I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Murdoch has significant media presence in those countries.
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I saw it quite differently. The Macron centrists were out of favour, as were the more right leaning conservatives, the left were fractured. When Ciotti arbitrarily decided that the Conservatives should throw in their lot with the far right, the alarm bells rang for the Left and the Macronists. The Left set up the NFP and the Macronists saw the future of the Fifth Republic was best served by acting in coordination with the Left.
If the RN had swept to power, social cohesion in France would have become more fractured, with far more violence, with the ‘ true Franch’ advanced against all others in French society ( mostly those of a different skin tone) . IMO the Olympic Games would have been cancelled. The French equivalent of the ABC would have been dismantled, the French equivalent of Murdoch ( Bollore) would have effectively run the country.
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Don’t think of this as a system problem. It’s a choice problem.
If you don’t like Macron, and there’s a growing and already large % of the French populace that are sick of Macronism, then normally you would shift to another party that aligns with your views. Macron is center, so you’d go expect people to diverge near left or near right.
Problem is that Macron’s center-left alliance has resulted in the left protest vote effectively turning back to supporting Macron. That has by default left the only protest vote option as Le Pen.
If the center had allowd a viable left protest vote option to remain, it would have split that movement. The structure that Macron used to take power was effective, but it made the rise of the right an inevitability.
Reckon maybe voters moving right is a sign of the times in France not just Macron.
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Yeah, there’s never a clean cut answer for stuff like this. Le Pen has been really clever in how she’s shrugged off her fascist roots and made herself an acceptable candidate. And there’s a lot of price of living and immigration concerns to pull on.
But that funnelling of the protest vote is a new thing in France and it has coincided with the largest rise of the far right. So I personally consider it to be a substantial factor.
The changes from the Fourth to Fifth Republic gave the President more power, but it’s nothing like the US system.
The French President doesn’t have comparable executive powers to those of the US President. For instance Defence is shared with Parliament, as pointed out by the RN. The Pres has power to dissolve the Parliament within specified timeframes.
Macron has been able to push through his neo liberal and foreign policies because of control of the Assembly until now.
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I think the implication is she is crying in reaction to HM’s pun…
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The Assembly must meet on 18 July. Although the President has power to appoint the PM, the Assembly can pass a vote of no confidence. The Macron stand in PM will represent France at the NATO Summit.
In the Interim, the French summer vacations started at the Weekend, the French are in the Euro semis, the TDF continues, Bastille Day 14 July, some Rugby comps.
Macron can resume sending Antonovs full of Centaure’s to Noumea via Australia to silence those pesky New Caledonian’s
Meanwhile an indigenous Kanak pro Independence candidate wins a seat in the election, the first time for a pro Independence in around 4 decades.
In French Polynesia, pro Independence lost 2 seats to the French loyalists ( autonomy candidates).
Was only the “troublemakers” he had detained and sent back to the mainland to await trial 
Looks like the Far Right have had wins in the former East German regions of Thuringia and Saxony.
Meanwhile, France is still to form a new Government, with Macron yet to find a way through appointing a Prime Minister.
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Is Macron still the boss?
He has a fixed term as President. He gets to appoint the PM. He’s trying to get someone who is closer to his centrist policies, but needs to get enough acceptance from the winners of the elections, which include a number of MPs from left Parties, who don’t seem to have decided among themselves.
The former President Hollande has now thrown his hat in the ring.
Macron has finally appointed a PM, Michel Barnier, a 73 yo retired EU Commissioner, who has been out of French politics for a long time.
Macron did the numbers to ensure he wouldn’t be censured by Parliament, but he needed the far right (162 seats) as well as the Centrist (166) to combat opposition from the NFP(193).
As to getting Budget approval and other legislation, Barnier could still need votes from Le Pen’s RN Party for Macron to continue full term.
Not election related, but the rape of the french lady by husband and enabled with various men is truly horrific.
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So far, the husband is the one being exposed, but there were 50 other men involved continuously.
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Yes . Beyond horrific this case.
It went on for 10 years ffs. The courage of the poor wife (Gisele) to insist this court case is publicly accessible is incredible… as is her daughter’s.
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