Comments by "Archangel17" (@MDP1702) on "Could Macron Actually Lose the French Election? - TLDR News" video.

  1. Essentially Le Pen is just going the populist route, while Macron seems to advocate for a more realistic route. Pension age of 65 is pretty common in a lot nations these days. Hell, there in some countries is even talk of upping to 67. And I doubt Le Pen is going to save so much by taking social care away from non-French citizens, so yes, just being fiscally irresponsible. I am interested in seeing how a 1 on 1 debate will go though, I'd expect/hope Macron to bury her and her proposed policies as completely unsustainable, which it clearly seems to be.
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  2.  @danielwebb8402  Let me rephrase it: fake populist. If you can't give what you promise, you aren't a real populist. Bernie Sanders for example seems to be a real populist, with proper worked out plans and not promising much more than what is possible (since he essentially mostly promised what we here already have). Le Pen however abuses this populist rhetoric. I am pretty sure the caveat of having to work for 40 years for the 60 year retirement age is going to be kept silent as much as possible. Also with increasing age of the population either people will have to work longer or work harder or receive less during their retirement. In no way do I believe that she'll make up the 40 billion difference with Macron's social spending by just taking it away from non-French citizens. Seems like an easy cope out for not being financially responsible.
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  3.  @dnw009  Le Pen rises because she promises much, mostly things she won't be able to do without just passing the bill onto future taxpayers. Macron could also do that, but he realizes that 1) he already has governed, so people would ask why didn't do it before and 2) if you don't keep your promise afterwards you get a lot of problems (like protests, you and your party losing a lot of support, ...). That is the thing with fake/'ignorant' populists, they promise much, get support because of it, get elected and then after a while without being able to fullfill those promises, they lose support, just look at the 5 star movement and Lega in Italy, they both got +-33% support at their peak of the last 4 year and are now 15% and 20% in the polls respectively. Governing isn't easy, and keeping big promises is even more difficult
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  4.  @corradomancini3271  Populism in of itself isn't bad, however you have many kinds. Fake populists: those who know they'll never be able or willing to fulfil the promises they make Stupid populists: those who don't realize they'll never be able to fulfil the promises they make Opportunistic/shortsighted populists: those whe promises much and might actually do it if they have the ability (ie. full control of the government), but doing it in such a way that the people will pay for it in the future, and most likely the same kind of people who he 'helped' with executing these promises. And then ofcourse the real populists, who fulfil their promises in the best way for their voters/the people. Le Pen seems to be either a fake, stupid or opportunistic. I can't she here being stupid honestly, so it is mostly one of the other. Macron seems to try to act like a realist, but that is never popular if things aren't already good. France is in urgent need of reforms, but the way in which they are needed are absolutely unpopular, so Le Pen will never mention them, even if she'd eventually (have to) try to institute them. Macron has no real choice, he needs to act the realist because people wouldn't accept that he wasn't able to fulfil populist promises before.
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