French Political Mess

In my book reading, I read about the state of the Eurozone and how Germany has become increasingly dominant, at the expense of France. France has become second fiddle, mainly due to the complete mess in its political system. The current President, Francois Hollande, is widely recognized as an incompetent, and his approval ratings are in the teens. His economic policy has been disastrous and France's stagnation has brought a feeling of malaise in the country. However, his opponents could be even worse than he is. His main competition on the center-right is Nicolas Sarkozy, his predecessor who lost to Hollande in the 2012 election. Sarkozy was arrested earlier this year over allegations of illegal campaign contributions from former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in his 2007 election victory. He has denied wrongdoing and is still seen as the center-right's favorite. However, one of his competitors, Francois Fillon, allegedly contacted Hollande's chief of staff to speed up the case against Sarkozy to benefit his candidacy (the third center-right candidate, Alain Juppe, was convicted of corruption in 2004). This new development makes the center-right candidates look as bad as Hollande, and leaves an opening for the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen. Le Pen has effectively capitalized on the incompetence and corruption of the two main parties, and has a real chance to win the next presidential election in 2017. If a far-right, anti-EU populist such as Le Pen wins the Presidency, it could be even more devastating to the EU than the Greek crisis ever was.