On electability - Britta Sandberg in Der Spiegel:

‘Maybe the most notable thing about Marine Le Pen on this Thursday afternoon is her tone of voice. Calmly and earnestly, the right-wing firebrand accuses French President Emmanuel Macron of setting fire to the country.

In her raspy voice, Le Pen says that France is currently experiencing a deep political crisis: "This is a complete failure of the government. And a complete failure for Emmanuel Macron, since it is his reform.” She then demands the resignation of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.

Just a quarter hour earlier, Borne announced in parliament – her voice raised to be heard over the chanting and jeering from the left-wing alliance known as the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (NUPES) – that the government was not going to put the controversial pension reform plan up for a vote in the National Assembly. This would mean that it would be enacted without parliamentary support. The move, while seemingly undemocratic, is rooted in the country’s presidential democracy, as outlined in Article 49.3 of the constitution.’

(…)

‘The two researchers set out to identify the milieus in which resistance to the pension reform is greatest. Two-thirds of all French citizens are opposed to the Macron plan, with workers and members of the lower-middle class feeling particularly affected by the increase of the retirement age from 62 to 64. In the second round of presidential elections last April, Le Pen received majority support from the two groups (67 and 57 percent, respectively). But a about one-third of voters in each group declined to go to the polls, representing a potential reservoir out of which Le Pen could attract new followers.
Palier says the current political climate in France is clearly in favor of Rassemblement National. And there is another factor as well, he says: "The partially inaccurate portrayal of the reform by the government served to promote the cliché that the elite always lie anyway.” That, too, is a key part of the narrative promoted by populists.’

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‘There is one man who has long been working toward the day when eternally scorned Marine Le Pen can move into the presidential palace and her reviled colleagues from the Rassemblement National can become members of cabinet. His name is Renaud Labaye, referred to as the "eminence grise” by Paris newspapers. Labaye says that he works in the shadow, or the semi-shadow, of Le Pen – and that is how he prefers it.
The man who so loves to operate in the background has agreed to a meeting in Brasserie Bourbon, an institution located just a few meters from parliament and frequented by lawmakers and top government officials. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman is sitting at the neighboring table. Politicians from the traditional parties and those from the RN have, since the last election, become used to crossing paths in the same establishments and greet each other politely. Only the Greens, says Labaye, still refuse to say hello.
The 38-year-old is a bit of an outlier in the ranks of RN politicians with whom Marine Le Pen has thus far surrounded herself. A devout Catholic, Labaye grew up in a bourgeois family in Versailles, attending the prestigious Saint Cyr Military Academy before earning a master’s degree at an elite university for economic studies. He speaks quickly, is self-deprecating and has an easy laugh. Along with his fine, horn-rimmed glasses, he is wearing a marine-blue suit, a pink-and-blue tie and matching socks.

Reserved rather than boastful, he says he has always felt close to the nationalist right, but he has never actually become a member of the RN. "It’s the small bit of snobbery I allow myself,” he says, adding that it hasn’t ever bothered anyone.
Before he became an adviser to Le Pen, Labaye worked for four years in the Economics Ministry, a job he says he found rather boring. Since then, he has been part of Le Pen’s campaign team for presidential elections. And since last summer, he can be found at 8:30 every morning in his parliamentary office. In Paris, they say that there is hardly a speech held by an RN parliamentarian nor a proposal to amend a law that doesn’t cross his desk first. Labaye, they say, controls everything. It is a claim that he denies – allowing, however, that he does play the role of temple guardian.’

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‘In numerous surveys, the RN is now seen as the most credible opposition party – because it has been able to set itself apart from the bickering left-wing populists of the LFI and because it sometimes even votes together with the conservatives or the governing party if it has to. The highest praise for the party recently came from the government’s labor minister, who said that Le Pen has behaved in a more republican manner than the lawmakers from the LFI.’

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‘Last Tuesday, the fifth day after Macron’s decision to push through pension reform without parliamentary approval, Marine Le Pen filed a complaint with the Constitutional Council in an attempt to block the reform. She is far from the only one to have done so. Because the government simultaneously cited several articles of the constitution when introducing this bill, thus reducing parliamentary debate to just 50 days, even moderate constitutional lawyers believe that an examination of its legality is justified.
That same day, hundreds again gathered in the city to demonstrate against the pension reform. By the time evening rolled around, the crowd on Place de la République had swelled to over 3,500. Police would later report that the propensity for violence among the protesters was even higher than within the yellow vest movement several years ago.’

(…)

‘Le Pen stops in front of the elevators and then turns around.
"You know what is interesting? I’ve heard that Emmanuel Macron has nightmares because I might succeed him as head of state. Is there anything better than knowing that you are in the nightmares of the president? I can tell you: There’s not much more I can ask for.” She then heads down to the basement – the woman who would so like to shake up this republic.’

Read the article here.

I said it before, the left sows, the extreme right will harvest.
But that’s only part of the story.

Discipline and a sense of electability of moderation is needed in order to win over more than let’s say thirty percent of the electorate. How Trump managed to do this in 2016 is a kind of miracle, his opponent helped, misogyny helped but still.

Let’s say that quite a few Americans have their own romantic ideas about the cowboy and the businessman, in more or less the same way as many Italians believe that fascism was in essence just Italian romanticism.

And Macron’s hubris plays into the hands of Le Pen as well. Her victory has been predicted earlier, but she is undeniably edging closer.