Marine Le Pen and her National Front party are surging, and have become the biggest party in France. The latest polling data puts the National Front on 29 per cent and rising, well ahead of the centrist UMP at 25% and far ahead of the Socialists with 21 per cent in the upcoming county elections this month.
In the last presidential election Le Pen got 18 percent of the vote, the party got 25 percent in the Euro elections and now are expected get as much as between 30 and 33 percent of the vote in the départemental (state or provincial) elections.
The rise of Marine Le Pen and the National Front (FN) is due to a number of factors; the utter economic failure of the Socialists, growing disgust with the EU and the euro, and the growing violence and discord associated with the unlimited Muslim and African migration in France.
Unemployment in France is over 10%, and the punitive taxation and regulations pushed through by the Socialists has strangled economic growth and forced many entrepreneurs and skilled professionals abroad. The French increasingly see the EU as generating higher taxes and interfering with French sovereignty, and the euro as hurting France's exports by keeping prices high. And the backlash against crime and violence in 'la zones' the no go areas in France as well as the high social welfare costs involved is increasing.
Marine Le Pen represents an increasing French population that feels like aliens in their own country. And her cleanup of the old antisemitic tinge to the FN since taking it over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen can be seen in the increasing support the FN is getting from French Jews...for obvious reasons.
The 46-year-old Le Pen is seen as a reformer and as outside the political establishment. And like UKip in Britain, The FN is seen as a populist conservative party, a replacement for the establishment UMP just as UKip is seen as a replacement for David Cameron's sadly misnamed Conservatives.
What do Le Pen and the FN stand for? An exit from the EU and then euro, lower taxes and smaller government. She wants a zero-tolerance policy towards attacks on French secularism, enforcement of French-speaking preachers in mosques and stripping dual-nationality jihadis who fight abroad of their French citizenship.
"Anarchic mass immigration over the past 25 years has created places where the [French] Republic has retrenched at the benefit of religious laws imposed by a few . . . There’s a link between immigration and radicalization,” she says.
In fact, the FN is strongly anti-jihadi, and Le Pen wants a review of French policy when it comes to Qatar and Turkey, whom she sees as supporting Islamist terrorism. For that mater, she also sees American policy towards jihadism under Obama as being totally counterproductive, saying that, the US is “the most discredited power in the [Middle East] region” and says it cannot be seen as a partner in the global struggle against jihadis.
She and the FN are staunchly anti-globalism, which has made her popular among France's farmers and agricultural sector as well as its manufacturers.
In short, she sees a vision of a more nationalist and independent France, one where the economy is unshackled and what she sees as the secular values and freedoms of the French Republic are reaffirmed.
The next presidential election is in 2017. The rise of Le Pen and the FN may be the beginning of France's renewal.
considering the political views of Le Pen, she is wise to stick to french politics. if someone like her ran in the US, they would receive about 10% of the vote. tops.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the FN is also Pro-Putin.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can understand why. If you remember your history, France has always sought a good relationship with Russia as a counter balance to Germany.
ReplyDeleteLe Pen and the FN see Putin as a more reliable ally than Obama, especially in fighting jihad. And they see another raison d'alliance with an economically distressed Russia as a means of keeping Russia from being controlled by China.
From France's point of view, it's hard for me to disagree with them.
Yet another ally of ours President Obama has distanced America from.
If you remember your history, France has always sought a good relationship with Russia as a counter balance to Germany
ReplyDeletei had a little coca cola nose chortle reading that.
i'm curious, how many cities in russia are named bonaparte?
the history i remember was, while the brits were burning the white house, Napoleon took his grand armee' on a little excursion east.
now granted, that was 200 some odd years ago, and germany didn't exist then. but you did say "always". and i will cut down on the soft drinks.
Actually just over 300 years ago, my friend. I should have said 'Republican France.' But the pattern I mentioned was in place since the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic wars and Bonaparte's defeat, and continued until after WWII.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, one of the causes of the Third Republic's demise was the political division between the Front Populare (the Left, who wanted a rapprochement with the Soviets to counterbalance Hitler ) and the Right, who wanted nothing to do with Stalin and actually wanted to dump Britain and ally with Germany.
That's essentially what happened after France's defeat in 1940.