Will she prevail this time? 

 

 

Never mind France and their elections! The good news is that we have no problems here in good old Blighty – we have Prince Harry! He is on all front pages of the paper editions this morning (link). Four  news editors have broken ranks, but they also have the photo of the Queen, framed by two beautiful horses, which all others have also published. You can check them out at the above link.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, the elections are entering the last few days but that’s not our concern, according to the Westminster News editors who seem to think that Macron will win anyway, so why waste space on a foregone conclusion. Should, Mme Le Pen win, against their expectations, then at least these editors won’t have to recant much, keeping the usual gossip channels open.

Yesterday there was a TV debate between M Macron and Mme Le Pen. One has to dig into the innards of the online papers to find some sort of report. I picked out two interesting aspects which our ‘French correspondents’ emphasised. This one is from the DT:

“Accusing Ms Le Pen of “depending on Mr Putin”, the incumbent centrist clearly dominated the almost three-hour exchange but unlike in their last 2017 clash, his nationalist rival did not collapse under pressure and landed a few blows, notably when she called him a “climate hypocrite”. Among the flashpoints, was when Ms Le Pen’s reasserted she would ban the Islamic veil in public, calling it an “Islamist uniform’. Currently it is only banned in schools and the civil service. Mr Macron replied: “You will create civil war if you do that. France, the country of Enlightenment, would become the first country in the world to ban religious signs in public. It makes no sense. It is a betrayal of the French spirit.” (paywalled link)

Well, the remark about a Putin connection sounds more like an obligatory knee-taking to me, but Macron’s warning about inciting civil war should the hijab be banned is astounding. It seems Macron is happy to submit to islamic demands ‘for fear of civil war’. As if a surreptitious kind of such war isn’t happening already anyway! Just because it’s not reported in the MSM doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Oh yes: in a small paragraph we also learn that Mme Le Pen actually spoke about the rising cost-of-living in France: “The debate began in Ms Le Pen’s favour, as the 53-year-old nationalist spoke first on her pet subject of living costs”(paywalled link) A ‘pet subject’? Hm … The Times, after grudgingly providing a sort of summary of what Madame Le Pen said, goes on at length reporting faithfully M Macrons exquisite smear job on Mme Le Pen:

“Macron sought to unsettle Le Pen over her long support for President Putin, saying that she was under his influence, having taken out a loan from a Russian bank to fund her National Rally in 2015. He said she had approved of Russia’s annexation of Crimea because of her financial ties to the Kremlin. ​​“I say with a lot of gravity that you depend on the Russian authorities and on Mr Putin,” he said. “You don’t speak to other leaders. You speak to your banker. That is perhaps why you are absent when brave decisions need to be taken. You cannot defend the interests of France because you depend on Russia.” When Le Pen, 53, contested his claims, he looked straight at her and said: “I ask you if what I say is false.” (link, paywalled)

Oh my … did Macron  actually ‘invite’ Mme Le Pen to talk about these ‘brave decisions’, like sending French military to support Mr ‘e? Anyway – who’d want a ‘Putin Lover’ as President! Better to elect a lover of Mr ‘e and the Ukrainian “Nationalists”, correct? Have you noticed that ‘nationalists’, even when they’re outright and well documented Nazis, are quite acceptable but that ‘nationalists’ who care about their own country are beyond the pale and worse than those outright Nazis? Here’s the reply by Mme Le Pen:

“She responded: “Yes, Mr Macron, it’s false and it’s quite dishonest. Everyone knows that I am absolutely a free woman and that I am a patriot who defends the interests of France.” She said that she and her party had taken out a Russian loan only because no French bank would give her one. “We are a poor party and there is no dishonour in that,” she said. Le Pen sought to defend herself against the charge that she is under Putin’s wing by pointing out that Macron had invited the Russian leader to a summit in the Palace of Versailles shortly after taking power in 2017. She said their policies were similar, which Macron angrily denied.” (link, paywalled)

Unlike our beloved Westminster MSM, the German online paper ‘Die Welt’ reported this debate on their front page. Well, alright, I concede that the outcome of that election is more important for the Germans. Still, they did write about Mme Le Pen’s proposals to combat the rising cost of living even though they could not resist interpreting Macron’s reply as ‘swipe at le Pen’. Here’s a somewhat wooden machine translation – but you get the gist:

“The first topic, purchasing power, should have been a home game for Le Pen. For months, the candidate of the Rassemblement National had built her entire election campaign on this. […] All surveys showed that purchasing power is the dominant topic of this election for the French. But Macron dismantled Le Pen’s measures in a few minutes. With a watering can, the right-wing populist wants to water everything and everyone, whether in need or not. Young workers under 30 should be tax-free with her, no matter what they earn. Salaries are expected to increase by ten percent. On vital products of the classic shopping basket, it wants to cancel VAT altogether in the event of rising inflation. Macron whistled them back: It is not the president who sets the salaries and everyone would benefit from a cancellation of VAT on noodles without exception, even the well-paid candidates and presenters in the television studio.” (paywalled link in German, machine translation needed)

Clearly, our and the German broadsheets support the wannabe Napoleon. It is interesting how they all pooh-pooh the issue of rising cost of living, formerly known as inflation. We can discern the disdain those well-cushioned MSM owners and writers have for the ordinary people: a bit of inflation is neither here nor there. In the end it can all be blamed on Putin.

Everywhere, politicians tell us peasants that “we” must tighten our belts to support the drug-addicted ‘president’ of the Ukraine who just demands more and more armaments which neither we nor the EU countries even possess any longer. Wasting more billions of ££, $$ or €€ is fine. Alleviating the hardships Inflation causes for one’s citizens: that’s not necessary. Anyone who complains must be a secret Putin lover.

But remember: “we” don’t have such problems here in the UK! We have Prince Harry dominating the front pages. One might ask why the Westminster News editors saw fit to publish this piece of ‘news’ on their front pages rather than burying it somewhere deep inside. Me, being a cynical old cow, sez it’s because they still think we plebs are too thick to worry about rising prices, that we’d rather talk about Harry than about the PM, his Partygate lies and his attempts to drag us ever deeper into this war against Russia.

As for the French elections on Sunday and our local elections in a week’s time, there’s this quote, allegedly by Mark Twain: “If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” By now we surely have learned the truth of that quip.

 

 

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