Democracy at its very best - or not.

[Workingman]

In France the Socialists and Republicans got together and dropped their candidates in places where FN looked like winning in order to split the vote. It worked. FN eventually came third. The Socialists effectively let the soft right, the Republicans, win.

France has a rather unique system of an initial vote, followed by a run-off. FN won six areas in the initial election, but the tactics of the others in dropping their candidates lost FN any chance of power.

That is not democracy. If a party gets into the run-off it should be legally obliged to put up its candidate, or it should not have stood in the first place. Had France got FPTP then FN would be in control of large tracts of the country tomorrow.

I get the impression that the French people are moving to the right but are being prevented from being represented by the current political elite.

[Suff]

The French love their elections. Or they used to. They say it allows them to vote first with their heart and then with their head.

However it has only happened once before that a party dropped their candidate to keep FN out. That was back in 2000 and Chirac got in.

This time I think they have really annoyed the voters. This was not so much a heart thing as a really serious look at how the government is dealing with core issues they are having right now.

Carrying out this kind of trick may work once or twice but it won't work forever. I'll be deeply interested in the Swedish 2018 election and see how their "power sharing" trick goes. If Sweden Democrats become the second largest party it's going to be harder and harder for them to make that pact stick. I could see it when SD was third but I could just see the ructions of handing over the government to a party who came third in the polls... Not just from the people too.

Politics is not coping with the challenges of the 21st century and they are using 20th century moves to try and control it. That worked well in the pre social media age where information control was possible. It's not going to work quite so well in the FB and Twitter world...

[Workingman]

The press is having a field day with headlines screaming FN "thrashed", "routed", "blown away", then we get the numbers: FN 27.36%. Republicans 40.63%, Socialists 29.14%. "Blown away", I think not.

Had the Republicans and Socialists not gerrymandered the vote they would be neck and neck in the mid-thirties percent with FN nudging them close. Almost 70% of French voters voted for right wing parties, and three out of every seven voted for the far right.

The media's constant attempts to trash emerging right wing parties has failed miserably, noticeably in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands, so now it is making out that the ordinary voters have turned their backs. The numbers tell another tale.

[cromwell]

The French system seems to be designed to preserve the status quo, to preserve the main two parties (a bit like ours, really). The have twice combined to keep the FN away from power.

[Workingman]

Imagine the uproar if the parties in some right wing republic did the same to keep socialists out.

Meetings in the UN. Marches and protests around the world. Sanctions threatened.....

[medsec222]

They are the same here with UKIP. Instead of answering legitimate concerns, they prefer to trash Nigel Farage and denigrate his success.

[Suff]

The French system seems to be designed to preserve the status quo, to preserve the main two parties (a bit like ours, really). The have twice combined to keep the FN away from power.

The 4th republic died in a morass of different parties who could not agree and simply sat around arguing whilst the country went to rack and ruin. After the riots and the collapse of the republic, being handed back over to De Gaulle, the current system was created. They don't want weak government, they know all about that and the French psyche.

What they want is strong, decisive, government the people have voted for. Sadly they never envisioned this situation. At the time of the birth of the 5th republic, nobody in France could have got more than a handful of votes on a "claimed" Neo Nazi ticket.

The world she is a changing. Again. Those who try and drag it down into the morass will find they are the victims. All over again. When are they ever going to learn????