Macron Complex Triumph

Macron Complex Triumph

By: Erreh Svaia

Goat Dispersion

“How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? “

Charles de Gaulle

In a certain way France's recently elected president Emmanuel Macron is like a “Donald Trump” (in certain points, not generally), coming out of nowhere from outside the traditional system and taking the elections by storm, as he apparently managed to brilliantly seize a political vacuum in the French politics thanks to a very intelligent reading of France´s political parties landscape, which prompted Macron to be able to distance himself quickly from the troubled Francois Hollande socialist government just at the moment when he saw traditional left wing getting weaker and weaker (Hollande even declined to look for reelection), Macron also managed to watch how the traditional right wing was also falling apart in the middle of corruption accusations thrown at Francois Fillon, Les Republicans candidate, so without totally compromising himself with the left or the right and staying away from an apparently corrupted system, Macron was also able to steal the spotlight from France´s “traditional” outsider, the far right, as Marine Le Pen wasn’t able to look “outsider” enough and Macron managed to make her look like another traditional politician, Le Pen performance is a definite warning sign that something is going wrong, as her nationalist and xenophobic party keeps growing up on each election, but this time, just like in the case of the Netherlands, it seems that the media made her look as an even greater threat than the one she really was, as Macron was able to defeat her on a brutal debate almost a week ago and defeat her again on the second round with a vote percentage of 66.06% against Le Pen´s 33.93%.

Macron´s Trump comparison might end up there, as Macron, an ex-socialist, liberal, 39 years old philosophy student and backer was able to catch French people disgust towards traditional politics, but also Macron was able to read that these elections were not definitely not about the right wing versus the left wing, but about open and close societies, as major the Euro Zone future was at stake on two fronts, Maine Le Pen´s National Front and Jean Luc Mélenchon´s France Unsub missive, who were able to catch a big part of the vote, as both parties opposed the staying of France in the European Union, that was perhaps Macron´s biggest success, as he became the candidate of open societies, the candidate of liberalism, the candidate of a united Europe transcending left and right and adding them to his campaign, even putting someone like Mélenchon in an uncomfortable place, as his negative to back up Macron on the second round made evident Mélenchon affinity for the authoritarian fascist nature of the National Front, as extremes tend to get together, Mélenchon wasn’t able to make any farther advance but decided to remain “neutral” thus reject Macron´s crusade against Le Pen´s wild nationalist policies.

Let´s say that the easy part is over for Macron, now comes the difficult part, to lead a divided country, one deceived by socialism and one that is not entirely convinced by its stay on the European Union, a complex situation in which things are being done in a different way and what is expected are different results, otherwise momentum could start to grow exponentially for Le Pen´s Party, which will go into a complete transformation in order to become Macron´s main opposition, not only with Marine on the front, but also with a renewed (and more marketable) version of her, her niece Marion Maréchal Le Pen, who could become the perfect vehicle for a new transformation within the NF, just as successful as Marine was after taking the leadership of the party from her father Jean Marie Le Pen, France´s government is still seen as an obsolete artifact that demands quick change, and it’s going to be another interesting history lesson to watch if Macron is able to give that very much needed reform to the system, if he is going to be able to use his political capital to his advantage and to France benefit, or if he will simply delay and open the door to the next attempt by the National Front which could become unstoppable if Macron doesn’t delivers his promises, that´s the dangerous thing about these elections, the fact that Macron has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, to show us if there is life beyond the traditional party system or to show us the unfortunate route towards a darker vision for politics.