A Guide to the French Vote (and How It Relates to ‘Brexit’ and Trump)

It's a welcome change for the NYTimes to publish an article on the French elections. Not all subscribers are up to date on what's happening there politically and it's so rare for the Times to take a break from their 24/7 Trump OBSESSION to actually cover the world as it should.

That said, your paragraph 'Why France Matters' and its content is just a wee bit condescending. It reads like something my third grade twins might read as a class assignment (they're 9). Monsieur Breeden, Americans are not all imbeciles.

Based on my reading of French history, I predict a second round LePen loss, because in the grand scheme of things, the French are ultimately a nation of pragmatists.

So even if there are more attacks between now and Sunday, just as the French learned to get along with the Germans in the 1940's, I suspect they'll learn to get a long with their new citizens from the global south. If they could absorb the Germans, they can certainly learn to absorb the Islamic-rights contingent. Why "fight" when you can learn to coexist in peace? Why make matters worse?

I predict they'll do what they did in the 40's, and choose the pragmatic option. Let the British be the silly ones, with their "finest hour" and Brexit.

Here is what the French need to know:

Putin and Trump are pulling hard for Le Pen.

A comment yesterday on NPR made a significant impression on me. The EU was created in part to finally eliminate the perpetual hostilities that arose among European nations in the past, resulting in the havoc of two world wars! The fracture of the EU, what will it bring? A renewal of hostilities? More war? makes one wonder.

Many Brits never imagined Brexit would pass, and most Americans who read this paper never believed Donald Trump would be president. Particularly following last night's sorry spectacle on the Champs-Elysées, every French citizen able needs to make for a record-breaking turn out in the 1st round. Hopefully, proud French pragmatic reason will prevail over racist and secessionist threats that could damage not only the face of Europe but the world.

Sunday ,April 23 vote in France is most crucial historical ballot in recent history .On the global stage four contentious issues are stake and the next occupant of the Elyse Palace is looked keenly how he/she steers through these challenges:social justice,rising economic inequality and failure of neo-liberal economy or free market globalisation,unabated international terrorism (Yeasterday terrorist attack on French Police killing one and wounding two; a repeat of previous such attacks in France since 2015),challenges posed by the climate change ( more serious than nuclear arm threats).
Four out of 11 candidates for the President are running neck to neck according to the latest poll.Such popular polls were deceptive both on the ballot for the Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.The final outcome in Britain and the USA negated political Pundits and poll prediction.Hence opinion expressed by the poll predictors turned out to be wrong.
The dilemma confronting French electorates are: to identify electoral rhetoric mired by mediocrity.Mediocrity becomes entertaining,it seduces.Thus how to avoid being seduced; second, elected leaders caring for their own affairs than affairs of the State,more for their personal comforts than for the greatness of France.
Einstein remarked," Repeating mistakes again and again and expecting useful outcome is insanity".The incumbent promises in 2008 and 2012 élections were not fulfilled and were betrayed.France cannot afford the same any more.

Would be absolutely thrilled to see a Mélenchon victory. A strike against Clinton-Blair and, dare I say it, Obama-style neoliberalism. We deserve better than to avoid the very worst (le Pen) and voters know it.

I live in France and I know a ton of people here who will vote "blanc" which means they go to the polls and officially vote for noone. It's their idea of a protest vote. It's a bit like voting third party in the US. By voting blanc, they hope to show the government their dissatisfaction with the political system. Many french people see all the candidates as just awful and refuse to condone even one. The problem with the "vote blanc" is that it could allow for the worst of the worst (Le Pen) to win. Many of the protest voters will vote for whoever is not Le Pen in the second round. So they say that Le Pen will not win the second round.

A vote of support for M. Francois Fillon from this French-Irish American who is hoping for some balance. He sounds hard-nosed, measured and reasoned. An admirer here of Alexis de Tocqueville, and his writings on whether Democracy can work in America, keeping close attention to these presidential elections, while understanding that Marine Le Pen is a formidable opponent.

We have President Trump in America and we do not need another in France. One Trump is enough, and as my French stepfather used to quote in an ancestral family anecdote 'One Bonaparte is enough!'.

I like that the media cannot publish results before the last polling stations close and wish that law would take effect in the US. The US media's practice of making presidential predictions based on east coast voting results is unfair to west coast voters.

I am curious to see the outcome of this vote. Will it be a continuation of the Brexit/ Trump trend or will it be something else?

The worse it gets, the better Le Pen does. With todays headlines she might win.

The election has a very similar design to that of the recent election for the open house seat in Georgia.

One can only dream in the US of an election season of limited duration, where the publicity for candidates is much more level than America's.

"manage the sometimes competing goals of improving the labor market and the maintaining a social safety net"...
Why are these competing goals? I would think that improving the labor market and reducing unemployment from its persistent 10% level would be the best social safety net a country could ask for.

Strange headline--of course it "matters." Headline writer probably meant: Why it matters to those whose main concern is fighting Trump, Brexit and any other populist cause.

What a complex system that is sure to confuse voters.