The Bishop
Labour
Down With Factionalism!
Posts: 36,474
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Post by The Bishop on May 31, 2021 10:28:17 GMT
I'm finding this very undemocratic that political leaders and media do not talk at all about these elections and do not participate in any way to the campaign. They really are not serving democracy in France by ignoring the dozen of by-elections to the parliament during any one term.
Something pretty unimaginable over here. |
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Post by relique on May 31, 2021 10:47:08 GMT
I'm finding this very undemocratic that political leaders and media do not talk at all about these elections and do not participate in any way to the campaign. They really are not serving democracy in France by ignoring the dozen of by-elections to the parliament during any one term.
Something pretty unimaginable over here. What is incredible is that even though by-elections were less common (the rules were more lenient for elected officials occupying multiple political functions, and the replacement was more oftent called for), the by-elections used to be more politically motivated.
One by-election which is fresh in the mind of many activists I know is in 1996, one year after the election of Chirac (and one year before he dissolve the national assembly, triggering a win for Jospin and the left), when Bernard Tapie, former center-left politician (from parti radical de gauche), minister for Mitterand, is stripped from his mandate by the courts after yet another financial court case. The socialists send ("parachute" as we say) former minister Bernard Kouchner, an atlantist pro-US pro-EU pro-war while the left that campaigned against the Maastricht treaty all support the communist Roger Méï (the Greens, the Mouvement des Citoyens and the radical left).
The participation is 41%, the communist gets 38% of the votes (+19 from 1993), ahead of FN at 27% (+8), a MPF candidate supported by RPR at 16% (-8 from his own score as RPR) and Kouchner at 13% (-13), the only candidate supporting the Maastricht treaty. On the second round, the communist won 60/40 (with 50% participation). He was reelected in 1997 for a full-term, but lost to the right in 2002.
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