French wingnuts claim significant victory.

[pscot]

France's far-right Front National (FN) on Sunday won a bellwether by-election, cementing the party's status as a political force to be reckoned with by capitalising on economic gloom and fears of rising crime.

The eurosceptic and anti-immigration party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen has for years been largely regarded as a pariah in French politics but it has gained significantly in strength and popularity in recent months.

The party's candidate Laurent Lopez garnered 53.9 percent of the vote in the second round of the by-election in the southeastern town of Brignoles, officials in the Var department said.

"I am very happy, it is an unambiguous score," said Lopez of his victory.

http://www.french-news-online.com/wordpress/?p=30957

Not entirely unambiguous. The Left didn't field a candidate in Brignoles.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's worrying that the FN won against a centre-right candidate in the run-off

That may indicate that what voters there were on the left thought "there's no difference - I don't care what my party says about voting for the moderate UMP, I won't vote at all", but even if that is the main cause of this, such apathy concerns me.

There was a left wing candidate in the 1st round - they only got 15%:

The far-right achieved a massive 49.5 percent landslide in the first round of a by-election Sunday in the Brignoles constituency of the Var region of southern France.

National Front (FN) candidate Laurent Lopez took 40.4 percent of the vote, with another far-right party, the “Parti de France”, taking 9.1 percent. The centre-right UMP, France’s main opposition parliamentary party, came second with 20.8 percent.
...
The ruling Socialist Party (PS) was not represented in the by-election, lending its support instead to the Communist candidate Laurent Carratala (14.6 percent).

The PS called for “an assault on the FN” in the second round in favour of the UMP candidate on October 13.

http://www.france24.com/en/20131007-national-front-brignoles-by-election-france-socialist-party-ump

[pscot]

2. Given the financial crisis,

dissatisfaction with Brussels and immigration pressures it's hard to see the French mood improving any time soon.

[JDPriestly]

3. Yes. Immigration is welcome when jobs are plentiful but controversial and

understandably so when jobs are scarce. It's about jobs in France as it is in the US.

[pscot]

4. There are convincing arguments

suggesting that "growth" is no longer possible. If that proves to be true, all the developed nations are in for a very rough ride. And the situation in the developing countries could become truly desperate, which would swell the waves of immigrants.

[JDPriestly]

5. Yes. We are looking toward some really big changes in our economy, quite possibly fundamental

changes in the way we organize our economies.

We moved to "free" international trade far too fast. Combined with automation, we have a huge jobs deficit. And that leads to other deficits.

The Republicans seem to want to ignore the fact that our budget deficit is the result of our low-wage, high-unemployment, cheap-imports and low-wage-outsourced economy. Our deficit is a result, not a cause of economic problems.

We need to attack the causes of our problems or at least talk about them. Pointing fingers at the results without discussing the causes is pointless. It will not solve the real problem.

[pscot]

6. The End of Growth argument goes deeper

It maintains that the causes of our difficulties lie in resource depletion, environmental degradation and over population. The last one in particular cannot be discussed without provoking a chorus of outrage and denial. We're making essentially zero effort to address environmental damage and climate change. I have yet to hear an American politician make a serious attempt to come to grips with any of these issues. Bill Clinton was fond of quoting Proverb 29:18, Where there is no vision, the people perish. We seem to be groping around in the dark with no very clear idea of what comes next or what to do about it.

[JDPriestly]

7. Agreed.

[marble falls]

9. Great???