This is not over. We have to continue to fight. Not only against the far right but for the people, for social justice for everyone. I'm so proud of France today. I'm so relieved but this is not over, what's scares me now is that the country is deeply polarized. This was a wake up call for me. These last years of politics have made me apathetic. But what happened today gave me hope. I'm gonna do something, I don't known what yet but I will. I'll vote as I always did but I'll do more. I will fight.

Also, don’t get overly proud of this. The idiotic notion of “there are two extremes polarizing everyone,” where they put the left and the right on equal danger-footing, is all over this article. I mean, it’s a few quotes from a few people, but still. That kind of shit is poisonous. It not only likens what the left wants to what the fascists want, but it also shields the far right from the view that their opinions are as dangerous as they are. “We want everyone to be cared for and we think nationalism is wrong” is not the same as “nationalism.” Still a pretty scary article. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s great that the RN didn’t take the election, but they are still a huge portion of that govt. and that is very fuckin scary.

If these numbers hold, it will come down to Macron’s faction to decide who to align with. And counting on neoliberals in that scenario is…scary.

Hoping the same for the United States.

I know we're not on people's radar like the three you mentioned, but South Africa also had general elections this year.

The long reigning party lost their majority for the first time since 1994, so the coalition talks were a big deal for a few weeks.

Don't forget Mexico!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Sheinbaum

It's looking like both USA and Canada are gonna fuck it up, though.

My vote will be going to the lesser of the two evils but (a) between my state's Gerrymandering and the composition and voting habits of my district it won't matter and (b) until the US electoral system is meaningfully reformed (first-past-the-post, two-party system and how it affects voting in many states, Gerrymandering, lack of ranked choice, outright voter suppression, etc.), the US will continue to slide further right anyway

That might look like good news, but it's just delaying the problem. Far right has only gained votes for the last 20 years, and it's only through jolts like the first round of these elections that other candidates unify to not let them pass. Nothing is done to address the underlying problems that make people vote for these fuckers, so it's only a matter of time before they end up accessing power.

Yes they were, and both the NFP and the Macronists collaborated to drop their own candidates strategically to beat the NR. Had either one of them not done that, the NR would have won. Had both of them not done that the NR would have had a majority.

Crossing my fingers and will be contributing to this hat trick come November

Still, they are way too cocky all over the world. But great work, France. Thank you

The background trend, unfortunately, is of the far right slowly but surely gaining votes. We pushed them back to third place today, but they still almost doubled the number of representatives they'll be sending to parliament (from 89 to the projected ~130 for today's elections).

• In 2002, Jacques Chirac won against the far right with 82% (to the far right's 18%).
• In 2017, Macron won against the far right with 66% (to the far right's 34%).
• In 2022, Macron won against the far right with 58% (to the far right's 41%).

IMO it's largely a consequence of the center-left and center-right (Hollande, Macron) completely abandoning the working class, and demonizing the left whilst cozying up to the far-right (mostly Macron, though Hollande definitely slid right over his term).

Britain left of centre ? . . . these are blairites, "labour" in name only , they literally propped up the second homes buy to let market through the 2000s. and they'd gladly privatise every public service we have left if they can. I've already heard shit like "individualised healthcare" being mentioned in their "think tanks".

They're probably not worse than the tories, and they probably will fuck it up less, that's about all you can hope for them.

They aren't going to tackle anything fundamental like bank regulation, promoting domestic investment, industrial strategy or developing public services.

I hope France gets a lot better.

Yes, FPTP is a shit system, even with the multi round elections. If they had ranked choice / IRV it wouldn't have needed these games to work properly.