Cqoicebordel

I’m writing this article for all my friends (or not) that don’t speak french, so they can understand what is going on with those elections.

French citizen are pissed. I think that sum things up pretty well.
They are pissed because almost every politicians in France are corrupt. Or if they are not, they want to do the same policies than in the last 30 years, but worse, putting all the load on workers, while lowering the taxes on the richest.

So, what happened ?
In the first round of election, there were five « major » candidates :

• Benoit Hamon : He is from one of the two majors parties in France (the PS, on the left). He was chosen in a primary by the citizens, but he was too much to the left (but not really) for the dirigeants of the PS, so they went to Macron.
• François Fillon : Is the symmetric of Hamon, on the (almost far) right (called LR). Was too chosen by the citizens. But, just after being chosen, lots of dirt appeared on him (was using taxes’ money to pay his wife and children to do nothing).
• Emmanuel Macron : Is a candidate who has come from nowhere, built from scratch by we don’t know who. Loved by the media and the elites. Of course, because he worked in a prestigious bank, and represent everything a neoliberal wants. Claim to be in the middle, but is clearly on the right.
• Marine Le Pen : Is on the far, far right, can even be called fascist. Convinced her supporter using a lot of FUD, racism, xenophobia etc. It’s Trump but worse, really worse, because she is not (that) stupid. Claim to be out of the system, but is clearly in, and we have a lot of dirt on her. But no one cares, because they want change, and she succeeded in having that image (falsely, of course).
• Jean-Luc Melenchon : He also represented a lot of change. He is on the far left, but promised a lot of good things : taking into account blank votes (to eliminate all candidates, if they have the majority), renegotiation of the EU treaty, to end neoliberalism, more power to the citizens overall etc. The media hated him, a lot more than Le Pen.

The media warn against and mock a lot Melenchon. He is really from outside the system, so they can mock him. It’s not the case for Le Pen, who was in the system for 40 years (her father before her). The media say « vote Macron, it’s the only candidate against Le Pen » (polls showed that all 4 would win easily against Le Pen in the second round, but whatever).
First round, they all get around ~20% (except Hamon, because everybody left him). Macron and Le Pen gets to the second round.
Polls show that among all voters, they all voted for their candidates because they believe in him/her for ~75%. They believe in the project of everyone. Except for Macron. Only ~50% believed in his program. Except that he was sold as « The only candidate against Le Pen ».

Anyway, I think it’s now time to share a map with you :

(Le Pen : dark blue ; Fillon : blue ; Macron : pink ; Melenchon : orange)

On the left is a map of the industrial France, in 1958. On the right, the first round votes. We can see that where industry were presents, they massively voted for Le Pen. You can also note that in those area, there are almost no immigration.
It shows that a big chunk of french citizens were forgotten. They are poor, don’t have a post office or a doctor at less than 50km from their homes. Le Pen and Melenchon were the only ones talking to them.

So now, we are at the second round. And most of us, we don’t know what to do. We believe, strongly that Le Pen is only a symptom. But that Macron is the real, deep, disease. Sure, most of us voted Macron, because we have to stop fascism. But in the same time, we understand that neoliberalism, what we call the « uberization of the society » is what what’s wrong. And Macron is all that.

Don’t believe that the french people are racist, or fascist. Far from it (some are, of course, but they are only the product of their society and the medias). But they are desperate. They don’t know what to do, they want change. And Le Pen succeeded in appearing as change, while using the immigrants as scapegoat. Exactly like Trump.

Macron will win. Because we have to fight against fascism. So, no, no sex scandal, or leaking of mails will change anything (sex scandal ? In France ? Nobody cares). Nobody believes in his program, but we vote for him anyway.
Of course, there are still a lot of people who’ll vote for Le Pen too. When you don’t have any hope, a « tabula rasa » is a good option.

So, when you don’t believe in any candidates, when you know that they are both worse than the other. What do you do ?
For now, saving the democracy.

But I’m really afraid that it’s the worse long term choice.