I remember seeing a post here last year asking the same thing about the German election for chancellor. So, given that France is a close ally of ours, will you be paying attention? I personally am interested in who will win, but I won’t follow it closely.

38 comments

  2. I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t even know that there was an election going on in France. So I’m not concerned at all.

  4. Ehhh, there’s American elections this year I’m much more concerned about. So…I’m not at all concerned about French elections.

  6. I will be paying attention, but I don’t think it’ll be super high stakes. I think Macron should win pretty easily, especially since Putin made Melenchon, Le Pen, and Zemmour’s anti-NATO positions into political poison.

  8. I have little to no concern about the domestic politics of France.

    The world survived Donald Trump and it can certainly survive Marine Le Pen. Who seems unlikely to win, anyway.

  9. I’m invested to a degree. I think Le Pen would cause a lot of problems and there’s a lot to be gained by sticking with Macron, who is, to my knowledge, viewed somewhat positive internationally despite the problems domestically.

  11. Didn’t even know there was one. Honestly Germany is going to get more coverage out here due to the size of their economy and dominant role in the EU

  13. The honest god only thing I know in connection to French politics is that their president is married to his former teacher

  14. Genuinely don’t care France is becoming significantly less and less important than Germany since German reunification. Also, France’s lack of economic power relative to Germany and amount of debt has made this more evident as of recent.

  15. i might observe the election as it plays out. hoping that Macron is re-elected, i think Le Pen would cause some disturbance in NATO, which we really don’t need right now

  17. I’m not concerned with it, but I will say that their current president Macron seems to be the main voice for a EU military which I think is a good idea (on paper any way.)

    Last I saw he was up a fair amount in their polling.

  20. Not much concern before, even less now. Macron looks likely to cruise to re-election.

    The French far-Right candidates were pretty unlikely to win to begin with, and are now getting their poll numbers (rightfully) hammered for their past praise/closeness with Putin and idiotic statements on Ukraine.

    Given that the elections are barely over a month from now, I don’t see it at likely that they’re going to recover or that this crisis is going to fade from being a major factor in the election.

  21. I hope the French people vote for whoever they think is right for the job, and I hope the people who don’t vote but could have don’t whine and complain about the outcome. That is all, much love from 🇺🇸.

  22. Foreign elections are very rarely talked about in the US unless there is a lot of controversy around it.

  23. French elections sometimes make the average American election look calm. Macron hasn’t always been the most popular but he’s riding a high right now so his chances are good. Marine will of course show up in some fashion.

    German elections are boring by comparison, especially since it’s been Merkel’s rubber stamp in the past. French elections are also on a more fixed schedule (by law if not recent practice in DE) so it’s easier to care about them than Germany.

  24. Macro is and was always going to win. He’s a moderate right wing candidate, while the left can’t get behind each other and just back him to prevent LePenne. LePenne is weakened even further by the war in Ukraine, being cut from the same cloth (even if just relatively) as Putin. Not particularly concerning

  25. No, not really. It’ll be interesting to see who they choose, but it’s not going to affect my life in a major way.

  26. I’ve only looked into a few candidates due to some comments I’ve seen online. Le Pen’s an idiot, Macron has a history of blaming the US for purely French problems over his presidency, and Zemmour believes that France is losing its national identity to immigration. That’s about all I know about the elections this year. It’s just not something that affects me, so I don’t keep up with it.

    That said, Macron is probably the best choice from an international perspective. The last thing we need at the moment is a far-right whackjob trying to isolate France from NATO and the European sphere. I’m also fully aware I’m not educated on this and that my understanding of the whole election might be horribly wrong.

  28. A little bit concerned, some of their major candidates have very extreme beliefs, including promising to leave NATO, which would obviously be a terrible move both for them and the US. With there now being a war in Europe though, I’m more confident that the people of France will make the best choice and not elect one of those more extreme candidates. It seems like Macron is not very popular, but he may be the best option compared to the closest competition, though I’m not informed enough to make any kind of detailed analysis.

  29. I know there is an election, but have no feelings on it whatsoever. I know I should care because France is sort of an ally.

  30. I’ve been following it semi closely and am interested but I’m not super concerned

  31. I’m always concerned about European elections, and as a US-based French translator, France’s policies and leaders in particular matter to me.

    They have two nationalist hard-right candidates this go-round (usually it’s only one). Really hoping neither wins.

  32. I’d doubt many americans would know about them.

    To me it seems like it will be fine. Macron vs Le Pen, Macron likely wins easily. Macron vs Pecresse, well it wouldn’t mean much us here if she wins. Personally I like how committed Macron has been to the European project, but I dont know much more about his domestic policy.

  33. I will be, but only because I lived in France and hopefully still would be if it weren’t for the pandemic

  34. American here. I am very concerned. The outcome of this election can put NATO and the EU on the path to collapse. Most Americans do not understand this.

  36. I haven’t heard of any elections since Joe bodens election and tbh im more worried about fuckmir putin committing war crimes on ukrain

  37. In light of recent events and how dramatically Western European attitudes have changed towards national defense, I will be generally paying attention on a general level.

    I paid attention to the last French election on a general level because the Macron vs. Le Pen race tracked closely to some of the culture war issues facing other Western countries. Macron essentially represented “the Establishment” with all the grievances that both the left and the right have against the center, but at the end of the day fits safely within the bounds of post-Cold War liberalism. Le Pen represented a different vision based on French ethnonationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Macron ultimately won a very comfortable victory in the second round of voting, as I recall.

    Now, I suspect that Macron will be able to capitalize on Le Pen’s and her follow traveler Eric Zemour’s (spelling?) previous praise of Vladimir Putin. I haven’t been paying attention to polling, but any association with Putin is a toxic brand right now. Macron can get away with having done photo ops with Putin previously because he did it when he was France’s head of state. But Le Pen and Zemour solicited Putin’s support and sang his praises as an ideological matter over the past several years. I suspect that this will make them politically toxic, and they are now associated with the man who brought war back to the European continent.

    My bet is that Macron will win a comfortable victory.

  38. I know a lot of Europeans are apparently obsessed with our politics, but honestly I don’t know why I would even remotely be expected to care about what happens in France.

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