I was talking about a depressed election campaign, election night was up to par: gloomy and muted. Emmanuel Macron’s voters did not dare to show their victory, and those against Marine Le Pen were so angry with the elected president that they already wanted to dethrone him. The debate only accentuated the lack of confrontation of ideas, despite two diametrically opposed visions. The between-two-rounds was a battle of labels.
“Is Marine Le Pen far-right or not?” was the great anxiety-provoking and counter-productive question of this electoral campaign. Accepting that the RN is henceforth a populist party on the left for the economy and social issues, on the right for security and immigration does not detract from its desire to navigate with the European Union up to Frexit, to get closer of Viktor Orban the illiberal or to draw a common future with Vladimir Putin. Result: the in-between rounds boiled down to exaggerating the danger of the far right (the arrival of the RN will kill the poor version Gérald Darmanin, or will kill all the LGBT version Alice Coffin, or Marine Le Pen will have access to the nuclear codes for The Obs), and perhaps the hangover from the second round is due to these resounding apocalyptic announcements which did not however prevent more than 14 million of our fellow citizens from voting for Marine Le Pen. Everyone stayed in their comfortable corridor of influence, no one listens to the adversary anymore, the panicked screams only serving to flatter those who are already convinced.
Ashy taste in the back of the throat
The contempt for the voters of the RN – these impediments to voting in circles – who would confiscate the democratic choice by precisely exercising their rights; the anthology of “ni-ni” – a French specialty since the Occupation – carried by privileged political science students who, obviously, have not followed their courses, because the outcome of the election will indeed be the ‘either ; the spiteful and dangerous outings of Mélenchon who, after spitting on the undemocratic presidential monarchy, changed course by explaining that ultimately the president counts for butter and that only the Prime Minister matters; the threat of a Clémentine Autain in loss of neurons who explains learnedly that if the legislative elections do not go as planned (the total victory of LFI), the street will have to take over; a public radio which wonders if it is necessary to restrict the right to vote of the old because these bastards vote badly by voting Macron; the media, in their too great majority, which take up this quasi-slogan of Mélenchon, always: “Emmanuel Macron is the most badly elected president of the Fifth Republic”, which is a fake news for those who take the trouble to verify the information in three clicks, thereby proving their crass complacency towards the Poutino-compatible candidate. All this irrationality, these effects of sleeves, these blind partisan analyses, all this indigestible molasses could only leave a taste of ashes in the back of the throat.
Ambitious catastrophists
The post-election period already heralds the legislative campaign, and politicians are once again becoming politicos worried about their jobs, their salaries, their pensions and are ready for all the betrayals and compromises to be part of it. Eric Zemmour, between two insults, extends a hand dipped in cyanide to Marine Le Pen. The LRs, stunned, are still wondering where the north is, and cling to their territorial networks to hope for a future, while Emmanuel Macron’s program matches their historical economic and political melody. The PS, this upside-down corpse, will beg among the totalitarian sore babies of LFI by throwing what little dignity it had left over History. Loss of landmarks, loss of meaning, loss of politics.
Napoleon Bonaparte thought that “men are better governed by their vices than by their virtues”. Resentment and frustration set in, and far too many politicians ride the wave of unease, add fuel to the fire of anger, use approximations to present France as an unequal country, where injustice and misery settled at home. Indecency competes with misery, while France is one of the most redistributive countries in the world – but where social mobility is at a standstill. Let’s not let the ambitious catastrophists drag us into misfortune for all.