why it pays to take an interest in French politics

Comrades,

Months ago [on 02-12-16 to be precise] I read a long and detailed article about E.Macron.
It speculated that he might not wait another five years and was considering making a run for the French presidency.
So, I thought I would check with my bookie, and found that they were offering luxury odds on the then non-candidate rank outsider of $14 for the win.
I immediately slapped a lazy lobster on it, on the principle of never looking a gift horse in the mouth.
[Today, the odds are E.Macron $1.10 and M.Le Pen $7.00.]
Crikey, as the article pointed out, it's patently obvious the man was born to it.
Earmarked for greatness at birth by his medico parents, he went to the right school [obviously - his teacher and future wife told him at the age of 16 that one day he would be the leader of La Grande République - and he believed her], he went to the right university colloquially known as "Nanterre la rouge" to study Philosophy, and then did his post-grad at the right finishing school that all future Presidents of France go to, École nationale d'administration, where it is incredibly difficult to get a pass mark, which E.Macron did easily with flying colours.
He then became a high-minded public servant with a numbers brain as big as a football, then chucked that in to become a merchant banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque to gather up a tidy fortune, and then wound up being drafted into current President Hollande's cabinet as an un-elected socialist Finance Minister.
Then he quit, was reprimanded by Hollande, which only boosted his popularity, and announced his candidacy for the Presidency at age 39, under the hitherto unknown banner of En Marche! on a generally pinko policy platform aimed at pleasing all of the people all of the time.
Winner!
Boy, has Monsieur Macron got the smarts in spades, or what?
You would expect the good folk of France - who love nothing more than to yabber on endlessly about politics - to be all rather sensible about this [unlike the Brexiting Poms] on Sunday on the basis of "anyone but that bastard fascist Le Pen", and elect the bloke to the Palais de l'Élysée by a wide margin [he currently holds an absolutely unbeatable 22% lead in the latest opinion polls].
The Miracle of Democracy.
Go you good thing you!

PS...it's pleasing for an Old Journo to see that France is just about the last place left in the first world where good ol' fashioned "media scrums" are still in favour:

(originally published 05-05-17)