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France’s Turn for the Worse... Europe’s far right has already won
Slate ^ | 5/4/2012 | Yascha Mounk

Posted on 05/05/2012 8:51:03 AM PDT by darrellmaurina

On Sunday, by almost every indication, François Hollande, who has been leading in the polls for months, will defeat Nicolas Sarkozy and become France’s next president. Hollande’s Socialist Party, which hasn’t ousted an incumbent president in over three decades, has every reason to celebrate. But the true winner of this election isn’t France’s left; it’s Europe’s far right. The reason is simple. In this election, France’s establishment has embraced Islamophobic ideas to an unprecedented degree. Right-wing populism, once a fringe phenomenon, has been conquering the bastions of Europe’s political mainstream with frightening speed; even so, most observers failed to predict the extent to which anti-immigrant themes would shape this campaign. It’s difficult to know whether Europe’s populists are approaching the zenith of their power or will continue their steady rise. But one thing is certain: At no point in Europe’s postwar history has the far right’s influence been as pervasive as it is now. Two weeks ago, in the first round of the presidential elections, nearly one in five French voters opted for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extremist Front National party. Marine, who replaced her father, Jean-Marie, as party leader a little over a year ago, has donned a cloak of respectability, severing the organization’s ties to the most flagrant neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups. But the core of her appeal remains unchanged: It consists of hatred of Muslim immigrants, along with everyone else she considers alien to the French nation. Her tactic of giving racism a pretty veneer has clearly worked well. In her first run for president, she already gained a greater share of the vote than her father ever managed to muster.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: eucrisis; france; franceelection; franoishollande; hollande; islamophobia; lepen; sarkozy
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1 posted on 05/05/2012 8:51:07 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: darrellmaurina

What’s the cause of Islamophobia, Yascha ?


2 posted on 05/05/2012 8:56:45 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: darrellmaurina

Dear Europe, Hitler and Stalin were leftists, had nothing to do with the far right. Europe get your head out of your asses.


3 posted on 05/05/2012 8:57:25 AM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: darrellmaurina

Hatred and fear of Muslims is entirely a rational response to the Muslim campaign to conquer the world.


4 posted on 05/05/2012 8:57:57 AM PDT by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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To: darrellmaurina
At no point in Europe’s postwar history has the far right’s influence been as pervasive as it is now.
That's because most European countries haven't been in as much danger of losing their country since the feckin' Nazis invasions.
5 posted on 05/05/2012 8:59:21 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: central_va

The pendulum swings.


6 posted on 05/05/2012 9:00:20 AM PDT by bicyclerepair ( REPLACE D-W-S ! http://www.karenforcongress.com)
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To: darrellmaurina

The French are not waking the plain truth that they have clutched a viper to their breast. Likely LePen will be the leader of the right after the legislative elections.


7 posted on 05/05/2012 9:00:29 AM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: hoosierham

Until France rids itself of Muslims, things will just get worse. Count on it.


8 posted on 05/05/2012 9:00:46 AM PDT by RC2 (Buy American and support the Wounded Warrior Project whenever possible.)
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To: darrellmaurina
Not giving Slute a hit to waste my time trying to glean a grain of fact from their usual Marxist agitprop.
9 posted on 05/05/2012 9:02:48 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it and the law is what WE say it is.)
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To: darrellmaurina
good link
10 posted on 05/05/2012 9:05:04 AM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ( I am Breitbart)
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To: hoosierham

“Hatred and fear of Muslims is entirely a rational response to the Muslim campaign to conquer the world.”

And the fact that the Muzzies did a number on Europe a couple of centuries ago.

I just wish that we would pull out all our forces in Europe and let these worthless socialist countries fend for themselves once again. They are only too happy to have us bleed our citizens to protect them all the while they are braying about what jerks we are for not living more like our protection allows them to live.


11 posted on 05/05/2012 9:05:04 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: darrellmaurina

Vive Le Pen!


12 posted on 05/05/2012 9:06:41 AM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascist info....http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: darrellmaurina
"The reason is simple. In this election, France’s establishment has embraced Islamophobic ideas sanity to an unprecedented degree."

Fixed it.



Nos genuflectitur ad non princeps sed Princeps Pacem!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

13 posted on 05/05/2012 9:17:42 AM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel defend us in Battle!)
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To: darrellmaurina

Look for the markets to nosedive on Monday if this leftist wins on Sunday.


14 posted on 05/05/2012 9:19:34 AM PDT by Signalman
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To: Candor7

France is/was an amazing country. The Mooselimb population grows, particularly in the south and in Paris. Too many years of open immigration.


15 posted on 05/05/2012 9:21:27 AM PDT by shankbear (If this mandate can stand, what will be next? Forced to buy certain cars, clothes, food?)
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To: darrellmaurina

Yes, those Islamophobic French, how dare they react that way when some innocent Muslim just happens to find a gun and then uses it to kill police officers and little children standing outside their school. Or when peaceful mobs of bearded men just happen to congregate together for an impromptu prayer vigil and intimidate bystanders and close down Parisian streets.

Those French. They’re just a bunch of irrational bigots.


16 posted on 05/05/2012 9:21:45 AM PDT by mojito
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To: hoosierham

This is more than just about Muslims. It is about mass immigration and its impact on national identity, culture, and Balkanization of a society. We face the same problem to a much greater degree.


17 posted on 05/05/2012 9:33:38 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Here’s one reason: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/911-detainees-seek-to-disrupt-opening-of-arraignment-at-guantanamo-bay/2012/05/05/gIQAnGzh3T_story.html.

Note that the civilian woman lawyer is in a hijab and asks the other women to put on a garbage bag, too.


18 posted on 05/05/2012 9:35:25 AM PDT by hocndoc (WingRight.org Have mustard seed, not afraid to use it. Hold R's to promises, don't watch O keep his.)
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To: All
Clarification to all — I have serious concerns about both Sarkozy and Le Pen, and the other options to the left are beyond unacceptable. I don't want people here thinking I support either Le Pen on the one hand, or on the other hand, unbridled immigration of Islamic radicals who hate the West.

Le Pen is definitely right about the danger of Islamofascism, and for that she should be commended. Some of her other positions are seriously problematic but she's correct there.

The problem in a French political context is that radical Islamic fundamentalism is changing the secular and anti-religious presuppositions of the modern French Republic, and in that dispute both sides are wrong. Le Pen and the traditional conservative and liberal parties of France have correctly identified radical Islam as a major problem, but all three have come up with fundamentally wrong solutions.

It would be nice if French nationalism were returning to its Roman Catholic roots (or better yet, the Huguenots), but there are far too few people left in France who have any sense of a Christian worldview. The result is that that even when they correctly identify the problem, they come up with wrong solutions because the right solutions aren't even on their radar screens.

19 posted on 05/05/2012 9:56:18 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Candor7

“Vive Le Pen!”

That’s what I thought until I learned her party is still socialist in philosophy. The only thing it has going for it is its pro-western, anti-islamist stance.

Too bad. France needs Tea Partiers!


20 posted on 05/05/2012 9:59:31 AM PDT by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
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