The
authoritarian mechanisms of the global neoliberal establishment will
be certainly in alarm mode one more time because of the oncoming
French presidential election and the unexpected rapid rise of the
Leftist leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
As
marxist.com
reports:
The
last three weeks have seen a quick progression of the candidate of
Rebellious France in the polls for the presidential election: from
being fifth with around 11% to being third with over 18% now. This
rapid rise has been accompanied with a slow but steady decrease in
the voting intentions for the two candidates at the top, the far
right Le Pen (from a peak of 28% down to 24) and the liberal
Thatcherite Macron (from a peak of 26% down to 23). This means that,
Melenchon has a fighting chance of making it into the second round.
This has led to panic in the ruling class, in France and
internationally.
[...]
The
possibility of a second round pitching Le Pen against Melenchon has
been described by the The Economist as the “nightmare option”.
The polls show that Melenchon would beat Le Pen with 57 percent
against 43. Reflecting the fears of the ruling class, the
spread between French and German bonds has shot up to 75 basis points
(from around 30 at the end of last year). The Financial Times
points out that this “election is already the most unpredictable in
a generation” and adds that “the three leading candidates in the
polls now come from outside the mainstream political parties.”
One
of the main French bourgeois papers, Le Figaro dedicates its whole
alarmist front page to attack Melenchon. “The delirant project of
the French Chavez” screams one headline. “Maximilien Illich
Melenchon” shouts the editorial. “Castro, Chavez … Melenchon,
the apostle of revolutionary dictators”. The articles go on to
compare Melenchon with Robespierre, Lenin, Trotsky and Fidel Castro.
The
situation in France resembles very much of what happened with Bernie
Sanders before the US election. As described in previous
article:
If you
really want to find who was the real threat for the establishment, go
back and review the whole story of the Democratic primaries. At the
beginning, the media pundits were certain that Hillary would easily
prevail by just walking to the finish line against Bernie Sanders.
They were nearly making fun of him. But then, things got really
serious. Bernie was building a mass movement outside their corrupted
'control room'.
Especially
the American youth was pushing Bernie to the top, really fast, by
attending massively his rallies and promoting him through social
media. The internet independent media also contributed significantly
on introducing Bernie Sanders to as many people as possible. You see,
the system is indeed powerful, but not unbeatable. There are some
things it can't control.
Then, you
could witness the first signs of fear and embarrassment on pundits'
voices and faces, when they were monitoring the rapid rise of Bernie
against Hillary. And then, consider this: why they were constantly
monitoring Bernie's and Hillary's strength against Trump's, with such
an anxiety? They were doing this quite long before knowing the final
result of the Democratic primaries. The answer is simple: because
they wanted to see whether they should act seriously to put Bernie
out of the game by all means.
When they
saw with terror that Bernie was beating Trump by a far more
significant percentage than Hillary, they knew that they had to get
rid of him.
Now, it's
Melenchon's turn to alarm the establishment. The neoliberal
authoritarian regime sees with terror that the anti-socialism
narratives don't work anymore. Melenchon wins the French audience at
the debates and this is depicted on his rapid rise as well as his
crowded rallies, despite his 'radical Left' rhetoric.
The markets
have been compromised with the possibility of Marine Le Pen going to
the next round and even winning the election. Besides, she is not
someone who couldn't handle, exactly as it happened with Donald
Trump. Just remember what Trump was saying before the election and
look where he ended already: a totally devoted puppet of the US
neoliberal/neocon agenda.
Yet, the
markets can't imagine a possible radical Left leader in power. This
is what the capitalist elites truly afraid.
However,
there are no primaries and no time left for the elites to declare
full war against Melenchon. What will happen if he manage to go to
the second round of the election? What kind of dirty tricks and
propaganda could possibly get him out of the game? If he manage to
make the surprise, what kind of dirty war will be launched by the
establishment against him to make him compromise, as it happened with
Alexis Tsipras in Greece?
There is one
chance to see the start of a radical change in Europe away from the
nightmares of neoliberalism and the Far Right. It could come only if
the French people go and vote massively for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as
the Americans should have done with Bernie Sanders.
Good analysis. You don't seem to know what the Democratic party did to prevent Bernie from winning the two most populous Democratic states, California and New York. In Brooklyn alone (famous home of Bernie's best demographic) 133,000 Democratic voters were struck from the rolls so they couldn't vote in the primary. In Los Angeles, a dirty trick prevented uncounted thousands from getting primary ballots. This is why Bernie lost--his recently adopted party would rather lose than let him win.
ReplyDeleteI just know about the dirty war from DNC against Bernie which has been revealed through WikiLeaks. I didn't know the details you describe. Thank you for providing that information. Your contribution is really important.
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