Republican fronts across Europe!
On Sunday July 7 French democratic forces sent a message to the rest of the continent by coming out in record numbers to see off the populist Far Right - a model for the old continent.
“France deserves better than an alternative between neoliberalism and fascism.” That was the binary reaction from the cerebral Socialist Party (PS) general secretary, Olivier Faure, to the surprise result of the second round of voting in France's snap legislative elections. It was never as clear-cut a choice as that and a day later the political prospects are very uncertain.
What is clear is that, faced with the surge of the Far Right Rassemblement National (RN) (National Rally) led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the hastily-assembled 'Front républicain' - PS, Greens, Communists, France Unbowed (LFI) under Far Left Jean-Luc Mélenchon - swiftly concluded electoral pacts with President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance Ensemble that worked.
The RN, once thought by over-heated anglophone commentators to be heading for an absolute majority (289+ seats in the 577-strong National Assembly), was beaten into third place after leading the first round of voting as candidates stood aside to let the non-RN one with the better chance win. A bit like Labour/Lib Dem but much more systematic and explicit.
Strikingly, the appeal to "stop the fascists" also worked, with turnout around 60% - a record high for more than 40 years but around the historic low seen in the UK general election three days earlier. The mobilisation urged upon the French electorate nevertheless did its job. Its scale indicates that millions of 'citoyens' are ready to defend democratic and other human rights, in a nutshell: "republican values."
Of course, the talk now is of instability and even paralysis as a damaged President – who cannot call fresh elections for a whole year – seeks a prime minister who can form a broad-based government capable of commanding a working majority. It obviously won’t be the RN’s Bardella as he lamented bitterly on Sunday night. Nor is it likely to be Mélenchon who rushed to the mikes on Sunday to lay down, with typical self-aggrandising arrogance, that the NPF aka himself would be premier enacting the LFI manifesto without compromise -a claim that has seriously pissed off not only partners in the NPF but members of his own LFI party. LFI only won 78 seats on its own so there are 499 others…
If Macron, who has asked the outgoing prime minister, the youthful Gabriel Attal, to stay in place for the time being, certainly while the Olympics are on in Paris, can eat some humble pie – admittedly a big ask – then one can imagine a social democrat/centrist administration being formed under, say, a PS prime minister that could reach out to both left and right to create a majorité parlementaire. This would be a much better option than a minority centre-right government as discussed by some commentators.
Europe en marche
This, too, would send signals to the rest of Europe, including Germany where crucial regional (Länder) elections are being held as early as September 1 in Saxony and Thuringia – strongholds of the Far Right AfD. There is an equally pressing need in Germany as in France for democratic, tolerant, liberal, anti-racist forces to work together electorally to see off the extreme Right.
The French elections – coming on the heels of the British ones and those in Spain and Poland – strongly suggest that the Left cannot be written off in Europe despite the overwhelming (and often blinkered) media attention given to the Far Right. Again, democratic forces don’t make it easy when they refuse to stand up against the likes of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, on manoeuvres setting up a new Far Right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. He may equally have over-reached himself by brazenly doing so while cavorting around in China and elsewhere shamelessly exploiting his country’s six-month Council (of Ministers) presidency.
Whatever else happens, the political landscape in Europe is changing, with more and more parties emerging and competing for voters’ support. The big tent parties like the German Volksparteien CDU and SPD are continuing to shrink, a process going on since at least when I was a correspondent in Bonn/Berlin over 30 years ago – whatever impression the skewed first-past-the-post process in the UK produced last week.
Yes, this might make for more uncertainty but it only takes courage and effort on the part of anti-fascist, anti-populist forces to come together, make a stand and take on the Far Right. Repeating the divisions that helped the Nazi takeover almost a century ago must become unimaginable and resisted by ‘republican fronts’ across Europe.
Featured image of the totemic Place de la République in Paris by Gerrda ASrendt via Wikimedia Commons
a much better option than a minority centre-right government as discussed by some commentators.
Europe en marche
This, too, would send signals to the rest of Europe, including Germany where crucial regional (Länder) elections are being held as early as September 1 in Saxony and Thuringia – strongholds of the Far Right AfD. There is an equally pressing need in Germany as in France for democratic, tolerant, liberal, anti-racist forces to work together electorally to see off the extreme Right.
The French elections – coming on the heels of the British ones and those in Spain and Poland – strongly suggest that the Left cannot be written off in Europe despite the overwhelming (and often blinkered) media attention given to the Far Right. Again, democratic forces don’t make it easy when they refuse to stand up against the likes of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, on manoeuvres setting up a new Far Right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament. He may equally have over-reached himself by brazenly doing so while cavorting around in China and elsewhere shamelessly exploiting his country’s six-month Council (of Ministers) presidency.
Whatever else happens, the political landscape in Europe is changing, with more and more parties emerging and competing for voters’ support. The big tent parties like the German Volksparteien CDU and SPD are continuing to shrink, a process going on since at least when I was a correspondent in Bonn/Berlin over 30 years ago – whatever impression the skewed first-past-the-post process in the UK produced last week.
Yes, this might make for more uncertainty but it only takes courage and effort on the part of anti-fascist, anti-populist forces to come together, make a stand and take on the Far Right. Repeating the divisions that helped the Nazi takeover almost a century ago must become unimaginable and resisted by ‘republican fronts’ across Europe.
Featured image of the totemic Place de la République in Paris by Gerda Arendt via Wikimedia Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
The first few pars are repeated at the end - but really interesting, informative piece as always