End of the euro? French candidate plots return of the franc

By Associated Press

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017 | 8:32 a.m.

PARIS — If Marine Le Pen has her way, the French will soon pay for their baguettes with francs, not euros.

The presidential candidate from the anti-EU, anti-immigration National Front party is all about national sovereignty and independence. She wants France to take control of its money, subject to a referendum that would lead France out of the European Union and its shared currency.

But how would France pull off a euro exit, or "Frexit"?

No country has left the euro since its creation in 1999. A number of economists paint dire scenarios in which the departure of one of the euro's 19 countries unleashes chaos: market plunges, controls on money transfers, customs officers stopping people carrying suitcases of cash out of the country, a plague of defaults and lawsuits on bonds and contracts.

The euro was designed to be irrevocable. It's the "Hotel California" principle, as in the Eagles' song: you may wish to "check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Le Pen is leading polls for the first round of voting April 23; most polls and prognosticators see her losing the second round on May 7. But after the British vote last year to leave the 28-member European Union, and after Donald Trump's election as U.S. President, fewer people are taking a Le Pen defeat for granted.

Here are scenarios — starting with an explanation of Le Pen's position by Jean Messiha, the economist who drafted her 144-point electoral program.