The presidential election comes this Sunday, and I’m watching Marine Le Pen’s steady climb up the polls with trepidation. Putin is watching too, I’m sure, but with delight, not trepidation. Marine is his second-best woman in the West, after Angie Merkel.
Should Le Pen and Macron end up in the runoff, which is almost certain, the surveys are showing them neck and neck. If Macron loses, this will be the greatest (alas, far from only) damage he will have caused to France and the West.
Le Pen has learned to tone down her faschisoid diatribes, but that leopardess is still sporting the same spotted pelt she inherited from her father. Yet she is boxing clever, which is more than one can say for Manny Macron.
Unlike Manny, who puffs up his cheeks and goes out to play world statesman under Brigitte’s watchful eye. Marine is focusing on domestic issues: energy prices, declining standard of living, dearer food.
That’s a more direct route to Frenchmen’s hearts, which are often synchronised with their stomachs. Still, I do hope, without much confidence, that voters will balk at the prospect of a fascisoid France collaborating with fascist Russia.
That was another part of her rhetoric that Marine has turned down a bit to make herself more electable. Thus, she mildly disapproves of the invasion of the Ukraine, stressing general humanitarian objections to war as such.
Yet she keeps insisting that the Russians aren’t responsible for whatever atrocities have been perpetrated in the Ukraine. Since atrocities have been demonstrably committed by someone, Le Pen implicitly gives credence to the Kremlin’s lies about Ukrainians murdering their own civilians to besmirch Russia’s spotless reputation.
Putin, according to Le Pen, is a great friend of France, which presumably means she doesn’t consider France a Western country. If she does, she should cast an eye over Putin’s speeches, where hatred for the West drips from every word.
And of course Putin isn’t a dictator, insists Le Pen. After all, he was democratically elected.
In other words, the woman who intends to lead one of the world’s greatest countries believes that a democratic election is a panacea against dictatorship. Democratically elected Messrs Hitler, Perón, Mugabe, Lukashenko, Ahmadinejad, Yanukovych and Macîas Nguema (who gratefully murdered a third of the population of Equatorial Guinea that had voted him in) beg to differ.
But even assuming Le Pen’s professed worship at the altar of the ballot box is justified, surely she doesn’t think Putin won any elections fair and square? For one thing, all the mainstream mass media in Russia are nothing but loudspeakers for Putin’s propaganda, and have been for 20 years.
And then there are little peccadilloes, like stuffing ballot boxes, keeping some candidates from standing, voter intimidation and some creative accounting when it comes to the final count. All these are amply documented, photographed and commented on. If Le Pen still thinks Russian elections are democratic, her definition of democracy differs from everyone else’s.
In fact, she genuinely likes Putin’s approach to governance and international relations. This is something she’ll do her utmost to emulate or at least to support, given the chance – if only to keep Putin sweet.
I spoke to a high-ranking French government official the other day, and he denied, rather condescendingly, that Putin is Le Pen’s paymaster. “What about the 11 million euros she got from Putin for her last campaign?” I asked.
“Oh well,” he explained in the tone of a schoolmaster talking to a particularly slow pupil, “that was merely a loan.” “Which she has since repaid?” “Well, no. But all French banks had refused to finance her campaign. What was she supposed to do?”
Why, ask the chap who threatens to destroy the West in a nuclear holocaust, of course. If he had turned her down, there was always Kim to go to. And Mugabe was still alive then. Too bad Pol Pot was no longer around.
Regular visitors to this space know that I’m not Manny Macron’s most ardent fan. And, whenever a general election comes around in a major country, I always talk about the evil of two lessers. The choices are never good these days.
However, I do hope that French voters will sense that the evil of the lesser called Marine Le Pen is far, far greater. France already had one collaborationist regime in her modern history. God save her – and all of us – from another.
Sadly, you foretell another reason for the UK to re-arm. Alas, alas!
So far I haven’t suggested we should re-arm against France, but the day may come.
This makes no sense.
The main french argument in favor of Putin-compatibility is french cowardice. There is really no concern, beside having a shitty ally, as France was so many times in history already.
France is total disorder country (well, UK probably too). If anything, it is more a concern of civil war than anything else. Putin figures inspire some french is not about Russia: it is a reflection of the french weak-sauce and crooked leaders: Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, Emmanual Macron. Come on! Be serious. France concerns is how it is being colonized.
My remark wasn’t entirely serious — sometimes my sense of humour gets the better of me.
And I think you are right: Westerners support Putin mainly because they find their own governments wanting and try to find an outside model to follow. But still we shouldn’t underestimate the fascist temptation, which at different times has been strong in France, in Britain and just about everywhere. I’d suggest that Westerners who still support Putin have succumbed to that temptation.
Also, you refer to Laval as a right-wing fugure. Actually, if you read his memoirs, he was a National Socialist, with the accent initially on the second word. I don’t think any genre of socialism belongs on the right of the political spectrum. Nazis, German, French or British, only got to be regarded as right-wing when Hitler attacked Stalin. Stalin was clearly left-wing, ergo Hitler had to be on the right.
“Putin, according to Le Pen, is a great friend of France, which presumably means she doesn’t consider France a Western country.”
The Ameican perspective of the French is that they are in a category all by themselves. Neither good or bad, just by themselves.
My thought is that the French also think of themselves similarly but only for the good.
You aren’t far wrong.
Do any citizens still expect positive actions from their leaders? Are any excited for the prospects of a given candidate? The choice always seems based on who will do the least amount of damage. Wondering if most people feel the same as I, I took at look at President Biden’s approval rating. At 40%, the media report it is an all-time low. To me it seems incredible that 40% of Americans are so oblivious (I hesitate to write “stupid”). I would have expected to see it below 10%. Perhaps now 40% of the country are trans?
Putin’s approval rating is twice is high. Perhaps Biden should order an invasion of Cuba or, more sporting, Mexico.
A few days ago I made the case for the opposite action – Mexico invading the U.S. – based on similar arguments to Putin invading Ukraine (e.g., the number of people of Mexican heritage living in the U.S.). That would be political gold! Defending U.S. soil from foreign invaders!
From Slobodan’s Serbia to Saddam’s Iraq. The French retain a soft spot for fascism. They seem to lack the ideological anti-bodies so prevalent in the dreary Anglo-Saxons.
As demonstrated by the widespread support for the Vichy regime.
There was no widespread support of Vichy regime. There was widespread support for Petain in 1940 in the context of lost war. By the left and the right, not even so much by the far right. Many far right, by then, actually went into Resistance – the communist were advocating deserting and collaborating as USSR did (allied to nazi germany).
It degraded over time, quite fast.
This over-simplistic overview of the past clearly does not shine any light about what is a stake in France. Take a look at crime statistics. Take a looks at odious street crime and how many are committed by clandestines that should not be in France in first place, out of prison due to prior crime in second place, and then you’ll understand French concerns that cause far-right to be a major topic in every french election since 30 years. Concerns still unanswered.
The model of what was named Etat français was inspired but not fascist in all account. Many involved characters that Pierre Laval, are from common left background. The most fascist elements like Jacques Doriot actually came from the far left.
It is completely misguided to describe Vichy regime as a natural course of a people with an inclination toward fascism. On the contrary, it happened after a failed war riddled by ultra-pacifism-spirit.
“you’ll understand French concerns that cause far-right to be a major topic in every french election since 30 years. Concerns still unanswered.”
Very similar to the illegal alien question in the USA. Problem exists for decades without any sort of amelioration. Along comes Trump and the electorate responds favorably to his making an issue of the illegals and the powers that be their inability and unwillingness to address the problem.
Immediate threat to France is everyday in the street of France: even small town now are riddle with dangerous clandestines from Africa or Middle-East, exactly the type of crowd Belarus-Russia imported massively to attack Polish border.
This issue is completely ignored by Emmanuel Macron. Mostly ignored by all except Zemmour and Le Pen. If Zemmour is out of the picture, Le Pen might look as a lesser evil, unfortunately.
French people do not have real russian-experience. They do not understand what it means when Le Pen supported are repeating the traditional USSR vulgate about Russian war crimes, etc.
French presidential election is about France. The whole Russian war makes it obvious that Le Pen clan always tend to mix with terrible people (like the father with negationists and antisemits). But still, the crime wave in France is out of boundaries – and walking the street of Paris feels like travelling in a african colony. This is the immediate concern, the threat that french people understand instinctively. This added to the odd notion that if France had a Poutine, it would not be the case – then completely misreading the fact that Poutine is a threat to France and all real potential allies to France (namely Czech, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, etc).
I am afraid the situation in Hungary is a bit similar.
You hate Putin.
Marine le Pen doesn’t hate Putin.
ERGO, you hate Marine le Pen.
Do you detect a flaw in your logic?
No, but I detect a flaw in yours. I hate neither Putin nor Le Pen. What I hate is fascism.