Look, if we want cheaper health insurance, maybe its time we gave some people who watched a lot of doctor videos on youtube a shot.
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A win, but not a victory.
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Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Macron won!
Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Macron won!
Macron Won
I’m being optimistic and hope it doesn’t go beyond that
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Also, he’s married to his former theatre teacher from high school (he played a scarecrow apparently). Ah, France.
Not judging, just interesting 
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France: 1, Stupid: 0
After the Trump election we got all those US voices telling us: “The Europeans are surly as stupid as we are, just watch the dutch and french elections …”
Here we are now … Vive la France!
As for the german federal election: If the state elections are an indicator (the election for the parliament in the State of Schleswig-Holstein was at the same time as the french presidential election) the far right AfD won’t get the landslide victory they wish for. They barely made it into the parliament in the state of Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein - no double-digit victory.
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I’m not too worried about the german election. Merkel is popular enough, and while the SPD doesn’t seem to manage the return to glory that they hoped for, at least they’re a viable option for people who don’t want to vote Merkel again. The FDP will certainly recover at least somewhat (well, how low can you go). The Greens are looking pretty bad in the polls, but they have a solid base. The Left is another protest party with a solid base in the east. So, not much breathing room for the AfD. 5% maybe.
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Hoffen wir das Beste.
I, for one don´t want to see the AfD in the Bundestag.
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no. no. the nazis weren’t fascists, see. that z in nazi meant socialist. /s 
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wait. what? most the attackers have been french citizens. they and their parents origins are all over the map: algeria, belgium, france, burundi, greece,
i can agree that many have some connection to algeria – but it’s by no means all.
[edit] note: it’s not even clear all of the attacks were terrorism. ( ie. with political intent. ) several, the nice one included, seem to be mentally unstable people “inspired” by the other attacks. ( much like school shootings in the us. )
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Maybe we can handle the far right without another war. Too optimistic? Hoping for the coming irrelevance of USA.
A blank vote actually goes nowhere, deliberately. A non-vote counts as a vote for the thing you would have voted against.
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Yes. Same age gap between spouses as Donald and Melania, I believe. I found both that, and the fact that it wasn’t part of the conversation, interesting.
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I don’t have a good answer for why. But For the Vote Blanc people, this should be taken as a criticism and statement against Macron, but in no way support of the FN, even ‘effectively’ Personally, I thought it was a bit risky/misguided, but people voting that way were convinced that she had no chance, so wanted to vote their distaste for ‘pro-business, banker’ Macron and their distaste for both choices.
Forced to choose, I can’t imagine even 1% of those voters would have voted FN, though.
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I don’t think so. We didn’t heard any sexist arguments during the debates.
Plus, she is sexist so… it’s okay for her voters I guess ?
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A housefire is a way to change things, sure, but that doesn’t make it a good idea…
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[quote=“caze, post:71, topic:100557”] … crippling levels of pension debt for future generations and massive levels of growth destroying bureaucracy. It’s been in massive need of reform for decades.
[/quote]
The word you need there is “relative”. Despite the portrayal of France being some bastion of socialist hardcore, it’s been introducing neoliberal policies through successive governments for years along with other Western democracies. Austerity has been a theme since at least the financial crisis, but also before in many cases. Public/private finance initiatives are in place in France as they are in other counties in Europe (most notably the UK, which also has the least regulated labour market). Public sector pensions were fully-funded about 25 years ago in France, but no longer - which is part of the ideology that drives it all.
You’re not going to agree with me, of course, but put it this way: the “reforms” you speak of have been enacted since the the 80’s all over Europe. If they actually worked, we wouldn’t have the problem of Fascists getting within spitting distance of power. In that sense, the parallels with Trump are exact.
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Of course, if you think about how Macron and Le Pen got to be the two candidates left standing, how the mainstream candidates managed to undermine themselves, you see plenty of stupid.
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WHY THE FUCK ARE SO MANY PEOPLE VOTING FOR A NEO-FASCIST?
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He is not centrist by French standards, but I guess he is by US and UK standards.
