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Breaking
I have no idea what that means. Thanks Claire!
It means these are the two candidates in the runoff.
May the least Putinist one win.
Claire,
May the French select who they wish as their President. I am fine with their choice. Every legitimate Nation has the right and we should respect it.
Vive la France!
Regards,
Jim
It means Macron took 23.7 percent, Le Pen 21.7, and the others are out.
It means Macron took 23.7 percent, Le Pen 21.7, and the others are out.
It means (though I should not jinx it) that it is overwhelmingly likely that Macron will be the next president of France.
It means we are not looking at the nightmare scenario: Le Pen v. Mélenchon.
It means Le Pen did worse than the polls predicted, and Macron better.
It means no one, despite the big talk, truly had an appetite for performing on France the kind of deranged Trotskyite experiments that destroyed Venezuela.
It means that almost 80 percent of the country said non to Le Pen’s species of neo-fascist lunacy.
It means the French have at last just had it with corruption: Too bad for Fillon.
It means that all the other candidates and parties have already rallied around Macron. As Benoît Hamon said: “There is a difference between a rival and an enemy of the Republic. Hence I will vote Emmanuel Macron.”
It means the leader of Socialist Party took only 6-7 percent, a crushing defeat, the worst in living memory for his party. It means the end of French socialism as we have known it.
It means that Putin is gnashing his teeth.
It means ISIS did its best and failed.
It means that Xavier, the police officer who was killed by terrorists three days ago, died to protect a Republic that defended at the ballot box the same values he defended with his life.
It means that soon, the Le Pen family psychodrama will be over. Forever.
And it means that tonight, I’ll sleep well.
It isn’t over yet. But it sure looks better than it did this morning.
So it’s the macaroon vs. the pen. At least that should be easy to remember. Now we shall answer the question: is the pen mightier than the cookie?
Claire, I apologize in advance for asking an extremely morbid question, especially in the midst of relatively good news. How worried should we be for France? It strikes me that Vladimir Putin, a man known for staging terrorist attacks and interfering in foreign elections has a vested interest in seeing some kind of islamist horror go off on French soil over the next two weeks.
So Marine Le Pen faces the prospect of emulating her father in 2002. If so, France will be the better for it.
I see Obama called Macron Thursday to give him a lift. Did it help Macron? Will we now hear cries of foul play?
Well, that’s good news, eh?
Good rest to you Claire! Sleep tight.
You’ve been writing this for a while. You’re reading every event in terms of your preconceived notions. This is how you treat the problem of Islam and explains why you have little credibility to me and others on Ricochet wrt the ROP. I remember a fatuous comment in the WSJ circa 1978. The socialists in Germany won with 4% less than in the previous election. The Journal said that the voters did not want to them too much of a mandate. Sure, 4% of the voters wanted to vote socialist but decided to give them less of a mandate. Some of your comments fall into this category of overinterpreting the results.
Rendre la France géniale à nouveau.
Thank you (or perhaps I should say, “Merci”), Claire – it is so good to have someone “on the ground” in Europe that we can trust giving us detailed information about things most of us would otherwise have a difficult time figuring out. Looks like France has dodged the bullet – at least for the present. Relax and take a long rest – you’ve performed splendidly! [BTW – taking the test you recently gave us access to, I scored as a supporter of the Republican Party, so I guess I should be disappointed that Fillon lost! C’est la vie.]
Merci bien pour le reportage!
So, Macron and Le Pen face off again in 2 weeks. What do you think are the odds that Le Pen picks up any additional support between now and then barring any geopolitically significant events that could tip the scales in her favor?
May the most anti-Islamist, anti-EU, anti-open borders candidate win.
Agreed. That’s a whole lot of meaning to draw from a measly 2% advantage.
So in other words, may the most Putinist candidate win.
Just read a lengthy profile of Macron done by the BBC. He really reminds me of Barack Obama, in his high regard for himself (one of those interviewed actually says he is easily bored – ring a bell?), his glamour and youth (though to be fair, he is more experienced than Obama), and in the starry eyed admiration of his acolytes which seem drawn from the same crowd that supported Obama.
I do recall people saying similar things after the GOP primary: record numbers of Republicans voted against Trump (i.e. for some other candidate in the crowded field), even his own party doesn’t support him, so how can he possibly win in November?
Couldn’t we just as easily say that 76.3% of France said non to Macron?
Would that it were only true.
And by that, I mean, I don’t think 44% of the people voting for these two means that France’s way of life is ending. And by that I mean, with Claire’s complete misunderstanding of US politics, I’ll take her understanding of French politics with a grain of sand. I still like her, but I no longer think she’s a good source for political insight.
Both candidates are socialists. Since they are both French, it’s hard to see how this is the end of French socialism in any meaningful sense. Macron is a centrist by Euro-leftist standards, kinda like that Menscheviks were not pure enough for Bolsheviks.
With respect, you’ve been away for too long. Spend some time in the US to regain perspective. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
How is Le Pen Far Right? She is economically a socialist. I have been watching France 24 and they were arguing this represents a shift to the right for France. But by my reckoning the French left still have almost three quarters of the vote.
Nick,
Let’s not get too real about all this. I had noticed that both Sarkozy and Fillon met the same fate, a convenient scandal arranged to occur just around election time. Something an obsessively socialist press could manufacture quite easily. However, that would be engaging in conspiracy theory. Now, of course, Putin is capable of supernatural powers. We should take that as a given.
Com’n Nick be a sport.
Regards,
Jim
I am no expert on French politics. But I am wondering how the open borders guy wins when I have read several times that 70% of the French are opposed to the current high levels of immigration. That’s how you get (Trump) La Pen next time,no?
And how does Macron run with no party apparatus and no support in the legislature? He is apparently Obama- like, so that would rule him right out for me.
En garde?
Nick,
Keep it down, the Cardinal’s men are everywhere.
Regards,
Jim
Classic.
Unfortunately the idea of any Frenchmen today matching up to Oliver Reed…..