Headline: Emmanuel Macron makes radical appeal for more powerful EU

Sub-headline: French leader soft-pedals on eurozone reform in speech brimming with proposals

https://www.ft.com/content/37c54ebc-a2ad-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2

Macron proclaims a Neo-Liberal New Deal? Jupertarian/Authoritarian politics as argued by the E.U.’s FDR? What of those tens of thousands of dissenting French voters, that  Anne-Sylvaine Chassany reported on, in the pages of this newspaper?

https://www.ft.com/content/c082bd48-a1d6-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2

Why would the utterly shopworn Marxist Mr Mélenchon, as argued by Ms. Chassany, attract this many malcontents, just four months after Macron’s election?

Mr. Macron’s list of proposals is quite impressive, yet this list completely avoids the imperative of a complete reform of the E.U.: from a Federation of Technocrats into a real and functionally effective democracy. In sum, the Common Market, that evolved into the E.U., was and remains a cartel with the trappings of democracy: Neo-Liberalism avant la lettre!

Should the reader look to ‘The Big Read’ , reportage by a very large committee? Jim Brunsden and Mehreen Khan in Brussels, and Stefan Wagstyl in Berlin, for more of the same ‘reform chatter‘? Additional reporting by Michael Stothard in Madrid, Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris and Claire Jones in Frankfurt (Dated September 25,2017) The pressing question, who stitched this together?

Headline: European leaders aim to seize the moment for reform

Sub-headline: But with Angela Merkel weakened despite her election victory, a new grand bargain for the eurozone will be more complicated

https://www.ft.com/content/00ad3640-9eea-11e7-9a86-4d5a475ba4c5

Given the pallid victory of Merkel, and Macron’s laundry list of less than earthshaking proposals – the regular reader of this newspaper can, and does, expect the latest permutations of E.U. apologetics. Or call it the evolution of the Party Line on the mythical ‘E.U. Reform’, that clings to the vision of Technocrat par excellence Jean Monnet: a  gussied up cartel.

Committed Observer