Macron Now Says The Eu Must Reform

[Khandro]

Well good luck with that, should he have word with David Cameron?

[Jackdaw33]

Ms Le Pen has the right approach: the EU must eff off.

[Garaman]

He is not wrong though, and I suspect it will.

[Hopkirk]

The latest is Tim Farron saying he is a Eurosceptic.

[Khandro]

Hopkirk, has he really said that, or do you joke?

[Hopkirk]

Seriously yes, although I think it may be 'a bit' of a Eurosceptic.

I would give a link, but I don't know how to do it on a mobile. Just Google it and you'll see.

[jourdain2]

He certainly should, but all he is doing is trying to steal wavering votes from Martine by pinching one of her strongest lines. I fear for France in a few years if he wins. It won't be nice now if she wins - but I am totally sure that it will become worse the longer France is left to fester. I've been Cassandra-ing on this for years. Still haven't sold OH's house, already lost a LOT of money by price reductions. :(

[Ric.ror]

He probably will win the next stage but the frightening thing is she still got over 20% of the votes

[ichkeria]

Le Pen is all over the place. Realising that dropping the euro is a vote loser with a lot of the people whose votes she needs, she's vone back to idea of having the both franc AND the euro! Trouble is that alienates the Melenchon crowd. Only Macron of the two has the policies to pull France round but it is extremely unlikely that he will be able to implement them. No other recent president has managed it

[jourdain2]

Probably a daft question - but does anybody else think that Marine might just wing it? I did put £20 on her yonks ago (over 2 months) to give me interest and entertainment value. I've certainly had that - so the money no longer counts. I have the feeling that it is going to be very close - could easily be wrong of course and won't mind if I am.

[Khandro]

jourdain; I think you might be on a winner there, I hope you got good odds. I think the penny (or centime) is beginning to drop with the electorate that Macron is a bit of a hollow self-serving man and would be simply a continuation of Hollande the unpopular and the turn-out for him on the day will drop off, this coupled with the fact that many Le Pen people, when asked, say 'don't know', rather as they did with Trump, so she may well scrape through.
If she does, as far as Brussels is concerned, Brexit will simply be a side-show.

[ichkeria]

It certainly isn't like 2002, when there was a general oputpouring of revulsion and indeed shame that Le Pen snr had reached the run-off
Although Chirac was of course the bete noire of the left, he was suddenly seen as the saviour of France, and was in any case a tried and tested and (albeit by many) grudgingly accepted "normal" politician.
In 2017 LePen jnr has tried to shake off the stigma of racism that attaches to her, her family and her party, but it won't work to the extent of bringing her victory on Sunday. Macron suffers from being seen as neither a fresh break with the past, nor an experienced, safe pair of hands.
Temporarily stuffing her FN membership card in the bottom drawer is a pretty cynical move, and somewhat spoiled by the new leader being reminded of remarks he made about Zyklon B years ago.
Nonetheless it is likely that up to 40% of the people who bother to vote may plump for Le Pen, which is bad enough.

[ichkeria]

I would lay a £40 bet with you, jourdain, that in the unlikely event that Le Pen DID win, France still would leave neither the Euro nor the EU, but there'd be plenty of other damage for her to do to France's economy and her place in the world.

[Khandro]

ichi; Marine hasn't ever promised to leave the EU, all she has promised is a referendum. Also, would you like to be held personally responsible for everything your father has ever said?

[ichkeria]

It's not what Le Pen snr says alone, is it. It's her too. I would not trust her an inch.

[Khandro]

oh dear, and she speaks so highly of you.

[ichkeria]

Trounced in last night's debate, too

If Le Pen spoke highly of me I would be really concerned :-)