This has all the appeal of thick slice of Miss Havisham’s wedding cake! Macron did not ‘He proved it by winning the presidency convincingly in 2017.’ This is the Financial Times Party Line, endlessly repeated as ‘political truth’! According to CNN the ‘white’ and ‘spoiled ballots’ amounted to 33.4 % of the votes cast! 

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/08/europe/french-voters-spoiled-ballots-abstained/index.html 

‘Presenting himself as the best-placed politician to defeat the far-right has been a core part of Macron’s political strategy from the outset. He proved it by winning the presidency convincingly in 2017. But after four turbulent years at the Elysée, and with French politics in a febrile state over perceived threats from lawlessness and Islamist terrorism, the menace from Le Pen is as strong as ever. Opinion polls consistently suggest she will win the first round of the presidential election in April next year and run Macron uncomfortably close in the second. They also suggest that Bertrand, a former conservative health and labour minister, would defeat her more easily than Macron.’

https://www.ft.com/content/2e1604a1-9d88-4159-943a-48fd039796be 

The “gilets jaunes” continue to demonstrate every Saturday: See twitter for the latest video of French Police abusing their authority. Of course un-reported in this Corporate Newspaper. The “gilets jaunes” plays their part in Mr. Hall’s melodrama: ‘…with French politics in a febrile state over perceived threats from lawlessness’… . The Financial Times’ writers view Macron as the beginning of the end of French Socialism: that has coddled the French People for too long. A strong dose of ‘Market Discipline’ is in order. The prescriptions of Neo -Liberalism never change! Look how well it worked in Russia, Poland and Hungary!

Note that the man who attacked Macron, from a crowd of people, slapped his face, an attack on the masculinity, of this clueless enarque. And also a measure of contempt for his long discarded ‘Jupertarian Politics’, the code language for Neo-Liberal Authoritarianism.

Mr. Hall continues his tedious political handicapping, as coda to his informative essay, if carefully and critically read. Call Mr. Hall’s essay Premature Political Prognostication? While reminding the reader that the political contest, looming in the future, might be a three way race between Macron, Le Pen and the ‘Center Right’ Xavier Bertrand.

Old Socialist