Postscript: One reader has brought to my attention the fact that France
in fact has a first past the post as opposed to the proportional
representation system so common elsewhere on the Continent. Accordingly I
shift my emphasis elsewhere in the French situation and say that the
outcome is uniquely due to Macron's opportunism and tactical thinking at
the expense of strategic thinking and patriotism; he has engineered a
three way split in the lower chamber to keep Le Pen from power while
knowingly making France ungovernable and returning the country to the
instability it suffered during the Fourth Republic.