On Sunday, the first round of the presidential elections took place in France. There were twelve candidates. The media have been speculating that the far-right Front Nationale candidate Marine Le Pen might be in with a chance of winning the Presidential election in the second round as she closed on Macron in the polls. The results were reported by Le Monde:
On the Margins
The outcome of the ballot looks similar to the last election in 2017 with Macron, Le Pen, and Melechon doing well but there are important differences. Macron clearly did better than expected, and Melenchon once again failed to beat Le Pen by a couple of points. However, in 2017 the Les Republicans candidate Fillon came third with just over 20% of the vote. Yesterday Les Republicans only managed to obtain less than five percent of the vote. The Parti Socialiste scraped into tenth place. So, the two parties that used to dominate French politics, the Gaullists and the socialists, now appear to be on the margins. The bad news in 2022 is that the far-right racist candidates, Le Pen and Zemmour, together collected about a third of the votes.
Neoliberalism
Why have those once two dominant parties failed so badly? The simple answer is that they both embraced neoliberalism, the political ideology which has undermined trade unions, attacked workers’ rights, pensions and wages, and led to the rise of the ultra-rich in the past forty years. This free-market ideology has created anger and resentment amongst the working and middle classes who have suffered at the hands of the banks and corporations and their tame politicians.
Populism
This has led to the rise in populism and xenophobia in the West. Fostered by the media, millions have focused their anger on immigrants rather than those who are the real cause of their difficulties, and this has been a boon to right-wing demagogues such as Zemmour and Trump. These politicians make empty promises to improve the lives of the many by banning immigration and giving them jobs with slogans like ‘Make America great again’.
One reason for Le Pen closing on Macron is that, while he has been projecting himself as a leader of Europe over Ukraine, Le Pen has focused on domestic policy. As well she might. Macron’s team are busy now, reminding voters of her links to Putin. She backed his annexation of Crimea and her party was rewarded with financial support from Putin in the last presidential election in 2017.
No Real Choice
So it looks like ex-banker Macron could win again in the second round run off against Le Pen. But he remains a neoliberal who poses as a moderate, and he will continue with the same policies, further weakening the conditions of the working class. If he wins, it will be because the alternative, Le Pen, will be recognised as a worse option by the majority of French voters. That is the choice many voters in the West now face. You can’t vote for a candidate you really want to win, who will bring about real change that benefits you and your family, and you have to choose a candidate you know is going to do nothing to improve your economic health and wellbeing.
We promise that if you subscribe we will never take money from your bank account, won’t send you endless emails trying to get you to buy something you never wanted in the first place and we will never share your details with any third party.
What we will do is send you regular newsletters to keep you up to date with what we are doing and give you handy links to the content we create. You can choose which newsletters to receive or unsubscribe at any time.
AND IT’S ALL FREE!!
I’ve been a socialist and activist since I was a teenager. I’m retired now but still fighting for social, economic, and environmental justice.
The same happened in the US elections. Sanders was storming the primaries until the DNC’s co-ordinated efforts to oust him for someone more ‘moderate.’ Biden was performing terribly to begin with but as each Democrat folded, they all endorsed him. Voters were forced to get behind Biden, otherwise, it would have been four more years of Trump. It stinks to high heaven.
We’ll see it played out here shortly: Starmer or Johnson. The media may well get behind Starmer if they think the Labour Party is sufficiently neutered now. If people hold their noses and vote Starmer in, the PLP will see it as a vindication of ‘moderate’ neoliberal policies.
If I were a French voter, I think I’d abstain for the second round. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for LePen but couldn’t endorse Macron either.