The French race
The elections in France are described as a “roller-coaster”:
An already unpredictable contest has taken a new turn with mounting accusations that conservative candidate Francois Fillon had used public funds available to MPs to pay his wife and children hundreds of thousands of euros for “fake jobs”…
The main beneficiary of Fillon’s woes is centrist Emmanuel Macron, the photogenic 39-year-old former investment banker who served as economy minister in Hollande’s cabinet — and irritated some colleagues with his raw ambition.
Macron is rising fast, but his programme remains short on detail.
It is early days, but the survey published Wednesday, of 1,053 people by the Elabe group, showed Macron would reach the second round and face Le Pen in a runoff.
Le Pen, however, is the main reason that Europe is holding its breath ahead of May’s presidential result…
She senses her chance to seize power, riding a wave of suspicion of mainstream politics.
Le Pen wants to pull France out of the EU — a potentially mortal blow for the ailing bloc — and her proposals to give French nationals priority over housing, for example, still raise hackles for many.
France may have its own version of Brexit—Frexit? Whatever it’s called, I would imagine that people in France who oppose Le Pen are shaking in their boots, after what happened in Britain and the US.
Our french friends are of mixed opinions, the more conservative ones tell us they know Le Pen will be in the run off election, but are doubtful that she can win.
I have a very good friend in France (and was previously married to a woman from Avignon). My present friend, Celine, has been harassed by young Arab males who travel in packs, emulating such eloquence as the words of Miggs in The Silence of the Lambs.
My friend says that there is a pending “civil war” in the country, between those French who virtue-signal and remain politically correct as a form of secular religion — and those who hate and fear the Arabs in the banlieues and do not aspire to be Eloi eaten by Morlocks, end of story, goodbye.
There remains a huge stigma attached to the name Le Pen. So we shall see.
“France may have its own version of Brexit–Frexit?”
Fuxit.
My guess is that Le Pen will win the first round but lose the second round in a landslide. The more immediate danger to the EU is Italy where it’s becoming possible that parties favoring leaving the Euro (which has been a disaster for Italy) will have the mojority in parliament.
Putting the French people first in France? What an idea!
The EU is doomed in the long run. One does not make a good entree by adding every spice and herb in the rack to the pot.
Fillon is only a conservative in the eyes of the radical left. In America he would rank alongside obama.
The whole “Le Pen is going to get into the runoff election, but she will then be crushed in the runoff election”, seems to be the sentiment everywhere, including my own sentiment.
I was also one of the many who believed the prevailing sentiment a year ago that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination and get crushed in the general election.
How about ‘EU revoir’? It would only work as an Anglicized pun, I guess, since in French the acronym would be UE, I imagine. Still, maybe it could work. Or ‘AdiEU’, maybe.
Richard Fernandez had some good ones in an article of his a few months ago.
The attack on the Louvre probably raised LePen’s polling numbers.
Another high-profile attempt will win her the election.