France

[Bact PhD]

Putin ally Marine LePen is making enough noise in France’s presidential race that I decided France needed its own thread.

LePen and incumbent Macron are in a runoff, and the former is all about cuddling up with Vlad once hostilities in Ukraine cease.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/14/le-pen-nato-russia-france-rapprochement/

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen called Wednesday for reconciliation between NATO and Russia, and reiterated a pledge to pull French personnel out of NATO’s integrated command if she is elected president on April 24.

“As soon as the Russian-Ukrainian war is over and has been settled by a peace treaty, I will call for the implementation of a strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia,” Le Pen said at a news conference Wednesday.

Predictions that President Emmanuel Macron may edge out Le Pen later this month by as little as four to six percentage points in the presidential runoff have unnerved the president’s supporters as well as governments throughout Europe. The incumbent centrist trounced Le Pen by more than 30 percentage points in the 2017 presidential runoff.

Interestingly, Macron has criticized NATO himself.

In a 2019 interview, Macron became the latest French president to shake the alliance when he warned of its “brain death.” His comments were prompted by the transatlantic rupture triggered by the Trump presidency and NATO member Turkey’s direct military intervention in Syria.

But, most recently, the French leader has signaled support for the alliance.

“I think NATO just experienced an electroshock,” Macron told reporters after the invasion, suggesting that the alliance is undergoing an evolution that could strengthen it.

[LFC]

Marine has softened her image to appeal to those who don't know her history. She learned the downsides of her father's edges and has worked to mask them in herself, but she's still the same brand of right-wing, bigoted fascist that her daddy was.

[goldenvalley]

Macron wins 58.5 % to LePen's 41.5%.  LePen conceded (unlike a certain defeated presidential candidate) and she said this:

Ms. Le Pen conceded defeat in her third attempt to become president, but bitterly criticized the “brutal and violent methods” of Mr. Macron. She vowed to fight on to secure a large number of representatives in legislative elections in June, declaring that “French people have this evening shown their desire for a strong counter power to Emmanuel Macron.”

I guess the Trump endorsement didn't carry the election for LePen.

[Bact PhD]

Interesting BBC analysis of the Macron victory. I hope he’s wrong; if he’s right, today may end up being a Pyrrhic victory.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61209765

Opposition was forced to the "extremes" of left and right, where he trusted they could never really pose a threat. So far he has been proved right, as this election shows.

But the election has also demonstrated something else: that more and more people in France are now prepared to dally with the "extremes". They do it because - thanks to the successful Macron revolution - there is nowhere else for them to go if they want to oppose him.

Many of these voters - especially the millions who chose the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon - now want their revenge on the newly re-elected head of state.

They hope they can do it at the parliamentary elections which will take place in June. But if that does not work, they dream of a social "third round" in September taking the form of anti-Macron demonstrations on the street, especially if he has by then launched a new wave of reforms.

Emmanuel Macron will no doubt start this second term promising a new kind of government. He'll be more of a listener. He knows there are wounds that need to heal. The trouble is that he has said that kind of thing before, and a lot of people simply don't believe him.

"Not only has this election shown that there are two opposing Frances out there. It's also revealed a growing tendency for people to say that the opposite camp is not legitimate," said commentator Natacha Polony.

Hmmm. Where have we heard that last before?

[LFC]

Ms. Le Pen conceded defeat in her third attempt to become president, but bitterly criticized the “brutal and violent methods” of Mr. Macron.

Right-wing fascism does love to project.