OK, in answer to BlueMarlin's plea,
here is the snapshot of French 2017
presidential elections with a smile
In the left corner :
Jean-Luc Melanchon is your charismatic strike organizer
par excellence.
Communists and friends are his basic constituency but his telegenic ardor
and better than most mastery of numbers saw him rise in popularity of late.
The alter-mondialist and hardcore anti-capitalists will vote for him by default.
[+-10%]
Strength : Speaks fast!
Weakness : main discourse away from main electorate.
Favorite song : L'Internationale.
Benoit Hamon is a reliable and loyal
Socialist. That maybe his nemesis under
the circumstances as Socialists have just proved how unreliable they were, by
nature one could say, and his loyalty last served the most inept of presidents.
Relative youth or looks won't cut it. Only loyal socialists will vote for him.
[-20%]
Strength : Soft but not as soft as Hollande.
Weakness : Perceived as continuity in error.
Favourite song : I believe I can fly.
Smack in the middle :
Emmanuel Macron is the right guy in the right place at the right time, right now.
This Socialist by heart is a manager by trade and right leaning enough. His work
although questionable for the last government showed him as a pragmatist which
in a band of unfocused amateurs as was the last government made him shine like
a supernova and attracted the good will of the center-leaning right. In a country
that always had
middle ground in its political landscape but rarely the right men
to promote and enforce it, he may be the consensual solution.
[ Could get over 25% ]
Strength : Can get votes from all non-extremist voters.
Weakness : None
[ or maybe being perceived as most likely to succeed, often a pitfall ].
Favourite song : Stuck in the middle with you.
In the right corner :
François Fillon is the default guy from the
classic Right gang and indeed has proved
as much with his fake job for the missus affair right after just seeming the less cor-
-rupt of that gang. Do remember that one of the battle cries of the Front National is
that all of the old school political parties are in cahoots to share power and riches ...
and that the hard right / soft mannered Fillon rose to Party representation amidst a
violent exchange of blows between hoodlums ( Juppé went to live in Canada for a
while ... while ineligible by justice decision versus Sarkozy that had party accounts
tweaked to cover excess spending in the election he lost to bumbling Frankie Hollande ).
[15%]
Strength : Still breathing and last standing of his gang if wobbly.
Weakness : Won't garner public trust save classic Right hardliners.
Favourite song : I will survive.
Marine Le Pen is a sort of Trump with a better political background, knowledge and
acumen. Her party, cleansed by her of her father's toxic histrionics, has never been
closer to garnering popular support, helped that it was by terrorism under the last
government. For Marine rejects the EU ( tuned with Brexit ), is isolationist in trade
( tuned à la Trump ), wants to curb immigration ( tuned with security concerns ) &
which is less clear wants the Franc to return. 3 out of those 4 earned her the clear
dislike of the industry and corporations which limits funding to grass roots money.
She's a Marine who's the daughter of a Légionnaire ... added perk on a mil forum?
Strength : The traditional parties did everything they could to justify her claims.
Weakness : She may seem less fascist and revisionist than her father but those
same or same type of intellectuals that helped him are still around in the
FN and
French people are still likely to vote en bloc against her in the second turn
[82,2% ag. dad].
Favourite song : Back in Black.
Hope it helps, Tay.
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