The French media is abuzz with the stunningly strong showing of the far right, more so even than the Socialist's victory in the first round of voting for France's president for the next 5 years. Marine Le Pen got more votes than her father who founded her party on resentment against immigrants and European immigration and nostalgia for past French greatness and unapologetic exceptionalism (sound familiar). She is a bit like a more articulate, far more intelligent, and in some ways more overtly right wing agitator than Sarah Palin. in other words she is far more dangerous To her credit though, unlike Palin she also represents the interests of workers hurt by la crise (as the French refer to the economic slowdown following the recession caused by American the mortgage-backed securities debacle under the Bush administration) and believes in a strong social safety net, just one for French only (non-native born need not apply particularly if they have funny names and "look Muslim" (how does one look like a religion? OK, it was Sarkozy who actually made the "looks Muslim" remark following the shootings in Toulouse but she has said similar things)). Her father once famously said that France was never so well-run as under the German occupation and that the Holocaust was not that great a tragedy in the grand scheme of things (it's actually illegal to say the latter in many Western European countries but he came close). I took this picture last week in France when the elections were in full swing.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
French elections : it is hard to believe this person got almost 20% of the French first round presidential votes...
The French media is abuzz with the stunningly strong showing of the far right, more so even than the Socialist's victory in the first round of voting for France's president for the next 5 years. Marine Le Pen got more votes than her father who founded her party on resentment against immigrants and European immigration and nostalgia for past French greatness and unapologetic exceptionalism (sound familiar). She is a bit like a more articulate, far more intelligent, and in some ways more overtly right wing agitator than Sarah Palin. in other words she is far more dangerous To her credit though, unlike Palin she also represents the interests of workers hurt by la crise (as the French refer to the economic slowdown following the recession caused by American the mortgage-backed securities debacle under the Bush administration) and believes in a strong social safety net, just one for French only (non-native born need not apply particularly if they have funny names and "look Muslim" (how does one look like a religion? OK, it was Sarkozy who actually made the "looks Muslim" remark following the shootings in Toulouse but she has said similar things)). Her father once famously said that France was never so well-run as under the German occupation and that the Holocaust was not that great a tragedy in the grand scheme of things (it's actually illegal to say the latter in many Western European countries but he came close). I took this picture last week in France when the elections were in full swing.
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