The U.S. news media, taking its cues from fake TV reality shows, has reported that French President Emmanuel Macron’s easy defeat of fascist and pro-Russian candidate Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential election is an indication of the French far-right making “gains.” A 59 to 41 percent victory for Emmanuel, while not as strong as his 66 to 33 percent thrashing of Le Pen in the 2017 election, does not show any real “gains” by Le Pen and her National Rally party. Macron’s 2022 campaign strategy of tacking to the right did cost him votes among the French progressive left, but those voters largely decided to abstain from voting in the second round rather than voting for Le Pen. Some 6.8 percent of voters in the second round showed up at polling places to submit “blank” ballots.
The 2022 Macron-Le Pen election was not “close” as some American media suggests. Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater by 61 to 39 percent of the vote in 1964. That was called a landslide. Richard Nixon beat George McGovern with 60 percent of the vote to McGovern’s 38 percent. That was also called a landslide. It would seem constructive for the U.S. “news” media to either take a political history course. Or, perhaps, a rudimentary math class in any state but Florida.
As someone who has covered two past French presidential elections from Paris, this editor recently reported on April 14 that Le Pen had no chance of beating Macron in a free and fair election devoid of Vladimir Putin’s election hackers and social media influencers. The real news story out of France is that Le Pen’s defeat this year represents the third loss in a presidential run-off for her and her father, the pro-Vichy Jean-Marie Le Pen. Monsieur Le Pen lost the 2002 election to Jacques Chirac and his daughter has now lost two successive elections against Macron. The Le Pens have become to France what Harold Stassen and Norman Thomas became to American presidential politics. Stassen was a perennial Republican candidate for president, while Thomas repeatedly ran on the Socialist Party ticket for president. Both were the fodder for comedians and pundits of their day. As far as far-right politicians are concerned, Ron and Rand Paul have become the Le Pens of American presidential races, their campaigns more like running jokes than serious election runs.
Madame Le Pen has proven herself twice to be anathema to a country that still teaches children in public schools about the horrors of the Nazi occupation and the Vichy collaborationist puppet government. They want no part of the Le Pens; their patron, Putin; or a fascist-dominated Europe. A majority of the French voters see Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, in an attempt to expand the Russian empire, in the same light as French history books have taught them about Adolf Hitler’s plan to incorporate Frankreich into greater Germany.
The far-right—or extrême droite—has always misjudged the French electorate. The lessons of Hitler and Vichy can never be washed away from the French body politic, as much as it has tried. As WMR previously reported, Le Pen tanked, as expected, in the regions of France where memories of the Nazi atrocities remain vivid. These include Normandy, which Macron easily defeated Le Pen by double digits; Alsace, which was incorporated into Nazi Germany; and Paris, which Macron won 85 percent to Le Pen’s 14 percent. [Parisians celebrating Macron's victory, right] In Nouvelle-Aquitaine, which includes the French Basque country Macron equaled his national results. French Basque country retains vivid memories of twice facing down the fascists in supporting the Spanish Loyalists in the late 1930s against Francisco Franco and during Vichy rule in helping targets of the Gestapo to escape to Spain and Portugal.
The French overseas territories saw the left and pro-independence parties largely sit out the second round. That resulted in easy, but non-representative, wins for Le Pen. For any observer to suggest that the white nationalist and racist Le Pen somehow managed to convince majorities of the black and brown populations of Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, and Reunion to vote for her is to show complete ignorance regarding French politics.
The Kremlin, which has banked on supporting far-right candidates for office in Europe and elsewhere, had a terrible Orthodox Easter when it came to European elections. Not only did Le Pen get trounced in France but the far-right government of Slovenia, led by Janez Janša—an admirer of Donald Trump—lost to the Freedom Alliance, a left-Green coalition headed by Robert Golob, a George Institute of Technology alum. Janša knew he was in trouble for his past support of Trump and Putin. However, even a hazardous trip to Kyiv to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not bail him out. The Freedom Alliance won over Janša’s party by 10 percent, another crushing European electoral blow for Putin.
Slovenians, like the French, have long memories when it comes to fascists like Putin. During World War II, Slovenia was broken away from Yugoslavia by the Axis, which trisected the country. Three parts of Slovenia were absorbed into Nazi Germany and fascist Italy and Hungary. It is a testament to the public education systems of most European countries that the memories of Nazi Germany, the Axis, and Stalinist Russia continue to positively reverberate in European elections.
Putin and his election disruptors and manipulators will now turn their attention toward two German state elections in May. They are the election in Schleswig-Holstein on May 8 and the May 15 election in North Rhine-Westphalia. Russia hopes to see gains for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). However, Putin will be disappointed. The pro-NATO expansion Schleswig-Holstein coalition of the Christian Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats are currently at 76 percent in the polls. If Moscow hopes for the AfD to throw a Baltic monkey wrench into the impending accession of Finland and Sweden into NATO, it will be sorely disappointed. The AfD’s best polls are showing them at 7 percent. The AfD is showing a similar dismal poll results in North Rhine-Westphalia. It appears that from France to Slovenia to Germany, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has served as a European-wide wake up call to the clear and present danger posed by fascism.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and nationally-distributed columnist. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the National Press Club. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
