What's happening in France with strengthening of far-right nationalist authoritarian populism is very scary. Reportedly, though, Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old liberal with a moderate/centrist message has shot up and pulled ahead of Marine Le Pen and her horrors--in spite of never having held office and not being backed by any party.
The response among voters to his liberal message of inclusive social decency and responsible liberal fiscal policy is something to raise hope in troubled times, not least because it rejects the excesses and inflexibility of both France's leftists and the far right. If Fillon's party falls behind, hopefully a good share of their current followers are not wedded to his nationalist, bigoted messages and will split toward the center. When the article below was written in January, Macron was in third place behind Le Pen and Fillon.
From Foreign Policy: In a clever riff on the concept of sovereignty — which now has totemic significance for Europe’s nationalist right — Macron went on to argue that the euro will be saved only if Europe, and not its constituent members, acts like a truly sovereign body. ...
Macron is an unapologetic liberal. Not surprisingly, the policies he enacted as economy minister remain radioactive among many on the left. The so-called “loi Macron” of 2015 bundled together a number of modest labor reforms, in particular allowing stores to remain open on Sundays, that sparked waves of union demonstrations and a schism within the Socialist Party. But Macron not only had the support of one important union, the CFDT, but also powerful old-guard Socialists ...
Most telling, though, was the enthusiastic legion of students sitting in the auditorium’s mezzanine. Macron made a point of directly addressing them during his talk, just as the students made a point of repeatedly cheering both his economic and political stances. What we might call Macronomie 201 has a swelling enrollment in France as well. In contrast to the staid and sparse crowds at the rallies of his opponents, Macron’s campaign events consistently draw thousands of loud and enthusiastic supporters. ...
The obstacles faced by Macron, running without the support of a political party, remain imposing. But as the unflappable and understated political commentator Eric Dupin recently wrote, “something is happening” with Macron’s candidacy. There is, he wrote, a kind of “political crystallization” taking place around his candidacy, spurred by Macron’s promise to confront ideological shibboleths of the French left no less than the right. ...
As elections and referendums in 2016 remind us, stranger things have happened. But unlike the experiences in Great Britain and the United States, the stranger thing in France would be an immeasurably more hopeful thing, perhaps for all of Europe.
Austrians said no to the demons whispering in their ears.
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