France on the edge

[KEND]

The narrow win by Macon, a centrist in the lead up to the presidential election does not bode well for Europe. Although it is likely that he will win the presidency there is an off chance that, if, paradoxically, a protest vote from the left occurs, Le Pen could be president. Le Pen's platform includes pulling out of the EU, which will accelerate its demise, strong immigration laws and, echoing 'Make America Great', 'France for the French'

[windwalker]

The narrow win by Macon, a centrist in the lead up to the presidential election does not bode well for Europe. Although it is likely that he will win the presidency there is an off chance that, if, paradoxically, a protest vote from the left occurs, Le Pen could be president. Le Pen's platform includes pulling out of the EU, which will accelerate its demise, strong immigration laws and, echoing 'Make America Great', 'France for the French'

'France for the French

Is this a problem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPFtwMcjzRs

[yeniseri]

Trending is showing the pattern on nationalist leaders and those with the practice and pattern of such behaviour (Le Pen) as having a strong lead in many circles. A recent poll show that 30% of French people have a negative regard of Muslims due to recent riots and terrorist violence against the nation so will it translate to Marine LePen being the victor is hard to say.
They say that Macron, though an outsider (per political exposure) still has the right credentials to lead the nation despite his "centrist" orientation.

[Steve James]

Marine could possibly win, but mostly because Macron just doesn't inspire or offend anyone. His story is very drole. Otoh, one can never tell whether the people will come out to vote against Le Pen. Macron won the majority of votes, but didn't reach 50%. So there must be a runoff with the candidate who received the second most votes. However, Le Pen got only slightly more votes than the next two after her --who were the more traditional politicians.

Anyway, people who think that LePen's popularity is a response to Islamic terrorism are partly right, but miss the point about the French. No one has or can change French cultural values. But, for the old Le Pen, no culture that was not French should be legal.
For example, people here might ask "what's wrong with banning a burkhini?" Maybe nothing, but for the old Le Pen that applied to all public expressions of religion. So, Jews should not wear yarmulkes in public, and no turbans for Sikhs, etc. The idea could be extended to Catholics, except that Le Pen's original "National Front" party needed French Catholics to promote French culture, which was/is legally secular. But, if you want to know why people may vote against or for Marine, do a search on the National Front.

The nationalist aspect is probably more significant when it comes to France's relation to Europe. And, imo, it's Europe that is on the edge. Almost exactly 100 years ago, there were calls of "France for the French, England for the English, Germany for the German" and, of course, Garvey said "Africa for the Africans." Well, the problem was that all the European powers were trying to divide up the African continent in order to utilize its resources. That "scramble for Africa" led to WWI, and control of N. African oil was central to WW2. After that war, it was argued that Europe should unite and not compete.

Of course, one asks, "why should they compete anyway?" Why should there be tensions between east and west Europe? Hold on, why should there be tension between England and Scotland, or England and Germany? Ok, so what happens when every European nation (or wanna be nations) says "Me First" (or uber alles, sobre todos, etc)? Who will actually be first? And, who will accept being number two? Or, is it really just a word game?

[Steve James]

Hmm, today, Le Pen said that she'd ban the ritual killing of animals. I.e., the way that animals are made kosher and/or halal. Her two complaints are that having halal meat encourages/allows the presence of Muslims, and that these ritual killings are cruel because the animal is killed by draining its blood. Well, she would say that the animals are conscious when they're killed, as opposed to being stunned first. Effectively, it's part of her party's aim to make sure France stays culturally French. That means that eating horse is okay, but "kosher" food isn't. Hey, people can say that it's fair, even though Jews were in France (even in Charlemagne's court) since its origins as a state. It's a simple point that bears repeating, imo. If they'll do it to them, they'll do it to you.