French left finds governing agreement for 'new popular front' alliance
French left finds governing agreement for 'new popular front' alliance
All the major left-wing parties agreed on the policies they would implement if their alliance wins the snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron.
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I haven't looked into the details but it's such good news. Macron's plan seems foiled. It took such a menace to unite the left ! though I'd be very surprised LO or the PCF joined as well...
The PCF is in IIRC
That's good news
How tf is pro Russian extremists on either side potentially taking over France good news?
Who ? What ?
Of course, the more radical La France Insoumise (LFI) had to amend its discourse that painted Russia as a "more reliable partner than the United States," as the party's leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said in 2020. After more than a year of war, they now advocate exploring negotiated paths out of the conflict. "The war in Ukraine must end. That's what we have to work on. It is a matter of diplomacy rather than artillery fire," wrote Mélenchon in December 2022.
The statement "Russia is a more reliable partner than the United States" was made well before the aggression, I think it's safe to say it doesn't hold today.
The other statement by JLM is "It is a matter of diplomacy rather than artillery fire" - I don't see how this is pro-russian.
The RN though, is literally funded by Russia. So if you want them beat (and you do), this unity is necessary.
LFI are hardly extremists. They're not revolutionaries, they're not communists, they're just socialists.
The statement "Russia is a more reliable partner than the United States" was made well before the aggression, I think it's safe to say it doesn't hold today.
Do you have a more recent statement that goes the other way?
The other statement by JLM is "It is a matter of diplomacy rather than artillery fire" - I don't see how this is pro-russian.
Here in Germany those tyep of people say "Frieden schaffen ohne Waffen!", meaning making peace without weapons. It's a pro Russia narrative that undermines Ukraine's sovereignty and its right to defend itself. The conditions for making peace are already known; Russia has to stop its aggressions and return to its internationally recognized borders. This isn't even debatable, but those people who scream for diplomacy over sending weapons think it is.
LFI are hardly extremists. They're not revolutionaries, they're not communists, they're just socialists.
With pro Russia & anti EU stances I would very much categorize them as dangerous extremists. Especially with how important France is to the EU.
No, I don't have a more recent statement. Looks like I have some reading to do. LFI's stance on Europe has always been too vague for comfort to me, perhaps it's time to settle this.
It's not your job to go look for those statements either, they can search for more information themselves and report back with their findings
Absolutely, I meant some reading on the LFI's positioning about Europe, specifically. And perhaps JLM's own positioning within that, since he's not always in complete unison with the rest of the party. Wrt the statement from 2020, I consider it reasonable to say it doesn't apply today.
I literally already did report back with what I found. You're just making excuses at this point to push your narrative.
Why be so antagonizing, this is a discussion
To my knowledge, while LFI (but in particular Jean Luc Melanchon, who REALLY isn't even the cards to be PM) is certainly anti EU and made ambiguous statements on Russia as well as other countries, these views haven't passed on to the Popular Front. They have been perfectly clear in their program that they in support of Ukraine over Russia, and that they would continue (and increase) sending weapons it's way. This was the red line of the socialists, who are right now the biggest party alongside LFI, and supported by a majority of the rest of the aliance (esp the Greens).
The Popular Front is Pro-Ukraine, and against Russia. Diplo wise, on the question of the EU, they have said they want to get rid of the CETA (which has been a demand of the Left for quite some time, with good reason), and that they are lukewarm on the EU electricity market (which was really disadventagous to France because our energy prod is cheap, but prices are driven up for no reason in an high-inflation context), but they are otherwise pro-EU (remeber! The Soc-dems and the greens are a big chunk of the alliance!)
It's unfortunate foreign media (but our medias do it too) present the Popular Front as a LFI++ that is 'just as bad as far right' when it's a moderate left alliance against fascism.
What's the front's position on Palestine-Israel? And taxes?
All parties in the Popular Front are generally pro-Palestinians (in particular, Macron's long-standing refusal to even acknowledge that Israel is doing any wrong has been particularly shocking to them, and a good chunk of the population).
In their program they say (translation by me from Le Monde's article):
- they want to "act in favor of the liberation of the hostages detained since the Hamas' terrorist massacres, of whom they reject the theocratic project."
- they also say they want to "immediately recognize the Palestinian State alongside the State of Israël"
- they want to "cut (stop) the French government's culpable support for [Benyamin] Netanyahu's far right supremacist government to impose an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enforce the ICJ's [International Court of Justice's] order, which unambiguously refers to a risk of genocide."
As for taxes, there's a lot of stuff (and I'm not translating everything on mobile lol). A lot of it boils down to revertibg all the terribly unbalanced and unfair tax policies of Macron like:
- reestablish the ISF: the tax on one's fortune (generally seen as a rich tax) with a climate twist (not entirely sure what they mean by that, prob gonna make it even hugher if you things like private jets all the time)
- abolish the flat tax: this one's a little complex and I'm really not an expert on this but it's seen as very unqaid. A left MP in 2018 said when this taw was introduced: "Whereas an employee earning 1.2 smic [the minimal salary in France] per month who gets a raise will pay a 14% tax rate on it, a billionaire who earns ten million euros more through a financial transaction will only pay 12.8% tax on this new gain"
- reestablish the exit tax: that was a tax of "unrealized capital gains when taxpayers transfer their tax domicile outside France" (from what I understand, this was meant to fight against fiscal evasion like for when French company heads went to sell their assets in Belgium in which stock sale wasn't taxed. It was supposed to bring about ~800 mil eurosin 2016 had the tax not been removed by then when Macron was Minister of Budget)
- new brackets to make taxes more progressive and fair
- increase their number to fourteen for revenue tax
- establish it in the CSG (generalized social contribution)
- add some more on heritage tax, as well as adding a maximum upon it
They also said they want to add a tax on products depending on how much they travelled throughtout the world (to be produced, I imagine), condition company subsidies to their respect of environemental & social norms (esp fighting discrimination within companies). They also want to tax financial transaction (I'm supposing they mean this at a EU level with the big 'Tax the rich' petition), agro companies super profits.
On a related note, there are lots of stuff they want to do for the lower strada's budgets like:
- make the first few kWh of electricity free of charge each months.
- blocking the prices of some first necessity goods (food, energy, fuel specifically)
- establish minimum prices at which the agro industry will have to adhere to to buy stuff from farmers
- increase budgets for the creation of public lodgings to 1.4B euros (and increase by 10% the youth grants to help them find a place to live)
- revert Macron's reform of the RSA (most basic and lowest income provided by the state that allows people to feed themselves if they don't have a job nor any other gov income like the one for unemployement (post-firing/post-resign to help until the person finds a new job). Macron's reform required that if somebody wants the RSA, they have to work at least 15 hours a week FOR FREE. You can guess how much the people who only had this, including the parts of the population who lives with a handicap took it)
- returning to a max of 32 hours per weeks for physically demanding or night jobs.
(Holy shit this took me one hour to write, hopefully I didn't forget anything)
Wow, thanks a lot for the extremely detailed response. I suggest you copy it to a txt file at some point in case you get the chance to post it again somewhere else, because it almost feels like a waste that not much more people will pass through the thread.
who REALLY isn't even the cards to be PM
Why would they name him then? Is there a site that lists the major bullet points of their stances?
The Popular Front didn't 'name' him (unless you mean the article). In fact, parties won't 'get' to name anyone, that's the prsident who will pick the PM. However, he has to pick a PM whom a majority of the National Assembly (being elected here) will support, lest it gets 'censored' (destitued) by the Parliement.
JLM is the leader of LFI (even if, particularly in the creation of the Popular Front, his detractors are slowly getting the better of him), and he was LFI's candidate for the 2022 Presidential Election. What the article mentions is that a few days ago, he mentioned on TV that he feels 'capable' of endorsing the role of PM. That does NOT mean the rest of the alliance will suport him (in fact, there's a 0% chance the socialists will).
The people who are more likely to be named as PM (if the Popular Front wins a majority of the Assembly), are either François Ruffin (also LFI, but highly popular, is the one who launched the movement for this Popular Front, and a detractor of Melanchon's), or somebody more moderate without much political clout used to serve as the one on the ejectable seat when Macron's term is over (and said PM is likely to have become unpopular by then).
For their program, I unfortunately wasn't able to find a translation nor a summary in english (tbf, it was published just this friday).
Le Monde has a summary (in french) which you can translate with your favorite translator app if you want.