Quite a striking image of Marine Le Pen in this photo op with President Putin in her latest visit to Russia. It’s also quite telling how she avoided any press briefing after the meeting. Le Pen has been a busy whizzy lady also traveling to the US/visiting Trump tower earlier in January of this year and also dodging any questions about that meeting when asked. It is clear there is a level of coordination between the Trump team and ultra right European parties in order to influence upcoming elections, after all they have a clear intersection of hearts/minds in terms of European Union disintegration and racist/xenophobic ideology. But the meeting with Putin is particularly interesting because it comes at a very suspect time nearing the French presidential elections and raises many questions like; whether Russian cash pipeline is drying up or bridging communication between Putin & Trump/Team. The more puzzling aspect in all of this though is more about the ideology that turbo charged her party support that is actually part of the name of her party “National”, so here is the question; what kind of leader standing for Nationalism that would stoop so low by-at the very least-giving the perception of foreign interference in the national election by such a suspect visit. In doubt, well consider these facts;
- We know for a fact based on US intelligence reports that Russia has attempted to interfere in the US Elections and it is also attempting to do the same in upcoming European elections.
- We know for a fact that she has taken loans from Russian banks in the past to support her election campaign.
- We know for a fact of visits she made to Trump Tower in January and of the publicised working relation between her niece Marion Le Pen and Trump team.
So in light these facts it is not unreasonable to conclude that the national pride Marine Le Pen so often speaks about is just a smoke screen to allow her to achieve her political ambitions.
The fact of the matter is-and many recognise this because it ain’t no rocket science-that the rise the far right movements in Europe & the US have been a clear/legitimate demonstration against failed immigration/integration policies as well as the fact the fruits of globalisation has not been allowed to flow equally to all levels of our societies with many left out. The problem is in the approach in solving this; some want to Scrap and others want to Fix. The key here is that proponents of “Scrap” provide no vision; kind of reminds me of the US Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), easy to ditch but NOT so easy to replace. So the prudent way forward is to Fix because at least we know what we’re up against and not following a mirage. Same applies to things like Globalisation & Multiculturalism; these are realities we cannot reverse but we can certainly make them better work for our communities not against them, this is the ultimate solution. And finally when people start talking about supporting anti-establishment, I can only look at Donald Trump and 1 thought pops (or more like blasts) to mind; if this is what anti-establishment is about in terms of experience/temperament, and corruption in the way he’s running the administration, then please count me as a staunchest supporter for “The Establishment”-again it comes down to Reform of the Known NOT Replace with the Unknown.