as was the case in italy, fears that marine le pen is some kind of fascist are not supported by facts or evidence, although her father did have some pretty creepy policies. in fact, i would describe marine le pen as a real secular leftist, and contrast her against the fake left that has taken over the popular concept of what a left means. on virtually every point, including a strong embrace of secularism, le pen aligns on the traditional left, and not on the traditional right. this is actually very different than meloni in italy, who is by any definition of the term a very traditional conservative.

i took a look through their most recent platform the other day and while there are a few planks in it that are stupid (you don't want to refuse to educate the children of illegal immigrants. that is stupid. that is the last thing you want to do. if anything, you want to take them away from their parents and send the to boarding schools, but you don't want a mass of uneducated, economically disadvantaged immigrants in your country, that is an algorithm for crime.), i actually agreed with most of it, and i would have endorsed her over macron, which is stated as a hard leftist. 

france actually needs this. france needs somebody willing to strongly enforce women's rights in a society where they are perhaps waning. france needs a strong voice for secularism, to refresh the values of the revolution. french secularism is different than american secularism, and i would rather see most of the world adopt revolutionary french secularism than the more conservative voltaire-penned secularism of jeffersonian and madisonian democracy.

ultimately, le pen and her new friend there are being given the opportunity to show us what they're going to do. they might blow it in a barrage of stupid populism. or they might be a breath of fresh air and be exactly what france needs just right now. we'll have to see what they do.