The lessons of the second round
Chantal Bourry, Jonzac (Charente-Maritime)
When we compare the results of the second round of the last two presidential elections, we see that Emmanuel Macron lost 2.1 million votes, while Marine Le Pen won 2.6 million. Obviously, the power of seduction of our president has tarnished. He has a five-year term left to convince us. (“Emmanuel Macron, the president of the last chance”, L’Express of April 26.)
A candidate under influence
Abraham Alain, Abbeville (Somme)
The National Rally has multiplied the changes of footing, whether on the euro, the exit from Europe, retirement at 60, secularism, the war in Ukraine, relations with Russia, the energy transition.. It was still a lot to entrust the presidency of the Republic to Marine Le Pen. So I can only share your analysis. (“The dangerous Russian liaisons of Marine Le Pen”, L’Express of April 21.)
Economic populism
Bernard Portal, Saint-Doulchard (Cher)
Thank you for publishing André Cartapanis’ interview with Béatrice Mathieu on “Economic populism”. There is the implacable demonstration of the inevitable outcome in the failure, today as yesterday, of this political track, however desired by 40% of the voters in the first round of the presidential election. The clarity of the analysis as well as the easy understanding of the demonstration are to be underlined for all those who do not have a thorough erudition in economic culture or language. This is a great way to educate citizens. (“Andre Cartapanis: ‘Economic populism has always led to failure'”, L’Express of April 21.)
medical deserts
Dominique Calmels, Millau (Aveyron)
Very interesting, these two articles by Stéphanie Benz which lead to this observation: French people die earlier because of the lack of general practitioners and specialists in certain territories… One solution: to oblige doctors to go to these territories, by putting a quota not to be exceeded in cities where there are too many of them in relation to the number of inhabitants. Is it normal to have to travel 80 or 100 kilometers to see a specialist or a general practitioner? Where is the equality of access to care? It no longer exists either in our hospitals in medium and small towns! (“27 million French people soon deprived of a doctor?”, L’Express of April 7.)
Grain Diplomacy
Jean-Michel Bénard, Châtillon (Hauts-de-Seine)
The attempted annexation of Ukraine is of course motivated by its economic interest, from agriculture to gas to ports on the Black Sea. Through this “grain diplomacy”, Russia has many advantages: the countries dependent on these grain exports are careful not to criticize it; some emerging countries are threatened with destabilization, through food riots and migrations, and the same goes for the western world, as a result. With us, some are already starting to store foodstuffs. Realpolitik is ruthless: Westerners need gas, emerging countries need cereals… (“Infographics: these countries (very) dependent on Ukraine and Russia in wheat”, on Lexpress.fr.)
European malaise
Patrick Her, Sauveterre-la-Lemance (Lot-et-Garonne)
Pro-European from the start, I nevertheless feel a deep unease and a feeling of shame in front of our cowardice, which “sanctions” without militarily intervening, while civilian populations are being massacred. When I read the words of Demosthenes related in your article on Greek Antiquity, “to brandish the law in order to undertake nothing is no longer to observe the spirit of the law, it is to be cowardly”, I am thinking of the agreements of Munich in 1938 and I tell myself that history, alas, is repeating itself. (“War in Ukraine: these two lessons from Greek antiquity”, L’Express of March 31.)
Presidential think-tank, end clap
They were our ten wise men during the election campaign. A big thank you to them for their evaluation work carried out for L’Express: Patrick Artus, economic advisor to Natixis; Sylvie Bermann, diplomat, former French ambassador; Denys de Béchillon, constitutionalist, public law associate; Gilles Clavreul, co-founder of Printemps Républicain; Karine Lacombe, head of the hospital service for infectious diseases at Saint-Antoine hospital; Enrico Letta, former President of the Italian Council, Secretary General of the Democratic Party; Cecile Maisonneuve, senior fellow the Institut Montaigne; Iannis Roder, Director of the Education Observatory of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation; Guillaume Rozier, founder of CovidTracker and Vite Ma Dose and Abnousse Shalmani, writer.