Not really. The people get only two choices of candidates who are selected by campaign popularity. Those candidates have to raise the money for it by themselves, which means making truthful private campaign promises to their donors while making false promises to the public.

[–] Bogasse@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

That's fair. In France law requires transparency on how you fund your campaign and sets a limit. We often have candidates who bend the rules but justice at least make it harder.

Ofc it's hard to compare our two countries, the US is a fking continent.

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If france is anything like the UK, I'm sure there are many ways for the capitalist class to exert influence over their choice of candidate.

[–] Bogasse@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

In France our main concern is about "Bolorisation", which is about two billionaires owning most of the mainstream medias (including Vincent Bolloré, hence the name). We still have major independant papers but they hardly choose what's on the public debate.

Yeah that's what I meant by my initial message, there people still have access to somewhat reliable source of information, mostly thanks to publicly owned TV and radio, but it's very very very fragile right now. Education to media and information would be critical to navigate this mess, but we suck at this.

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

brilliant insight. merci beaucoup mon ami!