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francois hollande
Le Pen Accused of Exploiting Paris Shooting Days Before Election
President Donald Trump also appeared to throw weight behind right-wing candidate in highly unpredictable election
Apr 21, 2017
Right-wing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was accused Friday of exploiting the fatal shooting of a Paris police officer that occurred Thursday, as the anti-immigrant candidate seeks to bolster turnout before Sunday's presidential election.
Le Pen immediately invoked fears of "a war against us," and in response the French prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused the Front National candidate of "shamelessly exploiting fear and emotion for purely political ends," reported AFP. Le Pen's center-right rival Emmanuel Macron also accused Le Pen and the Republican candidate Francois Fillon of exploiting the shooting to their advantage.
French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that the attack appeared to be an act of terrorism, and on Friday Paris police announced that the perpetrator was a French citizen.
The Australian described Le Pen's fear-mongering, xenophobic commentary:
In the wake of the attack, Le Pen said "this war against us is ceaseless and merciless," and charged that the outgoing Socialist government and its right wing predecessor had "done everything to ensure that we lose" the fight.
Le Pen, widely seen as taking the hardest line on security among the candidates, called for France to "immediately" take back control of its own borders from the European Union and deport all foreigners on a terror watchlist.
And President Donald Trump appeared to throw his weight behind Le Pen's right-wing campaign, Salon noted, tweeting Friday that "the people of France will not take much more of this" in reference to the Paris attack.
\u201cAnother terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!\u201d— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1492770721
Le Pen and Trump have been connected in the past, notes Salon: "Le Pen and Trump have been said to represent the emerging anti-globalist movement that has taken Europe and the United States. Le Pen was seen at Trump Tower during the presidential transition, but both parties refused to confirm whether or not they had met."
It remains to be seen how or whether the attack in Paris will affect Sunday's vote. Le Pen's leading spot in the polls has been slipping in recent weeks, and left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has been gaining ground.
While center-right candidate Macron, a former investment banker who has never held elected office, is the favorite to win, polls show the three politicians plus the scandal-ridden Republican party candidate, Fillon, all within striking distance of one another.
The large size of the field--in total, there are 11 candidates--and falling political fortunes of France's once-leading parties has made this a highly unusual and unpredictable election.
"This situation is totally unprecedented," said Emmanuel Riviere, managing director of the polling firm Kantar Public France, in an interview with Bloomberg. "The fact that there are four potential finalists makes the situation very complex."
"[V]oters are abandoning the two mainstream parties, the Socialists and Republicans, which have dominated French politics for decades," explained CNN's Frida Ghitis. "While they have always garnered the overwhelming majority of support, this time they may not get even a quarter of the votes. In fact, the parties that until now took turns governing France may not even have a candidate in the final round."
If no candidate captures 50 percent of the vote, which is likely given the size of the field, the two front-runners will face each other in a run-off vote next month.
It's even possible that the country could see a run-off vote between the far-right and far-left candidates, as Common Dreams reported last week.
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European Authorities' Policy Constraints Are Hampering French Economic Growth and Employment, New Report Finds
Apr 18, 2017
A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) concludes that policy constraints imposed on France by the European authorities, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are likely a significant drag on the French economy that limit options for increasing economic growth and decreasing unemployment.
The full report, including an executive summary, can be found here.
"It is unlikely that the French electorate will accept the European authorities' constraints or regressive reforms indefinitely," said Mark Weisbrot, CEPR Co-Director and lead author of the report. "The rise of the far Right that blames France's problems on minority groups and foreigners is clearly a result of these failed policies and of centrist politicians' embrace of them. At the same time, there has also been a recent upsurge of support for feasible, progressive alternatives."
Ahead of the French elections (the first round on April 23), France has experienced a lost decade, with almost no growth in per capita GDP. Unemployment averaged 10 percent for 2016.
The report notes: "With inflation at 0.35 percent, and real borrowing costs basically zero, the government has the potential through spending and public investment to dramatically lower unemployment. The constraints on increasing employment and growth appear to be political, not economic." Yet the European authorities are pushing for greater restrictions on public spending, with the IMF recommending "limiting growth of government spending to the rate of inflation, as targeted in the government's Stability Program."
France has an interest burden on the public debt of just 1.7 percent of GDP, which is low by almost any comparison. The report finds that harsh public pension cuts during the last few years were unnecessary, since pension spending was projected to grow by just 1 percent of GDP over the next 60 years.
The CEPR report notes: "The spending cuts that the government of France has agreed to for the next few years would preclude a role for the government in reducing mass unemployment."
The European authorities, including the IMF, advocate a reduced welfare state, including cuts to public pensions and health care spending, labor market reforms that diminish the bargaining power of organized labor, reforms that increase labor supply, and overall reduction of spending and taxation. Some of these reforms have already been enacted, having been met with large protests, and made the current president, Francois Hollande, too unpopular to run for re-election.
The paper notes that the European authorities pushed similar policies that contributed to economic crises and recessions in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and elsewhere, and so their recommendations for France should be viewed with a critical eye.
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'Wrong Kind of Populism' Fails in Netherlands as Geert Wilders Defeated
Europeans relieved over right-winger's loss in election for prime minister, and more good news came after Green party quadrupled voting share
Mar 16, 2017
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte hailed his victory over right-wing challenger Geert Wilders on Wednesday as a rejection of the "wrong kind of populism," as Europeans anxiously watching the election held out hope for similar outcomes in Germany and France.
With 33 seats, Rutte's VVD party became the largest in the Dutch Parliament as voters overwhelmingly rejected Wilders' anti-Islam platform, although his Freedom Party (PVV) did gain 20 seats.
"Tonight the Netherlands, after Brexit and the American elections, said 'stop' to the wrong kind of populism," Rutte told a crowd of supporters in The Hague.
Although the VVD is center-right, its victory against PVV was seen as critical. Wilders, who has gained notoriety for his provocative statements, ran on an Islamophobic, anti-immigrant platform and has been cited by the United Nations and human rights groups as one of the "Western demagogues" fueling the rise of nationalism around the world, along with U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.K.'s Nigel Farage.
With far-right figures also hoping to make gains in Germany and France's upcoming elections, many voters saw the Netherlands as a first test of new-wave rightwing populism in Europe. Wilders' loss reinvigorated hopes that those parties would likewise fail.
French President Francois Hollande congratulated Rutte and said he won a "clear victory against extremism."
German Socialist leader Martin Schulz tweeted, "I am relieved, but we need to continue to fight for an open and Free Europe."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, expressed unrestrained joy at the outcome, tweeting, "The Netherlands, oh the Netherlands you are a champion!...Congratulations on this great result."
\u201cNederland oh Nederland jij bent een kampioen!Wij houden van Oranje om zijn daden en zijn doen! Gefeliciteerd met dit geweldig resultaat!\u201d— Peter Altmaier (@Peter Altmaier) 1489609074
The Christian Democrats (CDA) and Liberal Democrats (D66) both won 19 seats.
Meanwhile, the Greens quadrupled their vote share with 14 seats, up from just four in 2012.
"This is a fantastic result for us, a historic victory," said the party's chairwoman Marjolein Meijer, who said the outcome meant there was "very fertile ground in the Netherlands for change and a positive and hopeful story."
"For us this is just the beginning," she said.
The Greens' victory means it is now the largest left-wing party in the Netherlands' history. Its leader, Jesse Klaver, urged voters to be "pro-refugee" and "pro-European."
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