Many of the rural municipal elections were a walkover so that the second round on Sunday is all but a formality because most outcomes that need it already look quite predictable. Now we have the EU elections at the end of May coming closer.
The FN has been scarily successful thus far, so the eminent philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy has made a plea to see them off by rejecting them in the round two run-offs.
He has published details of a number of FN candidates on his La Regle du Jeu site, which for French readers you can find on: http://laregledujeu.org/2014/03/25/16647/francais-vous-devez-savoir%E2%80%A6-le-bloc-notes-du-point/
He points out the sometimes criminal, racist and other disgraceful behaviour of FN candidates and their election teams. He is showing how the party and its members have not become less extreme under the direction of Marine Le Pen. For example, one candidate Louis-Armand de Béjarry celebrates the 1938 Kristallnacht when 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Between 90 and one 100 were murdered that night. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were pillaged and buildings owned or inhabited by Jews were demolished by mobs with sledgehammers. Also, over 1000 synagogues throughout Germany and Austria were burned down and several thousand Jewish businesses destroyed.
French voters are only seeing the so-called reformed face of the FN. However, if these municipal elections are a foretaste of what we can expect in the EU elections and then the next general election in 2017 what does the future hold for us? The FN has very fixed views on 'their' country and who they want here, the question is whether they want us?
I am not being hysterical or letting my political preferences stand in the way of objectivity and most certainly see Hollande and his toothless PS as serious contenders for culpability. Unless mainstream politicians get a grip on themselves and win back the support of the French people then we have a period of uncertainty before us. There I include French SFN members of course.