Sounds like a lot of people are dissatisfied with the status quo. It's not obvious from the headline but the Left did well in this election too. What"s the way forward for France
Umm... France likely isn't the best example of what "far right" means in the world of political thought... The communists/socialists have run amok in France for decades. Not communist/socialist gets labeled as "extreme" or "far" right..... These terms need some obvious normalization globally so that folks in the US can understand why a group like La Pen might not exactly be say "republicans"....
If so, perhaps for the same reason, many people are fed up with do business as usual politics as in the US? They don't feel represented? From what I've read, people didn't really come out to vote. French voters are fed up, apathetic?
It is unusual that à président is elected for a second term anyway. What was also unusual was the coalitions put together to defeat Macron, particularly on the Left and called the Nupes. Macron did well to defeat an alliance of three or four parties in a coalition. Like everywhere, the various éléments of instability from covid to Ukraine have encourages people to try to find new solutions...yet IMO Macron has done well to contain inflation including his cap on energy prices. He would do well to concentrate on governing France and not trying to fix the world. I personally like à president who looks beyond his own borders but France is a large country with à wide range of expectations and opinions. I am not unhappy with the result. It is more democratic than having one very dominant party in power.
Most reasonable people would view a party founded in part by actual Nazi collaborators & supporters and whose dominant figure for decades was a very open in his antisemitism as 'far right'. Those reasonable people might also point out that this party has been a vocal supporter of Putin and recieved millions of dollars in return for that support. If you think that makes them more 'left wing' than the GOP maybe that says something about there the Republican Party sits on the spectrum these days.
If you are referring to LePen, his daughter has spent years years distancing herself and her party from its history. Today it isn't the same party. I would put it to the right of the UK Tories, and to the left of the US Republicans in some things (ie she has no anti abortion policy, cannot nod to any faith based groups...illegal in France.... Her biggest popular issue is immigration but she has dropped her intention to leave the EU. The far left Communist Melanchon is IMO more destabilising.
Hmm.. And yet, NAZIs weren't "far right". They were socialists. And represent the very worst of the left and their willingness to be authoritarians. As for being anti semites, we have LOTS of democrats in this country who offer their antisemitism everyday in say public office, like congress for example. Ilian Omar ring a bell? Do they become "far right" I bet that would utterly shock them to their cores. To be fair, French politics don't equate to US politics, which was the point. La Pen look like a lot of democrats in the US to me. But you can try to explain why this isn't the case. Sorry, your analysis is pretty thin here.
For an objective view of Le Pen and French politics, it would be useful to do your own research. Le Pen has nothing to do with Nazism. Her Father did. He has been thrown out of the party for many years. Le Pen and US Democrats are very different.
It is for anyone who would like an objective view. It is advice for any understanding of politics in any country.
