Refractory Gauls, or the French politics thread

[Duque de Bragança]

Rather than hijacking other threads, here is the thread both for macronolâtres and followers of the many-headed populist hydra, as well as whatever else in French politics.

[Duque de Bragança]

Chirac was tall though; good French presidents are tall, the little ones fail 

So Hollande failed I guess.  Well, at least he is remembered now. He has been almost forgotten abroad, yet launched you know whom. 

[Duque de Bragança]

I mean Mitterrand was 5'6

Metric, please, it's not imperial on the Mainland.

If it's just to mean he failed, yes and there were great hopes in the beginning.

[viper37]

1.820m is 6'.  substract 150mm for 6" (give or take a couple of mm).

[viper37]

Btw, the head of Hydra is Le Pen?

I wonder how strong her FN nouveau will score at the next presidential election.  She seems to have softened her party's image by a lot.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Chirac was tall though; good French presidents are tall, the little ones fail 

So Hollande failed I guess.  Well, at least he is remembered now. He has been almost forgotten abroad, yet launched you know whom. 

An abiding image is Hollande pootling about on his scooter to visit his mistress. The bathos of this next to the pomp of the  Élysée Palace just tickles my fancy for some reason 

[Duque de Bragança]

Chirac was tall though; good French presidents are tall, the little ones fail 

So Hollande failed I guess.  Well, at least he is remembered now. He has been almost forgotten abroad, yet launched you know whom. 

An abiding image is Hollande pootling about on his scooter to visit his mistress. The bathos of this next to the pomp of the  Élysée Palace just tickles my fancy for some reason 

Is it the address also perhaps? Rue du Cirque i.e Circus Street. Quite fitting for a clown as Flanby. 
More iconic Flanby for you:




His scooter helmet sold quite well, sold out, so at least he had a positive effect on the French economy.

[Duque de Bragança]

Btw, the head of Hydra is Le Pen?

I wonder how strong her FN nouveau will score at the next presidential election.  She seems to have softened her party's image by a lot.

One of the heads, with others such as Mélenchon, Zemmour etc. They regenerate or change from time to time think of the Lernæan Hydra. If it does not evoke anything, try Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. 

[Duque de Bragança]

1.820m is 6'.  substract 150mm for 6" (give or take a couple of mm).

Height sizes are generally given in centimetres or metres. So 1,67 m or 167 cm roughly.
That's average for Mitterand's time I'd say. Not to mention Mitterand was no political dwarf. He would not have been slapped by a medieval geek.

He used anti-terrorist resources for political and personal reasons, made sure nobody knew about his illegitimate daughter, among other things.

[Sheilbh]

Pleasingly disappointing for RN.

I find the trend really interesting that PS and the right survive relatively successfully in local politics, while RN and LREM are weak. But nationally, Macron and Le Pen remain the dominant personalities while PS and the diverse right are not looking great at all.

I still suspect the best bet for the right would be to look at Bertrand.

[Duque de Bragança]

Very low voting though. Presidential elections have the highest turnout, and RN benefits a lot from the personnalisation of the campaign. Not to mention Jupin needs them in the run-off to be elected.

Lack of grassroots bases penalised the RN but even more so Jupin's "party" which is behind the RN, even in Île-de-France, and after the "left" sometimes.

Bertrand seems in a good position, Pécresse, the Versaillaise, could still be trouble for him, however.

[Duque de Bragança]

Sad news:

the PCF lost its last controlled département, Val-de-Marne, bordering Paris city centre to the SE.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/regionales/departementales-2021-le-pcf-perd-son-dernier-bastion-le-val-de-marne-20210627

[Valmy]

Why is that sad news? Did you have big hopes attached to the future of Communism? Or is this some sentimental thing?

[Sheilbh]

Sentiment! A grand old party

[Duque de Bragança]

Why is that sad news? Did you have big hopes attached to the future of Communism? Or is this some sentimental thing?

Semi-facetious. PCF was part of French political history and "red" suburbs were part of Paris and banlieue history.
Local, city communism in France did not lead to huge slaughters and genocides as in the USSR, China, Cambodia etc..
It was a useful counterweight for the proles vs proto-Macrons and the like, as long as the PCF does not gain power.
Let's just say the islamo-leftists replacing it are worse, much worse.

Plus, it reminds me of the late, great but ending on a sad note, George Marchais who partially destalinised the party. More liberal than the very un-destalinised PCP (that's in Portugal).
Inspired a lot of comedians. 

Party has been almost dead for a while anyways, even trying the islamo-leftist route.

PS for Sheilbh:

the islamo-leftist turn was tried in 2010 by a small trot party LCR/NPA. The result was a huge internal crisis and mockery from the left and right reminding them of Religion being the Opium of the People.