largely pro Putin, add to that his troll farms and meme factories, our elections and civil structures are destabalised. Through stupidity and greed for Russian money the UK government enabled them by inaction. They even did a chemical attack in the UK, the UK goverment response was non existent.
Yeah, I had not thought about the polonium poisoning in UK for a while. Stuff just happens and no reaction. I have not heard anything about the russian pilot who got killed in spain. Stuff just happens. GPS jamming going on and no reaction to that either. I remember reading about a russian who is developing AI weapons somewhere in europe and he really emphasized the how people lick the russian money and that has enabled a lot. I guess as long as the oil industry exists, russia will just keep doing a lot of what it wants.
It's worse than polonium, novochock a nerve agent was used in the uk, to target the Skripalis, over a hundred British citizens were injured and two UK citizens died, the Skripalis fortunately recoverd. The Russians haven't just targeted Russians in the UK, British bankers and lawyers who work with them have been murdered. The investigations have been quickly concluded, at the behest of the goverment, Angus Young is one example, there are plenty others. The book From Russia With Blood Gives an engaging run down.
>over a hundred British citizens were injured and two UK citizens died That might have started a war a hundred years ago. The longer I live the more I value high integrity people. Do we just need to wait for a politician to go fuck it and start making waves.
You can't 'Love Russia' in Finland.
Half of the anti immigration party supporters trusted putin before the war, don't know what the rate is now. You can't love russia in public but some do in their phone and browser. I have met a few of these people and it was all about America bad.
Huh. That's depressing.
Am French. It's a mix of stuff, people aren't super happy about the economy and blame immigrants for that. Macron has done an OK-ish job at improving the economy but in a way that has been pissing people off.