Macron’s En Marche has won France, and Le Pen’s National Front, having risen from a fringe group to the mainstream, is once again cast off. It was announced Saturday, 5/7, that En Marche had won the superior amount of votes against the National Front. However, the party has already shown that it is not going anywhere and may show to be a formidable opponent in parliament.

The common assumption for those who did not foresee these results–myself included–assumed the current global revolt against the political establishment, embodied by Brexit and Trump, would provide precedent and momentum for a Le Pen victory. However, fundamental cultural differences and Le Pen’s unique ideology have disproved the theory that France is a mirror of America and Britain’s political climate.

Similar to Trump, Le Pen attracted voters from the Northern, de-industrialized regions and from communities ravaged with violence due to inadequate immigration policy. But the similarities stop there. Unlike Trump, Le Pen does not promise to reform a system that benefits bureaucracy, state-dependent Big Business, and the elitist intelligentsia, but instead guarantees that it will benefit them this time. She promised entitlements, civil service protections for useless fat-cat bureaucrats, and harmful tariffs to protect failing industries. Trump is politically convenient while Le Pen is a product of classist  identity politics.

Macron, who denounced the incompetent Socialist government and formed his own party, promises to reform France’s economic policy to encourage entrepreneurship, which appealed to young voters who are now experiencing record unemployment rates. Also, the divided state of the far-left socialist party forced many to vote for Macron against Le Pen, while traditional conservatives were left outside the pale of Le Pen’s movement.

Unlike Trump, who won the working class with promises of economic mobility, Le Pen promised welfare benefits and a reactionary return to France’s past. She wanted France to go back, Trump wants forward, and Macron wants to stay. Pick your poison! France chose theirs. Macron is an EU elitist disguised as a populist, but Le Pen is not the change France needs right now.
Le Pen’s philosophy is a strange blend of centralized government and nationalism, modern-day Gaullism, or National Socialism if you will. The remnants of fascism are eerie; she claims to offer the French “a third-way,” a phrase with a dark history in Europe. Fascism is often described to be the result of democracy gone mad, when plurality eventually cannibalizes itself. You can see this in the collapse of France’s Socialist and Republican parties. Le Pen offers another way out. Our inner fascist craves the immediate will to power and satisfaction. You can understand her appeal.