XPost: 24hoursupport.helpdesk, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   Lefty Yahoo in a panic:  In France, bracing for possible Le Pen   
   'nightmare'   
   Although they also say the National Front (FN) leader cannot win in the   
   decisive May 7 runoff whoever she faces, a great many pundits were   
   wrong about Brexit and Donald Trump after failing to feel the populist   
   pulse.   
      
      
   What if Marine Le Pen wins in May?   
      
   Two weeks before the French cast their first presidential ballots, the   
   spectre of victory for the far-right leader who promises to crack down   
   on immigration and outlaw gay marriage sends shivers down many a spine.   
      
   Pollsters say the anti-EU firebrand can count on the unwavering support   
   of about one in four voters to get her past the first round of voting   
   on April 23.   
      
   Although they also say the National Front (FN) leader cannot win in the   
   decisive May 7 runoff whoever she faces, a great many pundits were   
   wrong about Brexit and Donald Trump after failing to feel the populist   
   pulse.   
      
   And with one in three voters still undecided at this late stage,   
   pollsters would be wise to hedge their bets.   
      
   Predictions of a "nightmare" Le Pen presidency abound in bookstores and   
   the media.   
      
   The 48-year-old candidate poses a "genuine peril", according to   
   Matthieu Croissandeau, editor-in-chief of the left-leaning newsweekly   
   L'Obs, which ran a special report last month titled "Black Scenario of   
   the First 100 Days".   
      
   Dozens of actors, singers and other artists put their names to an op-ed   
   in the Liberation daily last Sunday warning: "The National Front is on   
   the threshold of power. We call for a bulwark against Marine Le Pen...   
   in the name of freedom of thought and creativity."Lefty Yahoo in a   
   panic:  In France, bracing for possible Le Pen 'nightmare'   
      
   - Exile in Canada? -   
      
   Reminiscent of the runup to Trump's election last year, many artists   
   have said they would prefer exile to living under Le Pen. Like   
   Americans virulently opposed to Trump, they say they are looking to   
   Canada as a refuge.   
      
   "Just in case, I'm making plans to move to Quebec," leftwing comedian   
   Guy Bedos wrote in a book published in March. "I have an absolute   
   aversion for the Le Pen family," the 82-year-old told AFP.   
      
   In 2002, Le Pen's father Jean-Marie Le Pen, now sidelined from the FN   
   because of views even farther to the right than his daughter's, caused   
   a political earthquake in France by winning through to the runoff.   
      
   But in that second round, voters of various political stripes   
   reluctantly joined conservatives to elect Jacques Chirac and block the   
   far right.   
      
   Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, the French-Mauritian author who won the   
   Nobel prize for literature in 2008, said as far back as 2015 that he   
   would hand in his French passport if Le Pen becomes president.   
      
   Others, including public figures, are promising active resistance to a   
   government led by the far right.   
      
   France's ambassador to Japan, Thierry Dana, wrote in an op-ed last   
   month that he would "shelve all diplomatic duties" if Le Pen is elected.   
   Lefty Yahoo in a panic:  In France, bracing for possible Le Pen   
   'nightmare'   
   - 'Judges are fighting Trump' -   
      
   The foreign ministry had to remind Dana of his obligation to remain   
   neutral over the election.   
      
   Also throwing neutrality to the wind was Francois Durpaire, an educator   
   and historian who co-authored a comic book titled "La   
   Presidente" (using the feminine form of the noun) depicting France   
   under Le Pen.   
      
   "For me as a professor of education sciences the question I would ask   
   the next day (after a Le Pen victory) is: 'How do you teach in French   
   schools under Le Pen?'" he told AFP.   
      
   "I know what to do. I'll stay in France, I'll respect the outcome of   
   the democratic vote, but I will resist with all my might any measure   
   that goes against French law," he said, citing Le Pen's pledge to give   
   French nationals priority access to public services including schools.   
      
   Keeping non-citizens out of French schools would be a "red line" for   
   Durpaire.   
      
   "We will be able to mount not just moral resistance, but also legal   
   resistance," he said, noting: "Judges are fighting Trump, not just   
   far-left activists."   
      
   Trump's efforts to bar entry to nationals of a string of mainly Muslim   
   countries have been blocked by federal courts in several US states.   
      
   The head of the International Human Rights Federation, Dimitri   
   Christopoulos, also said he would join the battle against a President   
   Le Pen.   
      
   Her victory "would be a political defeat for human rights, but we would   
   continue to fight," he told AFP. "The ideological battle will be an   
   existential priority for our societies," said Christopoulos, a staunch   
   defender of migrants' rights who divides his time between France and   
   Greece.   
      
   Laurent Joffrin, editor-in-chief of the leftwing daily Liberation, said   
   resistance should begin with the legislative elections in June that   
   will determine the shape of the future government.   
      
   "We won't have fascism on day one," he said. "France has a constitution   
   and institutions, and laws need a majority to pass in parliament. So   
   the immediate fight is to prevent the FN from winning a majority to   
   implement its agenda."   
      
   Joffrin also noted that if Le Pen wins, she is unlikely to have enough   
   support outside her party to form a coalition government and would be   
   forced into a co-habitation arrangement.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)