The first is temperament. Trump is unstable, volatile, hot-tempered, and seems to lack self-control. This is a stark contrast with Marine Le Pen, who just might be the most message-controlled politician in France — or anywhere. In a media environment where everything she says can and will be held against her, she has shown remarkable steadiness. Moreover, the Front National under her has been a remarkably disciplined organization, free of the backstabbing and leaks that are so common in political parties everywhere. In publicized private remarks, French President François Hollande marveled at her mastery of policy detail. Unlike Trump, Le Pen knows how to run a tight ship. To wary French voters, she could offer the same populist message as Trump, but with executive competence on top.
And when it comes to her views, Le Pen also offers a favorable contrast to Trump. While the latter openly pandered to white nationalists during the course of his campaign, Le Pen has been disciplined and ruthless about policing her movement. If some 19-year-old county chair posts a racist cartoon on Facebook, he is immediately expelled from the party. Moreover, Le Pen took the highly symbolic and charged action of expelling her own father from her party for expressing even more racist slurs when she took over. “It is never pleasant to be murdered by one’s own daughter,” he deadpanned at the time, before suing her over the expulsion, which was just approved by the courts.
Le Pen has expanded her party’s platform from a single-minded focus on immigration and crime with a side of tax cuts and deregulation to a full-blown populist embrace of a strong state.
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