Election 2017

Welcome back for the final addition to this blog! We are going to cover the French elections are to take place on April 23, 2017. Incumbent François Holland of the Socialist Party was eligible to run for re-election, but he declined on December 1, 2016. The Republicans nominated former prime minister François Fillon and the far-right National Front nominated Marine Le Pen. We will analyze these two candidates briefly and then talk about the effects of the United States’ 2016 election of France.

According to CNN, Fillon has been nicknamed “French Thatcher”, after Britsh prime minister Margaret Thatcher, because of his willingness to go after the unions. He won the nomination in a second-round run-off vote in late November. His policy stances include ending the 35-hour work week, cutting public spending, abolishing the wealth tax, reducing immigration, and investing 12 billion euros in defense, justice, and security. He has also pledged to cut over 500,000 civil service jobs. Similar to Donald J. Trump, he has been praising the Russian government. Fillon is also against same-sex marriage and for the burkini ban. Some believe has a clear shot at being the next president due to his similar volatile beliefs as Trump had during the American election.

Before Fillon’s nomination, Le Pen said the Trump win showed promising signs for he candidacy. She said that the election “shows that people are taking their future back,” and she thinks the French people are ready to do the same. Le Pen vows to return the country to its former glory, similar to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. She is the daughter of the founder of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and she eventually expelled him from the party because he said the Holocaust was a “detail of history.” When she was 8, her house was bombed by enemies of her father. She campaigned for her father at a very young age and later became a lawyer, often representing illegal immigrants. While trying to distance the party from its anti-Semitic past, she still remains anti- illegal immigration, EU, and Islam.

As was mentioned earlier, the election of Donald Trump has ignited the hope of more radical and outsider candidates and politicians all across Europe. Hollande, however, was very cautious during his statements about the president-elect saying things about being wary and staying united. The biggest fear is of the abolition of NATO and a decrease in military protection by the United States across the world. If other elections see the same results as the U.S., Muslim immigration bans and anti-gay marriage legislation might become the norm and countries will be set against each other. Time will only tell.

Thank you for taking this journey with me! French history is fascinating and filled with many wonderful stories that sometimes contradict each other. It is very difficult to condense such a rich history and culture into such a short period of time. Please explore more on your own, especially with the upcoming elections possibly having a direct impact on our politics.