Continuing the international politics theme from last week, this Sunday is the first phase of the French presidential election.  It’s only the first phase for two reasons.  First, France uses a runoff system (the runoff will be in two weeks).  Second, France has so many political parties that there is no chance of anybody getting a majority in the first round.  For the presidential election, there will be twelve candidates on the ballots.

Unlike in Australia, where the competition is mainly between a center-left party and a center-right party with minimal differences on international issues, there is a wide range of views of the role of France in international politics and Vlad the Destroyer’s minions have certainly been trying to influence the chances of the candidates with disinformation campaigns.

While he is not certain to win the run-off in two weeks, most observers expect the incumbent President, Emmanuel Macron, to make the run-off.    He has led every poll with about 25-30% support.  In terms of international issues, Macron sits firmly in the camp that has dominated France for the past fifty years — for lack of a better name, strong France internationalism.  The basic gist of French foreign policy is that France is an active participant in working with other major democracies to build an international consensus on issues, but France certainly looks out for its own interests in those negotiations and is willing to say no to its allies or go it alone when it has to. Continue Reading...