While the United States is making international headlines for various military strikes, the French presidential elections have been underway. The future of Europe very much lays in the hands of the second rounds of votes. The French electoral system operates by a run-off system, which means that voters select their preferential candidates and then rank subsequent choices. A run-off system has two rounds of voting, which limit the final candidates to only two. On May 7th, 2017 the second round of voting will take place and the vote is between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
As I have mentioned in previous, Marine Le Pen is an extreme right wing candidate who has been campaigning on racism and xenophobia, rhetoric which has been resonating with the French public since the refugee crisis. Additionally, the United Kingdom’s withdraw from the European Union is also sparking many far-right voices. Unfortunately, France is left with one alright decision and one really bad decision.
Marine Le Pen would lead the charge for dividing Europe, which would become the bastion for independence from the EU. In this world, France would likely leave the EU, along with other nations like Hungary, which have very strict anti-immigration policies. Under a Le Pen presidency, Angela Merkel would have an even harder time winning votes, because the far right would become mobilized to change Germany’s political system. Le Pen has called Germany a tool of the United States multiple times and has vocally opposed Merkel. Le Pen is the Trump of Europe and is gaining a lot of support.
On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron leans more towards the center of the political spectrum. A former financial consultant for the Hollande Administration, Macron does not have any experience in public office, but he has a vast amount of experience working in banking. The sad thing about Macron is that his main mission is to deregulate the financial sector. He was even quoted saying that he is willing to pass deep reforms, even at the expense of left-wing principles.
What is also unsettling is that France’s election is looking much like the United States' most recent presidential election, where there is a central-left candidate and a far-right candidate. It seems that when push comes to shove, the far-right votes seem to turn up more than the leftist votes. The only difference is that Macron does resonate with the right in terms of financial reforms, but he is not as anti-immigration as Le Pen will be.
Though Macron isn’t great, he is substantially better than Le Pen. Macron has gained wide popularity using Obama-style tactics like “The Great March,” which was a social media movement used to rally support. This was like Obama’s “Change” and “Hope” slogans. Hopefully the support that he has raised will be enough to overcome Le Pen in the election next month, because it will ensure that Europe will have a future. I do not believe that Macron would make decisive moves against the interests of Europe. He understands that this would be detrimental to both Europe and France, but now it is all up to the citizens’ vote.
