French Fascism
By 
This is…not great:
A poll on Friday from research firm Elabe showed the margin getting even tighter with Macron on 26 percent in the first round and Le Pen one point behind at 25 percent.
Analysts have described the French electorate as volatile and unpredictable, with resentment at the Paris-based ruling political class strongly felt by both right-wing and left-wing voters. Low turnout is widely expected.
If Le Pen makes it to the second round, her chances of winning are real and appear to be growing: Elabe’s poll on Friday put Macron marginally ahead in the second round with 51 percent.
Her party, formerly the National Front and now called the National Assembly, has sought to soften its image and appear more moderate.
As former Prime Minister Manuel Valls put it in a newspaper op-ed: “Marine Le Pen can be elected President of the Republic. It’s one to midnight.”
It really doesn’t help that Macron has actually allowed Le Pen to outflank him from the left on pensions. This is also the kind of election where the communist candidate is outflanking the neoliberal one from the right on enough issues to get the support of the MAGA “left”:
“What I really like about the ‘left’ candidate whose supporters prefer the Nazi candidate to the liberal one are his right-wing policy views, his support of imperialist invasions by right-wing dictators, and his support for pro-Trump libertarian ratfuckers.” pic.twitter.com/74KaRWGQkf— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) April 2, 2022
The top priority remains to keep Le Pen out of the runoff, but the strategic voting calculus is pretty complicated. I would just love to read something good about why the social democratic left in France so utterly collapsed.