Declining French towns look like paradise compared to the post apocalyptic zones of some of the declining American cities.
Very bad day for Fillon. He's been order to appear before a judge over the scandal with his wife and he's faced severe criticism from politicians and the media, many calls for him to rescind his candidacy. Bad news, I think he's clearly a much better match for Le Pen than Macron.
Fillon would be a much better president than Macron, but I don't think he would be easier for MLP to beat.
Of course he would. Fillon's Thatcherism is absolute poison to the left. They would sit out the runoff if it was Fillon-Le Pen.
Which is probably why they're trying like hell to make sure Macron gets into the runoff.
They didn't sit out in 2002, I doubt this time would be that different. Macron is just as Thatcherist as Fillon. Obviously MLP would get vastly more votes than JMLP did anyway, because the FN base is now much bigger. But I think the dynamic would be the same.
Even in the polls, it's the homo 61-62% as against Fillon 58-59% versus MLP in a hypothetical 2nd round. Not a vast difference.
I think the ideal situation for MLP would be to face Macron with all Fillon's supporters in a (justifiable) white heat of rage at his treatment by the legal system and the media. The wild card is what that same legal system and media might get up to with respect to MLP herself.