Marine Le Pen, Far-Right Nationalist Gaining on Macron Ahead of French Election

[appalachiablue]

- Marine Le Pen of France's National Rally party delivers a speech on April 7, 2022 in Perpignan, France. Le Pen is running for president in the election taking place on April 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Le_Pen
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'Far-Right Nationalist Le Pen Gaining on Macron Ahead of French Election.' Common Dreams, April 8, 2022. - Ed. The leader of the anti-immigration National Rally party has focused her campaign on issues affecting working French families, while President Emmanuel Macron has been derided as a "president of the rich."

Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is closing in on President Emmanuel Macron's lead, according to poll numbers released ahead of Sunday's first-round presidential election. Polling data collected by French journalist Alexandre Léchenet this week showed that as of Thursday, centrist Macron is leading the presidential field with more than 25% of respondents saying they would support him on Sunday, while Le Pen's support hovers in "the low 20s."

"There was a clear strategy to hide what is brutal in her program. Her fundamentals have not changed: It's a racist program that aims to divide society and is very brutal." In polls placing Macron in a matchup with only Le Pen, the president has just a two-to-eight point lead. By contrast, in early March, Le Pen was 10 points behind the president, who beat her by more than 30 points in the 2017 runoff election. After Sunday's first round, a runoff on April 24 is likely this year, as no candidate is currently expected to win a majority of the vote on Sunday.

According to The Economist, Macron has a 98% chance of making it to the runoff while Le Pen has a 93% chance of advancing.

While Le Pen's party is as committed as it was in 2017 to its anti-immigrant and nationalist views and policies, the party's leader has campaigned on issues affecting working French families, who are paying record prices for fuel and are having to cut back on participating in their local economies, according to a recent report by France24. Le Pen has called for tax cuts on energy, increases to people's pensions, and maintaining the current retirement age of 62—in contrast to Macron's proposal to raise it to 65.

Despite the welcome for Ukrainian refugees, Le Pen is proposing strict limits on immigration, a ban on headscarves for Muslim women and girls, and a "French-first" system limiting immigrants' access to housing and other benefits, but her focus on economic issues has appeared to contrast with Macron's policies, according to analysts. "There was a clear strategy to hide what is brutal in her program," Macron told Le Parisien on Friday. "Her fundamentals have not changed: It's a racist program that aims to divide society and is very brutal."

"She's more human, and we understand her when she talks" compared to her aggressive campaign style in the previous election, a waitress named Sophie told the BBC Friday...

- More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/08/far-right-nationalist-le-pen-gaining-macron-ahead-french-election

[kimbutgar]

1. She will destroy the tourism industry in France and probably pull the country out of Nato

[appalachiablue]

2. Definitely, and worse. A nightmare if she wins. Macron!

[BlueWavePsych]

3. Heavy-duty corruption