'Migrant Caravan' Breaks Border Fence at Guatamala-Mexico Checkpoint (VIDEO)

Here's the video, via Associated Press, "Migrants force through fence at Mexican border: On Friday, the migrant caravan of at least 3,000 broke down gates at the Guatemalan border with Mexico and streamed toward a bridge to Mexico."

And here's Laura Ingraham with her opening "angle," at Fox News:

Wages Are Rising in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic

Well, you don't say?

At WSJ, "Labor Shortage Lifts Wages on Europe’s Eastern Flank":

Unlike in some Western economies, wages are rising fast as workers grow scarce in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic https://t.co/kX0itdZkNo

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 29, 2018

Unlike in some Western economies, wages are rising fast as workers grow scarce in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

BUDAPEST, Hungary—Akos Niklai says he has increased wages at his historic restaurant in downtown Budapest by around 20% in each of the past three years. He still struggles to retain staff.

The Hungarian businessman was recently forced to stop serving lunch on Sundays due to a worker shortage. Unemployment in this nation of 10 million people is at an all-time low of 3.6%, down from 10% five years ago.

“It is very hard to find labor in Budapest,” said Mr. Niklai. “Wages are still not high enough.”

In a half-dozen countries across Central and Eastern Europe, hourly labor costs are shooting up by 9% or more a year, defying a trend of weak wage growth that has bedeviled many advanced economies for years.

The increases seem to answer a question economists have been puzzling over for several years: Does low unemployment still cause wages to rise?

In many Western economies, that notion has been tested by slow wage growth despite falling jobless rates. But in places such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, supply and demand appear to be pushing up wages as labor becomes scarce.

“These fundamental economic mechanisms are still working,” said Nigel Pain, an economist in Paris with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “If labor markets tighten we will see some pick up in price pressures.”

The wage increases are also putting pressure on Eastern European leaders—many of whom have called for stricter limits on immigration—to allow in more workers or risk lower future economic growth.

In Poland, for example, job vacancies are at a record high, and more than 40% of manufacturing firms say labor shortages are limiting production, according to a March OECD report. Poland’s ruling party has opposed immigration from Muslim countries, and the European Union has sued Poland and other countries for refusing to accept refugees under an EU-wide relocation plan.

“Wage pressure is rising,” said Andrzej Malinowski, the president of Employers of Poland, a business federation. Around 40% of large Polish companies employ workers from neighboring Ukraine, and 30% intend to hire Ukrainians in the near future, said Mr. Malinowski.

Migration patterns have been a major factor behind the wage boom. Labor is particularly scarce in the former communist states because workers have been migrating to Western Europe, where they can earn more. And limits on immigration from outside the EU add to the labor squeeze.

Low unemployment has also given workers more bargaining power. In the Czech Republic—where unemployment is 2.3%, the lowest in the EU—average wages grew by around 6% year-over-year in the three months through June, after adjusting for inflation, close to a 15-year high. Workers at Skoda Auto, the Czech unit of Volkswagen AG , recently got a pay raise of 12% and bigger bonuses.

Amazon.com Inc. announced in early August that it would sharply increase hourly wages for its workers across the region—by between 5% and 11% for staff in the Czech Republic, by up to 17% in Poland and by as much as 20% in Slovakia, a spokeswoman said.

“Eastern European countries are trying to persuade workers not to leave,” said Dan Bucsa, an economist with Italian bank UniCredit who focuses on the region...

Keep reading.

Germany is 'Unsettled' by Islamic 'Refugees'

Change is a coming.

Change to Germany. Change for the better, and it's about time.

Sheesh.

At Poltico E.U., "German far right fuels Muslim ‘takeover’ fears: A series of violent crimes committed by refugees is unsettling the nation":

Can Germany survive Islam? That question is once again at the center of the country’s public discourse https://t.co/kcbUD4KyI4

— POLITICO Europe (@POLITICOEurope) September 3, 2018

BERLIN — Can Germany survive Islam?

That question is once again at the center of the country’s public discourse amid the violent protests that followed last week’s brutal killing of a German man, allegedly at the hands of two Muslim refugees, and the publication of a new book titled “Hostile Takeover, how Islam halts progress and threatens society.”

On Saturday, about 11,000 people (8,000 right-wing and far-right protesters and about 3,000 anti-Nazis, according to police estimates) took to the streets of the eastern German city of Chemnitz, where the killing occurred. Eighteen people were injured, including a TV reporter who was thrown down a flight of stairs.

There’s nothing new about such clashes, or even the debate over Islam. What the past week reveals, however, is the degree to which the refugee influx since 2015 continues to dominate the country’s politics and fuel support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The pictures of marauding neo-Nazis in Chemnitz suggest the German government has largely failed to keep the violent extreme right in check, despite decades of trying.

By all rights, Germany should be celebrating a golden era. Unemployment is the lowest it’s been since reunification amid robust economic growth. The country’s public debt is on course to fall below 60 percent of gross domestic product this year, meaning Berlin will fulfill the Maastricht criteria for the first time in almost 20 years.

Despite Germany’s growing prosperity, its society is seething as the negative consequences of taking in more than 1 million asylum seekers since 2015 sink in. “Who should be allowed in?” asked Der Spiegel on its cover last week. This week’s cover, devoted to Saxony, the state where the violence occurred, reads: “When the right grabs power.”

Thilo Sarrazin, the former Bundesbank official and provocateur who wrote “Hostile Takeover,” has tapped into Germany’s unease about the refugee influx with a dystopian prediction of what lies ahead...

Keep reading.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From

I'm posting this FWIW, because I fear that leftists and center-leftists continue to "not get it" about the rise of populist nationalism.

At Amazon, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy.

New Populist, Anti-Establishment Government Takes Over in Italy

A specter is haunting Europe, the specter of populist-nationalism.

From Professor Michael Curtis, at American Thinker, "Harmony and Discord in Italy":

THIS!
Harmony and Discord in Italy - A new populist government in #Italy threatens to upend the entire #EuropeanUnion arrangement...#EU #globalism #CCOT #PJNET https://t.co/qPBwltvgld

— patriotgirl ن (@Jesus_isPeace) June 3, 2018

Volare, oh, oh, away from the maddening crowds, we can leave the confusion and all disillusion behind!  Such has often been the chant of Italians in search of the elusive political rainbow.  "Così Cosà" may have had little meaning when sung in the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera, but its gist of tolerant acceptance is meaningful in the effervescent world of Italian politics.

Changing of governments is a familiar fad in Italy.  Since the end of World War II 73 years ago, Italy has had 64 governments, and six in the last ten years.

On June 1, 2018, an agreement was reached by the two leading parties in parliament to form the 65th, a coalition government, an improbable and unnatural mixture of left and right, a populist coalition with contradictory policies, to end the weeks of political chaos and wrangling, the longest stalemate in Italian politics.

The political and economic crisis since March 2018 destabilized not only the Italian, but also the European financial system, at least temporarily.  With the appointment of a new government, European stocks closed higher.  Yet are the barbarians within the city walls?  The question remains whether the populists in power with their sharp rhetoric and outlook are a danger to democratic institutions and whether they can reach harmony with the Italian elite and abide by the fiscal rules of the European Union, already troubled by Brexit and other matters.

Italy is the fourth largest country in the E.U., accounting for 15.4% of the eurozone's GDP and 23% of its public debt.  But 32% of those under 25, and 10% of all Italians, are unemployed.  Only 64% of young people with degrees are employed.  Next to Greece, Italy has the highest debt level in the E.U., 132% of GDP, more than twice the E.U. requirement.

A variety of issues confront the new government: membership of the eurozone; the need for economic growth and productivity; the proposals for guaranteed income, pensions, and flat income tax; more foreign investment; reversal of E.U. free trade rules; immigration, 181,000 in 2016; and change in international relations and closer ties with Russia.

The new coalition brings together the two leading parties, the Five Star and the League (formerly the Northern League), and an odd couple of young leaders.  To this has been added a compromise figure, a little known University of Florence academic lawyer, 53-year-old Giuseppe Conte, a man with no previous political experience, as prime minister, heading a cabinet of 18, of whom five are women.  It is curious that Conte has stated he "perfected" his legal studies at NYU and the Sorbonne, though neither university has any record of him.

In the inconclusive March 2018 election for the 630 seats in Parliament, the two populist anti-establishment and anti-European parties won 349 seats.  Five Star, a party formed in 2009 mainly by stand up comedian Beppe Grillo, got 32% of the vote and 222 seats, mostly in the South, while the League got 17% and 124 seats, mostly in the industrial North.

The Five Star is now led by a telegenic, easygoing, youngish looking Neapolitan millennial, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio.  He spoke strongly against corruption and for direct democracy.  He came out equally strongly for a referendum on the eurozone, which he called a failed economic and social experiment, but he seems, taking the position of minister of labor and industry, to have moderated his position in recent weeks.

The leader of the League is the Milanese-born 45-year-old Matteo Salvini, college drop-out, tireless campaigner, and shrewd manipulator of social media, who changed the stance of the party from a regional group calling for the wealthy North to secede from Italy to a far-right party like the French F.N.  Much of his success was based on his opposition to immigration, especially the 750,000 who had entered since 2011, and his call for mass deportation and for deportation centers around Italy.  Now that he has become interior minister, it remains to be seen whether he will implement his proposals.  He is said to have praised Russian president Vladimir Putin, opposes sanctions against Russia, and seeks closer ties with Russia.  For the U.S., this appears more significant than his complicated sex life.

The two populist parties are divided on issues...

Yeah, let's see those deportations from Italy, heh. Heads will explode in Brussels, and among American bleeding-heart leftists.

Keep reading.

When Old Left and Far Right Share a Bedroom

Pretty interesting.

At NYT, "A Very German Love Story: When Old Left and Far Right Share a Bedroom":

Helmut Lethen, 79, and Caroline Sommerfeld, 42, both writers, represent two generations and two intellectual camps in an ever more divided Germany. They are political enemies. And they are married, having the conversation their country is not. https://t.co/uoHdp8IPIR

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) May 1, 2018

VIENNA — When she says identity, he hears exclusion.

When he says diversity, she hears Islamization.

He accuses her of forgetting history. She accuses him of obsessing with history. He calls her a racist. She calls him a national masochist.

Helmut Lethen, 79, and Caroline Sommerfeld, 42, are both writers. They represent two generations and two intellectual camps in an ever more divided Germany. They are political enemies.

And they are married.

Their marriage is exceptional, incomprehensible even, but it is also a laboratory for tolerance and a rare window into how the other side thinks. Intimately and daily, they are having the conversation their country is not.

It is a very German love story (though the couple reside in Austria, where the husband teaches), one neatly pegged to the 50th anniversary of the counterculture movement that remains a touchstone of global postwar history — and to the ascent of the counter-counterculture movement of today.

May 1968 was as important in Europe as it was in the United States, fueled similarly by a youth bulge, sexual liberation, disgust with the Vietnam War and general discontent with the era’s political establishment.

And it spawned much the same trajectory for its baby boomers, from budding student revolutionaries to button-down liberal elites.

Germany was no exception. And neither was Mr. Lethen.

A student activist at the time, Mr. Lethen toyed with Communism, rebelling against Germany’s postwar elites which, as he put it, “still stank of the Nazis” — only to become part of the country’s cultural mainstream.

Ms. Sommerfeld, a philosopher in her own right, was swept up in another countercultural movement: In the summer of 2015, as hundreds of thousands of refugees arrived in Germany, she discovered the “New Right,” the intellectual spearhead of a nationalist movement that considers Islam and globalization existential threats.

Her husband had celebrated the arrival of the refugees: “I think it is the first time in our cultural history that we have welcomed the foreign in this way,” he said.

Ms. Sommerfeld, though, felt “anxious” and “repelled.”

Today, she hopes her own fringe movement is tapping into a shifting zeitgeist that will reverberate in Germany and beyond, just as her husband’s did in its day.

“We are the megaphone of a silent majority,” she claims...

Well, I'm with her, to borrow a phrase, lol.

Still more.

Migration is Baloney

Seen on Twitter:

#Migration is:

• inevitable
• desirable
• necessary

this Easter, let’s not forget those who are caught in crises around the world 🌎 pic.twitter.com/e7fT1FE0D1

— IOM - UN Migration (@UNmigration) April 1, 2018

Bullshit. Send them home. https://t.co/I0aKw4Zyg0

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 3, 2018

Conservative Amnesia

Center-right parties in Europe have forgotten how to be conservative, argues Jan-Werner Mueller, at Foreign Policy, "Europe Forgot What ‘Conservative’ Means":

Whether or not to adapt to right-wing populism constitutes the major strategic dilemma for Europe’s center-right today, writes Jan-Werner Mueller. https://t.co/2hYxTYgKKd

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 21, 2018

Conventional wisdom has it that Europe’s social democrats are in terminal decline. In recent elections in Italy, Germany, and France, once proud left-wing mass parties have been reduced to at best getting a fifth of the vote. The obvious flip side of the mainstream left’s decline seems to be that populists but also the center-right are faring well. In fact, this picture is highly misleading. Center-right parties — European Christian democrats above all — face a real crisis. It is increasingly unclear what they stand for, and, unlike social democrats, they are in real danger of being replaced by the populist right.

Social democrats have been struggling because the “Third Way” pursued by leaders such as Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder during the late 1990s left them with an enormous credibility problem. They had not just tolerated but actively furthered finance capitalism; deregulation and increasing inequality happened under the watch of nominally left-wing governments, which today are perceived as having betrayed socialist ideals. But, importantly, it is not really in doubt what these ideals are. As the surprise success of Jeremy Corbyn in last year’s British general elections demonstrated, the left can still do remarkably well, under two conditions: Social democrats have to restore their credibility and reorient public attention away from the one issue that is most likely to split its core constituency — immigration. Whether one likes Corbyn’s ideas or not, it is remarkable that a grassroots movement, Momentum, largely captured the Labour Party and effectively erased its toxic association with the widely discredited Blairism.

In somewhat similar fashion, Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been trying to assert an agenda offering better protection for workers and more accessible health care. While this month’s decision to re-enter a grand coalition with the Christian Democrats has temporarily obscured this reorientation, the SPD will likely continue to sharpen its profile as a distinctively left-wing party in government.

If one asks, by contrast, what exactly Europe’s center-right stands for today, most citizens will be unable to articulate an answer. This has partly to do with historical amnesia — including forgetfulness on the part of center-right leaders themselves. After World War II, Christian democrats dominated politics in Germany, Italy, and, to a lesser extent, France. The circumstances were uniquely favorable for such moderate center-right parties, which claimed a religious, though nonsectarian, inspiration. Fascism had discredited the nationalist right; the horrors of the midcentury made many Europeans look for moral certainty in religion; and in the context of the Cold War, Christian democrats presented themselves as quintessentially anti-communist actors. Not least, they suggested that there was an affinity between the materialism of classical liberalism on the one hand and communism on the other — and that they were the only parties that clearly rejected both in favor of communitarian values. It is virtually forgotten today that Christian democratic parties had strong progressive elements — even if one occasionally gets a glimpse of that past: Matteo Renzi, who resigned as leader of Italy’s major left-wing party this month, had actually started his political life as a Christian Democrat.

Above all, Christian democrats were the original architects of European integration. They deeply distrusted the nation-state; the fact that, in the 19th century, both the newly unified Italy and the Germany united by Otto von Bismarck had waged prolonged culture wars against Catholics was seared in their collective memory. European integration also chimed with a distinct Christian democratic approach to politics in general: the imperative to mediate among distinct identities and interests. Ultimately, this quest for compromise among different groups (and, in Europe, states) went back to Pope Leo XIII’s idea — directed against rising socialist parties — that capital and labor could work together for the benefit of all in a harmonious society. Christian democracy had been a creation to avoid both culture war and class conflict.

Little is left of these legacies today. Christian democrats and other center-right parties continue to be pragmatists, but it is often unclear what, other than the imperative to preserve power, animates them in the first place. The European Union’s three main presidents — of the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council — are all Christian democrats. Yet none of them has advanced a bold vision for the union as a whole. All seem to take it for granted that citizens are wary of further integration. To be sure, this is the narrative right-wing populists push, but evidence from surveys is far more ambiguous.

Whether or not to adapt to right-wing populism constitutes the major strategic dilemma for Europe’s center-right today...

Actually, Christian Democrats today --- think Angela Merkel --- are basically leftists. Yeah, they better learn how to be conservative again, or be relegated to the dustbin of history. They need to conserve their own societies, for one thing. Sheesh.

But keep reading.

Lauren Southern Banned from the U.K. (VIDEO)

She's interviewed by Tommy Robinson, and at the Daily Wire below:

The @UKHomeOffice has its priorities in order! https://t.co/oaPLkVmT5W @lauren_southern

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 13, 2018

'Punish a Muslim Day'

This is pretty intense. And pretty terrible.

It's not defensible, although I will say that I'm not surprised and I expect we'll see more of this kind of thing. Western societies are at a boiling point over mass Islamic immigration, which is seen as an invasion. And leftist elites are oblivious to what's happening within their own communities. It's recipe for violence.

At the New York Times, the Guardian, the Mirror U.K.

‘Punish a Muslim Day’ Letters Rattle U.K. Communities https://t.co/hjbTTl7FA7

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 11, 2018

UK charity urges vigilance after 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters https://t.co/e4ByHecRHr

— The Guardian (@guardian) March 11, 2018

Horrific 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters sent out offering rewards for violencehttps://t.co/vrf6FvLzeS pic.twitter.com/6vHZg2SpjR

— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 10, 2018

Migrants Being Auctioned as Slaves in Libya

Well, I blame Obama for regime change Libya.

At the New York Times:

Protests in Paris seem to be getting officials' attention to end slave auctions of migrants in Libya https://t.co/zg9ZJte1wB

— Dionne Searcey (@dionnesearcey) November 20, 2017

Sebastian Kurz's People's Party Wins Parliamentary Elections in Austria - UPDATED!

At the Guardian U.K., "Conservative Sebastian Kurz on track to become Austria’s next leader: Centre of political gravity shifts right as projections put 31-year-old Kurz’s Austrian People’s party ahead in election with 31.7%."

And at WaPo, "Austria turns sharply to the right in an election shaped by immigration":

Early exit polls of Austria's Oct. 15 election, suggest Sebastian Kurz, will take his party into a very narrow majority — positioning himself as the next chancellor. The 31-year old conservative is known for his pledge to take the country into a more hard line stance against the influx of refugees and migrants.

BERLIN — Austria became the latest European country to take a sharp turn right on Sunday, with the conservative People’s Party riding a hard-line position on immigration to victory in national elections and likely to form a government with a nationalist party that has long advocated for an even tougher stance.

The result puts the 31-year-old foreign minister and People’s Party leader, Sebastian Kurz, in line to become Austria’s next chancellor after a campaign in which he emphasized the need to strengthen border controls, reduce caps on refugees and slash benefits for newcomers.

Much of Kurz’s rhetoric echoed positions long held by the Freedom Party, which for decades has anchored the far right of politics in this nation of 8.7 million.

With nearly all results counted as of Monday morning, the Freedom Party was in second place at 27.4 percent, with the ruling Social Democrats trailing close behind at 26.7 percent. The People’s Party was the decisive winner, at 31.6 percent.

“I’ll fight with all my strength for change in this country,” Kurz told cheering supporters — many clad in turquoise, the color he adopted to signal a new era for the People’s Party after decades of identification with black. “There’s a lot to do.”

Two years after Austria was among the more welcoming nations in Europe for refugees fleeing en masse across the continent, the results revealed just how sour public sentiment has turned. Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war, oppression and poverty passed through the central European nation on their way to destinations farther north and west in late 2015 and early 2016. Tens of thousands stayed in the country and applied for asylum protection.

“Austrians are fearful because of immigration and the refugee crisis,” said Reinhard Heinisch, a political scientist at the University of Salzburg. “Kurz addressed these fears, and played with these fears.”

As in other elections across Europe this year, the far right made significant progress, but not enough to triumph.

In France this spring, National Front leader Marine Le Pen made it to the final round of the presidential election. Just last month, the Alternative for Germany Party took 13 percent of the vote — putting a far-right party in the German Parliament for the first time in more than half a century.

But unlike in those nations, in Austria the far right is expected to become part of the government. Kurz will need a coalition partner to form a majority in the parliament, and the Freedom Party is considered the most likely option.

If he goes that route, it would end a “grand coalition” between Austria’s center left and center right that has led the country for the past decade, and for much of its modern history.

Some on Sunday called on Kurz to avoid teaming up with the Freedom Party...

A lot of good that'll do. Kurz himself is a former neo-Nazi, according to Sunday's report at the New York Times. I don't care for anyone with that kind of background and I denounce them. But I think it's just deserts for the radical left, who opened up Europe to the Muslim invasion, and thus opened up the European democracies to a resurgence of nativist, even racist, political parties.

More.

UPDATE: Correction, it's not Kurz who belonged to neo-Nazi groups previously, but Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, which came in second in Sunday's election and is likely to enter the government in a coalition with Kurz's People's Party.

Knocked Him Out with One Punch

Heh.

This is good!

VIDEO:🚨Migrants attack a couple and instantly regret it!

OMG I could watch this a million times!

RT and share the love!🤣 pic.twitter.com/zKtd26Sfrj

— Zak Zale🔹 (@ZakZale) July 27, 2017

Tourists Go Home! (Refugees Welcome.)

At Theo's, "Socialists in Spain Put Their Twisted Logic on Public Display."

'Despite heavy censorship by the hopelessly ‘progressive’ government in Sweden the world has learned about the rape epidemic that is being enjoyed by their Muslim immigrant population which has earned the Scandinavian basket case the dubious title of rape capital of the world...'

At Cambrian Dissenters, "American Girl Has a Message for Muslims and the Women of Sweden."

VIDEO: George Clooney — Hypocrite (and Complete Idiot)

I'm shaking my head at this.

Actions speak louder than words, and Clooney's proving how wrong leftists are, and how hypocritical is the entire leftist establishment.

At London's Daily Mail, "George Clooney 'planning to move Amal and their twins back to LA amid security concerns over $25m English country manor', claims magazine."

And watch, from Paul Joseph Watson:

Sweden Steps Up Deportation

Sweden's stepping back into the real world.

At Foreign Affairs, "Asylum Is Hard to Find: Most of the unaccompanied minors who made it to Sweden have yet to receive their asylum decisions."

Good I say. Good on Sweden. Boot those "unaccompanied minors."

Grim: Libyan Red Crescent Recovered Dead Bodies of at Least 24 Migrants Off the Coast of Tripoli (VIDEO)

I'd say this is unconscionable, but it's par for the course in European politics.

Until the EU leadership, and especially Germany, get the refugee scandal under control, they can't say jack about the U.S., the Trump administration, or "human rights."

Content Warning, at Ruptly, "Libya: 24 migrants found dead off Tajura coast *GRAPHIC*: The Libyan Red Crescent recovered the dead bodies of at least 24 migrants, who lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean in a bid to reach Europe, off the Tajura coast, some 14 kilometres (8,69 miles) east of Tripoli, Tuesday."

Emmanuel Macron's Emails Hacked Ahead of French Presidential Election (VIDEO)

Heh.

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

They won't 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.”

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.

Keep reading.