Posted on 01/15/2012 12:50:05 AM PST by Cincinna
With just 100 days to go before presidential elections, the populist, anti-euro message of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, appears to be gaining resonance here.
That message coincides with a mounting anxiety over the costs to France of Europes scramble to rescue the single currency amid an ever-darkening outlook for economic growth.
In opinion polls published this week, Ms. Le Pen, the expected candidate of the far right, trailed President Nicolas Sarkozy by only the slimmest of margins, a development that the candidate on Friday hailed as evidence of a growing distrust among the French of mainstream politicians.
We see potential for progress that is not negligible, said Ms. Le Pen, noting that the result was historically high for the party founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who famously made it to the final runoff against Jacques Chirac in 2002 by capturing a mere 17.5 percent of the first-round vote. (sn)
In a second poll of 875 eligible voters conducted by the CSA agency on Jan. 9-10, Mr. Sarkozy maintained a larger margin, with 26 percent saying they would vote for the president, against 19 percent for Ms. Le Pen. Mr. Hollande would secure 29 percent.
Ms. Le Pen, 43, is the youngest of Jean-Marie Le Pens three daughters. But the twice-divorced single mother of three continues to face an uphill battle to enter the final round, scheduled for May 6, with the latest polls consistently indicating that Mr. Hollande, 57, would defeat Mr. Sarkozy, 57 percent to 43 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Stay informed about the French elections in detail.
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST ***
*** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***
re Marine le Pen: She is not the answer to France’s problems. Don’t think for a moment she is a conservative. She is not.
MLP is trying to rehabilitate her anti-Semitic, anti-Israel past, neo-Nazi past & associations.
Marine le Pen is the protégé and daughter of Holocoast denier, anti-Semite (as in Jew hater), and an outspoken hater of Israel, Jean-Marie le Pen. His daughter Marion aka Marine le Pen has refused to distance herself from those views. The National Front Party (FN) is anti-American,
anti-free enterprise, anti-capitalist, etc
MLP has aligned herself with the anti-American, anti-capitalists and Statists, the closest thing to Fascism weve seen. She is far more dangerous than her father ever was, and a much smarter, shrewder politician.
The merger of far right nationalism and the leftist anti-capitalist, (anti-liberale), economic agenda is called Fascism. A term the French are
uncomfortable with and are afraid to use when describing MLP & her movement.
MLP is not any kind of Conservative, Far Right, Right, or otherwise . American Conservatism is a political philosophy based upon the God-given rights of the individual as expressed in the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution, and free market Capitalist principles.
MLP is a Statist which is the total opposite of Conservative. MLP believes in the power of the State over individual rights & Liberty, government
control & has no problem with the soft tyranny of authoritarian government. In the past, the Communists & many others on the Far Left have voted FN.
The anti-European, anti-globalization message of MLP is shared by many on the Far Left. They might see that as a greater evil than creeping fascism, which they have never had a problem with in the past.
MLP has nothing in common with Ron Paul, who has many conservative values, but is really a Libertarian.
Ron Paul’s issues are mainly economic, fiscal, and the preservation of individual rights against the increasingly invasive, encroaching tyranny of the Federal government.
MLP, Socialists, Communists, Greens & every shade of red, are Statists who believe in the power of the State over the individual rights set forth in our Founding Documents, The US Constitution and The Declaration of Independence.
Tocqueville himself warned against this possibility of what he called “soft tyranny”. Americans listened up. Apparently even the French ignored his warnings.
The economic damage caused by Le Pen's populism is repairable. France subsumed by the EU and overrun by Muslims is lost forever.
err. : you are speaking like an activist....
Our political choice is limited. M.Lepen is not the Christ ,and J.Christ was not and is not a politician but much more.
She could be our less bad choice in that next election
Let us hope for the best, namely that France will be able to turn back from the edge of the abyss - with or without MLP.
Thank you for illustrating my point about Marine le Pen and her anti-Semitic followers.
We Americans don’t take much to fascism & are strong supporters of the State if Israel.
Hoist by your own petard!
MLP has never distanced herself from the neo-fascist, anti-Semitism of her father.
Fascism is never the solution.
IMO Sarko is doing his best, working within a system that desperately needs change, and he understands that. He is trying to drag France kicking and screaming into the 21st century. France has been an imperial dirigiste top down mega state for four centuries. This morphed into a top down welfare entitlement state that is running out of money.
IMO, Sarko understands that as well.
The statism of MLP goes far beyond that. The Statist is always willing to keep the entitlement mentality, & encourage the growth of the power of the State, leaving individual libery behind in the dust.
The Socialists and MLP offer no solution to the economic and political problems in France. Just more big state solutions and entitlements in a top heavy overly bureaucratic system that is broken & running out if money.
“Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
Benjamin Franklin
Can you be more specific and then relevant on how i illustrate
your “point”.
You are obviously confusing or trying to make a confusion between all the jews in the world and the state of Israel.
Some faithless international jews have no loyalty and among the more
liberal and anti-christian people. As a christian conservative
with a little bit of education and historical knowledge, i don’t want Europe ,built on christian values, to be swept by
a very old barbaria. In in addition i can make the difference betwween anti-judaism, anti-semitism and anti-sionism and i am none of the above but only someone who like
truth and good.
If facts disturb you that’s your problem. Among the once choosen people some betrayed. Deal with that and read the Bible
Jesus christ is THE solution and Benjamin Franklin(a free-masson ?) is very far for being God.
Anyway he is not my messiah .
Sarkozy, like Obama, are plain liberal-fascists and are owned by oligarch scums.
As a french i perfectly know the lies of Sarkozy who betrayed the french people.
You probably ignore the meaning of freedom which has nothing to do with liberalism
Thanks Cincinna.
I don't like FN, but the only other nationalist anti-EU party I can think of is Movement for France. Philippe de Villiers will never be president. The rise of FN has occured only because the Guallists have betrayed France.
n in addition i can make the difference betwween anti-judaism, anti-semitism and anti-sionism and i am none of the above but only someone who like truth and good.
I'd love to see you differentiate antisemitism, anti-Judaism and Anti-Zionism.
Ulysse, this is America, and Free Republic is an American conservative forum.
Benjamin Franklin was one of our founders, and one of the greatest Americans. He was not a religious leader, and we admire and respect him. We do not worship him, or any other man.
Many of our founders, like George Washington, as well as the many French military officers who fought in our American Revolution because they loved liberty, like Lafayette, Noailles, Rochambeau were masons. They are all members of the Society of Cincinnati.
Most of us who are not Roman Catholic, have a family member who was a mason. It was very common in the late 19th-early 20th century. There is nothing at all nefarious about it.
Voting for the lesser of two evils never turns out well.
I think Sarko is a good and decent man, an excellent administrator with enormous experience. He does his best in a system rife with corruption in a culture taken over by secular humanists long before he ever came to town.
In this context, with France in great economic peril, danger from within and without. Reforming an anachronistic system is never easy. The solution MLP offers is National Socialism aka Fascism. How did that work out for you in the past?
France has a terrible history of anti-Semitism. One cannot love the Jewish people and not support ghe existence if tge State of Israel as a
Jewish State. It’s Biblical: God to Abraham;
GENESIS 12:3 KJV
3.And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Sir,
far be it from me to disrespect you or Benjamin Franklin, but I am with fellow Freepers rmlew and Ulysses on this one.
The American political system, which Franklin was reffering to, had evolved from the centuries-old British political traditions of individual freedom. They could only have evolved on an island safe froom direct invasion - as they say, geography matters.
However, the political traditions of mainland Europe are a different kettle of fish. Most of them had to restrict it due to external threats.
My country, for instance, with hardly any natural boundaries, was invaded and looted time and again for centuries, so that granting political freedom to everybody, even if his ideas went against the grain of society, would have been ludicrous, if not downright suicidal (nonetheless, we always had a streak of libertarianism in our political culture, just less than the British :-)). With France, it is similar, IIRC.
President Sarkozy, before he was elected, had promised to solve France’s problems with the EU and especially France’s immigration disaster (sounds familiar? ;-)) and all the other “blessings” which the de-facto rule of our transnationalist friends brings about.
Rmlew is right, in my humble opinion, that any damage MLP could possibly cause in her tenure as President, would be repairable, whereas with Sarkozy and his “tranzi” cronies, there is a strong possibility that there might be no France left...
Out of two evils, I’d rather choose the lesser...
A very interesting thread, Cincinna. Thanks for your posts. Thanks to every poster.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.