French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has been slipping in the polls ahead of the April 22 first-round vote (2nd round will be May6), placing fourth behind President Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist front-runner Francois Hollande, and leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon. And so, to boost her ratings, she’s been doing whatever she can, including pick the very Jewish sounding Goldman Sachs, as her target.
Le Pen stopped short of describing Goldman Sachs as the Jewish bankers who control the world markets – but who needs to utter the J word, when an easily identifiable name like “Goldman” will do the job just as nicely?
“Goldman Sachs topples governments everywhere,” Le Pen told supporters in Lyon, depicting the Wall Street firm as precisely that all-powerful institution that manipulates entire nations and gives orders to the European Central Bank.
“Goldman Sachs places its men at the top of euro zone countries,” Le Pen said, using imagery reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead pod people. “Goldman Sachs puts its man at the head of the European Central Bank,” she went on. “In Greece, Italy, the ECB, oligarchs have taken power.”
Reuters points out that the ECB’s head, Mario Draghi, is a former Goldman Sachs executive.
Sarkozy, moving in on Le Pen’s potential voters, told his supporters on Saturday that voting for the National Front would usher in a Socialist victory by splitting the Right.
But a recent poll suggests that 16 percent of Le Pen’s supporters would rather vote for the Socialist candidate in a runoff election than back the President.