Meanwile, Macron chooses to ignore a left victory, then refuses to accept their prime minister and instead co-opts the election to instant the same center-right government that was broken up a few months prior. :+)
Now, to be fair that is partly the result of the left-wing coalition imploding (as usual… sigh) and being generally unwilling to compromise. It turns out that when you don’t have a majority, being the biggest party does not matter that much if you are unpleasant enough to make the other parties rally against you. Yes, I am bitter.
> 60 politicians of all colors stand for election in the 15 countries of the European Union: unimaginable benefits and positions of influence await their power brokers, for it is these Machiavellian lobbyists and self-appointed “leaders“ who hold the real power in the palms of their hands.
And from the rules:
> The player with the most total votes played in a given party is the party representative. If a player has two cards in the same party, their value is added. If two or more players have the same vote total in a party, the one with the highest single card is the party representative. Remember that a doubler card, if played, will always be considered the highest card. Also, note that it is possible for one player to control two parties.
> If Gaudino is played in a party in competition with another politician valued 7 in that party, he is considered to be the higher card.
> The green-leaf party is a special case. If two players tie for total value in green cards, it is possible that they will still tie for highest single card value. In that case, the two players are given thirty seconds to agree on who will be the green representative. If they do not agree in that time, each player with green cards may negotiate separately.
But.. they did not implode? They put forward a reasonable candidate that they all agreed on. Macron then refused that candidate and made clear he wouldn’t verify any PM that wasn’t center-right. He stole the election, plain and simple.
They did not “all agree on”. There was strong arming on one end because Méluche (and others, but he’s particularly hard to ignore and influential) cannot imagine compromising. Demanding submission was stupid because, again, having a couple of percents more than the others is not very useful if you don’t have a majority. And had they a majority, there would be nothing that Macron could do because they would just vote no confidence into any government coming before them. He is boisterous, vindictive, loud, and has been turning victories into defeats for more than a decade now. Macron is the opposite: not that showy, quieter, but ruthless and shrewd, and kept control despite setbacks. I don’t like neoliberals or conservatives (least of all that Barnier guy, I remember him from before he played as the EU’s saviour and he is not a nice person). But they were simply better at politics. They did not steal anything, they got a majority coalition, rickety as it is (and who knows how long it will last).
As long as we (and I mean the left side broadly) are talking about the government not being legitimate as we shoot ourselves in the foot, we won’t learn how to reverse this. Talking about stolen power is a weak argument when we’ve just been outmanoeuvred. And it makes us look like sulking children and in the end it just helps conservatives and fascists.
