Against Macron and the far right, unity across the social and political left

Barely more than half of the electorate voted in these European elections, and yet tonight’s results sound like a wake-up call. As has been predicted for weeks, the far right has won a huge number of votes across Europe and will be able to bring dozens of elected representatives, probably more than a hundred, into the European assembly. The far right is on the doorstep of power in several European countries, where it is not already participating in government coalitions.

In France, the Rassemblement National increased its score by nearly 10% compared with the previous elections, putting the far right as a whole at nearly 40% with racist, authoritarian and homophobic lists. This is not a thunderclap in a serene sky; on the contrary, it is the result of several decades of racist and anti-social policies pursued by various governments on both the right and the left.

It is also the result of the Macron government’s desire to legitimise the Rassemblement National, its ‘best enemy’, while implementing part of its policy, to turn every election into a duel between the presidential camp and the RN. But this blackmail, ‘vote for us or let the far right win’, is working less and less because the rejection of Macron’s authoritarian, anti-social and racist government is increasingly massive.

After the defeat in the 2022 legislative elections, President Macron’s camp is once again suffering the rejection of the electorate and is only managing to muster a paltry 15% of the vote, despite the fact that all the resources of the state were put at the service of the Macronist list and that the President and Prime Minister led the campaign.

The media’s ‘return to grace’ of the social-liberal left of co-management and hollandism is not a good sign. This neo-liberal left, with its labour laws, nationality disqualification and compromise with Western imperialism, has led us into the wall, further demoralising and weakening our social camp and propelling Macron to power.

The votes for Manon Aubry’s and Rima Hassan’s list [France Insoumise] were driven by popular and working-class anger at Macron’s authoritarian ultraliberalism, but also at his complicity in the genocide taking place in Gaza at this very moment.

The challenge for our social camp is to regain the upper hand in a context of economic, social, democratic and ecological crises that are combining and amplifying. All the forces on the left that reject this socially and ecologically destructive system must come together to resist the far right and the Macronism that feeds it at the ballot box and in the streets.

Sunday 9 June 2024

Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.