From a European point of view, the French have avoided the nightmare outcome of a presidential runoff between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen. But Europe’s political elite should not celebrate too soon.
It is more than probable that Emmanuel Macron will beat Le Pen in the second voting round, yet this might be the best possible outcome for the leader of the National Front.
As Donald Trump is discovering in America, it is often more fun to be the populist outsider than to be in power. A President Le Pen would have limited scope for causing foreign-policy chaos, but, with a massive majority against her in the National Assembly, she would have little prospect of delivering on her electoral promises. Her administration would almost certainly end in failure and the Front National would once again be relegated to the fringes of French politics. Read more “French National Front Could Emerge Stronger from Defeat”
Polls suggest five candidates stand a chance of qualifying for the crucial second voting round in France’s presidential election next month.
They range from the far left to the far right, but a look at their policies suggests that these categories may have outlived their usefulness. Read more “The Programs of France’s Presidential Candidates Compared”
Neither of the two frontrunners in the French presidential election is likely to win a majority in the National Assembly, which would make it hard for them to govern.
The centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen are neck and neck in the polls for the first voting round this month. Macron is expected to prevail in the second round.
A former economy minister under François Hollande, Macron left the Socialist Party last year to start his own movement.
Le Pen leads the anti-EU and anti-immigrant National Front, which currently has just two out 577 seats in the French parliament. Read more “Neither Macron Nor Le Pen May Win Legislative Majority”
Benoît Hamon and Emmanuel Macron don’t have a lot in common. The former wants to raise taxes in France in order to finance a universal basic income. The latter wants to cut taxes and reduce public spending.
Yet the two presidential candidates made common cause on Monday, when they faced three Putin apologists in the first televised debate of the 2017 campaign. Read more “Hamon, Macron Face Putin Apologists in French Debate”
After Britain voted to exit the European Union and America elected Donald Trump, the French ambassador to Washington DC, Gerard Araud, tweeted in despair: “A world is collapsing before our eyes.”
Now his home country has a chance to breathe new life into the liberal world order the English-speaking powers have turned their backs on.
After decades of statism, and five years of ineffectual Socialist Party rule, there is finally a critical mass for reform in France.
Brexit has also revived French enthusiasm for the European project. French support for the EU has shot up 10 points to 67 percent, according to an Ifop poll.
And Trump’s crude nationalism is showing the French the ugly reality of hysterical patriotism and anti-Muslim bigotry, both of which have been creeping up on them in recent years.
These three threads come together in the presidential candidacy of Emmanuel Macron. Read more “Clinton-Trump Redux in France”
Politico reports that a long-simmering dispute between the two most prominent women of the French far right is getting out of hand.
There is even a risk of a split in the Front national, the website argues: between the faction of leader Marine Le Pen and the socially conservative wing that has rallied around her 26 year-old niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen.
The fact that it’s a family feud, in which the Le Pen patriarch and Vichy apologist Jean-Marie inevitably resurfaces, makes this a headline-grabbing story.
But there are deeper, geographical and political divides at play that have less to do with personality. Read more “The French Far Right’s Family Feud Explained”
Donald Trump’s unexpected presidential election in the United States has delighted his ideological counterparts in Europe. Brexiteers in the United Kingdom think he will give them a better deal than Hillary Clinton. Populists in France and the Netherlands have responded to Trump’s victory with glee. So have ultraconservatives in Central Europe.
They should think again. Trump may be a kindred spirit. His triumph is a setback for the liberal consensus that nationalists in Europe and North America are trying to tear down. But he is no friend of European nations. Read more “Trump’s European Admirers Are Deluding Themselves”
France’s Front national failed to take control of any the country’s thirteen regions in an election on Sunday despite winning most votes in the first round last week.
Tactical voting by leftwingers was seen keeping the nationalists out of power in an Ifop exit poll. Read more “Sarkozy’s Republicans Defeat French Nationalists in Runoffs”
