Yikes! Fasten your seat belts, boys. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. </Bette Davis>
Le Pen is a fascist. He is proud of this fact, and his draconian anti-immigration and anti-semitic views are likely to have serious repercussions in France, where anti-Israeli incidents, driven by the large Arabic immigrant population, have been on the upswing. I think the simple fact that he advanced will cause demonstrations, but the immigrants are going to be confused, because he shares their anti-semitism. Might be interesting to watch, although I fear that violence could escalate to an unprecedented level.
It is interesting, though, that a country with a heavily socialistic tradition as France saw two (nominally) right-of-center candidates advance to the runoff. Granted, turnout was poor and there was a huge field of candidates from which to choose, but it's still a surprise. Imagine if Vermont were to have a congressional election in which the Democratic candidate were to place behind a Republican and a Constitution Party candidate. (for information on the Constitution party, click here. Caveat Lector—it's scary.)
posted on April 21, 2002 12:10 PM
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