i asked you how YOU determine who is a "real" jew and who isn't, after your ridiculous claim that orban only hated ONE jew. so because i refused to entertain your clumsy deflection attempt, and chose to pose a follow-up question on the original topic (orban's anti-semitic dog whistling record), which you tried to deny, i am somehow the one "dodging"? interesting definition of the term. keep making excuses for those anti-semitic fascists, typical brownshirt behaviour really...

This post was edited by fender on Apr 6 2022 02:23pm

well, of course they would:

It will be such a sea change if Le Pen becomes French president. A hardline eurosceptic and (previous) frexit backer in charge of the 2nd biggest economy in the EU. Even though she won't force a referendum on EU membership, she will undermine EU policy and structures, which is good for Russia, China, the UK, and Poland/Hungary

I don't think Macron is fit to be president but Le Pen is risky, it's the Trump dilemma all over again

France should be more "progressive", import more economical refugees and wave more rainbow flags. That would certainly help in the fight against those populist bootlickers!!!

/s

Macron is a pompous scumbag whose disdain for the plebs is oozing out of every fiber of his body. Le Pen is a far right figure of questionable qualification and agenda. In normal times, I'd say it's worth a try, but not in the current environment.


My ideal outcome is for Macron to win the runoff against Le Pen by an incredibly narrow margin, say 0.5% or so, such that he starts his second term as a lame duck with zero political capital. This would send a much needed wakeup call to the elites backing him and to the powers that be around the world, remind them that they're still walking on very thin ice. The message would be that the people have not forgotten about the immigration issue and that the people will not accept a policy which lets the working and middle class shoulder the bulk of the financial burden of the covid era and the Ukraine war.

At heart I agree with you, but the pompous scumbag just hates the UK so our relations with the EU would be significantly better with Le Pen as president. For that reason, I wouldn't mind seeing Macron lose this

A classical "can't they please both go away"-situation.
It really is a Hillary/Trump redux, just with flipped genders.

I think such a message would be that "even in the worst of circumstances, the people didn't vote us out, we can do what we want."

But it's not the worst of times. The topic of immigration/islamization/terrorism has been far quieter in recent years here in Europe than it used to from 2014-2017, it is the bread and butter of Le Pen's Rassemblement National, yet she's stronger than ever. Likewise, covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates were galvanizing the far-right, but have lost in importance ever since Omicron. And the inflation and economic shocks from the war in Ukraine have not fully arrived yet either, not even close to it.

You also have to keep the timeline in mind: just two months ago, polls saw Le Pen with no real chance in the runoff, now, she's within striking distance. And that's in spite of her close ties to Putin and the way Macron was able to present himself as a statesman during the war. It's crystal-clear that her surge in the polls is fueled by inflation and the fact that Macron is sticking to his neoliberal agenda while Le Pen is veering quite far to the left on economic policy.

A sober analysis is quite unambiguous: people have only started to feel the economic pain and it has already pushed a previously unpalatable far-right candidate awfully close to the magical 50% mark because she promises to address the inflation woes of ordinary citizens. There have been no ISIS attacks, no scandals, no blunders by Macron or anything like that. There is only one convincing explanation: "It's the economy purchasing power, stupid!"

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Apr 10 2022 04:50am

I wouldn't read too much into it. The French are pessimistic in nature and no president has won a second term in 20+ years I think

Voter turnout is also expected to be low, which favours Le Pen