Europe at a Crossroads Leading up to French ElectionBy Clay Hamric
Online Editor March 10, 2017 As Europe is becoming more politically heated due to arguments over immigration and the European Union, the French election is just around the corner. After current president François Hollande announced he wouldn’t be running, the campaign trail has been a free-for-all.
Currently Marine Le Pen of the National Front is leading in polls, as her anti-immigration stance is resonating with a terrorism-stricken France. Recently she made headlines for abruptly canceling a meeting with Lebanon’s head Muslim cleric after she was told she would have to wear a veil upon meeting him. Le Pen said afterwards that “the headscarf [is] a symbol of woman’s submission. I will not put on the veil”. Such strong headedness has garnered her more support among the French people. In mid-January, Le Pen had eclipsed the lead of François Fillon, candidate for the Republicans. Fillon was the top choice for France’s moderate conservatives until recently when news broke of Fillon spending over €1 million in public funds to employ family members for little work in parliament. Since then many of his supporters have switched to Le Pen, with even Socialist Party candidate Benoît Hamon surpassing him for second. Le Pen is expected to win the first round of voting on April 23, though if she does not win an overall majority then a second round of voting will occur on May 7. As of now, it is predicted that in the second round she would lose to either Fillon or Emmanuel Macron of his new party En Marche!, though it seems new polls each day are putting her at greater second-round odds. If Le Pen were to win, she would most likely push for France to leave the European Union, similar to when Britain did the same last summer. It’s predicted that an EU without both Britain and France would leave only Germany as a leg to stand on, and the EU would soon dissolve. The dissolution of the EU would have the largest effect on Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, with arguments each day over whether it would help or hurt the continent. With a Le Pen presidency looking more and more likely, a giant shift in the state of European politics is looking very imminent. |
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