Elections in various countries

[Travis B.]

My god, nothing ever gets through to some people.

If you think blackmail is a good political system, and people are wrong to refuse to be blackmailed, then honestly you deserve the world we have now. This is why the Dems are as bad as they are. They only need to be 1 femtohitler less evil than the Republicans, which basically just means they need to take one day off a month from eating human-child ortolans, and every West Wing watching Lib will wag their fingers at you for not rubber stamping their bold policy of only eating most of the toddlers. I'm sorry, but you're just wrong for making that bargain with the Devil, and you know it.

Your mistake is thinking that one choice is only "1 femtohitler" less evil than the other choice. While the Democrats are not really left-wing, they are centrist, which is still a huge difference from the fascists who comprise the other party. And your argument belies this contrast.

[MacAnDàil]

Heck, the Democrats are now possibly more left-wing than ever, given their active siding with unions. Moosetache's whole argument rests on characterising the current political system as blackmail which does not convince me. It's certainly preferable to getting raided and paying tribute to avoid further raids, which would be actual blackmail.

[MacAnDàil]

PS I wager a slight lead for Greens-Labour, who will probably form a government with NSC and VVD.

[MacAnDàil]

PS I wager a slight lead for Greens-Labour, who will probably form a government with NSC and VVD.

I was wrong as the PVV got first place. They are cordon sanitaire'd thankfully, so the most likely scenario seems to be the coalition I proposed plus D66.

[Raphael]

Just in case you didn't hear it yet, Northern Ireland seems to have an Executive again, because they somehow managed it to get the DUP to temporarily stop sulking.

[Linguoboy]

Just in case you didn't hear it yet, Northern Ireland seems to have an Executive again, because they somehow managed it to get the DUP to temporarily stop sulking.

I must be extra thick these days because I've read over the new agreement and still don't quite understand what concession from the British government managed to win them over. In any case, godspeed to Michelle O'Neill who's got perhaps the most unenviable position in UK politics at the moment.

[Raphael]

Just in case you didn't hear it yet, Northern Ireland seems to have an Executive again, because they somehow managed it to get the DUP to temporarily stop sulking.

I must be extra thick these days because I've read over the new agreement and still don't quite understand what concession from the British government managed to win them over.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't really understand all that.

[Richard W]

Just in case you didn't hear it yet, Northern Ireland seems to have an Executive again, because they somehow managed it to get the DUP to temporarily stop sulking.

I must be extra thick these days because I've read over the new agreement and still don't quite understand what concession from the British government managed to win them over. In any case, godspeed to Michelle O'Neill who's got perhaps the most unenviable position in UK politics at the moment.

British food products that can't be sold in the EU (e.g. for reasons of cost of certification) will now have to be labelled "not for sale in the EU" whether or not they they will be sold in Northern Ireland. (There might conceivably be an exemption for very small businesses not exporting to Northern Ireland.)

[Raphael]

So over in Ireland, two referendums to amend the Constitution failed very decisively. They had been meant to replace old phrases from the original 1937 Constitution that refer to the importance of "the Family", and of women's work in the home. Now, some people seemed to have stayed home or voted "No" because they complained that the proposed new wordings didn't go far enough. But I still wonder to which extent this means - together with now semi-regular "protests" outside migrant accommodations - that the global far-right wave has now finally reached Ireland.

[Nortaneous]

If you think blackmail is a good political system, and people are wrong to refuse to be blackmailed, then honestly you deserve the world we have now. This is why the Dems are as bad as they are. They only need to be 1 femtohitler less evil than the Republicans, which basically just means they need to take one day off a month from eating human-child ortolans, and every West Wing watching Lib will wag their fingers at you for not rubber stamping their bold policy of only eating most of the toddlers. I'm sorry, but you're just wrong for making that bargain with the Devil, and you know it.

The policy of eating toddlers is very popular with voters! If I were a toddler-eater, I would certainly want my political opponents to believe themselves above joining a toddler-eating electorate. It's impure, you know, just ghastly...

[Ares Land]

Elections for the European Parliament will take place at the beginning of June. It's expected that the EPP (center-of-right, think CDU) will win again, so not much excitement will happen at the European scale.

Here in France (and I suppose in most other European countries as well), they're used as kind of mid-term popularity contest among various tendancies. With the plot twist that as European elections use proportional representation, parties that do well in the European election don't always do well in national elections.

The RN (far right) traditionally does well. This time, though, the opinion polls are incredibly depressing: 30% for the RN, Renew (Macron's party) a very distant second at 16.5%. PS (at 12%), EELV (Greens) at 8.5%, LFI (left to far left, that's Mélenchon's party if your remember the guy) 7.5%.

Why is the RN so high? I don't know man. At this stage I'm in favour of nuking the country and starting over.
Why is Macron's party doing so badly? That one is easy. Macron is currently about as inspiring as Louis XVI on July, 13th.

To much political excitement, the PS -- Parti Socialiste, the historical center-left party is apparently not dead (?) and polls in the double digits (??!). That's because the campaign is led by Raphaël Glucksmann, who in a surprising move, is reasonably charismatic and decent human being.

Echoing a discussion we had over at another thread, Mélenchon and LFI more generally hurt themselves badly by not condemning Hamas. (Public opinion in France is generally pretty supportive of Palestine, but Mélenchon and a few others in his party went a bit too far.)

[bradrn]

Macron is currently about as inspiring as Louis XVI on July, 13th.

Why, what happened on July 13th? I can’t find anything…

[Ares Land]

Macron is currently about as inspiring as Louis XVI on July, 13th.

Why, what happened on July 13th? I can’t find anything…

I meant, as inspiring as Louis XVI the day before the Revolution
(not that any revolution is happening any time soon!)

[bradrn]

Macron is currently about as inspiring as Louis XVI on July, 13th.

Why, what happened on July 13th? I can’t find anything…

I meant, as inspiring as Louis XVI the day before the Revolution
(not that any revolution is happening any time soon!)

Oh… I’ve just realised I misread XVI as XIV (i.e. the ‘Sun King’, who had no revolution). It makes more sense now.

[hwhatting]

Here in France (and I suppose in most other European countries as well), they're used as kind of mid-term popularity contest among various tendancies. With the plot twist that as European elections use proportional representation, parties that do well in the European election don't always do well in national elections.

Another reason is that a lot of people treat the European elections as unimportant, so participation is lower and more people are ready to vote for extremist and fringe parties in order to stick it to the conventional politicians, which both increases the percentages of the extremists and fringe.

[MacAnDàil]

I as member of LFI went to a Glucksmann meeting and prefer his position on Ukraine, more coherently in favour of human rights and not blaming NATO for Putin.

[Ares Land]

I as member of LFI went to a Glucksmann meeting and prefer his position on Ukraine, more coherently in favour of human rights and not blaming NATO for Putin.

Same here -- though I'm not a LFI member, even though I often agree with them. I prefer Glucksmann's position on international issues; importantly, he's also less divisive.

[Raphael]

Does anyone know enough about the situation in Ireland to make an educated guess about how big the risk is that the far right actually gets somewhere in the next Irish election?

[MacAnDàil]

As far as I can tell, there are still no major (i.e. 1%+ vote) far right political parties in Ireland. The far right seems to still be a riot footnote in Ireland.

[alice]

Dunno if this is actually relevant, but about 20 years ago, when I was on holiday in Donegal, I was told that for a long time "socialism has had virtually no appeal in Ireland" and "Irish politics is always about personalities, not policies". Admittedly things might have changed since then.