Niel Wijethilaka is General Secretary of the Corporations, Co-operative and Mercantile Union (CCMU) and political bureau member of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP, Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International).
The first round of the local elections took place against a backdrop of widespread creeping fascism in France and comes after a brutal offensive by the far right, during which the traditional ‘Republican’ right has decisively broken from much of its historical framework and values.