Will France follow Britain out of the EU?

Although France has definitively chosen against the more dramatic change, Macron still represents a significant change from France's status quo.

How deep is his new party? It's only a year old. Was there a bigger migration from the Socialist party or the Republicans?

Ah! Anyway, you don't have to fill me in on details- I'll do some background reading, but if you want to fill me in on your perception of how smoothly his transition to experience will be with a Green Party, I'll always be interested!

And congrats for dodging possibly more turmoil.

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Shares in Moss Co., the maker of the popular new "Build Your Own Autocracy" starter kit, fell today on news out of France.

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Humour break (from Charlie Hebdo)

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/fr/cp0/e15/q65/18237912_1517369308286202_8324210126981378943_o.jpg?oh=353980fdaa7f3cc3aa38d4f166c9d092&oe=59831571

(Macron goes to the Elysee palace.... "and Marine goes to the doghouse!")

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Although France has definitively chosen against the more dramatic change, Macron still represents a significant change from France's status quo.

I don't think that France has chosen "against a more dramatic change", but elected the only alternative to an extreme right candidate -there wasn't an alternative.

But this election was in fact a turning point: at 39, Macron became the youngest president in the history of the Fifth Republic. And it's a defeat of the established political parties.

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@Lash,

Le Pen represents a return to the 60's. She's "change dinosaurs can believe in".

I feel extatic and mighty proud that we elected such a creative, positive and intelligent guy. 6 months ago they were saying it'd be either the right or the extreme right winning. But we've beaten both, against nefarious influences from abroad. Trump and Putin can go **** themselves.

Vive la république, vive la putain de France!

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After a tense campaign, people are relaxing and cracking all sorts of jokes. A few gifs being shared:

http://www.20minutes.fr/high-tech/2063679-20170508-video-presidentielle-vannes-wtf-poesie-internet-commente-victoire-macron-gifs

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Official vote count (still partial): Macron got 66,06% of votes, Le Pen 33,94%.

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@Olivier5,

Officially now
20,753,797 votes (66.10%) for Marcon,
10,664,118 votes (33.90%) for Le Pen.

And the "third candidate" (bulletins blancs) [white papers]) got 3,019,735 votes (mainly from the left, I suppose). If there had been a "united-anti-LePen" coalition like previously, the difference between Marcon and Le Pen would have been even better.

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@Walter Hinteler,

I couldn't get myself to vote for Chirac against Le Pen in 2002, so I understand not wanting to chose between two candidates whom one nearly equaly dislikes.

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@Olivier5,

I am very pleased with maturity the French people has shown on these elections. Vive la France!

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@Fil Albuquerque,

Thanks Fil. I've never been so happy out of a political event in my entire life. Macron is breaking the mold. I place great hopes in him.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Lash wrote:
Although France has definitively chosen against the more dramatic change, Macron still represents a significant change from France's status quo.
I don't think that France has chosen "against a more dramatic change", but elected the only alternative to an extreme right candidate -there wasn't an alternative.

But this election was in fact a turning point: at 39, Macron became the youngest president in the history of the Fifth Republic. And it's a defeat of the established political parties.

Excerpt:

The vote appeared to be as much a rejection of Le Pen as it was an endorsement of Macron. Several voters told CNN they would back just about anyone to keep Le Pen from the presidency. Ironically, it seems Le Pen has inadvertently united the country -- against her.

Story:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/08/europe/france-emmanuel-macron-election/index.html
--------------------------------------------

The French put her on the ballot, and three million stood in line to vote for nobody. This was a definite message against the status quo. We can mince words about the details...

Looking forward to watching France's political procedure in the coming months, and seeing what happens to the Socialist and Republican parties. Wonder if Macron keeps his nose clean, and what will be made of the information released in the election eve document dump.

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@Lash,

There's nothing in the emails dump that can embarass Macron. If there was, the hackers would have published it already. They've been sitting on the data for two weeks at least, and they released it on purpose 24 hours before the vote to try and influence voters with a fake scandal.

It's just a bunch of perfectly legit emails that some nefarious idiots stole and published. And then voters punished Le Pen for it. She did markedly worse in the election than in the polls before the dump. The dump cost her a couple % points.

Poor, poor Marine... Even her Russian and American supporters are undermining her now. Maybe she should listen to the French people a little more, and less to her Russian handlers... ;-)

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@Olivier5,

Regarding the hacking: the hackers certainly would have published it earlier if something was in those data. It was just a desperate attempt by whomever to get the French voting the extreme right.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Regarding the hacking: the hackers certainly would have published it earlier if something was in those data. It was just a desperate attempt by whomever to get the French voting the extreme right.

Exactly. And it backfired.

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

... three million stood in line to vote for nobody. This was a definite message against the status quo. We can mince words about the details...

There are several countries where white voting is recognized, with some nuances.
For instance, in Spain and in the state of Berlin, white voting is considered a valid vote. Thus, for the elections of the deputies, it counts in the calculation of the threshold of participation to be reached to claim a seat (3% of the valid votes in Spain, 5% for the Land of Berlin). But then, only the votes cast are used to share these seats.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Quote:

An Ipsos survey on Monday found that in the runoff Le Pen won the votes of just 7% of those who had backed the hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, and 20% of those who had voted for the rightwing François Fillon.

A lot more in the Guardian's report: Front National plans overhaul after defeat but faces internal resistance

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@Walter Hinteler,

10 bulletins nuls mais drôles:

http://mobile.francetvinfo.fr/elections/presidentielle-six-bulletins-nuls-mais-droles_2180785.html

Y'a même Pikachu...

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@Olivier5,

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@Walter Hinteler,

This too made me laugh:

Quote:

FRENCH ANNOYINGLY RETAIN RIGHT TO CLAIM INTELLECTUAL SUPERIORITY OVER AMERICANS
By Andy Borowitz May 7, 2017

PARIS (The Borowitz Report)—On Sunday, the people of France annoyingly retained their traditional right to claim intellectual superiority over Americans, as millions of French citizens paused to enjoy just how much smarter they were than their allies across the Atlantic.

In bars and cafés across France, voters breathed a sigh of relief in the knowledge that arrogantly comparing themselves to the U.S. population, a longtime favorite pastime of the French people, would remain viable for the foreseeable future.

Pierre Grimange, a Parisian café-goer, sipped on a glass of Bordeaux and toasted his nation “for not being so dumb as the United States after all.”

“A lot was at stake today: the future of our liberal traditions and our democracy itself,” he said. “But by far the greatest loss of all would have been our right to look down on Americans.”

“Grâce à Dieu, that has been secured!” Grimange exclaimed.

But, sitting a few tables away, Helene Commonceau, another Parisian, admitted that she did not understand what all of the celebrating was about. “We are smarter than the Americans, true, but they have set the bar very low, no?” she said.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/french-annoyingly-retain-right-to-claim-intellectual-superiority-over-americans

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Will France follow Britain out of the EU?

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