France's First Vote Since Paris Attacks Raises Tensions

[Purveyor]

PARIS (AP) -- France's resurgent far right is vying for a shining moment this weekend, when the National Front is facing the Socialists in an election for a vacant seat in parliament.

Sunday's vote in the Doubs region is the first electoral test since the January terror attacks. It has raised political tensions as the nation waits to see whether the party's anti-immigration message captures more hearts than the message of unity the French government is trying to preserve.

The National Front's candidate for the seat, Sophie Montrel, warns against the "Islamic peril" in France, while her Socialist opponent, Frederic Barbier, hopes to capitalize on the unity that bound the nation after the attacks on the satiric Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Kosher grocery store that killed 17. The trauma wrought by three radical Muslims boosted the sagging profile of Socialist President Francois Hollande. Since then, he has worked to limit a backlash against France's 5 million-strong Muslim population and ensure that youth living on society's margins become active members of French society.

The race in Doubs speaks to a nation still shaken and trying to find its mark, and to politicians in the conservative opposition uncertain about what direction to take now - back the rival government, or throw their weight behind the far right. Both Montrel and Barbier are vying for the votes of the once-powerful conservative UMP party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy - whose candidate was eliminated in last week's first round of voting. That loss laid bare new divisions in the party, which failed to agree on whether or not to advise Doubs voters to join the rival Socialist candidate - and lock out the far right.

Montrel won the first-round vote with a four-point lead over Barbier, who had been expected to handily take the seat of long-time Socialist party figure Pierre Moscovici who resigned to become a European commissioner.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_FAR_RIGHT_ELECTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-02-08-03-44-24

[pampango]

1. "Not left vs right" anymore but "established, integrationist politics vs isolationist, nationalists"

Forget left and right: Europe’s divisions lie elsewhere

For those who want a happy ending or an easy moral to the story, the election of a new Greek government last month poses some interesting quandaries. Progressives of various kinds at first hailed what appeared to be a victory for the radical left-wing party Syriza, but they were caught off guard when Syriza instantly struck a coalition deal with the Independent Greeks, a radical right-wing party that Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a legendary European leftist, bluntly described as “ultranationalist” with a “homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist” leader.

Many of those who rooted for Syriza because of its campaign against the budget-cutting “austerity” program imposed on Greece by its creditors were also taken aback when other, more urgent priorities appeared on the new leaders’ agenda. Both parties turn out to have close connections to the authoritarian Russian government, and both have curious links to a notorious Russian fascist ideologue, Alexander Dugin, who among other things has called for a “genocide” of the “race of Ukrainian bastards.” Accordingly, the new Greek government’s first foreign policy act was not a protest against European economic policy but a protest against sanctions on Russia. Only then did it launch negotiations with its European creditors by announcing that it would refuse to negotiate with its European creditors.

The most important division in Europe is not right vs. left. Nor is the main issue even “austerity” vs. “anti-austerity.” Some of the countries hit hardest by the 2009 financial crisis have pursued “austerity” with great success. Ireland has restructured and is once again growing. Latvia found ways to cut government spending without cutting pensions and is growing at one of the fastest rates in Europe.

The real division in Europe is between what I would call established, integrationist politics and isolationist, nationalist politics. It was visible last year in Britain, during the Scottish independence referendum. The Scottish Nationalists were unlike Syriza in many, many ways, but they were using similar language of “national renewal,” and they were calling for a similar reassertion of national control: Control over the economy, over political decisions, over borders. Syriza gets along well with the Greek far right because, in essence, both want to reassert national control. Perhaps the right would prefer a higher emphasis on immigration, but it shares Syriza’s furious hatred of the “troika” that control the bailout fund which has been extended to Greece — the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/greeces-bid-for-more-control-follows-a-similar-push-across-europe/2015/02/06/0d7f89ee-ae07-11e4-9c91-e9d2f9fde644_story.html

Between the Charlie Hebdo attack and the ""established, integrationist politics vs isolationist, nationalists", I think things look very good for the National Front in the coming election.

[mylye2222]

2. Breaking. Socialiste Candidate Frédéric Barbier elected

PS cabditate won extremly shortly with 51%. Far rights Sophie Montel got 49.
In victory speeches Barbier was extremly class and modest . He even paid tribute to Center right former candudatz who, after being eliminated last week got harassed and trash by UMP Sarkozy led direction.