Contre Le Fascisme
By 
As outcomes go, it could be worse:
Incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in a winner-take-all run-off for the French presidency. Both advanced Sunday in the first round of voting in the country’s election to set up another head-to-head clash of their sharply opposing visions for France.
Polling agency projections and a partial official count of votes showed France teeing up for a repeat of the 2017 run-off that made Macron the country’s youngest-ever president — but with no guarantee this time that the outcome will be the same.
Addressing his supporters, who chanted “five more years,” Macron warned that “nothing is done” and said the next two weeks of campaigning for the April 24 second-round vote will be “decisive for our country and for Europe.”
Claiming that Le Pen would align France with “populists and xenophobes,” he said: “That’s not us.”
“I want to reach out to all those who want to work for France,” he said. He vowed to “implement the project of progress, of French and European openness and independence we have advocated for.”
Since I’ve been critical of some of Mélenchon’s pandering to the particularly reactionary elements of the gilets jaunes, I should say that this is a good and strong statement:
Jean-Luc Melenchon (left, got 20% today) speaks.
“I know your anger. But don’t let it lead you to make an irreparable mistake,” he says. “We know for whom we’ll never vote.”
“Not a single vote must go to Marine Le Pen.”
He repeats that 4-5 times, to loud cheers.— Taniel (@Taniel) April 10, 2022
I suppose you could ask for a direct Macron endorsement, but this draws the appropriate line and will signal some supporters open to holding their nose for Macron to do it, and signal some supporters open to voting for Le Pen to stay home, and both of these are good outcomes.
Meanwhile, another round of “how can you tell the parody from the parodied?”
As President, Trump passed a very regressive tax cut and undermined the social safety net at every turn. So he is only really a socialist if you define socialism as antipathy to foreigners, as Glenn does. pic.twitter.com/TNTPNMZoI9— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) April 10, 2022
Before you try it, I am not saying I support LePen, it’s just an objective fact that she is more socialist than macron when it comes to the French retirement age, an issue I have deeply cared about for a very long time.— GLEM #GOOGLETHEAZOVBATTALION (@GlemGreenwald) April 10, 2022