France: One in five vote for Marine Le Pen as Nicolas Sarkozy is beaten into second place

The Telegraph ^ | 4/22/2012 | Henry Samuel

[bruinbirdman]

Marine Le Pen secured the highest score for the far-Right in French presidential election history on Sunday, in a third-place finish that will present a major challenge to the two mainstream candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, left in the race.

According to official forecasts, the 43-year-old daughter of the founder of the National Front (NF) secured between 18.2 and 20 per cent of the vote, performing even better than Jean Marie Le Pen’s shock result in 2002, when he won 17 per cent.

At her press conference on Sunday night she burst into a rendition of La Marseillaise in front of delirious supporters waving the national flag.

“Whatever happens over the next two weeks, the battle for France has only just begun,” she said.

“We have exploded the monopoly of the two [main] parties of banks, finance, of multinationals, of resignation and abandonment, and carried higher than ever before the hopes of national ideas.

“Faced with an incumbent president at the head of a considerably weakened party, we are the only opposition to the ultra-liberal, lax and libertarian Left.”

Although it failed to take her into the second round, Miss Le Pen’s success will boost her influence on the French political scene, and is likely to hand her party seats in parliament later in the year. It could affect relations with minorities in France and in other European countries after a campaign based on rhetoric against immigrants, Islam and the European Union.

The winner of yesterday’s first round was the Socialist candidate François Hollande, with 28-29 per cent, who will contest the run-off against President Nicolas Sarkozy, who, with 25-27 per cent, became the first incumbent president to lose at the first hurdle.

A victory in the May 6 run-off would make Mr Hollande, 57, France’s first Socialist leader

[Cincinna]

Marine Le Pen is demagogic populist. She has touched a nerve about out if control immigration and surrender of national sovereignty, but her economic and foreign policy agenda is naive, and irrational. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

She is the flip side of the leftist totalitarian coin. Both are Statists, believe in the power if the state over the individual, and spew that same class warfare rhetoric that come from Obama and OWS. The end result of the left and MLP’s agenda which amounts to nothing less than National Socialism,aka Nazism, is the same - tyranny of Tge Stare over the individual.

[PapaBear3625]

The “huge” “unprecedented” victory of Hollande over Sarko touted in the leftist MSM press in France, Europe and the US is a whopping 1.45%

And in a runoff between Sarko and Hollande, enough of Le Pen's voters will decline to just stay home to put Sarko over the top.

Sarko will then be on notice that he better get a handle on North African immigration, or his days are numbered. The native french understand that there is no way to have both welfare for immigrants and also pay the pensions of the native French.

[BillyBoy]

>> Neo-Nazi? That has always been the Leftist refrain when those on the Right win votes. It is like playing the race card here. <<

On the contrary, Le Pen's Party has always had NAZI sympathizes and you're playing right into the media's hands by buying the idea that she is "conservative". The European media classifies ANYONE who wants to get immigration under control as "far-right", regardless of their position on other issues. Hence, a neo-NAZI loon who favors draconian gun control laws, environmental regulations, free abortions, universal health care, calls for the destruction of Israel, wants to ban freedom of religion, favors free college education for all, etc., etc., will labeled "far right-wing" by the media, even though they have little in common with hard-core American conservatives aside from their stance on immigration. As post #37 notes, Le Pen is every bit as much as a statist as Obama and opposes limited government and freedom for individuals.

>> Le Pen is a nationalist who is more in touch with the French people than Sarkozy and Hollande. I wish we had similar political leadership and courage here. <<

I don't doubt she's the only "major" candidate who "gets" the severity of the Muslim immigration problem. That just shows you how screwed from France is, when the only candidate with a remotely sane policy on immigration is a fascist nut. Anyone who is remotely conservative by American standards will poll less than 2% and not be viable. I would consider Le Pen "more conservative" than Sarko, but by the same standards, I would rank Hillary Clinton as "more conservative" than Sarko.

>> As part of the process dubbed “un-demonizing,” the 43-year-old mother of three promotes women and workers and even comes down on the side of animal rights. Above all, she vociferously condemns anti-Semitism, which got her father court convictions. <<

As I noted, she's distanced herself from her daddy's crazy outbursts and put a "happy face" on fascism, that doesn't change the fact that most of her party is filled with neo-NAZI nuts and its always been that way. Did you know Le Pen was friends with Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War? That just shows you how crazy these people are. Even Jac Chirac wouldn't attempt that in public.

[BillyBoy]

>> Sarkozy has been kind of a disappointment, only moderately conservative in his actual governing <<

I think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah have been kind of a disappointment, they put forward moderately pro-Jewish policies in Iran...

[kabar]

I have never said that she is a conservative in the American sense. I have indicated just the opposite. David Cameron is not a conservative in the American sense. Neither is Merkel or any of the candiates of the major European parties.

But unlike many others, including Sarkozy and Hollande, she is a nationalist who doesn't share the unvarnished support of the EU and integration of Europe. Who can blame her? The EU was really driven by the French, but German economic power is now driving the train. She wants control over the currency and national trade policies. She also wants to limit immigration, which is destroying the country in much the same way that it is doing in the US. At least, she understands that France is in a battle for its national survival.

[kabar]

On the contrary, Le Pen's Party has always had NAZI sympathizes and you're playing right into the media's hands by buying the idea that she is "conservative".

Who claimed she is a conservative. The NF does not embrace Nazism. Nazi sympathizers? I guess you could say the same thing about many political parties, but unless those positions are espoused as the official positions of the parties, it is just a smear attempt. The Left likes to accuse the GOP of being the party of white racists and bigots, especially when it pertains to issues like immigation and wealth distribution.

...even though they have little in common with hard-core American conservatives aside from their stance on immigration.

There are "hard-core American conservatives" who believe in protectionist policies when it comes to trade; who believe that Islam represents a serious threat to our national security; who support the law and order policies of "zero tolerance", harsher sentencing, increased prison capacity, as well as retaining the death penalty, who are ardent nationalists as distinct from being globalists; and who believe in national sovereignty and secure borders.

I don't doubt she's the only "major" candidate who "gets" the severity of the Muslim immigration problem. That just shows you how screwed from France is, when the only candidate with a remotely sane policy on immigration is a fascist nut.

Name the other major candidate who understands the severity of the Muslim immigration problem. And there you go again with the ad hominem attacks that have no basis in fact. Do you really believe she is insane and that she is a fascist?

Did you know Le Pen was friends with Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War? That just shows you how crazy these people are. Even Jac Chirac wouldn't attempt that in public.

Did you know that the US provided intelligence to Iraq and Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war? And what exactly do you mean by "friends?" And which Le Pen are you talking about, her or her father who defended Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war?

[eater-of-toast]

True, though articles of this limited scope usually only deal with the politics of France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958 (when the Fourth Republic’s system of government collapsed amidst the Algerian Crisis).

[Cincinna]

***UPDATE***
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST ***  

  The first polls are out for the 2nd round Hollande leading 55-45. There is a lot of work to be done to overcome this 10 point gap.
  But the polls were totally wrong about round1.   
  The debate or hopefully the debates will likely give Sarko a boost. Hollande will have to have at least one debate with Sarkozy. Sarko has challenged him to three, but he is trying to hide and is afraid to debate. 
  Hollande, and the people who speak for him have so far refused to answer questions about campaign promises he made to various groups. He got away with it during the 1er tour. Will he will not be able avoid a direct answer to the following in a debate:
  His positions on
• giving immigrants (non citizens the right to vote) and the regularization of
illegals. 
• allowing municipal facilities like swimming pools and tennis courts to conform to sharia law, separating females from males, having separate hours, etc. (already done in cities controlled by the PS)
• Will Hollande uphold his promises to the Ecologists/greens to eliminate all nuclear power in France, in the next ten years, starting immediately. Considering that France gets 80+% of its energy from
nuclear and is now an exporter of energy, thus proposal is ridiculous.

 Thank you all for your interest and your very interesting and insightful posts. 
  I will try and answer as many questions of your questiond as I can.

[tanuki]

I suspect that a lot of Le Pen’s votes were Sarkozy voters who want to send a message to him-that any possible coddling of Muslims will cost him votes. Hopefully, they will show up to vote on May 6.

[bboop]

Thanks for clarifying. Surely Hollande’s pro-immigrant stance is not so popular these days, as reality is coming clear?

[nutmeg]

I just wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU for all of the updates on the French elections. God help France - and the West - if Hollande beats out Sarkozy. Hollande’s positions you listed in #48 are downright chilling...

[Impy]

Le Pen is well to the left of even the Euro “conservative” Sarko. That’s unacceptable no matter her better position on a couple issues. How absurd of them to label her (and Fascists) ideology as “far right”.

And I don’t know what’s with all the hoopla about these results either in the media on on this thread (nothing on the commie getting 11%), you’d think she won, she lost and the runoff is between Sarko and the socialist swine just like every poll for months has shown, the polls had her at 14-17 and she got 18, big woop she beat her daddy by 1 point. Her daddy did made the runoff and lost badly. If she had made the runoff against either major candidate she would have done better than him but still would have lost badly. She will never be President of France.

Unfortunately while the race has tightened the socialist is still leading Sarko by a decent margin so France will likely get an even worse President. At least the socialists will own the coming disaster (unless the “right” can somehow hold on to the parliament, that election is month after the Presidential runoff seems like a waste of money not to just have them at the same time).

[Cincinna]

Thanks, Impy for your post.
To those who have romanticized Marine Le Pen with odes to her “right wing” credentials and years old photos, beware! Marine Le Pen doesn’t look like that. She is what the French call “usée” she’s been around. This paragon of France’s morsl virtue has been married and divorced two or three times, and now lives openly with a man she is not married to and her children.
To anyone who doubts her neo-fascist sympathies, leanings and connections, please be reminded that Marine le Pen was guest of honor this year at the fascist gathering, Vienna’s Hofbrau Ball, held on Holocoast Memorial Day. MLP has never distanced herself from her father’s Holocoast denials, and his calling the extermination of six million Jews “a mere detail of history”.
MLP can wrap herself in the flag and claim to support Republican values, but she is just her father in drag.

[caww]

Sarkosy needs to win this.

Amazing how the International Leadership is shifting...and it’s the people shifting them...they vote for what they get...though I’m convinced after our primary, voters are at the very bottom of the “need to win” for any politician.....Very easy to manipulate the entire system now thru deceptive means.... and nations willing to accept whatever reality is fed to them....unfortunately without question...and if they do... certainly without the power to stop it.

[Cincinna]

FOR MORE ON MLP AND THE VIENNA BALL AT THE HOFBYRG PLACE ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY SEE:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2839373/posts

MARINE LE PEN ATTENDS NEO-NAZI BALL ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

This confirms what I have been telling you all along about MLP. She is no kind of conservative, but a neo-Nazi anti-Semitic neo-Fascist. She has connection with all the extremist and skinhead groups in Europe.

MLP is her father in drag, and far more dangerous.

Christian and Jewish Ping Lists and other relevant Lists please copy.

[nutmeg]

To anyone who doubts her neo-fascist sympathies, leanings and connections, please be reminded that Marine le Pen was guest of honor this year at the fascist gathering, Vienna’s Hofbrau Ball, held on Holocoast Memorial Day. MLP has never distanced herself from her father’s Holocoast denials, and his calling the extermination of six million Jews “a mere detail of history”.

Wow. Thanks for that info on Marine Le Pen...

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping and your posts. Fascinating and educational thread. Thanks to every poster.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cincinna.

[Impy]

I find it remarkable to see freepers voice support for Front National and the BNP. They could just do as little as visit the Wikipedia articles for those parties and see that they are nothing close to conservative or good. Would these people support some kook like Lyndon LaRoooooosh if he came out against Islam?

I have a question for you, is there a reason the elections for parliament are at a different time?

[Impy]

If you think Hollande is chilling check out the communist who came in 4th. He would destroy the country in a week.