Is emmanuel macron trying to throw the French Presidential Election that has its second round May 7? He must be since nothing else can explain his threatening Poland with economic sanctions if it doesn’t take in more Muslim refugees. He also insulted the Polish prime minister by comparing him to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, something that should raise eyebrows when one notes Russian-Polish relations for the past 500 or so years.
The Poles have resisted attempts to settle Muslim migrants within its borders. While some European leaders such as Macron have sniffed that Poland lacks true European values by so doing, the Poles can respond with some accuracy that their country, unlike France, also lacks terrorist attacks.
French voters must be noticing this soft on migrants attitude because Macron’s once massive lead over National Front leader Marine Le Pen has started to diminish. The French may be dubious about many aspects of the National Front, but it could be that they are starting to realize that, everything else besides, Le Pen seems serious about defending France from Islamic terrorism.
Of course, Le Pen is also for madcap protectionist trade policy and has downplayed France’s role in the Nazi Holocaust. Conservatives in America who find her attractive have to realize that she does not regard the United States as a friend and will treat the sole superpower with the aggravation that too many French leaders have in the post-World War II world.
Macron had but one job, which was to run as a colorless but sensible and above all not scary alternative to Le Pen. To be sure George Will called him a French version of Barack Obama, which coming from the conservative commentator was not a nice comparison. But Macron had a chance to be a French version of Tony Blair, a third-way candidate who, while not perfect by any means, would have most French voters comfortable voting for him.
Now, because of Macron’s clueless babbling about the Poles, France is faced with the remarkable prospect of electing a woman who hitherto had been considered unelectable, despite her efforts to soften the National Front’s fascist past. Marine Le Pen, as president of the French Republic, is going to be a problem for both Europe and the United States.
She’ll be a hammer to the terrorists, to be sure, and maybe the French will console themselves with that as they swallow the rest of her agenda. Le Pen, if she is elected, will represent a failure of France’s political elites, left and right, to fix not only the terrorism problem but the anemic economy that features a bloated welfare state and an unemployment rate that has been in double digits for many years.
Let her be a warning for everyone else, fix your country’s problems or someone you don’t like will.