FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 2017

The Tricolor

Emmanuel Macron                            Marine Le Pen 

The first round of the 2017 French presidential elections was held on the 20th April.   The French almost obliterated the Socialists and the Republicans, the two large political parties that had been governing the country since the 1950s.  On Wednesday, the 3rd May, a prevented terror attack horrified France, therefore stricter counterterrorism steps had to be taken in a country, already under a state of emergency.

As no candidate won a majority, a runoff election will be held tomorrow, Sunday the 7th May, between the two contenders Emmanuel Macron of "En March" and Marine Le Pen of the "National Front".  Undoubtedly, they have extremely dissimilar aspirations for the future of France.

Emmanuel Macron is a 39-year-old "outsider" who does not belong to the political elite, so naturally, three years ago he was completely unknown on the political scene.   Born in Amiens, Picardy, he studied philosophy and was a brilliant young employee in the civil service before joining Rothschild's as an investment banker.  Also, for two years he was Minister of Economics in Francois  Hollande's government.    In all these positions, he had the political intuition to realise that the citizens, after years of unemployment and after being perpetually threatened with terrorist attacks, felt profoundly desperate and extremely insecure.  So, less than a year ago, he built a movement called En Marche, which appealed to the people and kindled their hope for better days.

Mr Macron based his campaign on a "personal crusade" to change what he calls the "vacuous"  political system.    He refuses to be specified by any fixed ideology, for which he has been vastly criticised by his opponents.    He considers himself someone "of the left ...open to ideas from the right", he is an economic liberal and "pro-business", but he is definitely on the left for social issues.  Moreover, Emmanuel Macron wants to strengthen the relations with the European Union and tighten integration between the Eurozone countries.  He also promises to reduce corporation taxes, to send more teachers to poverty-stricken areas, to make a large public investment plan to cover job training and to switch over to renewable energy, to prevent global warming.  One of his top priorities is to change France's very intricate pension system.

According to Mr Macron's team, he was attacked by "massive and coordinated hacking operation", which was the last attempt to reduce his popularity before Sunday's election.  The files were published the last hours before the election campaign period officially closed, with the usual limitations and restraints on campaigning, polling and reporting.   CNN reported that about "14.5 megabytes of emails and official and personal documents" were posted on the site PASTEBIN.   Officials of Mr Macron's team stated that the hacking culprits combined fake with genuine documents, in order to "create confusion and misinformation".



Mrs Le Pen is a 48-year-old lawyer and politician, After working for six years in Paris as a lawyer, she is now a member of the European Parliament and president of the National Front party.

Considered more democratic than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is the founder of the N.F., she has started a movement to "de-demonise" the party in order to obliterate its unpleasant image, by renewing teams, and expelling members accused of " racism, anti-Semitism and Petainism".  She even expelled her father in 2015 after he made racist and false statements, such as "the holocaust is a detail in history".

But she still has a far-right platform.   Mrs Le Pin wants France to abandon the euro and to return to the franc.   She also wants to "renegotiate France's E.U. membership" and then hold a referendum.   She wants to protect the French from globalisation and promises to promptly expel illegal immigrants, to cut legal immigration to the minimum, to instantly close "extremist" mosques and to grant the priority for housing only to French nationals.  She. also, wishes to ban women wearing Muslim headscarves or veils in public, and to impose a 35% tax on all imported goods.




The results of the 2017 French Presidential Elections were:

                                              65.5 for Mr Macron
                                              34.5 for Mrs Le Pen


                                             VIVE LA FRANCE!!!
                                  VIVE L'UNION EUROPEENNE!!!





Here is a typically French cocktail to celebrate:

                                                 KIR ROYALE

A Votre Sante

Pour into each iced Champagne flute:

2 tbsp (30 ml/1 fl oz) Creme de Cassis and top with
Iced Champagne

Garnish with blackberries or a twist of lemon peel.