Macron V Le Pen

I think it hinges on whether the Les Républicains put up a credible candidate who sits between the socialists…a spent forces (for this election) and RN around who the center and center right can coalesce as an alternative to Macron.
The bottom line is that it will remain foggy until the autumn when all the candidates are known. It sure is going to be interesting, even if a white knuckle ride for Brits in France in case a M le P victory likely.

Why John ?

No one will be kicked out., life will go on .

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She has said that it will not affect those already living here, but the attitude to others coming along will definitely change.

I know this is very cynical and not terribly nice but even if she did start deporting people, Brits would not be the first in the firing line…

No, but it is her attitude.
I think I would put Chechens at the top of my list.

Quite agree Angela. It’s like the silly suggestions made before Brexit when expats would be marched out of the country and sent packing. Why would any country want to expel the people who are contributing incredibly large sums of money to the economy ?
Granted entry rules may be tougher due to Brexit and maybe MlP may modify the system of entry to France but no one will be kicked out.
Let’s put it into perspective.

Are Chechens bad people then ?

The ones that go out on the street to demonstrate are.
They have a network that lets them turn up to support each other.
They love a fight.

Largely Muslim - she is well known for her attitude towards all Muslims…

Ah.

Over the decades in France i’ve had the misfortune to have witnessed many instances of criminal involvement and anti- social béhaviour from people with English accents.
Come to think of it, people with Dutch and French accents too…

When we first started coming over here to the house nearly 30 years ago, the first people we got to know were an English couple and they became friends although we have drifted apart over the years. We were introduced to quite a number of of their (exclusively Brit) circle and a high proportion of them were crooks of one sort or another. As someone said at the time - people living abroad always have a reason for so doing and it isn’t always that savoury :smiley:

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Yes, that’s very true Angela.
I really could write a book about some of the GB scumbags ( and Dutch and other nationalities) who I’ve come into contact with since the 80s. Everything to an escaped murderer on the run to an arsehole who used to go out at midnight and steal his neighbours logs.
Fortunately that is in complete contrast to the hundreds of lovely people I’ve had the privilege to have met.

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Of course they won’t kick people out, I didn’t infer that.
But it will create social unease within France which might not be pleasant…and she is playing the Trump rhetoric of France for the French but that doesn’t mean wholesale repatriation ! Just don’t be naughty!

With respect John, there’s always been ‘social unease’ in France, that’s how it is.

Well it’s a good job that we didn’t buy our house until 2005 or we might have been tarred with the same brush.

deutschland.de - Your link to Germany this would be a good start to get more info on Germany.

Have not lived at ‘home’ for well over 30 years. Political landscape changes only very slowly. Established parties SPD, CDU/CSU and FDP still run most Laender/City parliaments in coalition with each other or a ‘protest party’ as a coalition partner.
Green party was the original protest party - Germans do protest by electing a minority party to stick it to the establishment. The Greens were the original protest party, mainly chosen by the ‘radical youth vote’ and sandal wearing environmentalist. Now very well established and a reliable government party in various Laender and City parliaments.
Recent new protest parties were the ‘Pirateparty’ - well to the left and over the last 5 years the ‘Alternative fuer Deutschland’ - well to the right. Federal Parliament, where AfD is present with 88 members, successfully blocks most of their attempts to introduce laws… and (as far as I know) it is not in coalition with any of the established parties.
Germans are as a whole quite law abiding - but also like to make the life of established parties difficult by electing a contrarian coalition partner. When the PR system was installed in Germany after the war it was thought that not one party should ever have enough power to rule on its own (see NAZI party history).

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Thanks Bettina, interesting. Do you know why it took so long for Germany, or some Lander in Germany at any rate, to vote on a minimum wage? Wasn’t Merkel in favour of it?

Not sure, but unions in Germany are still quite strong and usually have a representation in management - most times that results in fairer wages.
Mrs. Merkel probably didn’t see the need.
Big strikes happen when Unionized labour is ignored. But they are getting rare.

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German company law is fundamentally based on the ‘mitbestimmung’ system (worker participation in management). Large German companies generally have a dual board structure: a company board similar to UK boards of directors, responsible for the usual areas of management, and a ‘supervisory board’ made up of equal numbers of worker and shareholder representatives, though the latter have a casting vote - it’s still capitalism but more than halfway to the variety of communism in the old Yugoslavia (usually called ‘self-management’, as opposed to state-run communism).

Many believe the mitbestimmung system was the main reason for the German economic miracle after the war (it was actually imposed by the allies precisely to defuse the social divisions that had given rise to fascism), and elements of it - such as works councils with formal roles in management - actually exist in most Continental corporate governance - including France. But interestingly, it is probably most developed in Germany and Sweden - also probably the most successful ‘capitalist’ economies; and the ‘industrial democracy’ based Yugoslav system was probably the most successful of the old eastern Europe communist models!

If you talk to people in most of these former communist countries now, they have far more complex views of the pros and cons of the old regimes than westerners would believe, though on balance most are glad they ended - but in the former Yugoslav countries most people think communism was better.