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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Well, after some lurking around , I'm going to make my first timeline... about Jean-Marie Le Pen winning the infamous 2002 french presidential election. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]First some background information to understand the whole thing[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The National Front is in fact a coalition of various groups and tendencies (national-catholics, white-supremacist, French Algeria nostalgics, neo-fascists...), united by the towering figure of Le Pen. The inner group is quite extreme but they know better than showing it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Le Pen is a political pariah. There is no way he could win a fair election against somebody even remotely acceptable. Even the communist candidate (Robert Hue aka the Garden Gnome) would have won a landslide against him.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The whole 2002 thing was a fluke, mostly due to Jospin's abysmal strategy. The guy created a rival left wing candidate (Taubira) out of thin air because he thought he could use her support in oversea territories, and that while having to compete against one of his former ministers (Chevenement)... and he botched his campaign too.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Arlette Laguiller (aka the Red Mummy) is the spokewoman of Worker's Struggle, a small hardcore trotsktist party, and a serial candidate to the presidency. Her being a woman in a men's world and her obstination made her strangely popular among some people. Few people would have her in office, but a sizeable part of the population could vote for her to show their discontent. Her place has largerly been taken by Besancenot those days.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]France has a semi-presidential regime, which means that the president is the effective ruler of the country, but ony if he has a majority in the Parlement. If he hasn't, he becomes a figurehead and the real ruler becomes the prime minister – generally the leader of the majority; This happened several times in recent history even if it has become less likely since the presidential term has been reduced.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The president can disband the Parlement and call new elections, but only once a year. He can also, in case of dire national danger, declare a temporary dictatorship (article 16 of the constitution). He can't disband the parlement in this case, but aside from that he can done pretty much what he wants.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Le Pen's home region, Brittany, is also the place where he is the least popular. Brittany also happens to harbour the french SSBN fleet. In 2002 the Regional council was held by a rather lethargic right but things could easily have been different. In 2004 the left won by a landslide.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Brittany has a small homerule party, the UDB, which at the time had no counciler in the Regional Council but thing could also have been different. It also have a still small rather violent, but abysmally ineffectual independentist fringe. By 2002 it had had its back broken after a botched bombing, but things could have turned out differently.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The French army has been all-professionnal since 2001 and is quite loyalist. Like in all militaries, the personnel is rather right wing, but not Le Pen sympathizer, even if the proportion is probably higher than in the general population. No known follower of Le Pen would ever rise to the top.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Police is equipped with small arms. There is a law enforcement branch of the army, the Gendarmerie, most of its members are equipped with small arms and operate in rural areas but there are mobile squadrons equipped with VAB[/FONT]