Le Pen Energizes Final Stretch of French Campaign

[applegrove]

Le Pen Energizes Final Stretch of French Campaign

April 5, 2022 at 6:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 20 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2022/04/05/le-pen-energizes-final-stretch-of-french-campaign/

"SNIP.......

“The warnings from the French establishment are getting louder: politicians and pundits from Manuel Valls, former prime minister, to President Emmanuel Macron himself are sounding the alarm that voters could propel far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to victory in this month’s election,” the Financial Times reports.

“Le Pen is not there yet — the latest opinion poll from Harris Interactive suggests Macron would still beat her by 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent in the second round. But she is almost guaranteed her place in the run-off against Macron on April 24 — and his lead has narrowed sharply to within the margin of error.”

......SNIP"

[DonCoquixote]

1. if le Pen wins

Putin gains another stooge.

[Boomerproud]

2. Learn from history.

[applegrove]

3. History is that birth rates are falling. Immigration has to make it up.

Would you rather immigrants come now and mix in while there are still younguns to trade culture and share your countries' structure and traditions with them? Or have immigrants come when your population is very old and poor, dependant on a younger generation that doesn't exist, and bankrupt? Your choice.

[DFW]

4. The problem here in Western Europe is not immigrants per se, but the treatment of them

Once they are here, the old way of thinking was to let them be unskilled labor, and they'd be content to have better lives than back home, and so just let them alone, and tolerate their different ways. No need to spend large amount of state money trying to assimilate them and accustom them to the ways of their new homes. No, that might mean that they or their children might marry into families of the host country, and we can't have THAT, can we?

Well what did this ghettoizing end up doing? It made immigrants, especially those from the Balkans and Muslim countries, who may be different, but are not idiots, feel they were unwanted outsiders, many of whom felt only resentment to the host countries. In an effort to show "tolerance," crimes committed by immigrants were, as a rule, ignored by the justice systems. Street theft, "honor" killings, violent assault, organized crime (as long as it was organized among and against themselves), generous welfare payouts, and vandalism were almost guaranteed to give the perps a free pass, with the idea that "tolerance" would give them an incentive to assimilate.

What it did, of course, was to pour lighter fluid on the fire of right-wing xenophobia in the host countries, and ignite hate movements against foreigners, who responded in kind. It was a very predictable outcome of a foolish, badly thought-out policy. Even my wife, a social worker of very left leanings, said the Europeans needed to explain the rules to immigrants, and then treat them equally with Germans, including prosecution of criminal behavior. She said that if the Germans always gave immigrants a break, they would assume those WERE the rules, and that's exactly what happened.

[applegrove]

5. Wow. I had not heard that. Yes assimilate immigrants and share the local institutions with them

including the justice system. Go hard on corruption. Make examples of those who break the laws. That is how it works.