Written by Michael Thervil
Photo by Nathan Laine/Bloomberg
The French are known for many things; some of those things are French cuisine, fashion, and apparently violence and civil disobedience. Known for the French Revolution, the French government is dealing with not only political extremism on both sides of the aisle, but the French government is also dealing with an enraged public that is extremely upset over the current climate of French politics. The average citizen on the streets of France is upset, the farmers are upset and like most nations’ inflation is through the roof and let not forget the migrant crisis the citizens of France are facing.
Now, adding insult to injury, the French are dealing with political violence and the associated unrest. The French political system is a complex one which consists of the National Rally and Reconquest Party leading in the polls at 34.6%, followed by the New Popular Front (28.1%). The Current French President Emmanuel Macron’s party called “The Ensemble” comes in at 20.3%, followed by the Republicans at 10.2%. All other parties consist of just 6.4% of voters.
Again, the French political system is a complex a one. But complex or not, many French citizens are unable to exercise their right to vote for their political candidate of choice in peace. Due to the intense political atmosphere in France, it was reported that over fifty French political candidates and activist have become victims to violent physical attacks that have seemed to come out of nowhere and that were unprovoked. On top of that, in a desperate measure to keep peace and to curb the political violence that’s running rampant throughout France, the French government has deployed over 30,000 police officers in the streets.
It appears that the majority of French citizens do not want to see the far-right win this year’s election. The reason for this is because of the far-right’s reputation of having a very strong anti-immigration policy. The current president of France, Emmanuel Macron is not well liked by many French citizens; and the reason for that is because he has raised taxes on not only the average citizens in France, but he has raised the taxes on his citizens social security benefits at a time when inflation is out of control. He has also been accused of wreaking the agriculture base of France.
Even more than that, President Emmanuel Macron is perceived not as a president of the people that elected him, but as a president of the richest people in France. Another thing that infuriated the French citizens is the way President Emmanuel Macron has handled the railway system. Instead of keeping the railway for the benefit of French citizens, he was seeking to privatize it and allow competition to cut in thus reducing the pay of the average rail worker.
With all that going on in France, the commoners of France are seeking to do all they can to stop not only President Emmanuel Macron from being elected to another term, but they are in a sense doing all they can to secure the candidate that they feel is going to cater to their interest. France has a two round political election system in which the first round nearly came to a stalemate between the four leading political parties out of the five groups in France.
Summing up the political upheaveal In France; it seems that all political parties want to win, and no political party wants to lose, but with all political parties trying to win, ultimately all political parties lose.
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