Neo-Nazi? That has always been the Leftist refrain when those on the Right win votes. It is like playing the race card here. 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.
Yet, the basics have not changed. Marine Le Pen, putting the accent on patriotism, deplores what she says is France’s loss of sovereignty to the European Union and to globalization, the nation’s perceived loss of identity and what she claims are real dangers hidden within France’s Muslim community, which at 5 million is the largest in western Europe.
Le Pen wants France, and other euro zone nations, to give up the euro currency. She wants to drastically reduce the number of immigrants — to 10,000 a year — and, a top theme, to crack down for good on what she claims is the growing footprint of Islamic fundamentalists in France.
“They are advancing in the neighborhoods. They are putting pressure on the population. They are recruiting young boys” to train for jihad, she said.
It is probably apt to call her a fascist. Fascism is not inherently anti-semetic, and a lot of her economic positions that I’ve heard of sound like she’s for Italian corporatism 2.0.
She isn’t opposed to the idea that the government heavily intervenes in the market, just how it is being currently used. So she thinks that price setting, wage controls, import controls, banning or restricting foreign ownership of companies, ect, are all well and good. She’s against the privatization of government industries, increasing the age of retirement above 60 years, and so on. Just because someone is opposed to socialists or Muslim immigration hardly makes them conservative in the American sense.
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.
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).