Thursday, June 22, 2017
Marine Le Pen Wins Seat in French National Assembly
At France 24, "Le Pen wins parliamentary seat but French far-right party stalls."
Also at Astute Bloggers, "MARINE LE PEN WINS 1ST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION."
Monday, June 19, 2017
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Theresa May on Cover of the New Charlie Hebdo
What's up with all the beheading of heads of government?
At Althouse, "'Too much is too much!' says the severed head of Theresa May on the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo."
I think I can see this as true satire, whereas not so much with Kathy Griffin, but you be the judge.
And from the comments at Althouse, "This is quite different, though, from the Griffin bit. That it has to be explained is kind depressing, though..."
And at Pamela's, "Charlie Hebdo’s beheads U.K. P.M Theresa May."
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Brittany Pettibone
She traveled to France to cover the election --- in style, I might add.
Off to Paris for the French Election. May Le Pen be victorious! pic.twitter.com/eLnoKSkNmu
— Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) May 5, 2017
Why Macron Won
Et voilà. MUST READ this very good @AdamNossiter analysis of why Emmanuel Macron won and Marine Le Pen lost. https://t.co/EPWo2V6ofz— Rachel Donadio — NYT (@RachelDonadio) May 8, 2017
PARIS — The French presidential runoff transcended national politics. It was globalization against nationalism. It was the future versus the past. Open versus closed.More.
But in his resounding victory on Sunday night, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist who has never held elected office, won because he was the beneficiary of a uniquely French historic and cultural legacy, where many voters wanted change but were appalled at the type of populist anger that had upturned politics in Britain and the United States. He trounced the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, keeping her well under 40 percent, even as her aides said before the vote that anything below that figure would be considered a failure.
His victory quickly brought joy from Europe’s political establishment, especially since a Le Pen victory would have plunged the European Union into crisis. But in the end, Mr. Macron, only 39, a former investment banker and an uninspired campaigner, won because of luck, an unexpected demonstration of political skill, and the ingrained fears and contempt that a majority of French still feel toward Ms. Le Pen and her party, the National Front.
For the past year, a pressing political question has been whether widespread public frustration against Western political establishments had morphed into a global populist movement. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June, followed by the presidential election of Donald J. Trump in the United States, created the impression of a mounting wave. Ms. Le Pen, stalwart of the European far right, was the next truly big test.
But Ms. Le Pen’s challenge was different because French history is different. She has spent the last six years as president of the National Front single-mindedly focused on one objective: erasing the stain of her party’s association with the ex-collaborationists, right-wing extremists, immigrant-hating racists and anti-Semites who founded it 45 years ago.
She knew — as her father, the party patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen, always refused to acknowledge — that she would always be a minority candidate as long as she reminded the French of perhaps the greatest stain in their history, the four years of far-right rule during World War II. Inside and outside the party this process was called “undemonization” — a term suggesting the demons still associated with her party. The French do not want them back.
“There was no choice. I couldn’t vote for Le Pen. You’re not going to vote for the extremist,” said Martine Nurit, 52, a small-restaurant owner who had just cast her ballot in Paris’s 20th Arrondissement on Sunday. She had voted for the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, on April 23, and it was with “not an ounce of joy” that she voted for the “business-oriented” Mr. Macron in the second.
“Mostly, I voted against Le Pen,” she said.
In the end Ms. Le Pen failed to “undemonize,” spectacularly. She failed during the course of the campaign, when her angry rallies drew the Front inexorably back into the swamp from which it had emerged. And then she failed decisively in one of the campaign’s critical moments, last week’s debate with Mr. Macron, when she effectively “redemonized” herself and the party, as many French commentators noted...
You know, that's fair enough, as far as it goes. I wouldn't vote for a party that was essentially the Vichy warmed over. But that's not what the National Front is today. Alas, too late. The party's going to change its name, attempting to put its so-called collaborationist, right-wing extremist, immigrant-hating, and racist anti-Semitic history behind. At Politico:
National Front will change its name after Le Pen’s defeat https://t.co/psbUtUDRA4 pic.twitter.com/90v1Yh2aGj
— POLITICO Europe (@POLITICOEurope) May 7, 2017
Monday, May 8, 2017
Macron's Regime: So It Begins
And so it begins. pic.twitter.com/Upa8AKmBJW— Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) May 8, 2017
ADDED: It's worth noting, but this Breitbart piece is a week old. Still, it definitely "begins" with the election of that dang macaroon.
Emmanuel Macron, No Nutritional Value
France's Surrender
Pro-Brexit group compares Macron’s election win to France’s surrender in World War II – POLITICO https://t.co/tetkA5oqEp— Mike Allen (@AMike4761) May 8, 2017
And from Ben Garrison:
Don't do it #France No Suicide by Political Correctness! #VivelaFrance #jevotepour #LePen #BenGarrison #cartoons https://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/tUO8xqQCdl
— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) May 7, 2017
Au revoir en France! #MacronPresident #frenchelection https://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/Djg7UfcZKG
— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) May 7, 2017
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Emmanuel Macron Beats Marine Le Pen
At Bloomberg and the Telegraph U.K.:
Emmanuel Macron beats Marine Le Pen in the #Frenchelection with 65% of vote - exit polls https://t.co/6aSX0XS5dJ pic.twitter.com/oSUq89nrTJ— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) May 7, 2017
39-year-old Macron will become the youngest president in French history https://t.co/kXLJZUcWM6 #Presidentielle2017 pic.twitter.com/4Wz8a5fg5Q— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) May 7, 2017
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Emmanuel Macron's Emails Hacked Ahead of French Presidential Election (VIDEO)
You gotta love it.
At the Telegraph U.K., "French election: Are Russian hackers to blame for Emmanuel Macron's leaked emails - and could they target UK general election?"
Is the Macron campaign that stupid? They can't secure their own emails? Like John Podesta caught in a phishing scam? These people are idiots.
More from Jack Posobiec, at the Rebel:
Prominent French Leftists to Abstain in Sunday's Presidential Vote
Looks like the so-called establishment candidate, Emmanuel Macron, doesn't appeal to the leftist establishment.
At NYT:
Pascal Bruckner, Zeev Sternhell, Agnès Varda, Sophia Aram et al vs. Emmanuel Todd & other left-wing abstainers. https://t.co/181ymA8KP2— Rachel Donadio — NYT (@RachelDonadio) May 6, 2017
PARIS — The French comedian Sophia Aram took to the airwaves of one of France’s most popular morning radio shows this week. In the squealy voice of a teenage girl, she cried, “I can be against toothbrushes, and against cavities!” She then added: “Hashtag: NeitherCheeseNorDessert.”Keep reading.
Ms. Aram was making light of what she saw as a worrisome trend ahead of the French presidential election on Sunday, a race that has divided the country’s intellectuals and cultural figures: voters, especially on the left, who might abstain or cast a blank ballot because they intensely dislike both the centrist front-runner Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen.
The “Neither-Nor” impulse, as it’s called here, was a factor in past French elections, but greater discontent — with conventional political parties and the European Union — has been particularly strong this time.
“A lot of people don’t recognize themselves in either of these candidates,” said Sudhir Hazareesingh, a politics professor at Oxford University and the author of “How the French Think.” The backdrop is a French left that’s divided, especially over the big Cs: capitalism and communism — and the collapse of the governing Socialist party in this election.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Michael Marrus and Robert Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews
New Political Reality for France
See, "Macron vs. Le Pen: A New Political Reality for France."
Macron vs. Le Pen: A New Political Reality for France https://t.co/fMLuVVjRSj pic.twitter.com/CSIEbPDLrP
— SPIEGEL English (@SPIEGEL_English) April 24, 2017
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen
At Amazon, Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen, and France’s National Front
From Claire Berlinski, at Ricochet.
My last-minute thoughts on Marine Le Pen, which I pray will within hours will be found irrelevant. https://t.co/6cr21E0qVG
— Claire Berlinski (@ClaireBerlinski) April 23, 2017
Far-Left Could Help Marine Le Pen
At the New York Times, "Marine Le Pen May Get a Lift From an Unlikely Source: The Far Left":
Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate in France's election, may get a lift from the far left https://t.co/HHsAk4ui52— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 26, 2017
PARIS — The far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces an uphill battle in France’s presidential runoff, less than two weeks away. But she saw daylight through a small window on Tuesday, and from an unlikely source: her defeated counterpart on the far left.Keep reading.
Alone among all of France’s major political personalities, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of his own “France Unsubjugated” movement, who finished a strong fourth in Sunday’s voting, has refused to endorse Ms. Le Pen’s opponent, the former economy minister Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Mélenchon’s critics say his obstinacy is petulant, wounded pride that can only help Ms. Le Pen’s National Front. But it also speaks to the passions that Mr. Macron, a seemingly mild-mannered centrist, provokes in large parts of the French electorate, far left and far right, who share a view of the 39-year-old former investment banker as a fire-breathing incarnation of evil market culture.
As populism and anger over the impacts of globalization energize much of the electorate, Mr. Mélenchon’s stand has added a new element of uncertainty into the final round of voting on May 7.
It has also set off a dynamic in the French race much like when Hillary Clinton defeated Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primaries last year — leaving his supporters, still in the thrall of populism, up for grabs as party allegiances broke down.
Mr. Mélenchon’s 19.6 percent of the vote Sunday is now a rich booty — triple the score of the mainstream Socialist Party, whose collapse has elevated Mr. Mélenchon to be de facto leader of the French left. He even won in big cities like Marseille and Lille.
But it is not clear where that vote will now go, not least because far-left populism and far-right populism may have more in common than the seemingly vast gulf between them on the political spectrum would suggest.
Mr. Mélenchon, 65, a former Trotskyite, ran a campaign denouncing banks, globalization and the European Union — just like Ms. Le Pen.
A grizzled orator with a penchant for Latin American dictators, he has the same forgiving attitude she does toward the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin.
Both were competing for working-class voters suspicious of the global financial elite. Mr. Macron had already “ruined the lives of thousands of people” with his pro-market policies, Mr. Mélenchon said during the campaign.
And like Ms. Le Pen, Mr. Mélenchon regularly attacked the news media during the campaign. On election night, after his defeat, he tore into what he called “mediacrats” and “oligarchs.” They were “rejoicing” over “two candidates who approve and want to maintain the current institutions” of government, the longtime fan of Castro and Hugo Chávez said.
The shared lines of attack gave the candidates at the political extremes their best showings ever, if from opposite ends of the spectrum. Mr. Mélenchon almost doubled his 2012 result, refused to concede for hours and then attacked both finalists, refusing to distinguish between them.
In that, he is alone. Across the board, politicians and other former candidates have urgently counseled their supporters to vote for Mr. Macron to block Ms. Le Pen’s path to the Élysée Palace...
Monday, April 24, 2017
ICYMI: Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, Far-Right Politics in Europe
French Political Parties Unify Against Le Pen: 'This Is Deadly Serious Now'
Following-up from yesterday, "'It is worth underlining that this is the first time in modern French history that neither of the mainstream centre-right or centre-left parties of government that have governed France since the second world war have qualified for the second round of a presidential election...'"
At the New York Times:
French parties unify against Le Pen: "This is deadly serious now" https://t.co/iM7ZKA09cZ pic.twitter.com/CYCgC3y7HL
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 24, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
'It is worth underlining that this is the first time in modern French history that neither of the mainstream centre-right or centre-left parties of government that have governed France since the second world war have qualified for the second round of a presidential election...'
At the Guardian U.K., "French election: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen estimated through to second round – live - Independent centrist Macron estimated to have taken 23.7% of vote with Front National leader Le Pen on 21.7%; official results to follow."
And at Blazing Cat Fur, "France faces its own EU referendum as far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who supports an exit, and Europhile Emmanuel Macron split the first-round vote to go head to head in presidential elections."
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, Far-Right Politics in Europe
In Europe today, staunchly nationalist parties such as France’s National Front and the Austrian Freedom Party are identified as far-right movements, though supporters seldom embrace that label. More often, “far right” is pejorative, used by liberals to tar these groups with the taint of Fascism, Nazism, and other discredited ideologies. Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg’s critical look at the far right throughout Europe―from the United Kingdom to France, Germany, Poland, Italy, and elsewhere―reveals a prehistory and politics more complex than the stereotypes suggest and warns of the challenges these movements pose to the EU’s liberal-democratic order.
The European far right represents a confluence of many ideologies: nationalism, socialism, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism. In the first half of the twentieth century, the radical far right achieved its apotheosis in the regimes of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. But these movements have evolved significantly since 1945, as Far-Right Politics in Europe makes clear. The 1980s marked a turning point in political fortunes, as national-populist parties began winning seats in European parliaments. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the United States, a new wave has unfurled, one that is explicitly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic in outlook.
Though Europe’s far-right parties differ in important respects, they are motivated by a common sense of mission: to save their homelands from what they view as the corrosive effects of multiculturalism and globalization by creating a closed-off, ethnically homogeneous society. Members of these movements are increasingly determined to gain power through legitimate electoral means. In democracies across Europe, they are succeeding.