American Politics > Robert Kennedy Jr. jumps into 2024 Presidential Race - That should be fun

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RFK seems to want to tackle aspects of Deep State. I'm not sure how he feels about America's hyper-military economy and the attempted raising of NATO to Global Police status, but Big Pharma, Mainstream media, and political corruption are probably enough to get him killed should he actually connect with Democratic voters.

RFK Officially Announces Presidential Run, Vows to End

'Corrupt Merger of State and Corporate Power'

BY ROBERT SPENCER 9:34 PM

ON APRIL 19, 2023

PJ Media

RFK Officially Announces Presidential Run, Vows to End 'Corrupt Merger of State and Corporate Power'

AP Photo/Josh Reynolds

It’s official now: on Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he was challenging Old Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination for president. It was a momentous occasion not just because a member of the famous family was once again running for president, but because RFK Jr.’s candidacy represents the first time in recent memory that the choice between Democrat presidential contenders wasn’t a choice between Socialist and Socialister. Whatever else he is, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an independent thinker, and such people are in extremely short supply these days.

Kennedy, CNN reported with an unmistakable tone of disapproval, “used his campaign launch speech to lambast school and business closures during the coronavirus pandemic and to insist that government and media ‘lie to us.’”

Well, yeah. From serial liar Joe Biden on down, this regime and the ruling party are absolutely packed to the brim with liars. Remember the 51 top intelligence agents who told us Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation? Remember the Russian Collusion hoax and the Jan. 6 “insurrection” hoax? Remember the dismissals of the possibility that COVID came from a lab leak? At this point, it’s a fair bet that if a member of the regime is moving his or her or xis lips, he or she or xe is lying. But CNN, which is a cornerstone of the same mendacious establishment, depicts RFK as “insisting” that government and media lie to us, as if the claim were implausible in the extreme. And CNN was just getting started.

Kennedy said: “My mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency, will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now – threatening now – to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our children, our purple mountain’s majesty; to poison our children and our people with chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs; to strip-mine our assets; to hollow out the middle class and keep us in a constant state of war.” In saying this, RFK took direct aim at the fascist tendencies of the Biden regime.

Fascism is a word that is thrown around a great deal these days by people who have no idea what fascist regimes were really like. Communism and fascism both form the basis of authoritarian regimes that crushed dissent, but in Communist regimes, the state takes over all private companies and owns everything. In fascist regimes, corporate chiefs retain ownership of their corporations, unlike in Communism, and work with the government to carry out its agenda. Sound familiar? Remember Biden regime wonks colluding with Twitter to silence those who dissented from the government’s line on COVID? That’s fascism. That’s “the corrupt merger of state and corporate power” that RFK was vowing to fight against.

Kennedy is best known, however, for his opposition to vaccines. CNN predictably found plenty of space to give such people a hearing. One said: “I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I will not be voting for Robert Kennedy Jr. because I cannot stomach the anti-vaccine thing. The Kennedy name isn’t enough. If he’s going to go around saying crazy stuff like that, it’s kind of a distraction more than anything.” Another face in the crowd stressed his Leftist bona fides on other issues: “Don’t fall for the one-subject anti-vax thing. Keep an open mind, listen to him, listen to his message. He’s been cleaning up the environment for years.” That may resonate with some Democrats, but Kennedy’s candidacy will really be all about vaccines and the state/corporate collaboration.

Kennedy, CNN warns us, “is a longtime vaccine skeptic. He has promoted discredited claims linking vaccines and autism and founded the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense.” He “was a strident critic of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci. He also railed against the coronavirus vaccine and vaccine mandates.” He even “invoked Nazi Germany in an anti-vaccine speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The previous year, Instagram took down his account ‘for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.’” Debunked? Really? A lot of things we have been told were “debunked” have turned out to be true. That in itself is good reason to give RFK Jr. a fair hearing.

But he will not get one from the media. The Leftist establishment will never line up behind someone who points out just how ghastly and wrongheaded the COVID hysteria was. They’ll be doing everything they can to make Robert Kennedy sound like some nut, a deep disappointment to his embarrassed and wounded family. But politics is full of surprises. Maybe RFK will be able to start a few much-needed national conversations. Vaccines and fascism would be two good topics to begin with.

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Outsider Wins El Salvador Presidency, Breaking Two-Party System

Corruption is Everywhere and Definitely in El Salvador

Can the new president clean up a moral cesspool?

Supporters of the Grand National Alliance for Unity cheer for their presidential candidate Nayib Bukele in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Sunday. Bukele, a former mayor of El Salvador's capital, has ended a quarter century of two-party dominance in the crime-plagued Central American nation. (Moises Castillo/Associated Press)

A former mayor campaigning on an anti-corruption ticket swept to victory in El Salvador's presidential election on Sunday, bringing an end to a two-party system that has held sway over the violence-plagued Central American country for three decades.

Nayib Bukele, the 37-year-old former mayor of the capital, San Salvador, won 54 per cent of votes with returns counted from 44 per cent of polling stations. His two rivals from mainstream political parties conceded defeat.

Bukele won more votes than all other candidates combined in his first-round sweep, highlighting deep voter frustration over the failure of the two main parties to tackle violence and corruption.

"This day is historic for our country. This day El Salvador destroyed the two-party system," Bukele told hundreds of Salvadorans who danced, waved flags and blew whistles in a San Salvador plaza that Bukele revitalized when he was mayor from 2015 to 2018.

Must contend with Trump's threats

His two rivals from the mainstream political parties conceded defeat.

Bukele must now contend with U.S. President Donald Trump's frequent threats to cut aid to El Salvador — as well as neighbouring Guatemala and Honduras — if they do not do more to curb migration to the United States.

At home, supporters hope that a third-party politician will usher in changes to improve a sluggish economy and widespread poverty.

"Let's see if he can do what he's promised for us," said a jubilant supporter, Baltazar Sanchez, 30, at Bukele's victory speech.

"After 30 years of two parties, we've been dealt the best hand."

Bukele and his wife Gabriela gesture at a polling station while voting in the presidential election in San Salvador,

El Salvador, on Sunday. (Moises Castillo/Associated Press)

Gang violence has made El Salvador one of the world's most murderous countries in the past few years, driving Salvadorans to flee to the north.

'Yes, we did it!'

Among his campaign promises, Bukele, an avid social media user who snapped a selfie with supporters before declaring his win, said he would push infrastructure projects to limit such migration.

Since the end of its civil war in 1992, El Salvador has been governed by the ruling leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and its rival, conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).

Though he describes himself as from the left and was expelled from the FMLN, Bukele has formed a coalition including a right-wing party that together has just 11 seats in the legislature.

Outside of the hotel in San Salvador where Bukele waited for the results, a group of supporters set off fireworks, beat drums and danced as early figures came in.

"Yes, we did it! Yes, we did it!" they chanted.

'The corrupt can't hide'

FMLN candidate Hugo Martinez conceded defeat shortly after Bukele's victory speech while ARENA candidate Carlos Calleja said he recognized the election results and would call Bukele to offer congratulations.

Definitive results would be announced within two days, Olivo said.

Polling officials count ballots shortly after voting ended during Sunday's presidential election.

(Salvador Melendez/Associated Press)

Besides challenges on the international stage, once Bukele takes office in June, he will face a sluggish economy and rampant poverty.

Along with the goal of modernizing government, Bukele, who is set to take office in June, has proposed creating an international anti-corruption commission with the support of the United Nations, following similar committees in Guatemala and Honduras.

"We'll create a [commission] ... so that the corrupt can't hide where they always hide, instead they'll have to give back what they stole," Bukele said in January.

'A dictator is a dictator'

Growing up, Bukele's relatively wealthy family was sympathetic to the FMLN, the former leftist guerrilla army that became a political party at the end of the civil war.

But Bukele has turned away from Latin America's traditional left, branding Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega as well as conservative Honduran Juan Orlando Hernandez as dictators.

"A dictator is a dictator, on the 'right' or the 'left'," Bukele wrote last week on Twitter.

He will need much help and much prayer if he is to overcome the social malaise that is El Salvador.

Costa Rica Rejects Conservative Christian for President

Carlos Alvarado Quesada elected next president of Costa Rica

By Ray Downs 

Carlos Alvarado Quesada, center, greets supporters after voting in a poll station in San Jose, Costa Rica on Sunday. Alvarado Quesada won the election with more than 60 percent of the vote. Photo by EPA-EFE

UPI -- Carlos Alvarado Quesada was elected to be the next president of Costa Rica on Sunday, winning more than 60 percent of the vote.

Alvarado Quesada, a former labor minister under current president Luis Guillermo Solís, beat Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, a former television journalist and evangelical preacher who ran a campaign on conservative Christian values, including opposition to gay marriage.

The two men ran head-to-head in a runoff election Sunday after no candidate managed to win 40 percent of the vote on Feb. 4.

In that vote, Alvarado Muñoz won the most votes out of all the candidates with about 25 percent, edging out Alvarado Quesada's 22 percent. And the strong showing appeared to be a sign that Alvarado Muñoz's grassroots campaign might be enough to take out the incumbent party's candidate. Social issues were a large part of the election narrative, with conservative rural voters seeming to back the preacher for his traditional stance on marriage.

But on Sunday, Alvarado Muñoz only managed to win 39.2 percent of the vote, compared to Alvarado Quesada's 60.8 percent.

Despite the landslide victory, Alvarado Quesada indicated that the election showed the country was divided on some social issues and it "held up a mirror to our country."

"We have to understand this in a profound way, and as the country's first servant...I must unite this country and make it a leading republic in the 21st century," he said, according to the Tico Times.

I like the humility. I hope it is real, and I wish President Quesada great success.

Costa Rica is the most educated and most stable country in Central America. They are struggling financially right now and I hope Quesada can turn that around.

Sarkozy Indicted Over Libyan Financing of 2007 Election Campaign – Reports

Corruption is Everywhere - French Presidential Elections

© FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly under formal investigation over allegations that his 2007 election campaign received funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

According to a source in the judiciary, Sarkozy is being investigated for illicit campaign financing, misappropriation of Libyan public funds and passive corruption, Reuters reports. According to Le Monde, several former senior figures in the Gaddafi regime have provided new evidence confirming the allegations of illicit financing.

Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, denies the allegations. The former French president faced two days of questioning before being released from judicial detention on Wednesday afternoon.

The allegations against Sarkozy emerged in 2012 and a judicial inquiry was launched in 2013. In November 2016, middleman Ziad Takieddine said he transported €5 million from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007.

Takieddine’s statements corroborated remarks made by the former director of military intelligence of the Gaddafi regime, Abdallah Senoussi, in his evidence to the National Transitional Council of Libya, the de facto Libyan government during the country’s civil war.

Ex-French President Sarkozy in Police Custody Over ‘Libyan Aid’ for His 2007 Campaign

Corruption is Everywhere - French Presidential elections

Nicolas Sarkozy © Lionel Bonaventure / AFP

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed in police custody for questioning over alleged Libyan aid to help fund his 2007 presidential election campaign, Reuters and local media report citing judicial sources.

According to Le Monde, this is the first time Sarkozy, 63, has been questioned in relation to the investigation, which was launched in April 2013. Sarkozy was placed in police custody in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris. His detention could last up to 48 hours, L’Obs reported.

In 2014, France’s second-largest public television channel, France-3, made waves after airing an audio excerpt from an interview with Muammar Gaddafi. The late Libyan leader claimed that he financed Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2007.

“It’s me who made him president,” Gaddafi said in an interview recorded in 2011. Gaddafi was speaking in Tripoli in mid-March, just a few days before the first Western strikes that led to his downfall and killing by militias in October, 2011. 

I'm sure that was just a coincidence!!!?? At any rate, it doesn't seem to have been a very good investment for Gadaffi.

Claims that Sarkozy allegedly received backing from Gaddafi first surfaced in 2012, when Mediapart news agency accused him of accepting €50 million from the Libyan leader to fund his 2007 campaign.

The agency published a statement signed by former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa asserting that the claim was true. Sarkozy accused the organization of slander, dismissing the claims as “grotesque.”

The former president’s alleged ties with Gaddafi came under the spotlight again in November 2016. In an interview with Mediapart, Ziad Takieddine, the man who introduced Nicolas Sarkozy to Muammar Gaddafi, confessed to having brought several suitcases containing €5 million prepared for the Libyan regime to the Ministry of the Interior in late 2006 and early 2007.

“It was a case like that. It opened like this. And the money was inside,” Takieddine said in a film released by Mediapart.

Hondurans Hold Mass Protests Calling for New Elections

Corruption is Everywhere - Honduran Politics

By Daniel Uria  

Presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla (L) and former President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras' Opposition Alliance led a rally to call for new elections after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal named Incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez winner of the country's controversial November elections. Photo by Jose Valle/EPA

UPI -- Thousands of protesters marched in Honduras on Saturday to oppose what they called a "fraudulent" presidential election.

An estimated 80,000 supporters gathered in San Pedro Sula to call for former Opposition Alliance presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla to replace President Juan Orlando Hernandez in office.

"The people want Salvador Nasralla as the President of Honduras," Nasralla told the crowd. "The people won't stand for this dictatorship, we won't stop until we've removed the corrupt from power."

Protesters waved flags while marching toward the city's Central Park, as demonstrators followed along in vehicles honking their horns.

Former President Manuel Zelaya, the director of the Opposition Alliance, led the march and once again called for a national strike from Jan. 20 to Jan. 27 in the lead up to Hernandez's inauguration.

"We're calling for a national strike blocking all the main public highways, seaports, airports, until the will of the people is respected," he said.

Nasralla refuses to recognize the results of the Nov. 26 election, plagued with accusations of fraud and corruption. He asserts that he won the polls and would be willing to repeat them.

Honduras' Supreme Electoral Tribunal, or TSE, declared Hernandez the official winner of the election with 42.95 percent of the votes versus Nasralla's 41.42 percent on Dec. 17.

The Opposition Alliance presented 12 "irregularities" that occurred during and after the polling process, but the TSE said the appeal didn't establish grounds to nullify the election.

Narsalla has accused the TSE of "manipulating" polling numbers to benefit Hernandez. 

Election observers from the European Union have said the TSE and the National Party must "depoliticize."

Murder Leads to Fears of Another Rigged Election in Kenya

Kenyan election manager Chris Msando

found dead days before election

By Ed Adamczyk

The body of Chris Msando, IT manager of Kenya's Information and Boundaries Commission and spokesman for Kenya's electronic voting system, was found dead on Saturday, days before a presidential election. Screenshot courtesy of IEBC

UPI -- A co-developer of Kenya's allegedly hackproof voting system was found dead with one arm cut off, police said, days before a federal election.

Chris Msando, information technology director for the Kenyan government's regulatory agency known as the Independent Electrical and Boundaries Commission, had been missing since Friday. His body, and that of an unidentified woman, was found on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital, on Saturday.

In anticipation of an Aug. 9 presidential election, expected to be a close contest between incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta and challenger Raila Odinga, Msando was a frequent guest on Kenyan media. He aimed to assure voters that IEBC's new electronic voting machines could not be hacked or that vote counts could not be duplicated. Msando was one of the few people in Kenya who knew the location of the IEBC's servers.

Problems with electronic voting in the closely contested 2013 election led to accusations the vote was rigged. Over 1,200 people died in ethnic, post-election violence in 2007.

Macron Won France's Presidency, but He Needs a Legislative Majority to Govern

And at this point, he doesn't have a single elected member

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron waves to a crowd of supporters outside the Louvre 

Museum in Paris on May 7, 2017. (Patrick Kovarik / AFP/Getty Images)

Kim Willsher and Chris O'Brien, LA Times

In the end, French voters chose to look outward and not in on themselves after a divisive presidential election that devolved into a bitter clash over two opposing visions for the country and its place in Europe and the world.

Political leaders around the world offered their congratulations to Emmanuel Macron, breathing a sigh of relief that French voters on Sunday overwhelmingly picked a centrist who embraced the European Union and international cooperation over the extreme-right, anti-immigration Marine Le Pen and her National Front party.

In a joyful celebration at the Louvre Museum that drew thousands of dancing and cheering supporters, Macron, 39, pledged to be a president for all of the French and to bind the political wounds that have deeply divided the country.

“Tonight, there is only the reunited people of France,” he said. “The world is watching us. Europe and the world.”

Yet any hope that France might be ready to rally around its youngest-ever president were dashed as opponents across the political system declared loudly their intentions to mount a fierce resistance to Macron’s government.

After swiftly conceding the election, Le Pen said that her National Front was now the primary opposition party in France and called on her supporters to continue to stand up against the establishment.

"I call on all patriots to take part in the decisive political battles that are beginning today,” she said.

The mainstream Socialist and conservative parties that lost badly in this presidential election were already gearing up to try to regain ground in next month's critical legislative elections.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate who came in a close fourth during the first round of voting last month, issued a call to his supporters to resist Macron and his reforms as they fight in the next round of elections. And one of the country's major unions called for nationwide demonstrations Monday, a national holiday in France, to remind Macron that its members’ votes against Le Pen were not a sign of support for his policies.

As political honeymoons go, Macron's may have ended before the clock struck midnight.

It had been a nail-biting campaign to the end with allegations of “massive and coordinated" hacking of Macron campaign documents to disrupt the vote just hours before the polls opened Sunday, and fears that the opinion polls might once again have gotten it wrong.

When the provisional results came in — 65.1% for Macron, 34.9% for Le Pen — there was an explosion of joy on one side and recrimination on the other.

Once again, the threat of rising populism, xenophobia and fear-mongering over immigration, security, Islam and terrorism had been seen off in Europe — for the moment. 

Or, to put it another way, France, like much of Europe is still not willing to believe that it is doomed to a future of creeping Sharia, increasing terrorism, increasing anti-Semitism, and a rapidly failing European culture. 

It isn't that France defeated the 'fear-mongering' far right, it is that the politicians and media made the far-right the object of 'fear-mongering'. The French voted out of fear - fear of Islam or fear of Hitler. They have yet to come to grips with the fact that Hitler is long gone and Islam is on the door-step. 5 years from now, that should be painfully obvious.

Macron may have won the battle, but he will need to secure a parliamentary majority in order to win the war over who gets to govern France.

After naming a prime minister, Macron will assemble what he has described as his administration's "commando" — 15 ministers to push through his election pledges. But he could be forced to make changes to the lineup if he doesn’t win a convincing majority in the two-round legislative elections on June 11 and June 18 that will decide the 577 members of the National Assembly.

The president-elect has said that his insurgent movement “En Marche!” — or “Onward!” — will field candidates in all constituencies, but it will be starting almost from scratch without a single existing member of Parliament.

The pressure is on. After widespread disappointment in his two predecessors — the outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy — voters expect Macron to live up to his promise to bring a fresh new style to the presidency and real economic and social change.

Macron is young, and hopefully he will do something for the young

in this country. We're fed up with the same old politicians,

the same old promises.

— Vince Andre, 29-year-old student

Sylvain Crepon, a French political analyst and member of the Radical Politics Observatory at the Paris-based Jean-Jaures think tank, said next month's votes would be complicated for Macron.

"There are lots of uncertainties in the legislative elections, especially as the winner of the presidential election doesn't even have a party and is insisting lawmakers must not [hold more than one elected position at a time], which concerns 40% of the outgoing members of Parliament," Crepon said.

There are three possible outcomes. The new president could obtain an outright majority in the National Assembly, giving him the ability to govern as he sees fit. If he does not have a majority in the lower house and is forced to appoint a prime minister from an opposition party, he will be in a situation that the French call "cohabitation," meaning he can do little.

The third possibility is that “En Marche!” would have the biggest group of lawmakers in the National Assembly, but not a clear majority, giving the new president some room to maneuver, but not a free hand.

The disarray in Hollande’s Socialist Party and Sarkozy’s Republicans following their humiliating rejection by voters in the presidential battle could work in Macron's favor. However, the center-right Republicans are regrouping and have already produced a list of candidates for all parliamentary seats.

An OpinionWay-SLPV analytics survey last week suggested that Macron could win up to 286 seats in the National Assembly, the center-right parties around 200-210, the National Front 15-25, the Socialists up to 43 and the far-left up to eight seats..

President Trump tweeted his congratulations to Macron on the “big win” and said he looked forward to working with the president-elect.

Macron arrived at the celebration outside the Louvre to the strains of “Ode to Joy,” the Beethoven classic and European Union anthem, a symbolic choice.

“What we have done for the last many months has no precedent or equivalent,” he told the cheering crowd. “Everyone said it was not possible, but they didn’t know France.”

In a nod to the nine rivals who lost in the first round, Macron said he was grateful to those who had disagreed with his program but still voted for him in order to “defend the republic against extremism.”

The crowd began booing and whistling when he said he “respected” the feelings of those who had voted for Le Pen "out of anger, disarray and sometimes conviction.”

“No, don’t whistle them,” Macron said. "I will do everything I can in the next five years to ensure there is no reason to vote for extremes.”

Waving a flag outside the Louvre, Vince Andre, a 29-year-old student, said he was delighted with the result.

"Macron is young, and hopefully he will do something for the young in this country,” he said. “We're fed up with the same old politicians, the same old promises."

Across at Le Pen’s reception, the atmosphere was more subdued, but not what might be expected following her electoral thrashing. There was more a sense of determination than resignation.

Inside a restaurant tucked inside a wooded park, Le Pen delivered her concession speech to a few hundred supporters and the limited number of journalists who were granted access. She mixed through the adoring crowd, hugging and kissing well-wishers, and later danced the night away to disco music.

Although disappointed, her supporters expressed pride that Le Pen had come so far against a system they consider to be stacked against her.

“We ran against the country’s political system,” said Jean Messiha, an economist at Paris’ Science Po university and a top campaign advisor. “And now the National Front is the primary opposition party in the country.”

This combination of pictures shows French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron, left, and Marine le Pen exiting polling booths on May 7, 2017. (Eric Feferberg / AFP/ Getty Images)

Anne Lavernier D’Havernel walked out of the event carrying a blue flower and wearing a smile. Saying the party had “lost the battle, but not the war,” she said the press and political establishment had misrepresented people like herself, who had hosted refugees at her home and respected all races and countries.

Still, the recriminations began minutes after the election results flashed up on television screens.

Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, blamed his daughter's advisors for her defeat. Her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, one of the party's two members of Parliament, said the far-right had failed to get its message across.

She is absolutely right!

Other party members floated the idea in televised interviews that Marechal-Le Pen, who is seen as even more right-wing than her aunt, might replace her as leader.

Le Pen's defeat was a blow, but not a knockout for Europe's far-right parties, which have picked up support across the continent as disillusionment with the EU grows and countries struggle to emerge from a long economic crisis that has left many mired in slow growth and high unemployment, while simultaneously dealing with waves of migrants fleeing war and poverty around the world.

In March, Dutch voters scuppered right-wing populist Geert Wilders' promised "Patriotic Spring" revolution, giving him less than 13% of the vote in legislative elections and delivering a clear victory to his liberal rival, Mark Rutte.

Last December, Austria's far-right Freedom Party was narrowly defeated in a presidential vote but claimed it was in "pole position" for legislative elections next year. Sweden also holds a general election next year with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party currently in third place.

Far-right movements have also been picking up public support and making electoral gains in Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany.

Joel Gombin, one of France’s leading experts on the far right, said the National Front, or FN, could increase its representation in Parliament considerably.

"Traditionally the FN doesn't do so well in legislative elections, but we will see some probable increase following the presidential success,” Gombin said. “I'm not sure it will be anywhere near the 100 MPs the FN announced, but it could be between 15 and 20, and even then it's 10 times more than the party has at present.”

Five Things You Need to Know About France's Vote

This report comes from Al Jazeera. It is well written and thoughtful although it comes from an Arab perspective. Please read with that in mind, and know that I have not vetted the links below so use at your own discretion.

By the end of Sunday, the European stalwart will have a new leader

'France is a founding member of the European Union, and this election could lead to the bloc's ultimate downfall' [Reuters/Benoit Tessier]

by Anealla Safdar, Ahmed El Amraoui, Al Jazeera

Why is this election important?

On Sunday, France will choose its next president. The election is being closely watched because, for the first time in modern French history, neither of the two candidates in the decisive second round are from mainstream parties of the left or right.

"The Republicans - which is on the right - and the Socialist Party on the centre left represented only 26 percent of the total votes from the first round, which is the lowest cumulated score for France's two main parties in the history of the Fifth Republic," Pierre Bocquillon, a lecturer of politics at Britain's University of East Anglia, told Al Jazeera.

"They are perceived as disconnected from citizens, not delivering on their promises and conducting similar policies when in power. More than a victory of the challengers, it is first a spectacular failure of both the Socialist Party and The Republicans."

Frontrunner Emmanuel Macron, 39, is a centrist running as an independent and launched his own movement just last year - "En Marche!". He was previously an economic minister under the socialist government of outgoing President Francois Hollande.

His 48-year-old rival Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right, recently stepped down from the National Front (FN) party that raised her. The move was seen as part of her efforts to distance herself from the racist roots of the party, which was founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1942.

France is a founding member of the European Union, and this election could lead to the bloc's ultimate downfall.

While Macron is a great supporter of the EU, Le Pen rails against it at every opportunity. She has promised a referendum on France's membership, in the hope the country will "Frexit" in Britain's footsteps.

Other hot topics in the campaign have included: unemployment, security of the economy, workers' rights, globalisation, immigration, refugees and secularism.

Further underlining the unpredictable nature of this election, on Friday - with one and a half days to go until the vote - nine gigabytes of data from Macron's team was posted online in the final hours of campaigning. 

WikiLeaks has said the dump was authentic, though did not claim responsibility. 

The leak comes in the wake of accusations that Russia attempted to hack the 2016 US election. 

Macron's team has said the "hacking" is an attempt at "democratic destabilisation".

To find out more about the two leading candidates, click here.

Who's going to win?

In the first round, Macron won 23.9 percent of the vote compared with Le Pen's 21.4 percent. Polls before the campaign blackout on Sunday's vote showed Macron winning to the tune of around 65 percent of the electorate.

After an unprecedented televised debate between the rivals on Wednesday, he gained one point in the polls as Le Pen was on the defensive, appearing to many as a less convincing leader.

Macron is likely to attract voters who cast their ballots for the traditional left and right candidates in the first round on April 23, losers Benoit Hamon and Francois Fillon. Both have urged their supporters to pick Macron.

However, Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left candidate, won more support than Hamon at the initial April 23 round, and it is less clear what his supporters intend to do. Some say they will cast blank votes, others have indicated they will vote for Le Pen. Unlike several other leading politicians, Melenchon has refused to call on his fans to back Macron.

Polls failed to predict two major recent events in the West: Britain's decision to leave the EU and the election of US President Donald Trump. And it is these two surprises, many analysts say, that mean anything is possible.

Another common subject is whether or not another attack on French soil would boost Le Pen, who ritually condemns what she calls "Islamic terrorism".

However, polls hardly moved after an attack before the first round, in which French national Karim Cheurfi killed a policeman on the famous Champs Elysees.

"I would say it's unlikely - not very unlikely that Le Pen would win," Nacira Guenif, a sociologist and professor, told Al Jazeera.

"Even if she fails, to some extent she has already won … This is the most depressing, preoccupying statement you can make. She has won in many ways. She will pollute and invade the public debates, the political issues for a long time."

For a professor and sociologist, Guenif doesn't seen to understand that Le Pen is not the driver of the far-right movement but the legitimate expression of the feelings of many French nationalists. The centre and left wing parties have ignored the elephant in the room for decades now and, if Macron wins, will ignore it for another 5 years. 

The centre-left strategy is to generate more fear of a right-wing government than of Islamization. Islamization, the elephant, is a vastly greater threat to French identity than Marine Le Pen will ever be. But liberal politicians and MSM, including Al Jazeera will never admit that until it is too late and France is no longer French.

No-Go Zones in France:

How has the far-right managed to get so far?

The last time the far right made it this close to running France was in 2002, when Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was up against the right-wing Jacques Chirac, who ultimately won.

Then, Le Pen won just 18 percent of the vote as millions rushed to keep the extreme right out.

However, the younger Le Pen appears more of a mainstream player compared with party figures during the ruling period of her father - an outright racist who served in the Algerian War, during which it was later discovered he had carried out torture.

Le Pen has promised a referendum on France's membership in EU if she wins, in the hope the country will 'Frexit' in Britain's footsteps [EPA]

She is also riding a gripping populist wave, presenting herself as "the candidate for the people" and slamming, among other things: immigration, refugees, French minorities including Muslims, the EU and euro, globalisation, foreign workers, and taxes (except on foreigners).

"This is a moment when we realise how successful the NF has been in imposing some of its ideas on a part of the mainstream right, even though they only have four MPs and Le Pen will be defeated," Jean-Yves Camus, director of the Observatory of Radical Politics at the Jean Jaures Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

He forgot to mention, 'even though MSM and political academia deny the reality of the concerns of genuine French people for their country and way of life'. Another political 'expert' who seems to think that populism works from the top down.

What do other countries make of it all?

Western Europe's far right are watching this election closely. A Le Pen win would give them a significant boost.

Among her supporters are Geert Wilders, an Islamophobic Dutch politician who recently lost an election, and Nigel Farage, the former leader of the populist United Kingdom Independence Party.

In January, she travelled to the Trump Tower in New York, sparking speculation that the new US president was among her allies. Trump tweeted a mysterious message during the first round: "Very interesting election currently taking place in France".

France: Who are Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen?

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially welcomed her to Moscow in March, saying she represented a "quickly developing spectrum of European political forces", but denied interfering in the political process.

As for Macron, Barack Obama, the former US president, threw his support behind the former investment banker on Thursday. Macron is said to have taken inspiration from Obama's grassroots campaign strategy.

Meanwhile, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she believes Macron would be a "strong president" for France.

Though British prime minister met Macron, she has not - unlike the UK's Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and SNP opposition parties - endorsed him.

What next?

In the short term, if Macron wins, there is expected to be a greater sense of calm and security on the streets than if Le Pen wins the presidency.

"In the short term" is key phrase in this sentence. Short-term gain for long-term pain. Islamization will get much worse under Macron and the result will be disastrous in the long-term.

In the immediate aftermath of the vote, if the far-right candidate does succeed, clashes on the streets are expected as anti-fascists and other demonstrators express their anger over the result.

Even so, Macron's popularity is by no means universal.

At a protest in Paris on May 1, which turned violent, thousands of demonstrators chanted "Ni Le Pen, ni Macron" translating to "Neither Le Pen nor Macron".

Once elected, the French president can serve a maximum of two five-year terms in office.

Parliamentary elections are expected in June. Early polls suggest Macron's party will emerge as the largest, followed by conservative parties. The far right is expected to come out last.

Marine Le Pen Steps Down at National Front to Boost Run for Presidency

After qualifying for run-off in France's presidential election,

she seeks to build wider appeal

CBC News

After qualifying for the second round of voting in the presidential election, Marine Le Pen has decided to step down as president of her party, the National Front. (Kamil Zihnioglu/Associated Press)

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced that she is stepping down as leader of the National Front, the party she has helmed since 2011.

The announcement came a day after Le Pen came second to centrist Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the French presidential election, securing her a chance to bid for the presidency.

Monday's move may be a way for the 48-year-old candidate to embrace a wider range of potential voters ahead of the May 7 run-off between herself and Macron.

She took 21.3 per cent of the vote on Sunday, to Macron's 24.01 per cent.

"Tonight, I am no longer the president of the National Front. I am the presidential candidate," she said on French public television news.

She may be trying to distance herself from the anti-Semitic and openly racist associations of the National Front, particularly under her father and predecessor Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen has tried to remake the image of the National Front since she assumed its leadership, expelling many of the old guard leaders who served under her father.

She has built a wider base of support through two election campaigns, coming third in the first round of voting in 2012.

Her own platform, not the party's

She has said the platform she ran on in 2017 is her own and not her party's. If Le Pen wins, she would be France's first woman president.

Le Pen went on the offensive against Macron in her comments Monday. "He is a hysterical, radical 'Europeanist.' He is for total open borders. He says there is no such thing as French culture," she said.

Her campaign so far emphasizes returning French sovereignty, leaving the European Union, clamping down on  free trade, and slashing immigration.

Among her proposals:

Negotiation with Brussels on a new EU and a referendum on EU membership.

Expelling illegal immigrants and reducing legal immigration to 10,000 people per year.

Closing "extremist" mosques.

Fixing the retirement age at 60 and enshrining a 35-hour work week.

However, some doubt whether she has left behind the old remnants of National Front racism and anti-Semitism.

Denunciation by other politicians

On Monday, Israel's president denounced Le Pen for her statement earlier this month denying France was responsible for its role in rounding up French Jews for deportation to Nazi death camps.

Speaking Monday on Israel's Holocaust memorial day, President Reuven Rivlin said he found the comments "uniquely disturbing."

Politicians on the moderate left and right, including French President François Hollande and the losing Socialist and Republican party candidates in Sunday's first-round vote, manoeuvred to block Le Pen's path to power.

In a solemn address from the Elysée Palace, Hollande said he would vote for Macron, his former economy minister, because Le Pen represents "both the danger of the isolation of France and of rupture with the European Union."

Hollande said the far right would "deeply divide France" at a time when the terror threat requires solidarity. "Faced with such a risk, it is not possible to remain silent or to take refuge in indifference," he said.

With files from The Associated Press

Marine Le Pen is Now Leading Among French Voters – Poll

French presidential candidate and leader of the right-wing National Front party Marine Le Pen is gaining more support, leading with 25 to 26 percent of the vote, according to the latest Ipsos Sopra Steria survey, carried out for Cevipof and Le Monde.

Francois Fillon comes in second, with 23 to 25 percent of the vote, and Emmanuel Macron – also gaining support – is third with 19 to 21 percent.

The fluctuation in the percentages depends on the eventual Socialist Party candidate, as yet unnamed. The party’s candidate could be former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, former Minister of Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg, or former Minister of Education Benoit Hamon.

Almost 16,000 people over 18 years old were interviewed for the Ipsos Sopra Steria poll, making it a major survey in the country, about 16 times the size of usual French political polls. The survey was conducted from January 10 to 15, 2017.

In mid-December, Fillon topped the list with 28 percent, while Le Pen had around 25 percent.

The poll shows a significant drop for center-right Fillon, and a significant consolidation for Le Pen as well as Macron, with the latter rising dramatically over the past few weeks.

Under the French electoral system, the two leading candidates will meet in a May 7 run-off.

Among Le Pen’s policies is support for ‘Frexit,’ or French exit from the EU. She has also stated that France should leave NATO, as the bloc exists “only to serve Washington’s objectives.”