Okay, so the French voters have spoken. Yesterday was election day. Well, at least the first round.
The winners?
Well, everybody expected a rematch between incumbent Emmanuel Macron and far right extremist Marine Le Pen. For better or for worse, that is exactly what we got.
Macron, the incumbent president, received the most votes of anyone, garnering 27.8 percent of the vote, with over 9.785 million votes. Le Pen came in second place, with 23.1 percent, or 8.136 million votes. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI), the most serious left leaning of the major candidates, was the only other candidate to earn over 20 percent of the vote, getting 22 percent with 7.714 million votes. Far right wing extremist Éric Zemmour of Reconquête came in fourth, but with just 7.1 percent of the vote (2.485 million), he was far behind the three main contenders.
Not everybody is particularly excited by this prospect. Like with American elections, many feel that this general election comes down to two options which, for all intents and purposes, amounts to a choice between the lesser of two evils. Le Pen is seen as a xenophobic extremist by many. Macron is the status quo, and many people felt that he and his policies were suspiciously friendly towards financial elites, and that Macron himself is trying to bring back days of leaders surrounded by opulence and grandeur. Also, there are rumors of scandals surrounding him that have convinced many of his opponents that he is corrupt.
Macron's approval ratings had taken a beating for a long time, and earlier this year, he was quite unpopular. The chances of him getting reelected seemed relatively slim. However, the Russian war with Ukraine has given him a bit of a bump in his approval ratings in recent weeks.
By contrast, Le Pen had seemed to be coming on strong. However, many seem to suspect that she is too close to Putin. There are already allegations that a Le Pen win would amount to a foreign victory in Paris for Putin, as they suspect that he is behind her success, or at least would benefit from it. In the past, similar to Trump, Le Pen has seemed to be almost an admirer of Putin, based on her comments. Her approval ratings took a bit of a dip initially after Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine, although she did spike back up in recent days, just prior to the first round of the election.
Many feel that this is the last, and probably the best, chance for Le Pen to finally win the presidency, something that she has actively and ambitiously sought after for most of her adult life.
The second round of the election will be two weekends from now, on Saturday, April 23rd. On that day, we will finally find out with absolute certainty who will serve as French president for the next five years.
I don't know that this is necessarily her best or last chance. I don't think she'll be elected this year, but given that her party keeps doing better and better in presidential elections, and that she's only 53 – relatively young by political standards – she could quite feasibly win in 2027 or beyond. And given that French politics, much like politics throughout the world (including right here in the land of milk and honey), is dominated by smarmy, venal, disingenuous people who make a career of pretending to care about people they couldn't care less about in reality, that inevitably creates a fertile breeding ground for extremists to play to and manipulate the resultant anger.
ReplyDeleteI would however concede that this is certainly her best chance up to this point.
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