Ideas Politics Europe
Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

French politics has never been so unpredictable

The chaos should have played into Marine Le Pen's hands

French politics has never seen dirty tricks so perfectly timed

The French, no matter how fed up, might yet baulk at voting Le Pen

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet
26 December 2017
Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

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Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. This was first published on January 27. 

French politics hasn’t ever been this fun – or this hard to keep up with. Barely a week ago, as we waited for the first round of the Socialist Party primary last week, everyone was bemoaning the shambles of the Left.

There were eight lacklustre candidates taking part in the contest, as well as two “independents” outside of the primary, none of whom seemed capable of making it to the last two in the actual Presidential election, come May 8.

And this was before Penelopegate. And Macrongate.

Far from measuring curtains for the Elysée, Mrs Fillon may well cost her husband the Presidential job. This week, Le Canard Enchaîné, France’s very political answer to Private Eye, revealed in oh-so-timely fashion yesterday that over nine years, Penelope Fillon was paid a total of nearly half a million euros as her husband’s parliamentary assistant. This is legal in France (provided you work for it, which is in question since nobody has ever seen her in the Assemblée Nationale).

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Written by

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet

@moutet
Anne-Elisabeth Moutet is a French journalist and broadcaster.

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