I’d say LePen would be closer to Ron Paul, David Duke or a member of the Constitutionalist party. It’s difficult to categorise some of her positions. For example, she’s expressed a desire to increase corporate taxes (at least make them more progressive compared to small business taxes) whereas Santorum supports cutting them (while I assume they’re actually lower in the US than France in the first place). She is opposed to abortion like Santorum and Ron Paul, but unlike Ron Paul, she supports capital punishment. Unlike Santorum, (but like Paul) she’s expressed support for the secular nature of the Republic.
The most bizarre position (apart from being in an explicitly fascistic party, unlike Santorum) is probably that of a moratorium on legal immigration. That’d put her on a par with David Duke in my opinion.
Yeah, I’ve seen the equation of Le Pen with Ron Paul (and Rick Santorum) a few times over the web, and neither is correct, since neither of them is a 1930s fascist.
She may share her social policies with Rick Santorum, but absent the religious angle - that is to say, she’s not against homosexuals because it’s a sin, but straight up because they’re icky. She’s not opposed to immigration on economic grounds, but because brown people can’t *really *be French. According to her, obviously. On another board, a poster wrote that what Americans were afraid (some) Republicans might believe in their hearts of hearts, she says loud and proud. That’s about right.
On the economy though, she’s full on fascist - increased nationalizations, protectionist tariffs & regulations, chokehold on immigration (from the current 200.000 down to 10.000), that kind of thing. I don’t think any American politician compares. Wants to get us completely out of Europe and back on the Franc too, which in American terms is about as out there as a northern state seceding over having to marginally subsidize the South.
Also Greater Louisiana, from New Orleans to Helena.
Joke aside, oddly enough I don’t think she has a rah-rah militarism bent. At least her base doesn’t have the para-military streak of similar groups in America (possibly because our gun rights are heavily restricted, and cammies+baseball bat looks simply ridiculous).
Her father might have longed for the days of French Algeria, but I think that particular bit of populism is long dead now.
Comparing Le Pen and the Front National to Rick Santorum or Ron Paul is pretty far off track. She represents an authoritarian populist strain of thought which is not a significant part of US discourse (but is a significant component in European right wing parties). Probably the closest you can find is Pat Buchanan. She is anti-immigration, anti-free trade, and anti-globalization. Does not like big government or multinational corporations. Opposes European integration. Socially conservative, economically protectionist, ethnocentric.
And thus she wins twice - she keeps the respect of her base for “keeping it pure” and such, while the insane lengths to which Sarko went to try and legitimize them (as well as gunning for their political positions) for immediate political purposes have done a lot to reduce the stigma of “being FN”. I would wager in the next legislative & local elections quite a few UMP voters will reveal their true, no longer shameful colours. Hey, if the President himself thinks the FN is cool after all (and after the "victory of democracy over fascism a mere 10 fucking years ago…), who can argue ?
Damn, but I loathe my country. See, this is why I follow American politics: home politics are just too fucking depressing and rage-inducing, while yours are just entertainingly retarded.
Maybe not now, but when the “pushback against German-led austerity” causes the collapse of the Euro, there will be more than enough depression and rage to go around.
Why someone would think that an election with the potential to send the Euro crisis over the abyss is a good thing is beyond me. But hey, it’ll work for me since the US Dollar will benefit from the collapse (should it happen).
Yes and no.
I don’t think Hollande or his party are going to be a great leap forward or anything of the sort. Nothing’s gonna change, everything still remains the same. But I do appreciate the fact that the UMP’s loathsome electoral tactics didn’t get rewarded. This time.
I’m not convinced that the French election is going to be the catalyst for the Euro collapse. Today’s Greek election on the other hand…it’s early days with the counting, but it looks like there is a large backlash against the pro-austerity groupings. And the neo-Nazis (not your typical far-right types like the Tea Party Republicans, but actual Nazi Nazis) Golden Dawn look like they will get seats in parliament. Interesting times.
I don’t see hardly anyone except politicians currently in office saying the Euro is going to last (I mean, even Krugman seems resigned to it), but nobody wants to be the one to take the blame. I suspect they’ll find another couple year’s worth of road to kick the can down …
Even given that we’re just dealing with probabilities right now, the Romney campaign must be very happy, even if this results in longer term betterment for every/anyone down the road, since this introduces the [insert adjective here, anything from “strong” to “unlikely”] possibility of global economic meltdown that can/will be blamed on the incumbent.