Will France follow Britain out of the EU?

Brits foil what seems to have been an assassination attempt againot French presidential candidate.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/18/french-intelligence-foils-imminent-terror-attack-five-days-presidential/amp/

Melenchon, rising candidate for French president, seems to have a big anti-German sentiment. Wonder which of his stump philosophies is gaining him so much support among the French.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/18/jean-luc-melenchon-germany-putin-french-presidential-race

The Intercept's take on the rise and possible consequences of Melenchon.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/18/frances-bernie-sanders-started-his-own-party-and-is-surging-in-the-polls/

Last minute polling and prognosticating re the French election.

Is the recent terrorist attack increasing the hardliner's chances?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/french-presidential-election-poll-tracker-odds/

Junot Diaz talks about the French election.

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/french-election-sunday-marine-le-pen-macron-nationalism

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/794314/french-election-2017-live-updates-news-polls-odds-results-date-marine-le-pen

Updating link to the French election.

The Express is a xenophobic tabloid which cannot be trusted on any issue, but especially not on this one.

Their predictions will be biased in favor of Le Pen.

Meanwhile, the actual Tory government officially views the National Front as a fringe party and will not meet with the FN's leaders.
(Source for that last part: overnight BBC broadcasts via NPR.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/15/marine-le-pen-says-has-snubbed-theresa-may-judgement-not-good/

An interesting article in a Danish paper about the French election.

The Swedish papers do have a lot too.

The world is watching.

An excerpt from the article:
“There’s never been a campaign where the uncertainty was so uncertain,” said Edouard Lecerf, global director for political and opinion research for Kantar Public, a public opinion research firm. “The mistrust of politicians is stronger than it has ever been.”

That mistrust appears to have caused many voters to veer away from traditional politicians in search of someone they feel is more principled, prompting even candidates who are insiders to claim they are “outsiders.”
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/world/europe/france-election-voters.amp.html

Sounds familiar...

Historic voting in France. Reports say France may have 80% of the population participating in today's presidential election.

Are they as sick of the status quo as Americans and Brits? We'll know tonight.

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-39683594

Not according to Walter.

François Fillon gracefully supports Emmanuel Macron for the 2nd round, but not team Mélanchon yet. Interesting two weeks ahead.

The French election does indeed appear to have a few similarities to our last. Presidential election. In both there was/is a good deal of public dissatisfaction with the outgoing regime and some elements of the economic and social status quo. Both involve a populist candidate, regarded as an outsider to conventional politics, and advocating renewed nationalism, restrictions on immigration, and pursuit of traditional cultural interests. In France these issues are also conflated with matters involving EU governance.

There are important differences too. The French have been flirting politically with Le Pen and her father over similar issues for a long time. The element of novelty is not present. The EU aspect of these issues also alters the context in which they play out in France: the stakes and potential side effects could be much greater. The French appear to be very comfortable with their highly regulated economy and social welfare systems and not yet troubled by the long term consequences of their sclerotic economic growth.

Beyond that I don't know enough about public attitudes in France concerning these issues to have a confident opinion about the outcome. The contest is a close one and the principal parties have both seen recent political setbacks. It will be interesting to see what unfolds.

But Macron is an economic reformer. His election would be good news for the French economy.

Another interesting thing about Macron is he seems to have been the only one of the main four who opposed closer relations with Russia:

https://www.rferl.org/a/france-election-macron-le-pen-fillon-melenchon-putin-russia/28445679.html

Btw, please get Walter approval on your current toothpaste.

Voter turnout at the time I commented on turnout stats:
https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN17P094

Small disagreement, but important to SOME, I guess...

Indeed... How did we even get to have 3 of the 5 main candidates being pro-Putin???? Gasp.