Macron has won Le Pen concedes

[Mummyoflittledragon]

I'm so glad sense has prevailed in France. And saddened that Macron is coming to the table too late to reform the EU to make it more palatable for Brexiteers.

I think it's a positive sign for the future of a reformed EU . Agree that the UK will miss the boat on that but nationalism here was too strong so the UK will be out of that future EU model and it's benefits.

Interesting just how quiet this thread is. Where are the pro Macron pro EU posters?

Could it be, that the idiocy of linking this to Brexit, when remain have spent a year claiming 'the majority dont want brexit!' when clearly, using that warped logic the 'majority' dont want Macron, is a little too obvious?

I was a leave voter, and Im not 'dissapointed' in the result. Indeed, just like here, I would say if we had been asked to vote for Farage, (as the only GE party promising a EU referendum) we would have done exactly the same, and voted against. (I would never vote for Farage in a million years, though I admire that he set out to do a job, and achieved it).

The parliamentary elections in France will be where Macron gets his mandate, he could be utterly impotent, or get full support, but as Le Pen said last week, he will be seen as a Brussels puppet, and his popularity will only go one way from here on in. Is France celebrating Macron today, or celebrating defeating Le Pen?

Its a mistake to ignore the 10 million who voted for Le Pen. There are not 10 million stupid far right knuckle dragging racists in France, but 10 million who feel so strongly about the EU, they held their noses.

Personally, I think Macron, whilst a very pretty figurehead, will indeed be a pretty impotent and ineffective leader. His hands will be utterly tied in Parliament, and its a mistake to celebrate a seemingly 'EU' win in France.

There are not 10 million stupid far right knuckle dragging racists in France, but 10 million who feel so strongly about the EU, they held their noses.

This is, unsurprisingly, a complete misunderstanding of French politics. Many FN supporters are not really anti-EU - in fact, it's quite likely that her underperformance was partly due to the nonsense about leaving the euro and running dual currencies.

The real Euro sceptics voted mainly for Dupont Aignan and Asselineau, who together picked up about 6% (similar to the UKIP vote in the past). Le Pen is supported by a mixture of racists and antisemites (the core FN vote which has been around since the days when the party was full-on fascist), plus a more recent dollop of mildly xenophobic lower middle and working class voters in the former industrial heartlands - kind of a Trump phenomenon except that older voters overwhelmingly do not vote FN.

She does pick up some "left behinds" but a lot of these decamped to Melenchon in the first round and it doesn't look like many of them came back.

I disagree Misti. I too spend a lot of time there, but clearly in more pro Le Pen areas than you. I also dont think she 'underperformed' at all. Quite the opposite. If you wish to call 10 million french, racists, xenophobes and anti-semites, so be it.

I disagree Misti. I too spend a lot of time there, but clearly in more pro Le Pen areas than you. I also dont think she 'underperformed' at all. Quite the opposite. If you wish to call 10 million french, racists, xenophobes and anti-semites, so be it.

I live in a fairly Le Pen area though not one of the two departements where a majority voted for her in the second round. The Le Pen voters here are not the left behind, they are people in unskilled and semi-skilled jobs and small business people - artisans and shopkeepers. The genuinely left behind either don't vote, or voted JLM.

If you had bothered to read my post (what IS it with reading comprehension on this site?) you'll see that I called the core FN voters racists and fascists - no one who is familiar with the Le Pen family history can deny that. The more casual FN voter is not necessarily racist, but most of them are more attracted by Le Pen's domestic agenda than by her Euroscepticism.

Her policy on leaving the euro is actually a turn-off for a lot of her better off potential voters, and the embarrassingly bad defence of her euro policy during the TV debate was quite possibly the reason why she under performed her polling so badly (the final polls put her at 38-39%, she got 34%). She probably lost quite a few Fillon voters during the debate, as they contemplated the devaluation of their patrimoine.