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ELI5: Can someone explain the FRENCH Election to me? Macron maybe Out is that right?
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Is it at all similar to the last 2 years of Obama’s presidency (2015-2017) when the Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House and blocked most of his agenda? Or is the French system not comparable to the U.S.
No, that's actually a pretty good comparison. Macron would probably be a bit more powerful though. More complicated than that. France has a very, very powerful presidency - the current system was designed by Charles de Gaulle, the WW2 general that led the Free French (i.e., those who didn't sign onto the collaborationist Vichy regime).
Basically, after the war, France more or less tried to reinstitute the prewar system, but the prewar system (the Third Republic) had already started collapsing in the late 30s and the same issues that plagued it (numerous changes of government and ministers, inconsistent policy, etc.) also plagued the postwar Fourth Republic. Eventually, various issues, particularly regarding Algeria (which was the most important colony of France by far, they considered Algeria to be as French as Lyon or Marseilles), brought the Fourth Republic essentially to a state of collapse.
There was something you could call a soft military coup: elements of the French military in Algeria prepared units to march into Paris and executed paratrooper drops on Corsica. Their demand was to dissolve the existing government and put Charles de Gaulle (who had retired from politics) in charge. The government acquiesced and they set about making a new constitution, the fifth republic, with a much stronger, separately elected executive, with Charles de Gaulle inevitably being elected the first new president for 7 years. Think George Washington being inevitably elected president, here.
Edit: the biggest difference is that the French presidency doesn't have veto that's nearly as strong as the US president. The US president can veto legislation passed by the legislature and it takes a 2/3rds majority to overturn. The French president's veto is much weaker and basically just tells parliament to give it another read before proceeding.
Imagine being so good at running a country that the whole country drags out of retirement to run it again. I can't imagine that happening with a politician today
Not so much "good" as popular after WW2 - after Washington, maybe the nearest equivalent would be Eisenhower? America has never had a war close to Frances WW2 experience - completely overrun, years of occupation, a scary number of people siding with the invaders - perhaps the Civil War came close in some respects.
If Russia or China somehow conquered the US today, and some US leaders fled to another country then came back with a much bigger army and pushed the invaders back out, I'm sure they'd be regarded the same way, but I'm glad that hasn't happened!