in re Macron, it piqued my interest and I did a little background reading - I think my gut instinct was correct, that he's both trying to head off far-right criticism in an immediate tactical sense and pursuing a longer-term strategy of actively trying to siphon off part of Le Pen's base - other members of his party have made even cruder immigrant/Muslim-baiting comments in recent months. he and Le Pen are at a dead heat in the polls (next election is April 2022), he's massively hated by the left for good and obvious reasons, far-right populism is on the rise, why not embrace a watered-down form of it. meanwhile Le Pen is continuing her own long-term rebrand of the Front National as less obviously racist - which is bullshit, Al Jazeera did a big expose last year linking high-ranking party figures to literal fascists (Les Identitaires) - but publicly it seems to have been quite successful at normalizing the party. so really the two remaining parties in French politics seem to be converging on nativism, not as extreme as that of Le Pen's father but not very far off either.
it seems like an extremely bad situation to be in if you're French and not racist and/or an investment banker. there is no viable left candidate or party, your voting choices are Clinton/Blair on steroids vs French Stephen Miller (but charismatic) with both scapegoating Muslims for everything.
