# French Legislative Election 2017: Discussion Thread



## StarTrekVoyager (Jun 12, 2017)

Hello there! Last sunday was the first round of the 2017 French legislative elections. Their purpose are to elect the 577 members of the National Assembly, which is basically the equivalent of the British House of Commons and the American House of Representatives. People vote at a local scale, basically there are 577 "circonscriptions" and people who live in each one vote for a Member of Parliament. There are two rounds, the first with all candidates, the second usually with the two who got the best result in each circonscription. And basically, the chances are very high to have President Macron's movement (La République En Marche/REM, created in July 2016 by Macron) and allies (Mouvement Démocrate/MoDem, centrist party created in 2007) get a vast majority. Here's a projection of the future AN:





And here is the old/current AN, since the 2012 elections won by the Socialist Party and allies:




Finally, here is a map with the candidate placed first in each circonscription:
 
So yeah, basically, the two main parties, the Socialist Party and The Republicans, ar absolutely destroyed. Far-right and far-left also got very disappointing results despite their candidates placing 2d and 4th for the Presidential Elections.
What do you think? Answer down below!


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## Quantumcat (Jun 12, 2017)

What would happen if everyone changed their minds after electing Macron, and he didn't get many of his candidates in? Would he be unable to govern? I find it interesting that you choose the president before the representatives. In Aus, the leader of the party with the most representatives ends up as Prime Minister - there's no separate Prime Minister election.


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## StarTrekVoyager (Jun 13, 2017)

Quantumcat said:


> What would happen if everyone changed their minds after electing Macron, and he didn't get many of his candidates in? Would he be unable to govern? I find it interesting that you choose the president before the representatives. In Aus, the leader of the party with the most representatives ends up as Prime Minister - there's no separate Prime Minister election.


Well, actually, there's only one month between the pres. and leg. elections since 2002. Before that the presidential mandate was 7 years long and the legislative one 5 years, so there have been 'cohabitations', ie for example left-wing President Mitterand with right-wing PM Chirac. So they cut the mandate of the president to 5 years to avoid that. Of course, if people manage to change their mind in only 1 month, then the Pr. must name a PM from the majority.


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## Astral_ (Jun 13, 2017)

I'm quite happy with the result. We managed to break of the endless circle of 'vote left, vote right', without resorting to elect extremists like Melenchon or Le Pen. 
The representatives will be much younger. While it's true that many came from the former leading two parties, I'm taking them up to their promise of working together for now.

Macron is a political genius, dubbed with insane luck. He couldn't have pulled that off if he hadn't come after 2 disastrous presidencies, which angered French people enough to oust both leading parties.


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## Flirkyn (Jun 13, 2017)

I'm just happy that we didn't get a lot of extreme parties in the result. Honnestly, for now I'm curious to see how these 5 next years will go. I'm more on the left side (tho didn't really like Hollande mandate and that dumbass of Vals), but I'm not a right hater as long as we don't get ppl like Sarko or Fillon, so I'm curious to see how a centrist mandate will go


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## StarTrekVoyager (Jun 13, 2017)

Yeah. I actually supported Macron since the beginning, and I always liked him, when he was sending his punchlines while in Valls'( government. TBH, Hollande's mandate has been quite destroyed by the fact that he was elected as a left-wing, but then understood the need of a progresses/social-liberal policy and was stuck with the left-wing blocking him because "right-wing policy" and right-wing blocking him because he was a "left-wing guy". So he ended up try things and only doing mild laws The result was the inversion of the unemployment curve too late (mid-2016). Macron, on the opposite, chose not to lie during his campaign and was elected as a social-liberal centrist. And with a vast majority, he will basically be able to rush all his program during the first year to maximize the positive economical results.


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## StarTrekVoyager (Jun 13, 2017)

Flirkyn said:


> I'm just happy that we didn't get a lot of extreme parties in the result. Honnestly, for now I'm curious to see how these 5 next years will go. I'm more on the left side (tho didn't really like Hollande mandate and that dumbass of Vals), but I'm not a right hater as long as we don't get ppl like Sarko or Fillon, so I'm curious to see how a centrist mandate will go


Yeah, actually what bothers me the most about the French right is the people in it. It feels like an army of crooks and cheaters (Sarkozy, Fillon), with some other losers (Copé) who often are just mean or disrespectful (just see H. Guaino's comments after he got a mere 3% in the first round). My actual positions vary from center-right to center-left depending on the subject. Also I hate French far-left who disguise in "left of the left/radical left/whatever..." like Mélenchon and the left of Socialist Party, and who spend their time saying "rich=bad", "free moneyz ftw" etc., without ever thinking to the consequencies of such a policy. 
Personally I believe in the offer-policy, that we should give companies and bosses a bit more freedom and tax cuts to allow them to hire more easily, and therefore making the unemployment rate go down. I understand left-wings who say "more wages=more demand=more money" but our State simply hasn't the money to effectively do that.



Astral_ said:


> Macron is a political genius, dubbed with insane luck. He couldn't have pulled that off if he hadn't come after 2 disastrous presidencies, which angered French people enough to oust both leading parties.


Yeah, that talent+luck mix is really insane. The traditionnal parties killing themselves by bringing Hamon&Fillon as candidates, plus the fact that he did bring some optimism compared to far right and far left, made him being elected.


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## RevPokemon (Jun 13, 2017)

TBH the idea of a centrist majority government scares the crap out of me, but I just hope it works out (although so far Macron seems decentish)...


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## spotanjo3 (Jun 13, 2017)

Oh no, not other political. Was corrupted and always will be corruption no matter what.


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## StarTrekVoyager (Jun 13, 2017)

RevPokemon said:


> TBH the idea of a centrist majority government scares the crap out of me, but I just hope it works out (although so far Macron seems decentish)...


It could scare you, but keep in mind that French politics are very different from US politics. On some points Macron is almost more right-wing than Trump, while on others he's as left-wing as Sanders.

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azoreseuropa said:


> Oh no, not other political. Was corrupted and always will be corruption no matter what.


There have never been real corruption in France. The biggest problem is emmbezzlment coming from right-wing party members, but Macron is bringing young and clean people to power.


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## spotanjo3 (Jun 13, 2017)

StarTrekVoyager said:


> There have never been real corruption in France. The biggest problem is emmbezzlment coming from right-wing party members, but Macron is bringing young and clean people to power.



Well, the world is full of corruption. Maybe small corruption from place to place and some are greater corruption somewhere. Still, this world always have a corruption and "never" is a strong word. You know what I mean ?


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## RevPokemon (Jun 13, 2017)

StarTrekVoyager said:


> It could scare you, but keep in mind that French politics are very different from US politics.


I do understand that and it really makes me feel no different.



StarTrekVoyager said:


> On some points Macron is almost more right-wing than Trump, while on others he's as left-wing as Sanders.


True but still having a centrist can be scary since they mostly suck on foreign policy and economics



StarTrekVoyager said:


> There have never been real corruption in France. The biggest problem is emmbezzlment coming from right-wing party members, but Macron is bringing young and clean people to power.


Heh, hopefully, the hard left socialists will kick his damn ass


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