~ À la Mode ~

In order to provide you a better understanding of the politic in France, here a little summary of the main political parties in France:

Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party). We start with the far left-wing parties in red (the colors are the opposite of the USA parties), the French Communist Party obtained 1.93% on the first round of the 2007 French Presidential, so it’s not a big party but it’s important to know it. Its leader is Marie-George Buffet.

Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle). Another far left-wing party, this is the party of Arlette Laguiller who is knows for begin all her speeches saying “Travailleurs, travailleuses !” (Male workers, female workers!). It’s a communist party which obtained 1.33% on the last French Presidential.

Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) (New Anticapitalist Party). It’s the most important far left-wing party. It was found in 2009 by Olivier Besancenot, who was the leader of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR) (Revolutionary Communist League) which obtained 4.08% in the 2007 elections. Olivier Besancenot is an important opposition leader in France. Apart from his political life, he’s also a postman, he serve the Neuilly-sur-Seine area, one of the richest commune of Paris.

Parti Socialiste (PS) (Socialist Party). The main left-wing party in France. Its leader was Ségolène Royal for the 2007 Presidential Election. On the first round it obtained 25.87% of the votes and 46.94% on the 2nd round (~17 million of votes). Today it’s a hard time for this party, as the right-wing won the election in 2007, it should be the main opposition party, but a lot of French peoples claim that the PS is inactive.

Les Verts (The Greens) A centre-left Green political party. They obtained 1.57% in 2007.

Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem) (Democratic Movement). Founded after the Presidential Election by François Bayrou, who obtained 18.57% in 2007 with the Union pour la Démocratie Française (Union for French Democracy). It’s a centrist party, maybe the French party which looks like the most to the Democratic Party of USA.

Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) (Union for a Popular Movement) the main right-wing party. It obtained 31.18% of the votes on the first round of the presidential in 2007, and 53.06% on the 2nd round (~19 million of votes), with its candidate Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mouvement pour la France (Movement for France). A far right-wing party which obtained 2.23% in 2007.

Front National (FN) (National Front). The main far-right party in France. His leader was Jean-Marie Le Pen. He’s know to have been convicted of racism, inciting racial hatred, and for minimizing the Holocaust. He also admitted on the French television that he practiced torture during the Algerian War. The nationalist party obtained 10.44% in 2007. But in 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes beyond the Socialist Party (16.18%). The presence of the FN in the 2nd round of the presidential election give rise to street rallies and Jacque Chirac won the election with 82.21% of the votes. Today the spokeswoman of the FN is the Jean-Marie Le Pen daughter’s: Marine Le Pen.