Le Pen upstages Macron in battle for blue-collar votes

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Apr 26, 2017, 04:12 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Associated Press, via Washington Post

Le Pen upstages Macron in battle for blue-collar votes

By Chris Den Hond and John Leicester??AP

April 26 at 1:16 PM

AMIENS, France Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen turned an appliance factory into a battleground Wednesday for Frances blue-collar vote, upstaging rival Emmanuel Macron with a surprise campaign stop at the plant threatened with closure.

Chaotic scenes followed as Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, sought to wrestle back the initiative by making his own, impromptu stop at the Whirlpool clothes-dryer plant in Amiens, spending over an hour in Le Pens wake trying to reason with angry employees who asked why the former finance minister hadnt come there earlier.

The remarkable drama, broadcast live on French news channels, transformed the plant in northern France into a symbol of the diametrically opposed campaigns of Le Pen and Macron before their May 7 runoff election.

As Macron met elsewhere with the workers union leaders, Le Pen displayed her political guile by grabbing the spotlight and popping up outside the factory itself. Surrounded by employees in bright-yellow hazard vests, she declared herself the workers candidate and vowed that if elected, she would not let the factory close.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macron-on-risky-hunt-for-blue-collar-votes-against-le-pen/2017/04/26/1596195e-2a65-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html

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Uh-oh.



"What is past is prologue." This is one of the statues on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the National Archives.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Interesting

As I understand it Macron's family are chocolatiers from Amien. I still don't think she wins - one of her top aides was just convicted of racism. She can try to take the lipstick of the pig by 'denouncing' her party - but that pig still has lipstick on it. I would have more respect for her if she just owned being a bigot.

[Ligyron]

3. Yeah, and her old man is a real nutjob.

[Doreen]

8. Well, trump had aides who were/are racist and he still won.

Hell, he is racist and he still won.

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. " I still don't think she wins"

sounds a lot like "I still don't think he wins"

[karynnj]

14. Actually, 2 weeks out, he is up over 20 points, more than HRC ever was

Two weeks out, Clinton was about 5% at most ahead. Not to mention, our election is 50 elections put together through a weird formula. Nate Silver pointed out that both Brexit and Trump/Clinton were much much closer. The results were not outside the range of the last polls. This is atthis time.

[JustAnotherGen]

15. I've spent enough time

In the homes of French people - including relatives.

They don't run from intellectual insight and pay attention to the world around them.

They see what a shameful country we've become in just 100 days, and don't like to be thought of as stupid.

Yes - Macron wins.

One tiny thing - he's the "outsider". She's a career politician.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. I hope you are correct.

What I will personally find interesting is how anti-Semitism will play into the elections and political rhetoric. It has already emerged...from the left. So, it should be really interesting given her past and her father's legacy of hate.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Are the French as stupid as the Americans?

Will they fall for the same insincere line of BS even after seeing what's happened here?

[still_one]

4. We will know soon enough. Their history doesn't always protend well, of

course neither does ours

[MFM008]

5. I dont think she will win

I think the French will shoulder the responsibility to uphold NATO, the EU and sanity in Europe.
I suppose I have a lot of faith in them.....

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Here we fucking go again.... nt

[elmac]

7. Fully backed by Putin money

she even looks a little orange.

[Doreen]

9. Being financed by Putin is what I am thinking also.

Look what happened the last time Putin financed a election.

[elmac]

10. It was reported on Maddow last night

that she got substantial election funds from Moscow. I think it was in the neighborhood of a half million. She also has had meetings with Putin or Putin officials.

[Doreen]

11. Yeah, that is were I got that from.

Rachel rocks!!

[nycbos]

13. "If you can convince the lowest...

... white man he is better than the best colored man he won't notice you picking his pockets."


Seems that fits globally and is not unique to the United States.