OKAY, CHIRAC WON, LE PEN LOST: My prediction: the French Establishment will congratulate itself on having singlehandedly defeated fascism, and go back to business as usual, ignoring all the problems that Le Pen was trying to capitalize on and paving the way for either (1) someone worse; or (2) general social collapse.

Emmanuelle Richard weighs in with somewhat similar concerns. Also read this post by Matt Welch on French problems, and their resistance to American-style solutions. Additional problem: there are no “French-style” solutions to French problems.