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Who is Le Pen?
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| Le Pen addressing election rally |
Miss Marine Le Pen, born on the 5th of August 1968, is a French politician and a lawyer. She started her political career by joining his father’s founded far-right political party, French’s National Front, in 1986. Le Pen worked for her party in different positions till she was elected as the president of the Party in 2011. She was elected as a member of the regional council in 1998, a member of the European Parliament in 2004, and as municipal councilor in 2011.
She expelled her father from the National Front due to his inflammatory comments against Jews and other immigrants. From that time, she has tried to soften the image of her political party but is still seen by many as xenophobic and racist.
Le Pen’s policy line coincides with Trump’s election rhetoric
The National Front’s leader seems to be a reflection of Donald Trump in France. She is toeing a policy line which is strikingly similar to that of the current American President’s stance. Le Pen promised during her election campaign that once she was elected, she would cut immigration to France by 80 percent and would limit the availability of services to the immigrants. She also is a staunch anti-globalist and advocates for isolationism and protectionism to counter the economic problems of France.
Like Trump’s approach towards NATO, she wants France to withdraw from the security organization and even had promised to hold a plebiscite on the exit of France from the European Union. Like Trump, she also wants to make it harder for immigrants to enter France and to become French Citizen. Another striking similarity with Donald Trump is her advocacy for lowering income taxes and for increasing payments to the working class. The promise of reducing taxes and increasing wages has earned her huge vote-bank in France’s blue-collar.
Her loss a referendum against Populism?
The dramatic win of Donald Trump in America gave rise to a wave of populism in many parts of the word including Europe, but that wave had to face a significant defeat in Holland’s general election early this year. The anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant Dutch politician Geert Wilders lost to Mark Rutte by a huge margin. Now Le Pen’s defeat seems to be another decision from the Public to not accept any racism or xenophobia in Europe. The victory of pro-globalism and pro-European Macron Emmanuel in the French elections can rightly be called as the referendum against hate and racism.
Macron Emmanuel’s policies
The President-elect Macron Emmanuel is a staunch supporter of European Union and is for maintaining the use of “Euro” as the currency of France. He also has vowed to appoint a minister who would oversee the European currency. Macron emphasizes the need for taking immigrants from other countries and integrating them into the French society through a proper process.
He has also promised the creation of de-radicalization centers to incorporate those who want to return to a peaceful way of life. He criticizes the appointment of those religious leaders who have been educated abroad and instead campaign for appointing French nationals as religious figureheads.
Future of Europe
The defeat of anti-immigrants like Geert Wilders and Le Pen is a breath of fresh air for the vast majority of Europeans and the moderates of the other parts of the world and is an indication of a stronger Europe. But the fact which cannot be denied is that Capitalism and Globalism indeed have created many problems for the working class and the rise of such controversial figures on the political scene is a backlash of those grievances. It is time for those who advocate barrier-free trade and open market economy to give some protection to their working class as well, instead of only focusing on the big giants and corporations.
Economic exploitation leads to populist leaders like Trump and Le Pen. If the leaders focus on their people, who would support such political stuntmen?
About Muhammad Asim
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