Read this for a sense of perspective

Published: May 25, 2014 at 10:31pm

Marine Le Pen




17 Comments Comment

  1. admin says:
    May 25, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10855797/Marine-Le-Pen-wins-record-victory-in-French-elections.html

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  2. Peppa Pig says:
    May 25, 2014 at 10:41 pm

    Interesting debate going on right now on Euronews as the EPP group claim majority.

    Reply
  3. f... hell says:
    May 25, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    Oh great

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  4. Antoine Vella says:
    May 25, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    There is indeed a connection. Le Pen’s real counterpart is Muscat, not Lowell.

    Muscat and Lowell fish for votes in the same turbid waters but the former is much more credible and, therefore, more insidious.

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    • albona says:
      May 25, 2014 at 11:03 pm

      I don’t agree with tarnishing Le Pen’s name by associating it with that of Muscat.

      Anyone who has been following French politics for a while will know that Marine Le Pen, and her newly styled FN is not as bad as one might think – certainly not as bad as the PL.

      The true criminals in that country are the socialists and the Gauche Caviar. I am no FN sympathiser but to compare her to Muscat is, quite frankly, offensive to a woman who is doing a lot to highlight certain issues that have gone untackled in France for too long.

      Maybe this way the UMP will wake up and start tackling the real problems of returning ‘laicité’ to the country.

      Comparing a seasoned, intelligent politician to a village populist is unfortunate.

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      • La Redoute says:
        May 25, 2014 at 11:18 pm

        The comparison betweeen Muscat and Le Pen is not unfair. They are both far right politicians.

      • albona says:
        May 25, 2014 at 11:42 pm

        Oh but I never denied that. What is unfair is to compare an intelligent, polite, eloquent politician to a scruffy populist like Muscat.

        Natioanlism and populism are not oneand the same thing. In any case, I am not a FN supporter bit one needs to umderstand the French comtext and to have followed French politics to be able to umderstand the rise of the FN.

    • Kevin says:
      May 25, 2014 at 11:08 pm

      That is what I thought too. The promise to tackle immigration and the implied pushback resonate among many including Nationalist supporters.

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    • H.P. Baxxter says:
      May 25, 2014 at 11:14 pm

      You’re absolutely wrong, trying to compare apples and oranges.

      For a start, France’s electoral system is completely unlike Malta’s.

      Secondly, the rise of the FN is directly proportional to the disillusionment with the Socialists. But the Socialists rode to victory on the strength of the white collar and (crucially) immigrant/minority vote. So the FN’s electorate is mostly the blue collar/rural segment, which feels disenfranchised. The FN never had the historical blessing enjoyed by Malta’s Labour, where the Mintoffian narrative IS the national narrative for Labour and PN alike.

      Thirdly the FN siphoned votes off the Right, which could never find a natural unifying figure after Sarkozy. Or even a unifying political project. It’s not so much an FN victory as a Socialist defeat. With Sarkozy gone, the Socialists no longer have a raison d’être. Malta’s Labour, on the other hand, still has a raison d’être, which is to shape Malta to its own image. And it has succeeded. Laburisti hate Simon Busuttil as much as they hated Gonzi, if not more.

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  5. bob-a-job says:
    May 25, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    Le Pen won for France and Le Pain won for Malta.

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  6. Peppa Pig says:
    May 25, 2014 at 11:18 pm

    Euronews is claiming the Grillo’s Cinque stelle is off to Brussels as well and a couple of north European countries are sending a goodly bunch of Eurosceptics too.The UKIP is at 30%.

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    • White coat says:
      May 26, 2014 at 5:15 pm

      It seems that, unfortunately, the EP will be at the hands of the fringe parties. Is Malta’s PL one of them? Considering that the MLP, now renamed PL, was all so contrarian and negative about Malta’s EU membership, it might just as well be considered as a sort of fringe in sheep’s clothing, sleeping with clowns of the Beppe Grillo type.

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  7. Mario Tabone says:
    May 26, 2014 at 8:53 am

    Daphne, this is the end (Jim Morrison please excuse) for EU and EFA dreams of Malta in the EU.

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