i don't think anybody will ever know what france would have been like under the presidency of marine le pen. my understanding is that the party behind her is as unhappy about her projections as she was about their past, and that she will probably be replaced - potentially by her much more racist niece - for the next election.

i suspect she would have been far more moderate than some had feared.

but, we'll never know.

what we know is that macron is going to amplify the embrace of neo-liberalism that put le pen into the second round, and carry on with the austerity that is fueling the rise of xenophobia in the country. nobody should expect him to be any less enthusiastic about bombing people in the middle east or the north of africa, or to ease the increasing police state crack down, either. he probably won't even lift the burka ban that has already been in place for many years - and i don't even think that anybody even expects him to.

the left would have been preferable, of course. but, unfortunately, i suspect that we will look back on this election in five years and lament that we did not give a more moderate nationalist voice a chance to undo the effects of corporatism and austerity, as we are fighting off actual nazis.

macron will be a disaster; i will repeat that i think le pen would have been the lesser evil.