It would be tempting to give French President Nicolas Sarkozy points for being consistent, except his incessant efforts to approximate the positions of surging extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen have proven so catastrophic it’s difficult not to wonder if the Elysée isn’t suffering from a deep and dysfunctional learning disability. …
Marine Le Pen
Should France’s Moderate Conservatives Dump Sarkozy Before It’s Too Late?
The U.S. Republican party isn’t the only big conservative force in Western politics experiencing divisions between its traditionally moderate majority and a defiantly rightward-leaning wing. France’s ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) is similarly witnessing public clashes between internal factions generated by efforts to …
More Polling, More Bad News For Sarkozy
French pundits who had feared an historically high score by the extreme-right National Front (FN) in Sunday’s second round of local polling breathed a sigh of relief when the party’s tally didn’t meet expectations. But while the FN’s 11% performance was well below its 15% first-round take—and nearly half of the 20% result some …
Marine Le Pen And Sarah Palin: Who Is More Extreme?
As her popularity and credibility as a presidential candidate has grown among a rising number of French voters, National Front (FN) party honcho Marine Le Pen has seen detractors draw negative comparisons between her and extreme-right figures elsewhere in Europe—a notorious crowd including Dutch politician Geert Wilders, British …
Global Briefing, Mar. 8, 2011: Homophobes, Strongmen and Rebellious Women
She-Rebels — “Well-behaved women rarely make history,” Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of Britain’s womens suffrage movement, once said. In honor of Pankhurst — and International Women’s Day — TIME profiles 16 of history’s most wonderfully rebellious women.
France’s Far Right — A second poll has confirmed that Marine Le Pen, …
Why European Conservatives Are Bashing Multiculturalism
As Ronald Reagan might have said with a disapproving shake of the head, “There they go again”. Faced with souring domestic political prospects, Europe’s top three leaders have sought to stoke flagging support by telling their societies to beware of nefarious foreign influences—especially from fellow citizens from minority groups. …