With Le Pen defeat, Europe's far-right surge stalls
By Michael Birnbaum and Anthony Faiola May 7 at 10:08 PM
BRUSSELS — The anti-E.U. French leader Marine Le Pen’s larger-than-expected defeat Sunday in her nation’s presidential election was a crushing reality check for the far-right forces who seek to overthrow Europe: Despite the victories for Brexit and Donald Trump, they are likely to be shut out of power for years.
Given one choice after another since Trump’s U.S. presidential victory, Western European voters have delivered mainstream candidates to office despite a post-November sense that an anti-immigrant populist wave was washing over the Western world. Far-right candidates in Austria, the Netherlands and France have faltered. The euroskeptic far-right party in Germany has collapsed in recent polls ahead of September elections. And an unforgiving election calendar now offers few routes into power for years.
The thwarted momentum comes despite clear evidence that views that would have been taboo to express just a few years ago are no longer too toxic to exclude politicians from coming a breath away from leadership. When Le Pen’s father reached a presidential runoff in 2002, his opponent refused even to debate with him, so unacceptable to the mainstream were his views. This time, many French citizens sat out the election altogether because they detested both Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron — even though the pro-European centrist Macron offered a vastly different platform from his opponent. Le Pen’s result, about 34 percent, was still a historic high for her party.
“French people have chosen the continuity candidate,” a visibly disappointed Le Pen said in a brief concession address. She said she would seek to rename her National Front party, a measure of the extent to which her defeat rattled supporters who just weeks ago harbored hopes of capturing the Elysee Palace.
Instead, Le Pen’s numbers sank in the two weeks since she placed second in the first round of the French elections.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-le-pen-defeat-europes-far-right-wave-crashes-to-a-halt/2017/05/07/e8edfa46-301f-11e7-a335-fa0ae1940305_story.html?utm_term=.fbfddf7c56e6&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
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...and hopefully signaling the beginning of the tide turning the other way, in Europe, and beyond.
