Marine Le Pen May Get a Lift From an Unlikely Source: The Far Left

[DFW]

11. Not an unlikely source, but rather an obvious source

I am in France three times a month, have been doing so for decades, and speak the language close to fluently.

Both in France and in Belgium to the north, initiatives and polemics from the far left have been so extreme and misguided that one could almost suspect that there is no real far left here any more, but rather just an SNL routine set up to make the far right look good. What passes for the "moderate" left here would be considered screaming radicalism in the USA, so don't compare the two.

But in a place like Belgium, where the right and left are also somewhat ethnically divided (the French-speaking Wallons tend leftward where the majority Vlaamse tend in the other direction), the left managed to bring in hundred of thousands of Moroccans with practically no integration or settlement guidance other than "becomes citizens, vote for us, and we'll take care of you." Well, they did all but the last part. The only "care" they gave was to grant them immunity from practically all prosecution (in the name of "tolerance&quot and give them greater welfare benefits (in the name of "integration&quot than to European Belgians. The very predictable reaction was for the majority Flemish to develop a seething hate for both the Walloons and the Moroccans, and far right groups suddenly had audiences beyond their wildest dreams.

In France, it was more of a laissez-fare tactic than active coddling, but the effect was the same. The far right, once a fringe movement, suddenly had something they could point their collective fingers at. The French Communist Party was almost mainstream, and was represented in almost every election. You couldn't scare the French with "kommanists."

But when Arabs started beating up cops in "no-go" areas, and then, lately, started attacks with mass murder, Le Pen suddenly had a "you need us" argument (like Cheney after 2001) they never had before. All the French and Belgians had to do was apply the same legal standards to thei new citizens that they applied to everyone else, and the far right would never have gotten a centimeter off the ground. But the more the population got the impression, fanned by sensationalist media, that the left thought that violence was "tolerable," ever higher taxes were needed to build more free housing and, not coincidentally give government functionaries free limos, huge pensions, and other lifetime privileges, and the far right was practically writing thank-you notes to their counterparts on the left for giving them a new lease on life.

It was all so predictable, and many DID predict it. But just like the multitudes that predicted a Trump presidency as being a disaster, the warnings and the accuracy of the predictions still didn't prevent the disaster from happening--at least in the USA. France, who is just coming off a disastrous five year "socialist" presidency, seems to be maintaining a collective cooler head. Hollande and Mélenchon would, you might think, be driving the French voters into Le Pen's waiting arms. I don't think it's gonna happen this time. There are no bigger critics of French politics than the French, themselves, but even though all my friends down there tell me their number one choice this year is "none of the above," not one of them says Le Pen is number two.