French voters re-elect President Macron and reject populists

Despite a low turnout (28% abstention), French President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected on April 24, 2022, beating second-round competitor Marine Le Pen by a margin of 58.6% to 41.4 %. Macron’s victory was the first re-election [without prior cohabitation] of a French president in two decades. In 2017, the dark horse Macron won a major victory over Marine Le Pen.

During his first term, Macron reduced unemployment, well questioned for his competent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. and was praised for his diplomatic efforts in the current crisis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He met Russian President Putin in Moscow and was in constant telephone contact with Ukrainian President Zelensky. French voters appear to support efforts by the NATO alliance to arm Ukraine to repel unprovoked attacks on a sovereign nation aspiring to EU membership. Macron is the current rotating president of the European Union.

Le Pen had tried to airbrush her “extremist” positions and distance herself from her anti-Semitic father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front. She changed the name of her custom party to Rassemblement National (NR). Le Pen, like populists Eric Zemmour on the far right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left, have agreed to step down as commander of NATO’s joint force. The outgoing president accused Le Pen of promoting a disguised Frexit and maintaining a close alliance with Putin’s Russia. The NR owes more than 9 million euros to a Russian-Hungarian bank. We’ll ask our Parisian colleague what she thinks of the claim by some British and American media that Le Pen actually won a victory while losing.

Macron has another “campaign” ahead, as he seeks a majority for the La République En Marche party in the June legislative elections. The trio of populist contenders, Le Pen and Zemmour on the far right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left, will try to take control of the National Assembly and thwart Macron’s second term agenda.

Macron now has the politically daunting task of appealing to a wide range of French regional voters who are likely to support populist agendas.

In this context, we held our seventh in a series of discussions with an American expat in Paris, contributor to  New English Review  , which provides English-language media resumes for  Tribune Juive  . We explore the implications of the French presidential election, the populist stance on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s need to turn a blind eye to Russia in Syria, Russia’s gas blackmail, and even more…

Jerry Gordon:  I’m Jerry Gordon, editor of  The New English Review  . And here we are with Nidra Poller reporting an interesting development with the second round of the French presidential elections. Nidra, what were the preliminary results of the second round?

Nidra Poller:  The results reported tonight are approximately: Macron 58%, Le Pen 42%. That might change slightly when the final results come in for major cities.

Jerry Gordon:  How does this compare to the 2017 election?

Nidra Poller: The difference was greater. It’s basically because Marine Le Pen, after losing miserably in 2017, did some sort of political Botox. She smoothed over her real agenda, her real intentions, and walked around with a big smile. By the end of the campaign, she was selling herself as “the mother of the nation.” This blunted the previous backlash that the far right should not be allowed to win. But, as you know, what I mean is that it would have been better if the commentators had shown it populist and explained populism. In any case, I am proud that France did not elect a populist. That’s the first thing. I wasn’t particularly impressed with Macron before, but he’s the president now, and that’s where I live, and I want him to succeed.

Interestingly, the losers did not give decent Democratic kudos. Well, I call them losers. Marine Le Pen lost to Macron. She phoned, as it should, to congratulate him. And then gave a speech that was a short version of his campaign, with insults and accusations, and blaming this and that, they didn’t treat her well, they won’t treat the French right, and so on. And then the candidates who didn’t even make it to the second round also had to put their face in front of us. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose bright new idea is that he should be elected Prime Minister, (I will explain later), and Zemmour, who says he will unite the right. It was really very sad. They just rehearsed…mumbling…just rehearsed their campaign pitches.

When candidates lose, they claim to love the country and the people. It’s sad to see them making a speech, basically saying that what the French want is what they had proposed. But the French have just voted, right? If people didn’t vote for them, stayed home saying how wonderful they are, the fact is they didn’t vote for them. You know, that’s the focus of my thinking right now: what we’re going through now is an uphill battle between democracy and tyranny. This is being played out in Ukraine with horrific brutality and suffering. And that is played out in our democracies, with elections and, sometimes, this refusal to accept the verdict. I have a lot of hope. I believe that the courage of Ukrainians in the defense of democracy will play an important role in strengthening democracy in what we called the free world. So, as I said,

But the idea that any intelligent and serious person can vote for Marine Le Pen, while the tyrant of tyrants is on the run in Europe, and we are witnessing unprecedented violence since the end of the Second World War. This violence has global repercussions. The idea that you could put a thoughtless, incompetent person, who walks around saying, “I’ve changed. I changed”… It looks like an alcoholic! “I’ve changed, I won’t do that again.” You cannot have a person without stature as President of France! France is very important in Europe. You know better than anyone that France is the strongest military power in Europe.

Jerry Gordon:  Yes.

Nidra Poller:  With Britain, right?

Jerry Gordon:  Yes.

Nidra Poller:  At a time when suddenly we know we have to defend ourselves, we can’t have… I mean, it would have been a terrible disaster for Europe if she had been elected. And I hope that Americans will wake up and pay tribute to us, as Europeans, for this choice.

Jerry Gordon:  I have to tell you that if you read the American press as the second round approached, it was: Oh, please, dire consequences, inflation will rise, NATO and the problems in Ukraine. And this result just confirms what you just talked about. This is, of course, a reaction against a rather reprehensible type of populism.

Nidra Poller:  Yes. And when you have a country as powerful as the United States that elects an incompetent populist president who has no sense of international relations… When Marine Le Pen spoke of international relations, it was laughable… if not tragic . It’s time people got serious. You cannot elect incompetent people on a whim. So, as I said, this is a lesson for the free world. And I think that’s a relief. I didn’t have time to read the  New York Times article  you sent me, “Marine Le Pen Has Already Wo”. … Isn’t this a magnificent victory? When losers say they’ve won. Well, I’m glad they lost, because their sense of reality isn’t very strong.

Jerry Gordon:  What was curious to me was that the author of that  New York Times article  was Rachel Donadio, a Parisian contributor to  The Atlantic  and former Rome bureau chief and European culture correspondent for  the New York Times  .

Nidra Poller:  What strikes me when I read about French politics in the American or Anglophone press is the lack of precise information given there. Sometimes, when I submitted articles to the American media, they said that there were too many details, the readers could not find their way. But if you don’t give specific details, there’s no way to figure out what’s at play here. What are we trying to do in our monthly conversation  , right  ?

Jerry Gordon:  Does this send another message to people similar to Marine Le Pen who had become Putin’s ally in the EU? And I’m talking about Victor Orban, who has just been re-elected in Hungary.

Nidra Poller:  Yes. As you see with their previous statements… In the past, when people lied, it was not easy to find proof of what they said. Today they lie, and two seconds later the video appears and the truth is out. Marine Le Pen was tripping over herself to say the invasion was terrible, and she doesn’t approve. But she had previously printed campaign posters showing herself shaking hands with Putin. So she had to throw them away. But everyone knows.

Jerry Gordon:  Do the French people, domestic concerns notwithstanding, be it inflation or some other excuse, support Macron’s position on the defense of Ukraine?

Nidra Poller: Yes, and they do it the French way. For example, the idea that the French can talk to everyone, and that it was good that Macron could talk to Putin. And they appreciate his refusal to use the term “genocide”. This pleases the French. But another point we will keep an eye on is that the legislative elections are approaching in June. And my prediction is that Macron’s party will get the majority. Tonight, the sore losers immediately put on their combat gear and took an aggressive stance: “Well, he won the election, but we’re going to give it to him, because we’ll win the parliamentary election.” I do not think so. Then, as the president says, he will have to consider all votes against him, right and left. This is what is expected of a president. Bad losers rack their brains saying how much they love France, and love the French. But when it comes to defending Europe against Putin’s aggression, we realize that these are empty words. Because they wouldn’t dare stand up to a dictator attacking us. What he does in Ukraine, he would do anywhere else. And, deep down, they won’t resist.

Jerry Gordon:  Where does that place Mr. Zemmour, whom some in the American press had said was the wind behind Marine Le Pen’s sails?

Nidra Poller: Yes and no. He acted so badly that she got to do that Botox. At first he said she couldn’t win. It inspired her to prove she could. This way he made her look good. On the other hand, if you do the arithmetic, you might figure out that he stopped her from winning. After the first round, they did polls to see where his voters would go in the second. They went massively to Marine Le Pen. So, if they agree with Marine Le Pen, why didn’t they vote for her in the first round? She would have had a much better result. Fortunately, they didn’t. This evening, there were the three grumpy ones, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Zemmour. They did not have the dignity to say that Macron won, he is our President, we will continue to express our positions, but he is our President and we want him to succeed. Zemmour gave a speech, he looked dejected and he said he was going to unite the right. It’s funny.

Jerry Gordon:  Nidra, you wrote an incisive article – and I mean incisive in a positive sense – for  Tribune Juive  , dealing effectively with the whole problem of populism. What was the reaction of those who read it in France?

Nidra Poller:  I have to talk to my editor to find out how people react to what I write, because TJ is not a site that attracts dozens and dozens of comments. Which is good, because most of the time they are not very enlightened and often they are quite cruel. Only one person has posted a reaction to this text. She ignored all the arguments I had given to show that populism is no more for the people than communism is for the sharing of wealth. She just made the same populist arguments: Macron is for the elite; ordinary people are ignored. And they’re fed up with it all. She said she was going to vote for Marine Le Pen because of my article. I hope, by the end of the year, to publish a collection of these chronicles that I write for Tribune Juive , because there is another dimension when you read them one after the other and see how they are linked. That’s what I did in the early 2000s. And maybe I’ll try to do an English version of those essays. In the column to which you refer, I said that they are populists and false nationalists. Populists never keep what they promise. Why do people believe them? They never deliver what they promise. They cling to a big social problem that no one can solve: immigration, drug trafficking, violence against women, and… What else…

Jerry Gordon:  Inflation?

Nidra Poller: Yes, the cost of living. And Islamic jihad in all its ramifications. Populists click on really problematic things that no one can fix. Their line is this: you elected one government after another and none of them solved these problems. I will do it. In fact, they have no experience to be judged. You remember: “We are going to build this wall and Mexico will pay for it. What they offer is a pie in the sky. I am proud and relieved that French voters did not get caught. If Putin’s Russia had not invaded Ukraine, the dangers we face would have remained theoretical. Russia has been getting a pass for 20 years. But the danger has now materialized, and it is obvious that we must have good leadership and responsible citizens. We don’t play on social media. Its a question of life or death.

Jerry Gordon:  Nidra, did the Franco-Jewish organization support Macron.

Nidra Poller:  No. That’s not what happened.

Jerry Gordon:  None?

Nidra Poller:  No. It was very controversial. Leaders of several organizations issued a warning: “Do not vote for the extremists, Zemmour, Le Pen or Mélenchon. For many Jews, people I respect, it was the unacceptable mixture of religion and politics. French Jews vote as French citizens. They shouldn’t be told how to vote.

Jerry Gordon:  Okay.

Nidra Poller:  But I see this warning as similar to what I wrote in the Tribune Juive article  you referred to. I find it appropriate that Jewish leaders speak out and educate Jews about the dangers of populism. And don’t forget, Marine Le Pen seriously intended, if elected, to ban kosher slaughter.

Jerry Gordon:  Right.

Nidra Poller:  I have to leave you now, because I’m going to listen to Emmanuel Macron’s speech at the Champ de Mars.

Jerry Gordon:  And I want to thank you for your comments on what seemed like a resounding victory for President Macron.

Nidra Poller:  Well, Marine Le Pen thinks it was a resounding victory for herself, but it was a resounding victory for democracy. And, as I said in that article you mentioned, now everything remains to be done.

Jerry Gordon:  So if I had to have a lead for this discussion, is it Macron’s victory over populism?

Nidra Poller:  I think it’s the victory of French voters against populism. Now Macron has to pull through. He’s very smart, he knows it’s not a resounding victory for him. It is a victory against the danger of electing an incompetent and dishonest person to the presidency of France in one of the most dangerous periods of modern times. People on the right are going to be angry when he does things to please voters on the left and vice versa. But that’s what he must do, rule. So we’ll follow it from there.

Jerry Gordon:  Nidra, following Macron’s victory, the French Jewish community organization CRIF applauded the result, but expressed concerns about the populist minority vote. What does this tell us about the fact that divisions in France are a threat to democracy?

©Jerry Gordon and Nidra Poller. All rights reserved.

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