All rightwing fascists are basically the same, it is exhaustingly monotone.
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- supersquirrel@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
She is blonde, rabidly nationalistic and believes in the purity of the French people and culture, she could never be on their side don’t be absurd!
- 20 hours
Le Pen go suck a bull’s dick. She’ll say whatever is necessary to get to power. Especially if the Russians pay her to do it.
21 hoursI agree that Ukraine should eventually join the EU, but I think that many times the timeframes discussed are not to my liking. Ukraine has unacceptable levels of corruption within the EU, a destroyed economy, a population traumatized by war,… We must help them not as one helps a stranger, but as one helps a brother, so that he may join the others on equal footing, but promising that this will happen soon, I believe, will only cause frustration on all sides
- NigelFrobisher@aussie.zoneEnglish21 hours
They should join the United Kingdom instead. Cultural exchange of cossacks and drones for morrismen and Greggs.
I’m no fan of Le Pen, but taking her point about Ukraine’s effect on French farmers in isolation, is she wrong about that?
- GardenGeek@europe.pubEnglish1 day
Depends on what we deem favorable. French (and actually all EU farmers) are highly dependend on subsidies by the EU. Otherwise they couldn’t compete globally and/or stand the price war from the retailers. Ukraine in the market would most probably mean lower consumer prices (due to further improved supply) while further stressing farmers. On the onther hand with farmers already dependend on subsidies I don’t see why this couldn’t be countered.
What also bothers me is that the far-right usually has a libertarian economic point of view which in the last resort is the reason for the miserable situation of dmall farmers… however now and then they pretend to care about them, just like the conservatives do.
- Barley_Man@sopuli.xyzEnglish23 hours
I actually doubt it would meaningfully reduce food prices for regular consumers. Ukraine mostly produces bulk grain. The price of bread wheat hovers around 20-25 eurocent per kilo. When you buy bread in the store the cost of the wheat is a miniscule part of the price. The real money in the food network is not in farming food but in processing it and running grocery stores selling it. Wheat can easily triple in value just by grinding it to flour and putting it in a paper bag. The value of barley goes up over 1000% when brewed into beer. If we let Ukraine in maybe we can reduce the price of some grains and bulk sunflower seed by a couple eurocents which will make pretty much no difference at all for the consumer but it will reduce the profits of our EU grain farmers by double digit procentage points.
Can we counteract this with even more agricultural subsidies? Of course we can. But that’s a cost that has to be planned for. The alternative is letting the least profitable farmers to go bust, leading to only mega farms remaining. Which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective. Worth noting is that in Ukraine there are almost only mega farms already because of the Soviet farm collectivisation heritage. That’s part of the reason they can produce grain so efficiently and cheaply, in combination with them having some of the most fertile soils on earth.
And those bankrupt farmers won’t just lie down and take it. They’ll vote for whoever goes against that before or after it happens. That’ll also be a part of the cost.
- 6 hours
This has nothing to do with French farmers. Le Pen has a strong history of lenient positions toward authoritarian regimes, particularly China and probably more so toward Russia.
Though she sometimes appears to have a critical stance towards China, it is mainly rhetorical. In 2025, for example, her party was the only party to oppose a national resolution to impose a €2 levy on small packages, which primarily targeted the flood of Shein and Temu packages in France.
Her stance toward Russia is explicitly pro-Kremlin. Before the invasion of Ukraine, she notoriously defended closer ties with Putin’s regime and even publicly justified the annexation of Crimea. It’s for such comments that a 2023 French parliamentary report says that Le Pen’s far right serves as mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
- 1 day
This woman doesn’t care about French farmers. This is just a pretext. She intendst to serve her supporters in Moscow and Beijing.
- Barley_Man@sopuli.xyzEnglish1 day
No, she’s not wrong about that. We have already seen that when the black Sea is blocked and Ukraine has been allowed to export grain via the land route into the EU it has depressed local grain prices in the eastern EU. Ukraine is one of the largest agricultural producers in the world and most of what they produce is not consumed domestically. Therefore the surplus of food the EU produces will increase in several categories. And when supply goes up by a lot but demand goes up by only a little, prices go down and the current EU farmers earn less. This would however be a good deal for Ukrainian farmers who get a new lucrative market to export to.
Ukraine is one of the largest agricultural producers in the world and most of what they produce is not consumed domestically.
which is one very good reason as to why you want them in the EU, this gives the EU massive soft power around the world having control of the worlds food basket.
I saw one theory postulating that’s exactly why Russia wants it.
- Lysergid@lemmy.mlEnglish21 hours
How come EU farmers need tax breaks, subsidies and be closed caste and still produce with barely competitive prices when one of the poorest countries in Europe produces cheaper? Okay I understand food standard maybe not same but same standard will apply if UA joins. Somehow I doubt prices will jump drastically
- Barley_Man@sopuli.xyzEnglish14 hours
Cheaper labor means lower costs of production. But honestly the largest reason is that Ukraine has these enormous mega farms that stem from Soviet era collectivisation. These farms own several hundreds sometimes thousands of hectares of continuous farmland and often own 0 debt. Being of that size and almost more importantly, being that size debt free, brings a lot of benefits. Just to put it into perspective the average farm in Ukraine today is 649 hectares while in neighbouring EU Romania the average farm size is 4,4 hectares. Ukrainian farming has more in common with the type of farming in the US and Canadian great plains than the rest of Europe, especially eastern Europe.
Also Ukraine is covered in a certain soil type called chernozem which is one of the most fertile on the planet. This leads to large yields. And contrary to a lot of other poor countries around the world all of their farms are fully mechanized and use the latest technology, which is possible because of the large farm sizes mentioned earlier. The 649 hectare Ukraine farm can afford a totally different equipment than the 4,4 hectare Romania farm.
- Lysergid@lemmy.mlEnglish11 hours
Good points. However I want to point out that those technologies were not given free, yes some old soviet stuff left but investments have to been made. Also I’m not sure about ownership, repots I found says that 94% of farmland is not owned but land-leased. Ukraine farms have less fragmentation for sure. People especially elderly owning piece of bigger farmland hire enterprises to grow crops for a cut on their land. Maybe EU need to focus on investments which benefit industry not individuals. I see a lot of reports about direct support but close to nothing about tech, logistics, cooperatives and defragmentation. Romania is one example but I never saw Romanian farmers being as loud as French. France’s territory is 27% arable land (170000 km2). Sounds big enough to improve at scale.
I’m not saying others can be as competitive as Ukraine but it’s shortsighted to say “they have more X than us so we won’t let them in”. I’d think one would want to get X to benefit themselves.
The entire point of EU is to erase visible and invisible borders. We should not care about industries within countries, but within the EU. If there is area with better farmland in France, does French farmer from across the country protest or move to better place? German farmer thinks Ukraine farming more competitive - accept Ukraine into EU, move to Ukraine - profit. That’s what people in other industries do.
If it’s fear of exit and loosing agricultural capacity within EU - sign additional clause with Ukraine to give special residency and farming guarantees for some 50 years.
People need to stop being nationalists. Better be smart in cooperation and negotiations.
- Barley_Man@sopuli.xyzEnglish4 hours
Also I’m not sure about ownership, repots I found says that 94% of farmland is not owned but land-leased.
When talking about efficiency gains you scale with your cultivated area. If that land is owned or leased does not matter.
those technologies were not given free, yes some old soviet stuff left but investments have to been made.
I’m not talking about Soviet stuff. It’s the fact that the ability to invest in new technology is strongly correlated with farm size. For example a farm only needs one N sensor. A 4 hectare farm could never invest in one profitably but a 800 hectare farm can buy one and profit first year.
If there is area with better farmland in France, does French farmer from across the country protest or move to better place? German farmer thinks Ukraine farming more competitive - accept Ukraine into EU, move to Ukraine - profit. That’s what people in other industries do.
Farming must be one of the least mobile industries in the world. It’s very rare that farmers ever move and that’s because the most common entry into farming is inheriting a farm. Most would rather close down than move internationally. And if you just bankrupted your own farm you don’t really have the capital anyway to buy another farm.
France’s territory is 27% arable land (170000 km2). Sounds big enough to improve at scale.
Becoming as competitive as Ukraine requires one of three things. Lowering wages, increasing average farm size for efficiency gains or increasing subsidies. Lowering wages is not desirable and neither are increasing subsidies. Increasing average farm size could be an option but that one is very controversial to a lot of people, even non farmers who just happen to be fond of small scale farming. News headlines titled “small family farms that have been run for generations are forced to close en masse” would not look good.
However don’t get me wrong. I 100% would be very pro getting Ukraine to enter the EU. However the fact that the entry of Ukraine would be a challenge to existing agriculture in the EU is a real issue that has to be accounted for. It’s kind of like attaching the US Midwest cornbelt right at the EU land border and opening up free trade. Of course that would lead to a disruption in the market.
- deft@lemmy.wtfEnglish22 hours
This would be a good deal for consumers too… so in that sense every citizen would benefit.
It’s absurd to prioritize farmers over everyone else. It’s just an easy campaign angle. “wHaT AbOuT tHe fArMeRs!?” It’s crap.
- BestBouclettes@jlai.luEnglish1 day
Meh, she doesn’t give two fucks about farmers. Her and her party voted over and over, both in the Assemblée and in the European Parliament, in favour of more free trade between the EU and Brazil or Australia, for less regulations for toxic chemicals, and in favour of a plethora of ecocidal laws and such.
- 1 day
The far-right (and the far-left) in Europe - not only in France - are siding with Russia and China.
- Tollana1234567@lemmy.todayEnglish12 hours
far left isnt siding with russia at all, its the far right. china’s relationship is a little more complex than russias, they form when its economically convenient to them.
- supersquirrel@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
The “Far left” is? Where?
@tardigrade@scribe.disroot.org your low quality, spammy attempts to divert every conversation to a baby like China = BAD reflex are lame and annoying as hell.
China is an empire, let us be wary and skeptical of them as you should be doing for all empires… but this simplistic shallow narrative you keep pushing leads nowhere but a sports like obsession with “our team” winning and whatever the hell “our team” actually means or whether it actually includes us become questions that fall conveniently to the wayside in favor of some “righteous cause”.
Where?
In France, you’ve got Mélenchon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ lyk ɑ̃twan pjɛʁ melɑ̃ʃɔ̃] ⓘ; born 19 August 1951) is a French left-wing politician who has been the de facto leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016.
Accusations of support for Russia
Some commentators claimed Mélenchon “supported Russia” and was sympathetic towards Vladimir Putin.[179][217] Notably, the journalist Nicolas Hénin said that Mélenchon is “on the left of the political spectrum, but is an advocate for the Kremlin leader”, with Hénin quoting how Mélenchon is the “political victim number one” after the murder of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.[218] Cécile Vaissié, author of The Kremlin Networks, considers Mélenchon as “one of those that approve of Putin”,[219] and Yannick Jadot of EELV said that the “pro-Russia” stance is “contrary to any environment thinking”.[220]
Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been regularly described by political critics as friendly to Russia, an accusation he denies. According to French public radio channel France Inter, his position has varied, from dowplaying the threat in 2014 to outright condemnation after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.[221]
In 2015, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, was killed next to the Kremlin.[222][223] In response, the EU Parliament voted a motion denouncing the human rights situation in Russia. Mélenchon was one of the only members of the European Parliament to vote against the motion.[224] He called it propaganda.[224]
In January 2022, a few weeks before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he told Le Monde:
“The Russians are moving troops toward their borders? Who would not do the same thing with such a neighbor?” [225]
As soon as the invasion of Ukraine happened, Jean-Luc Mélenchon condemned it as an unlawful act of aggression on behalf of Russia. This criticism was criticised as opportunistic by Mélenchon’s opponents.[221]
A few days after the invasion began, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said France should not provide any military aid to Ukraine.[226] He later changed his mind and endorsed providing military aid, justifying it as Ukraine’s right to defend itself.[167] This change of policy was criticised by Mélenchon’s opponents.
In October 2022, the French Parliament introduced a motion denouncing Russia’s war against Ukraine. Most French political parties supported the motion.[227] Two exceptions were the Rassemblement National (far-right) and Mélenchon’s France Insoumise. They both abstained.[228]
In 2023, Mélenchon was invited on France 5. He said: “We should focus on ourselves. Why should we care about the centuries-old quarrels of the Latvians or Estonians with Russia? Why should we ensure Ukraine’s physical borders?”.[citation needed][226]
In May 2025, Sophia Chikirou, a French deputy member of Mélenchon’s party, attended a rally celebrating the Allied victory over Nazism. Several news outlets accused this event of being pro-Russian.[229][230]
In August 2025, Jean-Luc Mélenchon created controversy after calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy an illegitimate leader due to the delay of the planned 2024 Ukrainian presidential election in the context of the war. At the same time he was criticised for arguing Vladimir Putin was only a threat to Ukraine and should not be considered a threat for Western Europe.[231][232]
- supersquirrel@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
What is leftwing about this guy? He just sounds like a bloviating nationalism stoking empty populist candidate.
Making common cause with “the enemy of my enemy” – whatever the consequences for the less powerful – as a shortsighted form of “realist” foreign policy is certainly nothing new. (Neither, in Mélénchon’s case, does it end at Europe’s borders: “Taiwan is China,” he told French TV in May). But how is any of this principled, or leftist?
After a summer when France burned and burned and burned, how is the frontrunner for the left a man who is calling for reopening the poison-drip of natural gas from a state that has been, for years, in an undeclared war hybrid war on France along with the rest of Europe? It seems Mélenchon, who has wanted to withdraw France from Nato for decades, has not updated his worldview since 1985 when he first held public office. But this is not the anti-American position it once was: it is simply to attack from the inside what Putin seeks to dismantle from the outside.
Well, I don’t disagree that he’s a populist, but you’ll probably need to convince the French that he’s not left-wing, as he’s presently running the largest left-wing party in France.
BSW is not necessarily left wing or far left, BSW is evidence that a onedimensinal left-right model is overly simplifying the political landscape and not really applicable for actual categorisations.
- 1 day
Marriage of Convenience: How European Far-Right and Far-Left Discovered China
European far-right and far-left political parties, though ideologically opposed, are finding common ground in their alignments with China, echoing Beijing’s narratives and raising concerns about foreign influence and manipulation.
It’s a very good analyses, but there are more across the web.
Let me also thank you for your polite and sophisticated comment.
- supersquirrel@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
That website is literally, ENTIRELY devoted to fear mongering about China, find a less biased source.
- 1 day
That website is literally, ENTIRELY devoted to fear mongering about China, find a less biased source.
Nah, it’s not. This is a very good source.
But, for you, as you are so friendly and arguing in good faith, I can tell you there is more. In “How Extreme Parties in the European Parliament Can Shape EU-China Relations” (pdf), the Association for International Affairs in Prague provides an excellent analysis with a similar conclusion,
… Anticipated gains [in future European election] for both far-right and far-left wings […] are likely to favour more China-friendly votes. As these groups increase their representation, the dynamic within the EP [European Parliament] is expected to evolve toward a stance that is less critical of China. This shift could make it increasingly difficult to promote or sustain China-sceptic policies, as the balance of power may tilt towards those advocating for stronger ties with China.
This shift could manifest in softened rhetoric, reduced support for strong trade or human rights stances against China, and increased advocacy for engagement and cooperation. Such changes would affect the policy debates and resolutions within the European Parliament. As such, understanding these electoral dynamics and their potential impact on EU policies is crucial for stakeholders and policymakers who need to anticipate and respond to the changing geopolitical landscape …
So, it’s another reason to fight the European far-right and far-left, as both are closely aligned with China and Russia.
Another sign that there is not much difference between the far-right and the far-left. Maybe the Horseshoe Theory applies? I am not a political scientist, maybe there is one around and can elaborate more.
- supersquirrel@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
Another sign that there is not much difference between the far-right and the far-left. Maybe the Horseshoe Theory applies? I am not a political scientist, maybe there is one around and can elaborate more.
Than stop acting so confident about shit that you fundamentally do not understand.
- 1 day
Ah, picking a sentence out of context and throwing the next offense.
I understand this here very clear. And the sources are very good.
