Socialist Calls Wins Over Far-Right In French Test Vote, Denounces National Front As 'Peril'
Source: Associated Press
Associated Press Feb. 8, 2015 | 4:33 p.m. EST
By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — The candidate of the governing Socialist Party won a narrow victory in Sunday's critical election to fill a vacant parliamentary seat, and denounced the far-right National Front party of his opponent as a "peril for our democracy."
All eyes were on the vote in France's eastern Doubs region which served as an electoral test after the Jan. 7-9 terror attacks in France that killed 17 victims and the three radical Islamic gunmen.
Winner Frederic Barbier said his victory over National Front candidate Sophie Montel was helped in part by French leaders' "perfect handling (after) the acts of war against the citizens of our country."
But he, above all, castigated his opponent's National Front party, "which distills intolerance, hate, racism, anti-Semitism ... (and) is becoming a real threat to our country."
Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/02/08/frances-first-vote-since-paris-attacks-raises-tensions
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busterbrown
(8,515 posts)HA!!!!
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)The French people have a long and tough road to fight, it would seem.
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)Los Indignados to Podemos: The Making of a Party (1/2)
The Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias learned much of what he knows from the leftward shift in Latin America... (2/6/15)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13147
Podernos--coming "out of nowhere" as far as Corporate Media are concerned--just won five seats in the European parliament.
So that's three EU countries so far with significant signs of life on the Left--Greece, where of course, they just won the presidency; Spain, where a leftist party with very grass roots origins just won seats in the EU; and France, where the left just won a bellweather election.
It's interesting that the commentator at Real News cites the Latin American Left as the inspiration for Spain's Podernos party. A similar "austerity" to that which the uber-rich have inflicted on Europe was previously inflicted on Latin America two decades ago, prompting a huge political revolution in the afflicted countries, led off by Venezuela and Argentina and soon encompassing virtually the entire continent. People had had it, and they rose up and disempowered the oligarchies--peacefully and democratically. It was not without difficulties--and with our own oligarchic rulers and their government fighting this wonderful democracy revolution every step of the way, through today. But it was and is successful. The political landscape of the Americas has been utterly transformed. I hope the Left in Europe accomplishes something similar--a widespread democracy uprising with fairness to the vast majority of people as its major thrust.
When are WE going to rebel? This is a much harder country to organize--much bigger, much more complex than any in Europe (though Brazil, for instance, is comparable, and has elected two successive leftist governments since the mid-2000s)--but we certainly have a history of political revolutions starting with the very foundation of our country, on through the New Deal and the civil and human rights movements. Personally, I think we have to start with throwing out the 'TRADE SECRET' e-voting systems, which are largely controlled by ONE, PRIVATE, FAR RIGHTWING-CONNECTED CORPORATION (ES&S, which bought out Diebold), with NO AUDITING of these diabolical machines in half the country, and a miserably inadequate audit of only 1% in the other half. I mean, really. You wonder why we have a Congress of Fox Snooze barbarians? This is why!
It may happen the other way--we rebel, THEN we get rid of these election-rigging systems. But it would make more sense to start with restoration of vote counting IN THE PUBLIC VENUE. Then we could at least stop beating our heads bloody against a brick wall of political stupidity.
