French elections

I was surprised today to hear that Marine Le Pen's Front National won the regional elections in France. Or perhaps I shouldn't be...
After the terror attacks, it is a natural reaction, though perhaps unfortunate.
The other day I glanced into a brief interview with her niece Marion - my French is only very basic. The "poster girl" of the French right did not sound half as bad as the reputation of FN. Or their sister parties in Europe, Robert Fico (Slovakia), Gabor Vona (Hungary). But that may be the result of careful PR work.
(Actually, Vona of the Jobbik party does not sound or look half as bad as what he says. However, if you take one look at the people standing right behind him whenever he appears... you don't have to be a native to recognize that violence and ideology go together in Vona's party.)

What I know is scary though. Foreign policy: she confirmed (was it last year or several years ago) that FN did accept founding and support from Putin's regime which isn't something to be proud of.
British news article

I don't know about their position on labor rights, or anything else. The recent wave of rightist sentiments, I feel, similar to the movements of the thirties in Europe, were answering true needs and problems but offering a medicine worse than the original sickness.

However, some of the agenda of the New Right is actually not right-wing at all from the POV of classical politology. So that is some food for thought. All across Europe they use issues that used to belong to the Left - though in terms of the rights of employees, most of them restrict all that.
I don't know Le Pen's actual program as much as her alliances and bits and pieces of her rhetorics.

What do you people think?

RB in France?

regmelocco wrote:

I was surprised today to hear that Marine Le Pen's Front National won the regional elections in France. Or perhaps I shouldn't be...
After the terror attacks, it is a natural reaction, though perhaps unfortunate.
The other day I glanced into a brief interview with her niece Marion - my French is only very basic. The "poster girl" of the French right did not sound half as bad as the reputation of FN. Or their sister parties in Europe, Robert Fico (Slovakia), Gabor Vona (Hungary). But that may be the result of careful PR work.
(Actually, Vona of the Jobbik party does not sound or look half as bad as what he says. However, if you take one look at the people standing right behind him whenever he appears... you don't have to be a native to recognize that violence and ideology go together in Vona's party.)

What I know is scary though. Foreign policy: she confirmed (was it last year or several years ago) that FN did accept founding and support from Putin's regime which isn't something to be proud of.
British news article

I don't know about their position on labor rights, or anything else. The recent wave of rightist sentiments, I feel, similar to the movements of the thirties in Europe, were answering true needs and problems but offering a medicine worse than the original sickness.

However, some of the agenda of the New Right is actually not right-wing at all from the POV of classical politology. So that is some food for thought. All across Europe they use issues that used to belong to the Left - though in terms of the rights of employees, most of them restrict all that.
I don't know Le Pen's actual program as much as her alliances and bits and pieces of her rhetorics.

What do you people think?

RB in France?

I am also interested in seeing what RB has to say on this, especially if he believes that what looks like a swing towards right-wing populism all over Europe has significantly different causes in the individual countries involved, or if there is a common cause. And if the latter is true, is it primarily a "New Cold War" between the Russian-led East and the Nato-led West, a bi-product of the clash between Islamic extremists and everyone else, or a mixture of both.

And of course something similar is going on here in the USA ... the Trump phenomenon, etc. ... but not in Canada and the rest of the New World. Most Americans, including politicians and the press, seem to believe that DAESH and Islamic terrorism in general are the cause ... but I personally think there may be other significant causes that no one is finding because they aren't looking for them. And perhaps the European situation may provide evidence that will motivate people to start this search.