Despite leading in the polls for Round One, The Express reports that a monumental computer blunder could cost Marine Le Pen the French general election as 500,000 citizens living outside of France have the chance to vote twice.
French authorities confirmed they would not be investigating the potential electoral fraud until AFTER the election, when retrospective prosecution may take place.
We are sure this is a simple 'accident', but coincidentally (for the establishment), this could crush Ms Le Pen’s dreams of surging to power, as most French nationals living outside of their country are not right wing - demonstrated by the fact many feel they depend on the European Union (EU) to guarantee their stay in foreign countries. Far left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who has surged in the polls recently and threatens to break into the leadership race against Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron, could also benefit from this catastrophic error.
As one French citizen noted:
“This year, this is the first time I have asked myself the question, would I take advantage of this anomaly to vote twice? My candidate was low enough in the polls.”
Voting twice is a crime, but police will only find out if they run a check on the individual through their computer systems.
France’s Interior Ministry has said it will not be invalidating the election because of the duplicate voting glitch.
Democracy, eh?
EU may summon Le Pen for “investigation” right before the election
The more you study politics, the more you come to realize that it’s not all that different anywhere in the world. There’s some odd media spin showing up in France this week having to do with an “investigation” into Marine Le Pen’s alleged use of EU funds (she’s a member of the European Union legislature) and whether or not she “mixed” them with campaign money to pay party staffers. Fair enough, I suppose. Every country has rules about campaign finance matters. But it’s the timing of this particular investigation which should catch our attention. If they go through with this plan the hearing will be rushed into place right before the May 7th runoff election, which most observers expect Le Pen to be in. (Reuters)
European Union lawmakers could summon French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to discuss the lifting of her immunity over the alleged misuse of European Union money, before the second round of the French election, an influential legislator said on Saturday.
French judges have asked the European parliament to lift the immunity of the National Front leader, who is a member of the EU legislature, to permit further investigations over alleged misuse of funds to pay for party assistants.
“The legal affairs committee has agreed that Le Pen will be summoned for a hearing on the first possible date in May,” Laura Ferrara, the deputy chair of the committee, told Reuters.
She said the hearing could take place in the first week of May, before the May 7 runoff in the French election, which polls show Le Pen is likely to reach.
Le Pen has denounced legal proceedings against her as political interference.
I’m not trying to say that the fix is definitively in on this one, but the timing of all of this certainly seems to be awfully convenient for the French governing establishment class and the European Union in general. First of all, this investigation has been going on for a while now. In fact, the EU already found some sort of financial rules indiscretion and wound up docking some of Le Pen’s pay from the parliament. If they’ve determined that there is more work to do then so be it, but they’re choosing to make the announcement eight days before the first round of elections and are planning to schedule the hearing only a week before the runoff? I don’t want to say that they’re being a bit obvious here, but… come on, man.
Whether you happen to approve of or dislike Le Pen’s policies and the gate crashing attitude of the National Front, there’s no question that she poses an existential threat to the French political establishment and the European Union in general. She’s veering sharply away from the more passive socialism of the second half of the twentieth century and she has frequently spoken about holding a referendum to see if her fellow citizens have any interest in a Frexit. Her hard line on Islamic extremism and the corrupting influence of some immigrant communities flies in the face of her country’s established policy of c’est la vie and the “religion of peace.” In short, she’s the type who may be inclined to upset the apple cart in a nation (and international union) which makes a pretty good living off apple sales.
Now, holding on to a steady enough lead in the polls to likely make it to the runoff and facing competitors who are bogged down in scandals, there’s a scandal investigation seemingly timed in two stages for maximum negative impact on her campaign. Coincidence? The default rules have to allow for it, but you rarely see a coincidence this productive in the political universe.
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