Left Favored in French Election Today

 Posted by at 10:22 am  Politics
Jun 102012
 

I’m the first to admit that I’m no expert in European politics, but even I know that this is not only potentially good news for the people of Europe, but also very important to the United States.  Republican-like policies in Europe have been just as destructive there as they have been here.

10FrenchFrance went to the polls on Sunday to elect the lower house of parliament, and media reports say that the electorate is inclined to give the left wing control of the legislature and consolidate Socialist President Francois Hollande’s ability to rule.

Hollande, 57, in May was elected to a five-year term to run France’s second-largest economy in the face of the Continent’s sovereign-debt crisis.

Hollande, who succeeded Nicolas Sarcozy as president, wants more of a focus on economic growth and less on strict austerity measures in Europe’s struggling economies.

About 45 million people are eligible to vote in France, reports say. Voting for the 577-seat National Assembly, also for five-year terms, ends at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time).

In cases where one candidate doesn’t win at least 50% of the vote for a seat, a runoff round of voting is set for June 17. Any candidate who wins at least 12.5% of the vote participates in the runoff, the Associated Press reported.

The Senate, the upper house of parliament, is already controlled by left-wing legislators… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Marketwatch>

Although Europe’s right wing is not as belligerent as US Republicans, a right wing victory could make it as difficult for Hollande to govern as Republican control of the House has made it for Obama to do so.

The economies of Europe and the US are so intertwined that events in either effect both.  Both need pro-growth policies to improve the economy, because more right wing austerity will only cause more pain.  Kudos to France for taking the lead!

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  6 Responses to “Left Favored in French Election Today”

  1. Rixar13 says:
    June 10, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    “About 45 million people are eligible to vote in France, reports say.”
    Hopefully France doesn’t have the same theft of elections as we do in the U.S…?

  2. Phyllis says:
    June 10, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    It is really interesting I think– However  France plays out this country will be affected–

     

  3. Lynn Squance says:
    June 10, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    According to the Huffington Post,

    Hollande will likely not get his wish for a pure Socialist Party sweep of the seats of power in France, but he need not fret.

    Polling agency projections after Sunday’s first round of voting in legislative elections show the Socialists slightly behind Sarkozy’s UMP party. But other leftist parties expected to support Hollande – including the communist-inspired Leftist Front [lead by Melenchon who was defeated by far right, Marine Le Pen] and the main environmental party – did well Sunday.

    A leftist victory in the voting, five weeks after Hollande took office, would brutally jar the French political landscape.

    Leftists are forecast to take between 300 and 366 seats in the next parliament, and the conservatives between 210 and 270 seats, according to the CSA and TNS-Sofres polling agencies.

    That would be a sharp shift from the current parliament, where the conservative UMP and its allies had 346 seats and leftists 226 seats.

    If the outcome is as stated by the Huffington Post, a ‘sharp shift’ is an understatement.  And it signals, along with German regional election results and Greek election results, a dissatisfaction with austerity, austerity, austerity as the single line answer to economic problems.  Economic problems are more complex and as such, need a more balanced and complex solution that contains not only prudent spending, but also a rise in revenues — increased taxation of the 1% and corporations.

    Lead the way France — Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

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