France: The near Left lost and the far Left won

Having been away and otherwise intensely occupied with various matter for the last 2-3 weeks, I have read with bemused interest how the American media  - and some Brit papers, too - routinely described French National Front candidate Marine Le Pen as "far right."

Marine Le Pen of France's National Front party

I was already passingly familiar with the NF platform to know that it veered sharply Left in almost every particular, even waaaay Left in some. Thankfully, Michael van der Galien has written it up so I don't have to. 

But if you look at the actual content of the Front National's platform, you can only conclude that the party is anything but conservative. Le Pen and her party are opposed to the free-market system; they're against free trade. They actually believe the government should take over entire sectors of the economy. Additionally, Front National supports France's untenable and unaffordable welfare state. Thirty-five-hour work week? Check. Lower the retirement age to 60? Check. Introduce trade barriers? Check.

 

Let's face it: When it comes to economics, the Front National and Marine Le Pen are diehard socialists.

That's only a snapshot, but it's enough, I think, to show that Le Pen was no more "far right" than Bill Clinton was. Van der Galien goes onto point out that the NF also has some looney ideas on a few topics, and this also entered into Le Pen's loss to Macron. But,

It's the first time in history that Front National has received some 35% of the vote. This means that the party has finally gone mainstream, even though it's certainly not a majority party yet. If Le Pen continues to reform Front National -- by both getting rid of old anti-Semites and by changing the party's horrendous economic plans -- she may be a player in 2022. But that's one big if.

Well, I'd say that the if's outcome depends on Monsieur Macron's job performance, does it not?