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Forget Trump. Forget Brexit. A Le Pen win on Sunday could be the West’s biggest shock this century
The Toronto Star ^ | May 5, 2017 | Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post

Posted on 05/05/2017 11:46:59 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

If Marine Le Pen wins, it’s almost certainly the end of the EU, experts say — and that could bring economic and political turmoil unlike anything the West has seen in decades.

Forget Britain’s vote for Brexit. Forget U.S. President Donald Trump’s November win. If Marine Le Pen somehow defeats Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential runoff vote on Sunday, it may be the biggest electoral shock in the West so far this century.

A win by the leader of the French far right would see a leading European nation select a president emphatically opposed to globalization and integration, friendly to authoritarian Russia and tethered to a party, the National Front, that is steeped in a history of neo-fascism, extremism and bigotry. It could prefigure the dissolution of the European Union, trigger new economic chaos and hammer home the last nail in the coffin of an already ailing liberal order.

A Le Pen victory “means the collapse of the EU, because the EU without France doesn’t make any sense,” Gerard Araud, France’s ambassador in Washington, said in a conversation with The Washington Post earlier this year. “And it means the collapse of the euro and a financial crisis, which will have consequences throughout the world.”

It’s still an unlikely outcome.....

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brexit; france; franceelection; lepen; thewest; trump
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Related: Exclusive – Paris Generation Identitaire Leader: ‘This is the Last Election We Have’ to Make Powerful Solutions for France’s Future

Pretty sobering. The guy has been personally beat up. Says you can't walk in North Paris.

21 posted on 05/05/2017 11:58:57 AM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

friendly to authoritarian Russia and tethered to a party, the National Front, that is steeped in a history of neo-fascism, extremism and bigotry...

Well at least it’s an unbiased article :)


22 posted on 05/05/2017 11:59:37 AM PDT by dp0622 (IThe only thing an upper crust Conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: TexasGunLover

I don’t believe the media regarding her chances any more than I did about Trump.

And I don’t buy that it will automatically crash the Euro or cause a financial crisis.

French stocks will probably go up, just like the US did for Trump. Other European stocks might take a hit. But did Brexit cause a crisis? No. Will Frexit? Prob not.


23 posted on 05/05/2017 12:01:33 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Using Islamic armies to do what its own armies couldn’t, Germany now controls all of Western Europe.


24 posted on 05/05/2017 12:01:51 PM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: nikos1121

A vote for Macron is a vote for the status quo. The French (and I speak French, have been there multiple times and follow their politics via the web in French) love them some shit that someone else paid for (i.e. free shit). The French will not give up their free shit until they are forced too, just like the French Army could have put Hitler down in 1936, when the Nazi’s broke the Versailles treaty. But the did not and counted on others to do their bleeding and dying for them. In 5 years when the next French presidential election is scheduled will be too late for LePen and the French will be muslimized. At that point they don’t get to immigrate here because they will bring the same disastrous policies with them that screwed up their country. And I’ve got a military age son that I refuse to put at risk for their sake. They had the chance and blew it again. Twice in the last 100 years we’ve repaid their help from our Revolution. No third time. “Apres moi, le deluge.” is their motto. Ours should be “Don’t tread on me.”


25 posted on 05/05/2017 12:03:36 PM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: Mamzelle
There won’t be a next time—if she loses, France is kaput.

Completely agree.

26 posted on 05/05/2017 12:04:06 PM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: TexasGunLover

Marine will win either this time or next time but she will win!!! Odds very,very high!!!


27 posted on 05/05/2017 12:05:34 PM PDT by GilGil (E. Deplorabus Unum)
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To: Puppage

Bye, Bye, France. It is sad that many Americans gave their lives in WWI & WWII to give you the opportunity to live free.


28 posted on 05/05/2017 12:06:14 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation camp?)
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To: nikos1121

It will be as Kek wills it.


29 posted on 05/05/2017 12:06:15 PM PDT by linear (The truth brooks no arbiters.)
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To: Mamzelle

Mamzelle’s point exactly spot on. With Macron opening the illegal immigration/refugee floodgates even wider, the demographics of La Belle France are going to change even further. Hundreds of thousands more new “Frenchmen”, nouveaux cityoens, mean that any LePen or any conservative or even moderate stands absolutely no chance in a national election.


30 posted on 05/05/2017 12:10:01 PM PDT by nuvista (Who's loving that "fundamental transformation" of America?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If Le Pen loses ISIS might as well do another attack next day because they will have been planning for months.


31 posted on 05/05/2017 12:11:08 PM PDT by Mozilla (Truth Is Stranger than Fiction.)
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To: hal ogen
Bye, Bye, France. It is sad that many Americans gave their lives in WWI & WWII to give you the opportunity to live free.

Interesting you said that and it's true. So many cemeteries throughout France.

I had this random thought last week that I want Le Pen to win so we don't have another Normandy. Don't know where that came from but it hit me like a ton of bricks. Let's hope it never happens. . again.

32 posted on 05/05/2017 12:11:10 PM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why do normal, reasonable, balanced people always get called “far right”, while crazy leftists get to be called “moderate”?

I know... because it’s the media that get to choose the adjective, and they think leftism is normal.

Somehow we need to take back the language from these self appointed news readers and talking heads. It seems all they have to do is add self serving adjectives to their headlines and they’ve already won the battle of words without anyone even reading the article.

Maybe the least we could do is not pay lip service by repeating their headlines verbatim.

FR policy of not altering the original headline has its merits I’m sure, but when I scan headlines for something to read, it is often a list of intentionally misleading headlines tailored by MSM to reinforce pejorative associations with conservative ideas, and to assign moral high-ground for leftist ideas. Why do we carry their water?

Maybe at least add a (barf) alert or put a (sic) after the misleading adjectives.


33 posted on 05/05/2017 12:13:19 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: TexasGunLover

People forget, the RCP poll average had Trump down 2.1%. In the final popular vote, he lost by 2.1%. So at a national level, the polls were pretty accurate. Thankfully, state polling, which is less reliable, was more off, but even then, not by the levels that LePen is down, 20-30%.


34 posted on 05/05/2017 12:14:01 PM PDT by Wayne07
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

35 posted on 05/05/2017 12:14:06 PM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: Sacajaweau

http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/124234624

/pol/ just dropped a motherload of emails on Macron. People are sifting through.


36 posted on 05/05/2017 12:14:20 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
A win by the leader of the French far right would see a leading European nation select a president emphatically opposed to globalization and integration

Some one tell me the down side to this!!!

37 posted on 05/05/2017 12:15:16 PM PDT by ontap
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To: Art in Idaho

As a side note, she has lovely eyes.


38 posted on 05/05/2017 12:16:30 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Art in Idaho
vive Le France!


39 posted on 05/05/2017 12:18:31 PM PDT by drewh
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
Wow, that's big. Hope the French press covers it.
40 posted on 05/05/2017 12:18:39 PM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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