More and more people in France, Belgium, and Germany aren’t buying what the globalists are selling
Or rather, they’re not buying what the globalists are trying to force down their throats.
The result of EU elections in France was that Marine Le Pen’s party eclipsed that of Emmanuel Macron, and the latter has called for a snap General Assembly election:
French President Emmanuel Macron is going for broke, calling for a snap election that is likely to deliver big wins for the far right. But it may also knock Le Pen off her stride as she eyes the bigger prize: the presidency in 2027.
That is the maverick gamble that the French president is making after the National Rally’s spectacular win on Sunday evening. The far-right, anti-migration party is projected to win the European election in France with 32 percent of the vote — more than twice that of the president’s centrist liberal party.
These are the designations you read all the time – Le Pen and her party are not just right but far right – I assume for wanting to limit the flow of “migrants”? And Macron is a centrist – I suppose because he’s not a socialist? European politics is quite different from our own – and I’m certainly not an expert on the former. But the gist of what’s going on with Macron seems to be that he believes he’ll do better in the General Assembly election because the rules are different:
As Brussels is viewed as a very distant concern, the European election is usually where the protest vote is expressed most strongly. In contrast, the legislative election is a two-round vote — on June 30 and July 7 — that historically favors more traditional parties, as voters from the left and the right usually rally round the more mainstream candidate to beat the far right.
That’s what happened in 2022. Macron is betting it will happen again. And this is how he characterizes the forces on the right:
The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation and for Europe.
For the left in the US and in Europe, the word “nationalist” is a pejorative. And “demagogues” are the nasty ones on the other side – the right – as well. The root of the word is of interest, however:
When the ancient Greeks used demagogós (from dêmos, meaning “people,” and -agogos, “leading”) they meant someone good — a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the interests of the common people.
Later, it became used with the implication that such a person appealed to the common folk in emotional way: “a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.” In other words, a populist spreading disinformation. Not like those lofty, truth-telling, intellectual, leftist globalists who are above such sordid interests as nationalism.
In Belgium, the Prime Minister has resigned. And in other countries:
Today is the start of a new era in Europe:
?? France: National Rally wins a historic 31.5% of the EU vote, forcing Macron to dissolve the national parliament.
?? Germany: AfD surges to become the 2nd largest party, liberal parties tank.
?? Belgium: Prime Minister resigns…
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 9, 2024
You could say that Trump was ahead of his times. But I don’t know whether this trend can be sustained. One thing I do know is that I trust the safety and security of the election process in these European countries more than I trust it here.
Britain seems to be an outlier – expected to move further to the left in its July election. But – as I recently heard Melanie Phillips say – the Conservative Party in Britain has proven itself to be quite globalist as well these days.
The Greens were the biggest losers. “Climate Change” was 5th in the voters’ concerns.
In Europe if one is not a socialist or a lefty, they are characterized as far right or fascist.
In the USA, leftist / liberal politicians are identified as the democratic senator from …. or the democratic house member from …….
If the politician is a conservative, he is identified as the conservative senator from ………. or the conservative house member from ……..
Some years ago when the now deceased Peter Jennings (ABC new anchor) was covering a State of the Union address, he would identify EVERY single republican politician entering the House chamber as the conservative or very conservative Senator from …….; and every single democrat, no matter how liberal, as the Democratic senator from ……
Marine LePen’s party is, AFAIK, supportive of the French welfare state. It seems to me that the only thing that makes National Rally “far right” is that it believes France ought to be run for the benefit of the French. A shocking point of view, I know.
And apparently the leftist environmental parties did not do well either. It’s almost as if people get mad when your entire message is “we’re going to take things away from you, we’re going to tell you where you can and can’t go, we’re going to tell you what’s permitted within the four walls of your house, and you should really consider not having kids. But if you do have kids, you’re a bad person for wanting your children to look like the rest of your family instead of complete strangers from thousands of miles away.
Macron is one stale croissant!
The reason why Britain might move further left is because the Tories are imploding right now. PM Sunak is basically making one unforced error after another. So the Tories are about to experience a wipe-out completely of their own making, and Labour will likely clean up massively.
The new Conservative Party stands to gain from the complete collapse of the Tories. But it’s unlikely that they’ll race to the lead in just one election. The only hope is that the combined Tory and Conservative Parties will get enough of the vote to block a Labour majority.
The one constant is immigration. Trump got into office on the issue, didn’t sufficiently address it and was voted out. Boris Johnson and the other British “conservative” MPs made the same error.
People want borders and they want rules and restrictions on who crosses them and they want immigrants to their country to pay their own way, pay taxes and actively work to become citizens. Citizens who appreciate and support their host country.
Nothing lasts forever, Nothing!!!
Junior,
Maybe Sunak’s errors aren’t really errors, and maybe they’re not “unforced.”
well trump moved heaven and earth, the tories showed their true faith in how they treated suella braverman, and other figures focused on the immigration question, patel’s tenure was much like haley would be, in a similar position,
Sgt. Friday –
One of Sunak’s most recent errors was bailing on the D-Day Commemoration by leaving early for a political event back home. This did not play well, for obvious reasons. It seems like something is wrong with his political instincts.
The electorate during the last national parliamentary elections in France (2022) split three ways – one-third leftist, one-third miscellandeous establishmentarian, one-third nationalist. Historically, the nationalist strand has done better in European elections than in the much more consequential national elections. Not so anymore. The most recent seat projections have the nationalist parties winning about 45% of the seats and 6x as many as the establishmentarian right.
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One curio about French politics is that while the conventional right has been displaced in importance by the nationalists in national elections and the Socialist Party has in such elections been reduced to a satellite of the Melenchon crew, in regional and local elections both the Socialists and LR are quite competitive and do better than the National Rally or Macron’s outfit (with Melenchon’s people not competing). The Socialists and LR took 60% of the ballots in regional elections in 2021 and fewer than 20% in national legislative elections the following year. No clue what’s up with that.
Yes, European politics are different from American, but they’ve also been strangely prophetic. One of the surprises on the fictional Danish political series Borgen was that the “far right” party that everyone was scared of or horrified by didn’t want to cut budgets and entitlements. Another was that the main character’s “moderate” party was actually further left than the Socialists (or Social Democrats) on the big issues of the day. The Socialists still had working class constitutents to please, while Birgitte Nyborg’s moderates were willing to pursue every woke idea that came along.
_________
Traditionally, Europeans use the EU elections to vent their grievances because the EU Parliament doesn’t matter as much as their national legislature. Britain’s Brexit Party, for example, was able to get more than a few seats in Britain’s last Europarliament election, but I don’t believe they won any seats in the national elections.
As for French regional elections, it looks like the western areas that favored Macron in the national elections were contented with their Socialist regional officials. They wanted the public services, but didn’t want the taxes and regulations that went with them. The eastern areas that supported LePen in the national elections were happy with their conservative (Les Républicains) councillors. Those voters sought change at the national level, but wanted steadier, more experienced leadership at the local level. They could count on the local officials to do their bidding in the provinces, but couldn’t trust the party higher-ups to support them on immigration. Voters like to send messages in national (and international elections). Closer to home they are more swayed by other factors, like competence and familiarity.
_________
Trump did sufficiently address immigration. He didn’t finish the wall, but nobody (except maybe Ann Coulter) voted against him because of that. Instead America voted for somebody who wanted to “surge to the border” all those “seeking asylum.” If Biden gets voted out, that would indicate that immigration is indeed the main issue.
_________
The Tories are tired. They’ve been in power too long. As with human beings, parties carry all kinds of viruses and diseases inside that accumulate and grow and eventually take over with the aging process. Since the Sixties, British governments that have been in power too long sink into sleaze and incompetence. Even if the scandals are minor, the bored press makes them major.
Sunak didn’t become prime minister by leading his party to victory in national elections. He’s never had to appeal to a nationwide electorate. He has all the faults and cluelessness of an insider politician, somebody who knows a lot about life at the top and little about life and perceptions down below, sort of a Hindu Mitt Romney.
The Tories are tired. They’ve been in power too long.
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They accomplished not one thing of significance in 14 years in office, bar Brexit. They couldn’t even get their act together to repeal the abusive legislation passed by the Labour majorities which the permanent government uses to harass dissenters. A critical mass of their MPs wanted to sabotage Brexit. Then, when Boris Johnson managed to get that done, they allowed the permanent government to allow a massive influx of foreigners to punish the public for voting for it. They’re not ‘tired’. They’re careerist grifters. Glitch McConnell on steroids.
“The elect, the elected . . . they come here bright as dimes,
and die dishevelled and soft.” – Robert Lowell
Politics is about appearances. Leaders get elected because they appear to be fresh and new and dynamic. A few years down the road they look stale and sclerotic. It almost doesn’t matter if they actually achieve anything. Eventually the magic wears off and the public is tired of them.
yes since cameron they have been dissapointing, they followed the skydragon in partnership with the liberal democrats and then apart with may, and johnson, (who andrew marr, noted would be a transitional pm, but didn’t see he bringing about brexit,) and the others are footnotes like alec douglas home (who?)
It almost doesn’t matter if they actually achieve anything.
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Yes, it matters.
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As for the British Conservative Party, every piece of legislation which is an affront to principles of free speech should have been repealed, nearly every piece which is an affront to freedom of contract and freedom of association should have been repealed, the target number for the stock of temporary residents permitted in Britain at any one time should have been reduced to about 300,000, the annual issuance of settler’s visas should have been reduced to 85,000, passage of a written and oral examination in the English language should have been made a condition for the receipt of permission to settle for all persons over the age of 14, internment of all persons with pending asylum claims should have been the order of the day, and the grant of asylum should have been made contingent on giving a satisfactory explanation of why you were applying in Britain and not in a place proximate to your home country. They had an ample majority after Theresa May shuffled off. None of this was done.