France is beset by violence, mostly terror attacks. These have been proved to be carried out by extremist elements of a particular religion. The danger part is that France has the largest minority in Europe. This has led to Islamophobia among the mass of Frenchmen and women. Marine Le Pen who heads the National Party, an organization with extreme views on refugees and the European union has played to the gallery and picked up support. In normal times she would not be in the reckoning, but these are not normal times. There have been terror attacks and tens have been killed and many in France are feeling insecure.
Marine has thus picked up sizeable support.
Marine picks up support
Will Marine who represents the National party win the presidency? the chances looked remote initially. Things have changed and she will definitely poll enough votes to fight the runoff. As per political analysists, she may even win in the final round. Marine is a woman with strong views. She would like to take France out of the EU. This will be music to Donald Trump who supported the exit of the UK from the union. She wants to stop the refugee influx from the Middle East also and most French citizens agree with her. She showed her mettle when on a visit to Lebanon she walked out of a meeting with the Grand Mufti when she was asked to cover her head.
Marine and the election
Marine is pitted against Emmanuel Macron and Francois Fillon. She will definitely lead these two in the first round. One of the analysists Arun Kant from Singapore has his own set of calculations and forecast that the 48-year-old Pen could very well win the final round of the election. In case she wins the politics of Europe will undergo a change as a far-right leader is also rising in the Netherlands.
Europe is passing through tough times and has to be more self-reliant than ever. With Donald Trump sounding slightly lukewarm to NATO and supporting Brexit, the EU itself will have a tough time to survive if Le Pen becomes president. The only fly in the ointment is that Le Pen is charged with wrongfully paying two of her aides from the money she was getting from the EU parliament. She is an MP since 2004.
