Thank you very much for summarizing the political atmosphere in France and Spain. We are in Our third week in Lisboa and left the US for the exact reason you stated (and because we lived in Texas where women's rights and anyone else that isn’t a white heterosexual male is under attack, and guns out number people.). But I digress….I feel that Macron will win. He is ahead this time by more than his first run and I am hoping that the French see through LePen’s shift from the far far right. Spain is a toss up and I am glad you’ve kept abreast of it and thank you for your research for our benefit. We will continue to enjoy our time in Portugal and hope saner minds prevail in further elections. Thanks again!
So glad you wrote about this, as depressing as it is. I feel like these days it's a battle between finding the best worst place to be and it's good to hear from someone who is already on the ground.
Maga ideology aka hate, has spread world wide and it is troublesome. The French election and debates have been covered here and we are watching intently on what happens this Sunday indeed. Macron is favored to win post the debates when he raised LePen’s current debt with the Cremlin from her prior run which is not sitting well with voters. As someone whose Polish Grandfather was in a Nazi concentration camp and then captured by the Russians and working in their Gulags against his will before escaping (Thank God) I see history repeating itself and there are fewer places to run. My husband and I are an interracial couple and while it’s better, it’s not worry free. Alabama just legalized Interracial marriage in December 2000. Come on France, give us hope in humanity!
Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022Liked by Nancy Whiteman
Funny, as I think about our move to PT (planning on July 15th with our D7 in place and landing in Lagos) – that if you switch the "expat" label for "immigrant" we will, just as we watch those immigrants coming to the U.S., likely look toward finding our English-speaking tribe of immigrants to lean on each other for companionship and guidance in making our way in our new country. With these political winds blowing in Europe, we wonder how we can, as immigrants, contribute a positive influence toward embracing the values of empathy, compassion and engagement as we shape our new lives. We'd be interested in hearing from other values-aligned others in the Lagos area.
Well said Nancy! While very aware of the situation in France, I was not so aware of the situation in Spain and thank you for bringing it to my attention! I share many of your political concerns and continue to find the political landscape in the US extremely concerning. My hope is that Macron is victorious. We shall soon see! In the meantime, keep safe and well.
I will be moving from the US to Portugal in another week and the upcoming election in France is deeply concerning to me. My decision to permanently leave the US prior to the 2024 US election and in fact prior to the 2022 midterm elections, stems from the growing trend of far right politics, ignorance, and intolerance being promoted by US leaders who have been awarded misplaced power. My maternal family history makes a move to Europe seem counter-intuitive yet, in spite of my concerns for the future, and there are many, I believe the US has seen its best days and that by keeping a reasonably low profile, I will fare better in a country without a strong gun culture.
I pray that we evolve into a non-violent global society where people's actions reflect the fact that in truth, we are all different yet, we are all one. I appreciate your posts about political trends as I believe far too many people are avoiding this critical topic. Thanks again.
My wife and I are currently shopping for our new home in Porto, Portugal. We are exhausted by the violence and politics in the US and hope to enjoy a peaceful retirement in Portugal. The rise of extremism is distressing news. Especially since this time we are the immigrants that citizens might want to expel.
You can post politics - but be prepared that not everyone will agree with you!
Moving right isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having a border is a functional part of a country.
I'm not going to type an essay but I welcome conservative parties gaining power in Europe. Do I agree with everything they say? No. But I'd rather live in a slightly center right society than a hateful woke one any day.
Not everybody wants a woke, anti free speech, police defunding, borderless society that loves to spew misandry, hatred against white people, and so on. No thank you.
I feel like people in first world countries have zero sense of perspective these days. Want to see real right or left wing how about the hundreds of despicable dictatorships across the world.
This in contrast to right-of-center people in Europe and USA who god forbid want a strong border - such evil!
Good post Nancy, thanks for writing about this. It seems to me that the previous consensus that existed in most developed countries, in which a center-left and a center-right alternated in power regularly, and where there was a broad agreement to leave social welfare policies in place, is breaking down everywhere. Certainly this has happened in France, where the legacy center-left and center-right parties have all but disappeared. In the US and UK, the traditional center-left and center-right parties still exist in name, but in the US, the Republicans have gone off the deep end and are now an openly anti-democratic party, and in the UK, the Tories are headed in that direction. Spain has experienced a great deal of turmoil around the structure of its political parties as well. Portugal does not seem to have traveled as far down this path, but as you pointed out, the far-right Chega party increased its numbers in the legislature which is not a good thing.
I continue to struggle to understand why this is happening. My cynical and oversimplified explanation is that the wealthy interests that fund the right have figured out how to use propaganda and existing fears and hatreds to rile people up in to voting for them, even when they neither really agree with nor benefit from their policies. The Republican party doesn't even bother putting out a platform anymore - in the last election, I believe their platform was literally just "whatever Trump wants". Of course, we all know the real agenda: tax cuts for the rich, and destroy government's ability to regulate business, and therefore render it powerless to do anything meaningful to address climate change.
We're still in the midst of a pandemic that killed at least 1 million people in the US alone, and we are rapidly running out of time to be able to ameliorate the effects of and prepare to adapt to climate change - and there is so much baked in already that even if we stopped carbon emissions tomorrow, the world will still have to deal with a larger number climate disasters, water shortages, crop failures and pandemics.
And yet what are we worried about in the US? Apparently, the real threat to humanity is that children might learn that gay people exist, or math textbooks might be teaching "critical race theory" (and of course, probably fewer than 1 in 100 people who sling that term around have any idea what it means). I'd say it's Orwellian, but even Orwell couldn't have come up with things like QAnon.
I'm sorry to be so negative and full of gloom and doom, but if we don't recognize what the problems in front of us are, there is no way we can begin to solve them, and I'm certainly not ready to give up hope.
It seems likely that Macron will win on Sunday, and I certainly hope he does, since electing LePen would quite possible be the beginning of the end of the EU. But a narrow win by Macron doesn't mean that we who value democracy and reality-based policymaking are out of the woods in France or anywhere else. As the effects of climate change continue to get worse, we will see more and more climate refugees and anti-immigrant sentiment will only increase. It's going to get harder to fend off right-wing authoritarians as we move forward, not easier, and I don't see anyone out there who has a convincing strategy for how to keep people on board with democracy. It's not time to give up, but it's time to get to work.
Thank you very much for summarizing the political atmosphere in France and Spain. We are in Our third week in Lisboa and left the US for the exact reason you stated (and because we lived in Texas where women's rights and anyone else that isn’t a white heterosexual male is under attack, and guns out number people.). But I digress….I feel that Macron will win. He is ahead this time by more than his first run and I am hoping that the French see through LePen’s shift from the far far right. Spain is a toss up and I am glad you’ve kept abreast of it and thank you for your research for our benefit. We will continue to enjoy our time in Portugal and hope saner minds prevail in further elections. Thanks again!
So glad you wrote about this, as depressing as it is. I feel like these days it's a battle between finding the best worst place to be and it's good to hear from someone who is already on the ground.
Maga ideology aka hate, has spread world wide and it is troublesome. The French election and debates have been covered here and we are watching intently on what happens this Sunday indeed. Macron is favored to win post the debates when he raised LePen’s current debt with the Cremlin from her prior run which is not sitting well with voters. As someone whose Polish Grandfather was in a Nazi concentration camp and then captured by the Russians and working in their Gulags against his will before escaping (Thank God) I see history repeating itself and there are fewer places to run. My husband and I are an interracial couple and while it’s better, it’s not worry free. Alabama just legalized Interracial marriage in December 2000. Come on France, give us hope in humanity!
Funny, as I think about our move to PT (planning on July 15th with our D7 in place and landing in Lagos) – that if you switch the "expat" label for "immigrant" we will, just as we watch those immigrants coming to the U.S., likely look toward finding our English-speaking tribe of immigrants to lean on each other for companionship and guidance in making our way in our new country. With these political winds blowing in Europe, we wonder how we can, as immigrants, contribute a positive influence toward embracing the values of empathy, compassion and engagement as we shape our new lives. We'd be interested in hearing from other values-aligned others in the Lagos area.
Well said Nancy! While very aware of the situation in France, I was not so aware of the situation in Spain and thank you for bringing it to my attention! I share many of your political concerns and continue to find the political landscape in the US extremely concerning. My hope is that Macron is victorious. We shall soon see! In the meantime, keep safe and well.
Another interesting read Nancy, thank you x
We can run but we cannot hide. It’s happening everywhere and it’s darn frightening.
I will be moving from the US to Portugal in another week and the upcoming election in France is deeply concerning to me. My decision to permanently leave the US prior to the 2024 US election and in fact prior to the 2022 midterm elections, stems from the growing trend of far right politics, ignorance, and intolerance being promoted by US leaders who have been awarded misplaced power. My maternal family history makes a move to Europe seem counter-intuitive yet, in spite of my concerns for the future, and there are many, I believe the US has seen its best days and that by keeping a reasonably low profile, I will fare better in a country without a strong gun culture.
I pray that we evolve into a non-violent global society where people's actions reflect the fact that in truth, we are all different yet, we are all one. I appreciate your posts about political trends as I believe far too many people are avoiding this critical topic. Thanks again.
My wife and I are currently shopping for our new home in Porto, Portugal. We are exhausted by the violence and politics in the US and hope to enjoy a peaceful retirement in Portugal. The rise of extremism is distressing news. Especially since this time we are the immigrants that citizens might want to expel.
You can post politics - but be prepared that not everyone will agree with you!
Moving right isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having a border is a functional part of a country.
I'm not going to type an essay but I welcome conservative parties gaining power in Europe. Do I agree with everything they say? No. But I'd rather live in a slightly center right society than a hateful woke one any day.
Not everybody wants a woke, anti free speech, police defunding, borderless society that loves to spew misandry, hatred against white people, and so on. No thank you.
I feel like people in first world countries have zero sense of perspective these days. Want to see real right or left wing how about the hundreds of despicable dictatorships across the world.
This in contrast to right-of-center people in Europe and USA who god forbid want a strong border - such evil!
Relieved that Macron appears to have won by a sizable margin
Good post Nancy, thanks for writing about this. It seems to me that the previous consensus that existed in most developed countries, in which a center-left and a center-right alternated in power regularly, and where there was a broad agreement to leave social welfare policies in place, is breaking down everywhere. Certainly this has happened in France, where the legacy center-left and center-right parties have all but disappeared. In the US and UK, the traditional center-left and center-right parties still exist in name, but in the US, the Republicans have gone off the deep end and are now an openly anti-democratic party, and in the UK, the Tories are headed in that direction. Spain has experienced a great deal of turmoil around the structure of its political parties as well. Portugal does not seem to have traveled as far down this path, but as you pointed out, the far-right Chega party increased its numbers in the legislature which is not a good thing.
I continue to struggle to understand why this is happening. My cynical and oversimplified explanation is that the wealthy interests that fund the right have figured out how to use propaganda and existing fears and hatreds to rile people up in to voting for them, even when they neither really agree with nor benefit from their policies. The Republican party doesn't even bother putting out a platform anymore - in the last election, I believe their platform was literally just "whatever Trump wants". Of course, we all know the real agenda: tax cuts for the rich, and destroy government's ability to regulate business, and therefore render it powerless to do anything meaningful to address climate change.
We're still in the midst of a pandemic that killed at least 1 million people in the US alone, and we are rapidly running out of time to be able to ameliorate the effects of and prepare to adapt to climate change - and there is so much baked in already that even if we stopped carbon emissions tomorrow, the world will still have to deal with a larger number climate disasters, water shortages, crop failures and pandemics.
And yet what are we worried about in the US? Apparently, the real threat to humanity is that children might learn that gay people exist, or math textbooks might be teaching "critical race theory" (and of course, probably fewer than 1 in 100 people who sling that term around have any idea what it means). I'd say it's Orwellian, but even Orwell couldn't have come up with things like QAnon.
I'm sorry to be so negative and full of gloom and doom, but if we don't recognize what the problems in front of us are, there is no way we can begin to solve them, and I'm certainly not ready to give up hope.
It seems likely that Macron will win on Sunday, and I certainly hope he does, since electing LePen would quite possible be the beginning of the end of the EU. But a narrow win by Macron doesn't mean that we who value democracy and reality-based policymaking are out of the woods in France or anywhere else. As the effects of climate change continue to get worse, we will see more and more climate refugees and anti-immigrant sentiment will only increase. It's going to get harder to fend off right-wing authoritarians as we move forward, not easier, and I don't see anyone out there who has a convincing strategy for how to keep people on board with democracy. It's not time to give up, but it's time to get to work.