Originally published at: Macron defeats far-right Marine Le Pen in unappetizing French election | Boing Boing
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Even though it’s a good thing she lost, it should still be concerning that a large majority of the people won’t even bother to vote away a fascist
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A win is a win. This calls for champagne.
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That’s kind of the opposite- your source has flipped turnout and abstention rates.
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It’s hard to say what’s more troubling: the growing percentage of the electorate that couldn’t be bothered to come to the polls to vote against a fascist bigot or the 41% of those who did show up voting for the fascist bigot.
I’m going to say both. That combination of increasing general apathy and concentrated right-wing populist sentiment (combined with smug complacency on the part of the political centre) is exactly what gets a fascist regime elected if the trend is allowed to continue.
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Over 40% of French voters think Fascism is worth voting for.
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You don’t link to your source for this figure, so it is hard to know why it is incorrect, but many sources reported that around 26% of eligible voters had voted as of noon on election day. The final turnout figure at the end of election day was around 72%.
Voter turnout in French presidential elections is almost always between 70-90%. If that makes French voters “habitually disinterested,” what would you call voters in the US where turnout has never exceeded 63% and typically hovers around the mid-50s?
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She’ll win eventually. At some point (if she hasn’t already) she’ll become a normal candidate in people’s eyes. There will be no incumbent, a weaker opponent, and she’ll be the default “known quantity” that people will be comfortable pulling the lever for. They’ll be used to seeing her on the ballot, and people will vote for her simply “because.”
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Why the whataboutism? The post doesn’t claim the US has great voter turnout.
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I get your point. I’ll rephrase: How does @beschizza conclude that French voters are “habitually disinterested” when only one presidential election since 1965 has seen voter turnout lower than 70%, and many have exceeded 80%?
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Just WHEW. The tide is shifting, but this held it off a bit longer.
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I don’t mean to be dense, but what is the unappealing part? The purportedly low turnout? The choices to vote for? Because the outcome seems positive to me.
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The increasing share of the vote for the fascist candidate is the main unappealing part for me.
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Aha. Yes. Thanks.
That’s been happening for a while now, but I get it. I suppose I’m just waiting for more European states to go ultra-right wing. My bar is too low.
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Thank you (everyone)! I’ve corrected my post.
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The choice between Franc shop Tony Blair and a far right crank that gets another 10% of the vote each time she runs.
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Hey, “I’m not a fucking Nazi” really worked as a campaign point.
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