Brussels -- (Reuters) The exit polls have shown that Marine Le Pen has beaten French President Macron as it is becoming obvious that freedom parties are gaining in European Union elections. Le Pen's far-right party squeezed past the Macron alliance as French voters led what the pollsters believed would be a nationalist surge in an EU parliament election on Sunday.
Macron's defeat was narrow with a huge voter turnout that was seen all over Europe and is being portrayed by Brussels as a positive sign. However, there were serious gains for anti-EU groups, so Brussels may be "doing a Jerry Nadler," and trying to put a positive spin on the trouble they're having convincing voters that it's a good thing to be governed by un-elected foreigners.
Le Pen’s National Rally would get just one more seat than Macron’s En Marche, with 24 of France’s 74 in the European Parliament, according to the exit poll.
It will be interesting to watch how Le Pen will govern. She is considered by some to be
The election, like those across Europe, was a referendum on security and immigration issues, much like we're seeing here in the United States.
Macron’s office immediately put out a statement calling the performance — 22.5% for En Marche against 24.3% for the party of the woman he beat to the presidency — disappointing but no disaster. And it noted that pro-EU parties were in the majority.
The French Greens also did well, coming in third in a crowded field.
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This is about the fourth week of the riots in France. The lamestream media would have you believe it's about the price of gas and the cost of living going up, but that's simply only part of the truth.
The big reason, the final straw that broke the camel's back and was the catalyst to people rioting in the streets, was French President Macron's outrageous "anti-Climate Change" policies. That is, putting another tax on top of those that already exist, for the use of carbon fuels.
Obama wanted to do the same.
CNN and CBS apparently have no idea what sparked these protests and riots, but Global News of Canada was somewhat more honest, writing:
Macron’s government has imposed several climate change-related fuel taxes in recent months — including another slated to take effect in January. Macron says the taxes are meant to encourage drivers to exchange diesel-fueled vehicles for more environmentally-friendly models, but many middle-class French citizens say the taxes are squeezing them to the breaking point.
There were over 400 arrests over the weekend, and more than 200 people were injured, including police.
French citizens, wearing the now ubiquitous yellow safety vests (which residence of France are required, by law, to keep in their vehicles for emergencies) marched down the Champs-Élysées, a high-end shopping and restaurant district in central Paris.
Although Macron's new efforts to combat "climate change" and reduce his country's dependence on "fossil fuels" by punishing those who use it with having to fork over more money is not the only reason for the protests, but it definitely got the French off their derrieres and out onto the streets. Many brought along books of matches.
The French had already been hit with a tax increase in January. Over 60 percent of the cost of fuel in France comes from government taxes.
But if you ask CNN or CBS, the riots are simply shrouded in mystery.
CBS simply refused to discuss the taxes altogether.
So @CBSEveningNews went through a whole segment on the Paris riots without mentioning that they are riots against taxes to curb global warming.
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. (@Neoavatara) December 2, 2018
CNN spent hundreds of words diddy-bopping around the tax issue before arguing that France's protesters were mistaken: the price of fuel in France went up because the price of oil has gone up globally.
"Rising fuel prices are largely attributed to a leap in the wholesale price of oil worldwide," CNN claimed smugly.
Strangely enough, the protests span both the "metropolitan elite" and the "rural poor." Smaller protests have also broken out across the French countryside, and those demonstrators are very clear on why they've taken to the streets: Macron's "anti-Climate Change" policies have created an unfair burden on French people across the financial spectrum.
The American media would love to see iron-fist control by the government to "save the world" with taxpayers' money.
Macron is getting desperate to quell the situation in the streets of France, especially in Paris. He announced that he'd consider taking drastic measures, but didn't spell out what that would entail.
If he has all 75,000 protesters arrested, where would he put them all?
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The E.U. is struggling to solve their Middle East and Africa migrant problem as wave after wave of Muslims leave their s***hole countries to relocate and create a new s***hole country that they can call their own. The migrants are being held on a G
reek island awaiting future destinations. So while the U.S. Democratic Party condemns President Trump for alleging he called certain African nations "s***hole countries," the European politicians, even those on the left, didn't join in on the condemnation. They have immigration problems that Trump is trying to avoid, and the political winds are blowing methane. So while Europe's hypocritical leaders have spoken out against Trump, now they're keeping quiet because the problem has finally become obvious to the formerly oblivious populations across the continent. The New York Times described a "ringing silence across broad parts of the European Union, especially in the east, and certainly no chorus of condemnation." It's a populist revolt emerging--Germans sick of the groping of their women like the Cologne New Year's Eve debacle January 1, 2017. East Europeans sick of the crime, the rapes and the anti-Semitism that has become commonplace. While Merkel threw open the door to Germany and won praise and was given Times' Person of the Year--she opened the door to crime, terror attacks and a myriad of social problems. Her approval sank into the toilet and she had to move to the right to retain power--a move proving that her moral compass is in her nether regions. She pushed for a "burqa ban" in December 2016 and promised the 2015 migrant inundation, for which she didn't take personal blame, "cannot, should not and must not be repeated." Still, her party Christian Democrats (CDU) took a big hit in the national elections last September. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party surged and Merkel was fighting for her job. Now the CDU looks to convince former coalition partners, the left-wing Social Democrats (SDU), to form another coalition to keep her in power. Merkel wants to cap the refugee influx to about 200,000 people per year--a significant decrease from the hordes that entered Germany in 2015. Obviously, the migrants/refugees/immigrants will not be screened based on merit or education, but on some sort of quota. This is not what Trump wants for us, but it seems too late for Merkel and her ilk to be picky regarding who they let in. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary have been significantly more stringent in asserting their own sovereignty in dealing with immigration, in spite of opposition from E.U. officials, none of whom actually lives near any migrants. Hungary erected a border fence along with even more border security measures and "did a Trump" by asking the E.U. to pay for half of it. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has used language that makes Trump's sound like Pope Francis. In an interview with Germany's Bild, he called migrants "Muslim invaders" and called multiculturalism "an illusion." I agree with Orban in the first instance, but see multiculturalism not as an illusion, but as a "liberal illusion." In a follow-up interview this week, Orban siad, "If you take masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into your country, you are importing terrorism, crime, anti-Semitism, and homophobia." Orban is the man! He has the courage to speak what he, and those of us willing to be honest, and therefore politically incorrect know is the truth. "[In Hungary] there are no ghettos and no no-go areas, no scenes like New Year's Eve in Cologne. The images from Cologne have deeply moved us Hungarians," he said. "I have four daughters. I cannot help my children grow up in a world where something like Cologne can happen." Even French centrist Emmanuel Macron, who beat Marine Le Pen, a strong anti-migration right-wing opponent, has rejected an open-arms migration approach for France. And while many saw Macron's landslide victory as a sign that Europe was opening its arms again to migrants, in a New Year's speech he admitted: "We can't welcome everyone, and we can't act without rules." Gee what an novel idea. Why didn't Obama think of that one? France has even taken a tougher line on economic migrants, which caused his own party to criticize him as being too tough and catering to the right-wing. Reuters reported that opponents point to a new bill to increase detention times and deport anyone not classified as a refuge from a war zone. But Macron followed this up Tuesday with a visit to the former "Jungle camp" at Calais, (aka "The S***hole of Calais") a huge refugee camp at the port to the U.K. that was deconstructed in 2016. In a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Macron is expected to demand a renegotiation over the border arrangement with the U.K., including more funding from them to take on more Muslim invaders. The U.K. is expected to jump at the offer since they've decided to leave the EU highly motivated by migration issues and a need for better border security. Perhaps they should build a wall.
Meanwhile, here at home
In 2016, Britain allowed immigration by child asylum seekers from Calais who had family members in the U.K. It turned out that photos of these "children" depicted what one Conservative MP described as "hulking young men" presenting themselves as children. In other words, the Muslim invasion. In Austria, a right-wing government was formed in December led by Sebastian Kurz, a 31-year-old who vigorously campaigned on a tough migration stance. Austria will take over the presidency of the E.U. Council this summer and Kurz said in an interview that one of his top priorities will be "border control to stop illegal migration to Europe." We shall see what really happens since Kurz told the German media that the continent's view on migration is now much closer to his own. "There has been a lot of movement in recent years," he said. "For example, the German position is now much closer to ours than it was two years ago. Many states have moved in the right direction. Now we need a focus on proper protection of the external borders of the EU and not just the constant debate about the distribution of refugees within the European Union by quotas." Quotas are just plain stupid.
President Trump arrived in Paris Thursday morning (EDST) for a meeting with France's President Emmanuel Macron. The meeting may mark a change in our relationship with the 'croissant nation.' This year, American troops will join our French allies in the annual parade which marks 100 years since the US entered into World War One. But today, something much more important took place, at least more important to the media--Presidents Trump and Macron shook hands. When the pair first met ahead of the NATO summit in May, President Macron provided President Trump with a gripping handshake in front of the cameras, which he held for several long moments. But Macron also appeared to snub Trump later in the summit when he apparently swerved away from Trump's open arms, making our President wait while Macron schmoozed with other so-called world leaders. When Trump announced he was pulling our of a key climate change agreement brokered in Paris, Macron released a video in English, inviting US scientists to come and live in France and used the slogan to "Make Our Planet Great Again," which was kind of a lazy reach at parody.
Photo: Getty Images
Things haven't been all peachy keen between them since Trump backed Macron's right-wing rival Marine Le Pen during the French presidential election. In fact, Russian influence in both US and French elections hang heavily over this visit. But the handshake . . . "It is high time to finish with the juvenile rivalry of handshakes," an editorial in Le Monde said last month. It explained that Mr. Macron may have "stolen the American president's monopoly on being unpredictable . . .[but he] wants to become the European leader of the international political scene. To achieve this, he'll have to go beyond images and symbols." Macron excels at flattering world leaders, kissing up to them, as it were, and he has made a strong effort most recently to do that with Mr. Trump. Macron is young and inexperienced, receiving less than 25 percent of the vote in the first round of the French election. He now wants to increase his influence on the world stage and boost his popularity at home. Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the secretary-general of the Socialist Party, told a French newspaper that Macron was "looking for the company of the world's big leaders" because he wanted to "legitimize his victory." So when Trump landed in France this morning, he was greeted by a display of pomp and military might. But the handshake . . . President Trump's acceptance of Macron's invitation was also a chance for him to show his transatlantic ties and the shared challenges the two countries face: the Syrian conflict, the fight against world terrorism, and the military alliance. Tomorrow's commemorations will be a sad reminder of last year's Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice, where 86 people were killed when a Tunisian-born Muslim man drove a truck through crowds gathered to watch the fireworks on the Promenade des Anglais. Security has been significantly increased this year, as the French, like the rest of the world, closes the barn door after the horses escape. But the handshake . . . the men stood across from each other. President Trump cocked an eye at President Macron. Then President Macron cocked an eye at President Trump. Both men stood there . . . cock-eyed. The French military band played The Star Spangled Banner then belted out La Marseillaise. The handshake . . . both men extended their right arms, hands out front, palms perpendicular to the deck. The two hands met, then clasped in international solidarity . . . then the two hands went up . . . then down . . . and all too soon, all too very soon, the two hands left the company of one another returning on their journey to the sides of two presidents. Big deal.
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