Before I'm stating what I think, I'd first like to adress the elephant in the room of polling.
Last (unofficial, touted because french law forbids polls when voting is going on) exit polls 2 hours before the officials came out was:
Macron at about 25%
Le Pen Melonchon and Fillon at 20%
At the time of writing, the official exits are:
Le Pen 25% - Macron 21%
Again, polls were incorrect slightly beyond margin or error and scewed in the opposite direction.
On to my opinions on Le Pen - Macron. (As Belgian in my late twenties)
France has problems that current Hollande didn't fix-made worse. Both socialist and republican parties' candidates didn't make the second round. Youth unemployment at about 25% and total at 10% becoming unmanagable, terror happening more and more often. These two problems have the most public interest.
I personally think France doesn't need to leave the EU, as France is so influencial it can change the EU for the better, directly. So I disagree with Le Pen wanting to leave, at least she said she's hold a referendum instead of choosing to leave by herself. Macron on the other hand, while I think being neutral is a hard position to be in politically and I applaud him for that, I think he's too maleable as a neutral, as he seems to give in too much when talking about foreign policy.
Internal policy: I doubt Le Pen's economic know-how, even though she livened up the village she came from (forgot the name, scuse me). Macron, as a banker, I fear for his secret friends.
In the end I fear with Macron: not enough will happen and France will continue to weaken. With Le Pen, I fear too much will happen. But at the end I will at least understand if and why either 'outsider' becomes president. I'm certainly glad the communist didn't make it.
Edit: I'd like to add that, just like the USA, people actually have a real choice. It's not a situation where both runners are eachothers cousins twice removed.
Last (unofficial, touted because french law forbids polls when voting is going on) exit polls 2 hours before the officials came out was:
Macron at about 25%
Le Pen Melonchon and Fillon at 20%
At the time of writing, the official exits are:
Le Pen 25% - Macron 21%
Again, polls were incorrect slightly beyond margin or error and scewed in the opposite direction.
On to my opinions on Le Pen - Macron. (As Belgian in my late twenties)
France has problems that current Hollande didn't fix-made worse. Both socialist and republican parties' candidates didn't make the second round. Youth unemployment at about 25% and total at 10% becoming unmanagable, terror happening more and more often. These two problems have the most public interest.
I personally think France doesn't need to leave the EU, as France is so influencial it can change the EU for the better, directly. So I disagree with Le Pen wanting to leave, at least she said she's hold a referendum instead of choosing to leave by herself. Macron on the other hand, while I think being neutral is a hard position to be in politically and I applaud him for that, I think he's too maleable as a neutral, as he seems to give in too much when talking about foreign policy.
Internal policy: I doubt Le Pen's economic know-how, even though she livened up the village she came from (forgot the name, scuse me). Macron, as a banker, I fear for his secret friends.
In the end I fear with Macron: not enough will happen and France will continue to weaken. With Le Pen, I fear too much will happen. But at the end I will at least understand if and why either 'outsider' becomes president. I'm certainly glad the communist didn't make it.
Edit: I'd like to add that, just like the USA, people actually have a real choice. It's not a situation where both runners are eachothers cousins twice removed.
Last edited by Plushie,
