Marine Le Pen

As we near closer to May, there has been a steady increase in buzz concerning the French election.  After reading this article, I was able to gain some more insights into Ms. Le Pen's rise.  Le Pen has somewhat changed her father's strong viewpoints for the FN, allowing her to gain increasing support.  Her father was known to be very radical and even anti-Semitic, but by dialing these sentiments down, Le Pen has been able to gain further reach.

The article notes that most of her support comes from uneducated, working individuals.  This draws some interesting parallels to the voters of "Leave" on Brexit.  Last class, we noted that these voters were in a separate class.  They tended to be uneducated, older, and working class.  They view themselves as a separate political support group, neither left, right, or center, only strongly for the FN.  It is no surprise that these voters have found confidence in their rice from the rise of Donald Trump, who has proposes similar ideology to Le Pen.

One difference between Brexit supporters and Le Pen supporters that I have noticed, however, is the age group.  In class, we noted that Brexit supporters tended to be older.  Surprisingly, one of Le Pen's biggest supporting groups are young people.  This comes at a slight surprise to me as I have discussed with many of my french class mates their opinions on Le Pen.  They are mostly turned off by her, think that she is "insane," or has ideology vastly different than their own.  The bias in this observation is the fact that I am surrounded by college educated, or semi-college educated, individuals.  Le Pen's base is found within mostly uneducated individuals.

As we draw closer to the election, it will be interesting to watch Le Pen's progress and her support group and continue to draw parallels between Brexit and Trump.  Who knows, if Le Pen is elected and France opts to leave the EU, we might forecast the end of the confederation.