ON TODAY'S NATIONAL ELECTION IN FRANCE

 There is an old saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword."  Today's revision - Le Pen is not mightier than le Rouge."  Though Marine Le Pen's National Rally was expected to come in first, as it did in last week's first round of voting for the new parliament, the media stressed fears of the return of the Right Wing to power.  Some decided to return instead to Macron's "moderate" globalist party (which last week came in third).  The surprise winners were the New Popular Front groupings, basically socialists, communists, and other leftists, or simply the reds or in French rouge.      Hugh Murray

The results were, the Left 180 seats, the Macron party 160, and the Right received 140.  Despite coming in third, the Right nearly doubled it number of seats in Parliament.  The chart below shows how many more votes the right-wing party got above both the Left and Macron's.  Strangly, the Le Pen party and its allies is depicted in the center of the chart.