For undecided French voters tempted to back the far-right populist Marine Le Pen in next Sunday’s presidential election, the situation resembles a midlife crisis. They’re fed up with the same old, same old – the boss is a pain and the bills keep on rising. How great it would be to throw it all up, escape the system, buy a smallholding somewhere and grow veg.
In the end, most people decide against so drastic a break with all that is familiar and secure, however unsatisfactory their present circumstances. That’s what France’s friends and neighbours must hope will happen when Le Pen faces the centrist incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, in the second round run-off. Macron, though unpopular, represents continuity. Le Pen is the candidate of chaos.
