On Sunday, voters in France went to the polls and elected far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron to face off in a runoff election on May 7, which will determine who will become the president of France.
WGBH News analyst and the founder of The GroundTruth Project Charlie Sennott joined Boston Public Radio Monday to discuss the election and what the results could mean for France, Europe and the U.S.
“It is a big deal,” said Sennott about the election. “We have always had the standard bearers of the left and the standard bearers of the right in French elections … The shift now is that it has moved center and far right."
Sennott compared this anti-establishment movement in France to Trump’s election and the rise of populism in the U.S.
“There is a parallel expression happening in France, which is status quo is being rejected,” he said. “The establishment parties are out.”
Le Pen, like Trump, has expressed nationalist views and her disappointment with France’s role in the European Union.
“Le Pen is about pulling out of the EU,” said Sennott. “The anger she represents is not going away. It is going to have to be dealt with, and how that is going to play out in France and in Germany, and in our own country, is really the big questions of our time.”
Click on the audio player above to listen to our interview with Charlie Sennott.
