French elections: primaries for the right wing candidate

[mint]

[quote user="andyh4"]The problem ALBF is that expats had (in the main) an opportunity to influence Brexit - and some seem to still believe they can.

Re the French presidential elections, the number of expats with an opportunity to vote must be miniscule - yourself (I assume) excluded. This means they will be dealt with whomever they are dealt..[/quote]

Good point about most of us immigrants do not have the vote in France and therefore may not have the same incentive to gen up on French politics.

Mind you, millions of Brits living in the UK do not appear to know much about British politics either so it's not to do with whether people have the vote or not!

Should there be an early general election there, it would be interesting to know what the turnout percentage might be.

[cajal]

[quote user="Gluestick"][quote user="cajal"]

Oh dear. Have I stolen your thunder?  And I suppose your knowledge is all cranium based?[/quote]

Amazing!

Have you not realised, ALL "Knowledge" tends to be lodged in the brain?

Where did you think it resided?

In your.........I won't finish that, as it is really far too obvious to state.

[Www]

[/quote]

Ah, so it is all to do with the cranium.

regards

cajal

[alittlebitfrench]

Andy Wrote :

"The problem ALBF is that expats had (in the main) an opportunity to influence Brexit - and some seem to still believe they can. Re the French presidential elections, the number of expats with an opportunity to vote must be miniscule - yourself (I assume) excluded. This means they will be dealt with whomever they are dealt"

Whilst you may not be able influence the election you still need to understand the current political and economic climate in France so that you can adapt to it. More so if you are thinking of moving to France. I guess most people don't otherwise they would not either do it or move to the type of places that they do.

We are all know the current state of rural France at the moment, you just have to look at Le Bon Coin in the 'businesses for sale' section. I often look at that section in towns, villages that I know across France and I am amazed at the number of businesses for sale...many of which I know personally. Rural France is collapsing. Then there is the issue of schooling, and doctors ect. Since FH has got it you feel like France has collapsed. Will it get better ?

You know, when the police start manifest..ing (like what has happened in the last couple of weeks) you kinda of think there is a big problem in France at the moment.

If you are making a life changing decision of moving to France (especially with kids or starting a business) then it is essential to understand the current political and economical climate of France and base your decisions around that. If you don't, you will have a rough ride and most likely move back to the UK a lot poorer than you arrived.

I am not saying don't move, I am just saying read the news and make your decisions based on that.

Who would move to America at the moment ???? France is no different.

That is my point.

[lindal1000]

Well one thing for sure is that everything is in a continual state of change everywhere. People that cope better with life are those that can adapt and deal with change. You do need to have an awareness of what is going on around you and any likely challenges, but that has to be balanced against taking an overly pessimistic view and not doing anything. It's often why immigrants do better than native populations..because they are the people with better resilience and adaptation skills.

The things I've learned over the years is that if you have problems then they aren't going to solved by moving, that if you look back too much the past always looks wonderful because we were young and beautiful and healthy, and you always need to have a plan B or C with enough money under the mattress to get you out of trouble!

And no, I don't know the names of all the candidates (I doubt many French people do), but I do follow the news, and increasingly it bothers me that I don't have a vote in France, where I live and pay tax. This is one reason for us thinking about taking French Nationality.

[alittlebitfrench]

Lindal 1000 wrote:

"The things I've learned over the years is that if you have problems then they aren't going to solved by moving"

Not sure about that, unless you mean moving back to the UK.

We have moved six times in the last twenty years in France. I dare say we will move again. On one particular occasion, had we not moved (and it was an instant decision reacting to the economy to put the house up for sale) our lives would be in a mess right now.

Like you said, you have to react and react quickly to change.

[Patf]

Linda wrote:

"And no, I don't know the names of all the candidates (I doubt many French people do),"

My view too.

 I was in the paper shop on Friday and asked one of the staff which newspapers were 'right' and which 'left' -  she said "we keep them all over there"pointing to her left. A man standing next to me was listening, I said " I mean politically" so he told me a few, and when I checked he only had one correct ( Figaro).

Out of interest I bought one strange - looking one called Rivarol and it turns out to be to the right of LePen Snr.

[NormanH]

My intention in starting this thread was to point out the very useful site which Figaro had made which lets you see the position of the various candidates on a range of issues::

http://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/presidentielles/comparateur/primaires-droite/

As for extreme right-wing sites one of the classics was started by the Maire of Béziers, Robert Ménard, and I believe it is now run by his wife

http://www.bvoltaire.fr/

I find it difficult to read without getting angry, but it shows a current of opinion that is stronger than one might realise from main-stream madia (sic)

I hear this sort of thing all the time even in our local journal de ville, since Ménard use the taxpayers' money to publish his propaganda.

http://www.ville-beziers.fr/journal-de-beziers/

I have it shoved through my front door and the paper isn't even suitable pour 'me torcher le cul' [:@]

[idun]

How I disagree with the idea that immigrants are more adaptable. IF they were, then they would make sure that they learned the language of the country they were in.

Too many do not, and that is not adaptable. They also will be unaware of what is going on in that country.

Makes me angry, yup, always has, because it is on a basic level, not learning the language, even if like me, it is a big struggle, it is very disrespectful.

[alittlebitfrench]

I don't really no what Lindel meant by saying immigrants/expats are more adaptable in France. Maybe she will explain.

I find it strange that many move to France and choose to live in expat communities. I guess these same types are those who move to France to escape immigration in their own country. I know it is a topic often discussed but I find it very strange behaviour.

[lindal1000]

ALBF.. I was meaning that a lot of people move because they think the grass will be greener and when it isn't they blame the place rather than whatever it was that made them move in the first place. I know a couple of people who made that mistake when they moved to France..moaned all the time, went back to the UK and are still moaning about the things they moaned about before!

On the whole, I think immigrants that work do integrate. It's quite difficult to get a job anywhere if you don't speak and write the language and many immigrants speak and write their second language better than many natives. I can confirm that in France anyway, looking at some of the dreadful stuff French people write on Le Bon Coin. Not even basic spelling, punctuation or grammar is correct and it must be bad if I can tell. It's often older immigrants that struggle more, because integration is less essential to daily life.

[Gluestick]

Over many years, I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of obviously integrated people in Europe: the charming and most efficient waitress in a Luxembourg hotel, who clearly spoke fluent French. The Fish Department manager at the huge Auchan in Perpignon; lovely man and knew his business. Both Africans. etc...

However, sadly France now suffers from descendants of earlier immigrants from those North African workers encouraged to work on the massive electricity roll-out and the equally large expansion of SNCF; turning large areas of industrial towns such as Toulouse, into ghetto areas. Plus, of course, the influx of newer migrants during the course of the past fifteen years; the problems in the Banlieues are well known, well reported and continuous.

An excellent example of how not to do things, unfortunately, is Britain: by offering immigrants official forms and translation services in umpteen languages and dialects, newcomers have had no inducement to learn English; nor to learn British cultural mores. The net result has been ghettos; and, a sort of reverse apartheid.

Interestingly, a report has recently been published by Open Democracy and the authors are portrayed as "Integration Experts": yet, their own report shows how integration just hasn't happened: read more here:

I have always accepted, I must read French in order to fill-out government forms; and etc. I also much respect French culture and protocols and etiquette; much like it, too.

As even French friends have told me, moving to small villages in rural areas, it takes twenty years, often, before even they are accepted!

[NormanH]

C'est vrai qu'ils sont plaisants, tous ces petits villages,

Tous ces bourgs, ces hameaux, ces lieux-dits, ces cités

Avec leurs châteaux forts, leurs églises, leurs plages,

Ils n'ont qu'un seul point faible et c'est d'être habités.

Et c'est d'être habités par des gens qui regardent

Le reste avec mépris du haut de leurs remparts,

La race des chauvins, des porteurs de cocardes,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part.

Maudits soient ces enfants de leur mère patrie

Empalés une fois pour tout's sur leur clocher,

Qui vous montrent leurs tours, leurs musé’s, leur mairie,

Vous font voir du pays natal jusqu'à loucher.

Qu'ils sortent de Paris, ou de Rome, ou de Sète,

Ou du diable vauvert ou de Zanzibar,

Ou même de Montcuq, ils s'en flattent mazette,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part.

Le sable dans lequel, douillettes, leurs autruches

Enfouissent la tête, on trouve pas plus fin,

Quant à l'air qu'ils emploient pour gonfler leurs baudruches,

Leurs bulles de savon, c'est du souffle divin.

Et, petit à petit, les voilà qui se montent

Le cou jusqu'à penser que le crottin fait par

Les chevaux, même en bois, rend jaloux tout le monde,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part.

C'est pas un lieu commun celui de leur naissance,

Ils plaignent de tout coeur les pauvres malchanceux,

Les petits maladroits qui n'eur’nt pas la présence,

La présence d'esprit de voir le jour chez eux.

Quand sonne le tocsin sur leur bonheur précaire,

Contre les étrangers tous plus ou moins barbares,

Ils sortent de leur trou pour mourir à la guerre,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part.

Mon dieu, qu'il ferait bon sur la terre des hommes

Si on n'y rencontrait cette race incongru’,

Cette race importune et qui partout foisonne :

La race des gens du terroir, des gens du cru.

Que la vi’ serait belle en toutes circonstances

Si vous n'aviez tiré du néant tous ces jobards,

Preuve, peut-être bien, de votre inexistence :

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part,

Les imbécil’s heureux qui sont nés quelque part.

[woolybanana]

Yes, Norman, now perhaps for those who can't read French, perhaps you might translate - after all, you have nothing else to do this afternoon.

[Patf]

I think I get it? It reminds me of the part in Graham Robb's book the Discovery of France where he writes about the insularity of the small communes, market towns etc, in the days when there was no transport apart from horseback. Even language varied from place to place, so people didn't trust eachother unless they come from the same town. They intermarried within the commune. 

Is that part of it?

Mind, I'm the same about the people of my hometown in the UK - we have a special page just for us on various forums. Most of the people I grew up with married someone they went to school with.

[lindal1000]

There are certainly a lot of very similar looking people round here and most people seem to be related to some degree! Quite a few 'syndromes' as well. As one of my friends said.. 'thank goodness for immigrants, as the gene pool is looking pretty shallow'

[cajal]

Ou même de 'Montcuq'

Yikes Norman.......such language from you? Who would have believed it.

It's pronounced the same as 'mon cul'  and I suspect you will know what that means.

regards

cajal

[Gluestick]

The same in our small canton town, Lindal; as I'm sure Pierre would confirm.

So I am told and I believe it, before there were ubiquitous cars in the dark Winter evenings, the only err, entertainment for the peasant farmworkers was incest...

[Www]

And it shows with the typical results of mental illness, moon faces, very poor eyesight and all the normal manifestations of genetic impairment.

[NormanH]

The Brassens song I quoted above can be heard with subtitles ( rather badly translated)  here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJmN-Mg978&html5=1

porteurs de cocards implies 'flag-waving nationalists'..

"La

cocarde tricolore"