Macron stretches lead in last throes of French presidential campaign

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters




Fri May 5, 2017 | 3:07pm EDT

By Mathieu Rosemain and Andrew Callus | PARIS

Centrist French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron extended his lead in the polls over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Friday, the final day of campaigning in a tumultuous election race that has turned the country's politics upside down.

Sunday's election is seen as the most important in France for decades, with two diametrically opposed views of Europe and France's place in the world at stake. The National Front's Le Pen would close borders and quit the euro currency, while independent Macron, who has never held elected office, wants closer European cooperation and an open economy.

The candidates of France's two mainstream parties, which have alternated in power for decades, were both eliminated in the first round of voting on April 23.

An Ifop-Fiducial survey on Friday afternoon, hours before official campaigning closed at midnight, showed Macron on course to win 63 percent of votes in the second round and Le Pen 37 percent, the best score for Macron recorded by a major polling organization since mid-April.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN18014H

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Apparently the French aren't stupid like the US and the UK.

[oberliner]

3. Nearly 40 percent of them plan to vote for the National Front candidate

So I would say they are just as stupid as the US and the UK.

[deurbano]

5. Not QUITE as stupid? (Hopefully!)

[tenorly]

8. But with a key difference:

Whatever else can be said about Le Pen, she doesn't campaign on shredding the social safety net.

Republicans not only constantly do; but they even have their zombies believing that they themselves don't deserve any of it.

Come to think of it....

[TheBlackAdder]

10. Well, the French did get to witness two train wrecks, the results and partial postmortems on them.

[Turbineguy]

2. Let's hope the French hold the line

against Teh Stupid.

[DFW]

4. I was just down in France yesterday

The guy who holds down the fort at my main office told me he had seen a TV debate between LePen and Macron. While Macron tried to discuss issues, LePen spent her time trying to tear Macron down. Her tactic was transparent, poorly executed, and did not go down well, according to what I heard.

Caveat--I was only in Paris, and did not get any reactions from our in the provinces.

[Dopers_Greed]

6. Sounds just like our debates

However the candidate with the poorly executed tactics (looking obese and stalking around the stage) ended up winning.

[okieinpain]

7. well if putin can't hack the election he might just go back to his

old ways.

[MelissaB]

9. Wikileaks has her emails.

Sound familiar? https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029021272