The globalists may have won the French election, but not all hope is lost
On an autumn Sunday night as most Australians were calling it a day, French voters several time zones behind us went to the polls to vote for their next President. The voting count occured overnight, and Australians woke up to the results on Monday morning, with Emmanuel Macron having win a landslide victory over his opponent, Marine Le Pen.
It was only a few hours before that The Australian re-published a Sunday Times story on Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, criticising his “ungrateful” daughter for taking the party in a relatively progressive direction having already removed him as a member. He also said his granddaughter, Marion Marachel-Le Pen, who is also Marine’s niece, would’ve been a better candidate.
After all, Marion is an ardent opponent of social progressivism, and unlike her aunt, opposes abortion. She is also against capital punishment as it would “impose an extremely difficult choice on judges”. She is the youngest member to be voted in to the French parliament, all while being a second-year student at the prestigious Sorbonne university. Additionally, Marion is, to the delight of many traditionalists and reactionaries, strongly supports France’s pre-revolutionary heritage, including its Christian foundations and Latin and Greek roots. She may well be an even better candidate than Marine.
But of course, that did not dampen my disappointment after seeing the results, of the which the general popular reaction was captured in the Euro surging upwards in the foreign exchange market. France will not have a Frexit referendum thanks to the country’s Hillary Clinton winning the election, and the globalists who make up the bulk of foreign exchange and international trade were jumping with joy just like the Euro had.
This is somewhat surprisingly different to what was seen in America, where “sexism, misogyny, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia” won the election. Another major difference is the absence of Marine voters protesting outside the streets, unlike left-wing American millennials, proving after all that we are the civilised segment of the political spectrum. But why? Why did Trump win in America and Marine lost in France, a country at the forefront of a migration crisis?
The answer lies in Trump’s own party, the Republican party. Trump was the candidate for a major party in America, which gave him an astute advantage, but the same cannot be said for Marine in France. The former leader of a minor party, Marine Le Pen was unable to secure major party voters unlike Trump, who’s role as the Republican candidate automatically meant he would receive the traditional Republican voters along with many disenfranchised Democrat and Libertarian voters. But while Macron also did not represent a major French party, he did originate from its establishment left-wing Socialist party.
The various factors explained above has rendered it a mistake to compare Marine, or even Wilders, to Trump. The former are from minor parties will the latter represented a major party. Yet all hope is not lost, assuming France is able to hold it together until the next election in 2022. If the immigration and cultural situation in France deteriorates, the National Front may be able to be more successful at the next election. And if the words of Jean-Marie Le Pen are accurate, Marion may prove to be a better candidate.
Another ray of hope comes from the breakdown of voter demographics, which shows an eye-opening picture of who voted for which candidate. Marine Le Pen’s strongest support came from the 18-24 year old age group at 44% support, with 35-49 year olds coming second at 40% support. This shows that the younger demographics are waking up to the adverse effects immigration and globalism are having in their society. These voters do not necessarily have to be socially conservative, as many French people identifying as LGBT are also voting for Marine due to the problems posed by immigration to their lifestyle. This culminated in studies showing 26% of Parisian homosexuals supported Marine, with only 16% of heterosexuals.
While the more globalist-oriented, pro-EU, older French voters chose Macron, Marine was a winner for all those who prioritise migration. Macron may have won this election, but the National Front is still on the frontlines of French politics. If Macron fails, which he most likely will, to implement effective policies to curb France’s Islamist violence, National Front will only grow stronger. This means the next National Front candidate, most likely the younger and more beautiful Marion Marechal-Le-Pen, with the support of her grandfather, will be more likely to win the 2022 French presidential election.