Macron beat Le Pen in the battle of the Con Artists

Emmanuel Macron

Yesterday (May 7th 2017), centrist conservative Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France in a run-off against far-right conservative candidate Marine Le Pen.  

The defeat of Le Pen was welcomed by all who possess any concept of humanity or morality.  (The owner of UKIP,  Arron Banks, is very disappointed with the result: “At least the Germans saved the fuel and the bullets this time around” he exclaimed, a reference to the welcome for Macron from the EU and Angela Merkel.  Similar sentiments were expressed by others in UKIP including Nigel Farage and Michael Heaver.)  

Le Pen Con

Le Pen is, of course, conning the French people.  Like Donald Trump in the USA, she identifies false enemies to distract people from their real enemy: Destructive capitalism.  She encourages extreme nationalism, racial and religious prejudice and promotes division and then uses them as tools to vacuum up electoral support by claiming to be anti-establishment.  This has always been the far-right con and a con-trick that is used by all conservative politicians.  Every right-wing politician, whether extreme or not, exists to be the gimp of financial gangsters.  

Macron Con

Macron is a professional politician entrenched deeply within the political establishment in France.  A servant of international bankers and a former government minister of economy and finance, he invented a ‘new’ political party – En Marche! – as a means to con the French people into thinking that he is an alternative to established political parties; (in France, like most Western democracies, traditional choices at elections are being rejected.)  There is a good account of the creation of Macron as a “politician” here: The invention of Macron.  Macron’s year-long campaign focussed on the false newness of him and his party and was punctuated repeatedly by tired old (dishonest) clichés about hope and vision.  In the run-off against Le Pen his task was easy: All he had to do was state that he disagreed with her.  Macron’s stated politics appear close to those of, say, conservative liberal Nick Clegg and, like Clegg, he will do what he is told by his corporate masters.

The turn-out for the second (run-off) stage of the presidential election was low reflecting the accurate cynicism of many French people.  The relief at the failure of Le Pen is palpable and understandable.  Equally, it is an indictment of the hollowness of modern Western democratic choices that the alternative to her filth is a robotic, platitude-spouting conman who will offer nothing.

In Britain, the gloop of centrist suffocation, including Progress Labour MPs among others, are weeping for a British Macron to emerge to lead a false challenge to Theresa May as she slips further right like a catatonic slug on a child’s slide.  A British Macron would not be a saviour; he or she would be another rusty nail in the coffin of genuine representative politics.

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