Hundreds of Thousands Across France Tell Hollande: "Return to the Left"

[marmar]

Published on Sunday, May 5, 2013 by Common Dreams

Hundreds of Thousands Across France Tell Hollande: "Return to the Left"
Thousands march across France to protest "wrong direction" of Socialist leader

- Jon Queally, staff writer


[font size="1"]Demonstrators numbering in the many tens of thousands call for an "insurgency" to "put an end to the policies of austerity." (Photo: AFP)[/font]


Though always estimated by true progressives in France as more of a centrist, the presidential victory of Francois Hollande one year ago was largely celebrated as victory for the nation's Left movement.

Hollande's defeat of Nicholas Sarkozy was seen as a hopeful sign in the fight against rightwing policies, the dominance of austerity and the nation's economic elite.

But one year later, nearly 200,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to berate Hollande for his betrayal of the people.

The Associated Press reports:

Tens of thousands of supporters of leftist parties are marching through central Paris to express disappointment with President Francois Hollande's first year in power, criticizing the leader for reneging on his promises to rein in the world of finance and enact economic stimulus.

Hollande, a Socialist, won the presidency last May, promising to spare France the austerity measures enacted elsewhere in Europe. He has raised taxes, especially on the rich, and made limited cuts to spending.

France's economy has continued to deteriorate, with growth stagnating and unemployment rising well above 10 percent. Hollande now has the lowest popularity rating of any post-war president.

Supporters of French leftist parties, which together call themselves the Left Front, marched through Paris on Sunday to call on Hollande to change his policies.

.......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/05-1

[Skittles]

1. that's an idea we could use

[LeftInTX]

2. We need the hundreds of thousands - or -

since we have a population of 300 million, we may need millions

[cui bono]

3. And social media to let anyone know that it happened

since corporate media won't cover it.

[LeftInTX]

4. Yes!!!!!!!!!!

Good thinking

[Laelth]

5. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Recursion]

6. Nothing realistic is ever good enough. Ever.

This is why the left keeps failing. Jesus, people. The right has the sense to take what it can get and move forward. I'm so sick of this nonsense.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. No the right takes what they can get and then PUSHES for more......

Which is exactly what the ACTUAL left in France is doing. And why is it "realistic" not to even TRY to push for your agenda, ESPECIALLY when your agenda pushes for policies that benefit PEOPLE over profits? More power to the Left Bloc in France!

[byeya]

9. I'm sure many of the remember the French Communist party under Georges Marchais reluctantly

joining the Socialists of Mitterrand as junior partner and getting royally shafted. I am glad to see the pressure being applied to the Socialists because that party has a history of talk over action.

[laundry_queen]

10. No, the reason the left keeps failing

is the right keeps on pushing for what they want, and the left becomes 'realistic' and compromises. In countries where the left pushes back hard, the left wins. You need to get out of the US more.

[Puzzledtraveller]

11. I agree Recursion

[xchrom]

8. du rec. nt

[ProSense]

12. Fascinating. From the OP:

Though always estimated by true progressives in France as more of a centrist, the presidential victory of Francois Hollande one year ago was largely celebrated as victory for the nation's Left movement.

It was also hailed a victory for the left here. Still, the dynamics are interesting.

Robert Kuttner

A Tale of Two Elections

<...>

The comparison with Obama is all too instructive. Like Obama, Hollande inherits an economic crisis not of his own making, but one that will soon be his. Like Obama, he faces both an oligarchy of bankers and a fierce set of political opponents determined to block his program. In Obama's case, the obstructionists have been the Republicans in Congress; in Hollande's, they are the conservative leaders of other European Union nations. Like Obama, he will have great difficulty producing change at a grand enough scale. And absent something close to a miracle, disillusion will soon follow.

The slightly hopeful news is that several other leaders will welcome a counterpoint to Merkel. Recessions, after all, destroy conservative incumbents as well as progressive ones. At the EU level, a senior commissioner, Olli Rehn, is already talking of loosening the fiscal screws.

In the headline to this post, I was thinking of two elections -- 2008 in America and 2012 in France -- but actually there are three more worth noting.

In France, parliamentary elections come later, in mid-June. Hollande has to win a working majority in the Chamber of Deputies in order to appoint a Socialist prime minister and effectively govern. If conservatives win the parliamentary elections, or if the far right and far left make major gains so that Hollande ends up governing in coalition with Sarkozy's UMP party, he is stymied before he starts.

- more -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/a-tale-of-two-elections_b_1495256.html

Socialist won the parliamentary elections so it's interesting that Hollande is facing backlash for his policies.

French Socialists win absolute parliament majority

By Catherine Bremer and Brian Love

(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande's Socialists won a resounding parliamentary majority on Sunday, strengthening his hand as he presses euro zone paymaster Germany to support debt-laden states weighed down by austerity cuts and ailing banks.

The Socialist Party and its affiliates secured 307 seats in the parliamentary election runoff, according to the final count for mainland France, comfortably more than the 289 needed for a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.

The left-wing triumph means Hollande, elected in May, won't need to rely on the environmentalist Greens, who won 16 seats, or the Communist-dominated Left Front, with 10 deputies, to pass laws. The centre-left already controls the upper house of parliament, the Senate.

"This gives power and a backbone to the government," said Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, calling the result a vote of confidence in Hollande's government that would enable it to forge ahead with its economic and euro zone policies.

- more -

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/17/us-france-election-idUSBRE85G03F20120617

From the OP link:

The demonstrations come with polls showing Hollande as the most unpopular president in modern French history. Many voters are angered by an economy on the edge of recession and unemployment hitting a 16-year high.

<...>

He accused Hollande of contributing to Europe's economic crisis by focusing on "the interests of shareholders, of big business and of European austerity policies, to the detriment of the workers."

[Blue_Tires]

13. kick