The leader of France’s Republicans party has said he would be open to an alliance with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in snap French elections. Such an alliance would break a decades-old taboo.
Eric Ciotti, the head of the conservative French political party Les Republicans (LR), astounded political observers Tuesday by suggesting it was time to drop the longstanding taboo against working with the country’s far-right National Rally (NR) party in hopes of taking power in snap elections called by centrist President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of Sunday’s European parliamentary elections.
Speaking on TF1 TV, Ciotti said: “We say the same things, so let’s stop making up imagined opposition. This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They’re telling us, 'reach a deal.”
In response, several of Ciotti’s fellow party members spoke out against allowing former NR President Marine Le Pen anywhere near the levers of power.
Right on cue, the descent into fascism begins ahead of the impending climate disasters.
It’s so depressing to see France like this, I always held it up as a prominent antifa nation.
The last 20 years have been rough on our left. Loads of infighting and a massive shift to the right from our media, have done a lot of damage.
Well…that and the thinly repressed racism that’s been simmering in Europe for decades has finally boiled over.
Everyone in the US just kinda assumes that we’re an outlier in the racism department, but that’s just because they haven’t ever heard a drunk French man pop off about Algerian or Romani people.
For real - there’s a real strong “France for the French” thing in some areas. I was a bit shocked when I learned about it… but then again, any society is going to have its regressive elements. It’s just disconcerting to see them getting so much popular traction these days.
“Make France Great Again” - inevitable, predictable, sad!
Everyone’s lives are going to shit and politicians looking for scapegoats blame immigration.
We are just recovering from a similar situation here but the Overton window has shifted so far the supposed left-wing workers’ party now look like centre-right conservatives.
Where is “here”?
I’m in the UK and it sounds like it might be us.
I was going to say “Planet Earth” but yes you are correct.
everywhere on earth maybe
Good to see the left/centre rallying when it mattered most need to reject fascism again.
From an outside perspective this seemed like quite a shrewd political move by Macron for once. Is that a fair assessment?
It was more of a calculated move, he boasted about “throwing a grenade between their legs” (read, I fucked them over with my unexpected move, and thought it was funny). His hubris and contempt seem to know no bounds.
There has never been a peaceful cure for conservatism. Historically, when conservatism has infected a population, the cure has always been a violent one. Pacifism has never worked against conservatives. Failure to enact the cure early on will result in endless oppression and murder by the right.
The U.S. is also being taken over this time. There is no one coming to save anyone. The time for the normal people to defend against conservatives is right now, not after they have their permanent win-condition. If we do not act now, they will kill and oppress the normal people just as they always have in the past.
Pacifism has never worked against conservatives.
I disagree. It has. Not that we have that luxury now.
I think Portugal’s turn on fascism is an example, but also an oddity.
Who knew hatred of brown folk could be such a unifying force across the world?
The worst is that a lot of brown people voted for them. Because they managed to shift their image into something more acceptable just by not being overtly racist. Brown people have some hate to give too. Hate toward queer people, feminists and muslims has no color.
The poorly educated are easier to scare and control
Education is almost free in France. But your school is assigned based on the location you live. So poor people go to school with poor people, and best teachers go to best schools, which are rarely in poor areas.
When I was younger we’ve had one the best schools in the world, and teachers were still invested with the “Égalité” part of our national motto. Then conservative governments proceeded to destroy our education system, and here we are.
I’m back home visiting Canada right now, and seeing this too. Children of immigrants/2nd gen immigrants using the same talking points as fascists about how there’s too many immigrants being let in, or not “the right kind”.
Astounding how they don’t understand the cognitive dissonance of that.
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Lee Atwater
Translation: power hungry man sees a chance to gain power and disregards the cost
Is France OK?
No, we’re not. But thanks for asking.
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Oooh they want to be more like the US, with just two big super-parties. Yep, works great guys. Highly recommend.
There were 38 parties participating the EU elections. That doesn’t work either.
Our election system is based on a 2 rounds election. First you vote for your first choice. The first two get to the second round and we elect the one we prefer between the two.
When the system works it’s fine, but it can also be dangerous. Our left shattered because of that. So the parties are making alliances before the first round of elections to have a chance of being in the government.
In France we also have an History of voting against the far right. A good bunch of conservative Presidents were elected because the left helped them. This what we call “Vote républicain”, meaning “Vote to save the Republic against a fascist party”.
The conservatives making an alliance with the far right is most insulting action they could have taken. But TBH their party is dead now. They’ve been doing less than 10% in every major elections since the last 10 years.
Doesn’t say why or how its taboo. Any locals care to expand? I thought coalitions were common in these types of govts?
Basically, Les Republicains (Trad-conservative right wing) is the descendant party of De Gaulle, chief of the French Free Forces and probably the most iconic french figure in WW2. This party has an history with fighting fachism, so this twist of position (which is not that surprising from the guy that proposed it) goes against the party’s tradition and heritage (ironicly).
It’s been making headwaves here, and he does NOT have the support of his party in this endeavour. If someone were to speculate, the more likely outcomes of this decision would be a party splinter or even the death of the party itself (considering that since 2017, they’ve really lost a lot of their electorate whose moderates went to Macron and extremists to Le Pen) than an alliance with Far Right.
Though honestly? There’s been so many twists in the past two days that anything’s possible at this point.
In the past, moderate conservatives would pretend to be disgusted by fascists so they could attract some of the normal people to vote for them. Now, moderate conservatives are revealing that they are OK with fascism. They are even starting to openly embrace it.
Moderate conservatives don’t feel the need to attract the normal vote anymore. With this strategy of teaming up with open fascists, moderate conservatives can relax and just be themselves as they embrace their oppressive instincts.
Unchecked conservatism always devolves into deadly oppression. Always.
*some. While as much as I heavily dislike this party and their positions, I don’t think they’re all just okay with fachism. There’s been a great number of high ranking officials from that party who denounced this proposal when it was announced out of nowhere on live TV yesterday.
And, as they have always done throughout history, when the time comes, those same moderates will shift their support toward fascism and oppression. Moderate conservatives of every nation have always reliably shifted toward fascism or oppression in the past. Always. There is no reason to think this time will be different.
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There’s a reason for this massive European shift. Elephant in the room though, and all you intellectuals like to avoid it.
