France’s Bumbling Search for a Candidate to Stop Le Pen

‘Europeans are keeping close tabs on France in this decisive election year, and the French are giving them plenty to watch. Three months before the final round of voting in the presidential election on May 7, a good portion of the political establishment has already been weeded out of the race. And it currently looks as though the purge won’t be slowing down any time soon.
Currently, a big question mark is hovering over the future career of François Fillon, who had looked until last week like one of the most promising contenders. But then, as the newspaper Le Canard enchaîné put it, a “gigantic stain appeared on his white vest.” But Fillon’s travails are only the most recent in a string of absurdities that have dogged the French campaign.’
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