Villepin a cinder, Chirac toast? | 93 comments (93 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Le Pen (none / 0)

That is correct, but Le Pen's Front National is considered untouchable and would be shunned in the National Assembly (as it is in the European Parliament), and so has no power as kingmaker.

In the latest parliamentary elections, the FN got 11% of the vote, coming in third place. Can someone explain how it happened that the FN has no seats (according to wikipedia) even though much smaller parties did get seats?

In the 2004 European Parliament elections the FN got 9.8% of the vote and 7 seats.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 11th, 2006 at 09:06:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Le Pen (4.00 / 2)

THis is because the French system allots all seats by unitary circumscription (first past the post) rather than proportional representation. In 1986, Mitterand and the Fabius government introduced PR to offset expected losses, and it allowed the FN to gain seats in the Chambre; afterwards, the new RPR-led majority went back to unitary and its stayed that way ever since.

A second answer is the two-stage election; only candidates (within a circumscription) that win 10% in the first round advance to the second. As a result, FN candidates in the 2nd round are almost always in 3-way run offs; if it appears the FN candidate could win, "republican responsibility" often leads one of the two "major party" candidates to withdraw. However, these "triangulaires" are what made possible the 1997 Gauche plurielle victory; in 97 districts (IIRC) the left candidate won the 2nd round with less than 50% of the vote due to a "triangulaire."

by desmoulins (gsb6@lycos.com) on Thu May 11th, 2006 at 10:15:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Le Pen (none / 1)

So france introduced FPTP as a way to get rid of Le Pen... Is this also why the UMP has such a staggering majority in the Assembly?

IMHO, triangulating like that in order to shut the FN out of the parliament is counter-producing and only strengthens the FN as "anti-system" and "persecuted".

Better to let them have a small parliamentary group and make asses of themselves.

Single transferable vote would solve the problem without requiring that one of the "democratic" candidates withdraw. The mainstream left or right voters would vote for each other as second option and that would be that.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 11th, 2006 at 10:20:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Le Pen (4.00 / 2)

I think you misread desmoulins. FPTP was always the general rule. There was a PR experiment in the mid-'80s, but the "Gaullists" put the clock back at the first opportunity.

A reason small parties (the Greens for example) can get deputies is as a result of bargaining with a big party (PS for the Greens). The PS and the Greens are currently hashing this out for next year, and having a job agreeing on numbers. The agreement, of course, is of a coalition nature; the PS will give the Greens some safe seats in return for Green support elsewhere.

No party negotiates this kind of agreement with the FN.

It's a vexed question, whether it's better to collude to keep the FN out, or let them in. They have no respect for parliamentary government, and dynamite it on every possible occasion. And they are not asses. Had they maintained a regular parliamentary presence over the last twenty years, I fear they might be even bigger today than they are.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu May 11th, 2006 at 04:17:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Le Pen (none / 1)

You also have to collude to allow small "desirable " parties in. It generally increases the base corruption level of the political system.

If instead of actually fighting to get the protest voters back in the fold, the mainstream candidates can just collude, they get comfortable and the problems that the FN capitalizes on fester. Then if and when the Fn breaks through the enclosure, it does so catastrophically.

It is quite clear if you're going to have single-seat constituencies you should use single transferable vote.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 11th, 2006 at 04:43:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Villepin a cinder, Chirac toast? | 93 comments (93 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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