In declaring the ‘Macon Moment’ Anne-Sylvaine Chassany resorts to election hagiography to the second power:
‘A year ago, France had all the symptoms of a severe allergy to economic reform: social unrest, rising populism, a rebellious parliament, an unpopular president. Yet, after a long and eventful electoral cycle, it has handed over its executive and legislative powers to a pro-business leader intent on overhauling the economy.’
The political facts that escape the political myopia of her Macron Triumphalism are the glaring fact of a 57% abstention rate, the opposition being 227 to La République en Marche’s 350 , the fact that both Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon have seats in that legislative body.
Ms. Chassany declares the:
The Macron earthquake has swept the mainstream parties aside and installed probably the closest that France can get to a “grand coalition” of centrist forces in their place.
That ‘earthquake’ constitutes a mild tremor, and those ‘centrist forces’ are about the potential promise Neo-Liberalism à la française, based on these principles:
But the pièce de résistance of Ms. Chassany’s Macron Press Release, is this from Capitalist par excellence Gilles Moec, a London-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch:
“There will be union protests in September, there are still some unconvinced people out there, but Emmanuel Macron has been explicit enough about what he intends to do,” says Gilles Moec, a London-based economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “He can’t backtrack now.”
“He has momentum at the beginning of his mandate, as shown by this very strong majority in parliament,” Mr Moec added. “A big chunk of the French electorate are ready to give him the keys of the country — even some of those who didn’t vote for him in May.”
Even the stogy Oxbridgers at The Economist hedge their Macron Triumphalism with their headline and this quote from Jean-Luc Mélenchon:
Headline: Emmanuel Macron wins a majority, though not a record one
Sub-headline:Despite low turnout, France’s president will have more than enough seats to carry out his agenda
‘Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left Unsubmissive France party, who won a seat in Marseille, declared that the low turnout rate constituted a “civic general strike” against the new president.’
This reader awaits the Actual Earthquake that will result in Macron’s introduction of his legislative program. Where will his proclaimed Jupiterian style lead?
- : a person that has a well-developed Mount of Jupiter and a long and large finger of Jupiter and that is usually held by palmists to be characterized by ambition, leadership, and a religious nature with all his vanity the Jupiterian is warm-hearted — W. G. Benham †1944
Or his reputation for being an unapologetic political/personal opportunist, revealed in the pages of this newspaper by Simon Kuper?
Old Socialist
https://www.ft.com/content/391d17de-5273-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
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