It's always difficult to compare US politics to France. However, there must be some Democrats reading the news reports coming from France. By any account, the left lost big:
"The Socialist losses were devastating.Bad day to be a socialist!
Although, as expected, the party hung on to Paris, where Anne Hidalgo becomes the capital’s first female mayor, the rest of the country snubbed the ruling party.
Among the more dramatic losses were Toulouse, a city in the south-west that it had thought was safe, Roubaix and Tourcoing, two industrial cities in the north with a deep left-wing heritage, and a string of other cities, including Amiens, Caen, Tours, Reims and Limoges, held by the left since 1912.
Even some towns in the Paris region, which had been governed by Communist Party since the second world war, such as Villejuif, swung to the right.
The centre-right UMP was the primary beneficiary of this disillusion, and of a high abstention rate.
Overall, the second-round result gave the combined mainstream right 46% of the vote, compared with 40% for the Socialists, Greens and other left-wing parties. This translates into 572 mayors for the right in towns of a population over 10,000, to 349 for the left, reversing the outcome in 2008. Jean-François Copé, the delighted head of the centre-right UMP party, called the result a “blue wave”.
The other second-round victor was Marine Le Pen’s populist National Front. To add to Hénin-Beaumont, a town that her party already won outright in a first-round vote on March 24rd, she picked up ten others. They include Fréjus and Béziers in the south, a string of smaller towns, and an arrondissement of Marseilles that represents fully 150,000 people. The only town that had looked winnable but which the National Front failed to grab in the end was Forbach, where her party’s number two, Florian Philippot, was standing."
France is an economic mess, as reported by The New York Times. Unemployment is 11% or just below the European average of 12%.
The BBC is more specific:
"The number of job seekers without any work rose by 31,500 last month, one of the biggest monthly increases of the past year. The overall number - including those working part-time - is almost five million.The problem with French socialism is the same with any other type of socialism. It does not work for those paying taxes and supporting an ever growing number of people getting a check from the state.
Today it was announced Mr Hollande's government missed the deficit target of 4.1% it had promised EU partners it would meet.
It must cut deeper.
Higher taxes (which some on the left have labelled "punishment" of the rich) seem to be scaring employers away.
According to the UN, foreign direct investment in France fell by a staggering 77% last year."
It drives away investors, as we've seen in France.
It does not create prosperity, unless you have a government job or run a company supported by "crony capitalism".
Even the French are tired of socialism! I feel good about the future writing that!
P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr. This is our "France" show from last Friday:
Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio
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