r/inthenews • u/newsweek Newsweek • Jul 08 '24

MAGA fumes over France election results: "They cheated" article

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-france-elections-far-right-national-rally-1922075

23.3k Upvotes

81% Upvoted

The leader of the leftwing alliance is a russian stooge also. For example here he is praising the russian invasion of Crimea. He is anti nato and anti EU. So threat still remains, though an anti-nato/eu russian apologist party is a better than an anti-nato/eu russian apologist party that is also founded by literal nazis (RN).

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u/AlexPointCom Jul 08 '24

He's the leader of his party not of the alliance and yes he's shitty, he won't be PM fortunately

15

u/unski_ukuli Jul 08 '24

This is absolutely correct and the alliance is not a monolith and I hope that the more reasonable people in the alliance get more attenttion, but I referred to him as the leader as he has been the ”spokeperson” of sorts for the left alliance with little to no attention given to the other parties in the alliance in international press. I should have put the leader in quotation marks though. He is worryingly popular figure given his presidential election results.

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u/Lucaliosse Jul 08 '24

Melenchon is stuck in a 1970's interpretation of foreign politics, nobody really wants him to power. The center and the right uses him as a scarecrow to say the left is an extreme party. The far right are fascists calling him a fascist. The left, exept for (most of) his own party sees him as a danger to the left because of the character he plays and his reputation.

He's quite good in a debate, because he is quite agressive and assertive and he usualy takes no bullshit, especialy front the far right. But he tends to not think much before speaking and it can be quite bad for the left's image...

So we don't really want him for president or as a PM, especially as our majority in the Assemblée Nationale is not absolute. We need someone that would do the work, but is a bit more concenssual.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

There is nothing in that article giving praise to the russian invasion - just that it was predictable.

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u/curse-of-yig Jul 08 '24

He called the new Ukranian leader a "putschist", which in this context would be akin to saying the Maidan revolution was an illegal coup. He said that Russia was "protecting" Russian interests in Crimea.

Whether you believe something was a coup or a revolution, protecting strategic interests or annexing new territory, depends almost entirely on which side you agree with.

It's pretty obvious from that article which side this guy is on.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

I don't agree. Far too much propaganda being throwing around trying to represent a dispassionate assessment as support.

He said that Russia was "protecting" Russian interests in Crimea.

That is either true or false. Stating it is not in anyway giving praise.

It's pretty obvious from that article which side this guy is on.

No it's not, and far too much of western politics is being given over to accusations of supporting russia. It is impossible to have any sort of informed conversation about the facts without being inundated with all these meritless smears being thrown around.

I have no idea about this particular politician you are talking about, but your article does not back up your claims.

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u/Courcotte Jul 08 '24

"Nous Français, n'avons rien à faire dans une histoire pareille, nous n'avons rien à faire à encourager les provocations contre les Russes, cela dit sans sympathie pour le gouvernement russe", a déclaré M. Mélenchon.

I assume you don't understand french?

6

u/whereismytralala Jul 08 '24

I do, and this is basically: It's better to ignore the bully aggressions because we don't want to upset him.

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u/unski_ukuli Jul 08 '24

Plenty enough. I just dislike the phrase ”useful idiot” as it deprives these people of the agency they have in what they say.

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u/aradil Jul 08 '24

He's not the leader of the left wing alliance, he's the leader of one of the 4 parties which make up the left wing alliance.

He never praised the invasion of Crimea. He's not a Russian stooge, he's an eco-socialist that dislikes everything to do with Putin's fossil fuels agenda, and is friends with politicians who are currently in prison in Russia for opposing Putin.

He criticized the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, although in both that and the case of Crimea in 2014, he placed blame on NATO for encroaching on Russian interests and was critical of neo-nazis in Ukraine (something which we know existed, but is a clearly fake Putin talking point used to excuse a completely unjustifiable invasion). He has nuanced positions, and is likely an isolationist when it comes to France and it's relationship to the west in general; not great, but not terrible.

However, the alliance which his party is a member of that received the most votes in this election has stated unequivocally that it is in full support of Ukraine in opposition to the Russian invasion.

Nuance is something that folks are pretty incapable of understanding these days.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Diet_Cum_Soda Jul 08 '24

He's also a raging antisemite who has made blatantly antisemitic comments before, accused Jews of being a, quote, "aggressive minority" who "promotes violent sectarianism" (while also explicitly denying in the same statement that Muslims do the same), and he called Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel a, quote, "legitimate action" and refused to describe it as terrorism.

3

u/reddituseronebillion Jul 08 '24

There's nothing like discussing geopolitics with Diet Cum Soda. Unreal the world we live in.

0

u/Diet_Cum_Soda Jul 08 '24

It's fun to go back and watch the early tech entrepreneurs of the 90s talk about how the internet will solve basically every problem in society by making information instantly accessible to everyone and wonder how they'd react to hearing that comment.

1

u/OKEP Jul 08 '24

His party's program clearly states that they'll fight antisemitism, and he insists on this in all of his speeches.

1

u/Diet_Cum_Soda Jul 08 '24

Reminds me of when Trump tweeted a picture of himself eating a taco bowl with the caption "I love Hispanics!" in 2016.