“Electoral statistics” in France too (the “political laboratory” of Europe for the last two hundred years) confirm that, mutatis mutandis and of course taking into account the peculiarities of the present day, we are entering into a situation comparable to the crisis that shook the Weimar Republic in the interwar period. It is also an indirect, because political, not economic, still strong indication that we are well into the economic crisis that began in 2008 and metamorphosed into a crisis of the EU and that this crisis is not just a usual cyclical one, but a crisis as deep as the crises of 1873-96 and 1929 (those that led to the two world wars of the past, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, Nazism and the American New Deal)....Hang on to your hats. Storm brewing.
Defend Democracy Press
France – the specter of Weimar
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
See also
Can Macron form a neoliberal globalist coalition to govern from "the center." We won't know until after the parliamentary election next month and learn who the next prime minister will be, as well as the distribution of seats among the parties which will affect the formation of a coalition government.
Project Syndicate
Macron’s Immediate Challenge
Philippe Aghion | Professor of Economics at Harvard University, College de France, and the London School of Economics
Bloomberg
These Are The Challenges President Emmanuel Macron Will Face
Gregory Viscusi
See also
Can Macron form a neoliberal globalist coalition to govern from "the center." We won't know until after the parliamentary election next month and learn who the next prime minister will be, as well as the distribution of seats among the parties which will affect the formation of a coalition government.
Project Syndicate
Macron’s Immediate Challenge
Philippe Aghion | Professor of Economics at Harvard University, College de France, and the London School of Economics
Bloomberg
These Are The Challenges President Emmanuel Macron Will Face
Gregory Viscusi
Macron is a Tony Blair clone. If he can get a working government together it will be an administration of smoke and mirrors, just like Blair.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Macron's popularity will follow the same trajectory as Hollande.
Get ready for more authoritarianism. The temptation to rule with an iron hand.
ReplyDeleteAs a friend of mine sarcastically points out: "Success, only a third of the people voted for a neo-fascist!" Why people aren't horrified is a total mystery, especially when you consider how the "mainstream" have imbibed many of the policies of the neo-fascists, all under the comical masquerade of defending liberal values.
ReplyDeleteClearly Macron's presidency will be a total disaster, and not only because he's a Blairite neoliberal "third way" monster. Macron would be bad enough at the best of times, but these are the worst of times because France is in the EU and the EZ. There is nothing he, or indeed anyone else within the so-called "mainstream", can do within the prison that is the EU, and worse the gulag that is the EZ.
Thankfully a neo-fascist was denied the presidency, but Macron may just be holding back the neo-fascist tide for a few years. Scary stuff, but a phenomenal success that only a third of the people voted for a neo-fascist!
As a friend of mine sarcastically points out: "Success, only a third of the people voted for a neo-fascist!" Why people aren't horrified is a total mystery, especially when you consider how the "mainstream" have imbibed many of the policies of the neo-fascists, all under the comical masquerade of defending liberal values.
ReplyDeleteMarine Le Pen: "We are now the opposition."
This is a huge elevation.
"Macron may just be holding back the neo-fascist tide for a few years."
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem, but by then the right could be even worse.
Very much like the US. I maintain we dodged a bullet with Trump. I'll take the incompetent buffoon over the competent evil person any day. 4 to 8 years of hillary very likely could have lead to something worse than Trump, like a Ted Cruz (thankfully he's incredibly unlikeable, but someone similar to him) or a Tom Cotton. If you didn't get the message that the election of Trump means the status quo is unsustainable, then you shouldn't be in politics (which incidentally is almost the entire democratic establishment).
I think it would have been better to get Le Pen now, rather than let the situation deteriorate another 5 years further. If the dam's going to break, it's better it breaks sooner rather than later.
France is very different from the US. If people don't like something they will shut down the country to get it. Unfortunately all the standard tools of neoliberalism have been brought to bear: media control, terrorism, financial manipulation, Russian election hacking, etc. The question is will the French respond like sheep or like partisans against the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteMost people in Europe have not yet figured out that the problem is the euro.
ReplyDelete