Matthew Lynn
The populist threat has been crushed. The “far-Right” has been blocked from forming a government, and a financial crisis has been averted. With the surprising results from the French elections last night showing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally dropping to third place in the new Parliament, it would be easy to assume that the country was getting back to normal. But hold on. The election massively strengthened the far-Left – and it is the Marxist extremists that pose the real threat to the survival of the single currency.
Compared to the UK’s election, France’s was certainly a shock. With the final votes tallied, Le Pen’s NR and its allies won only 143 seats in the new Parliament, President Macron’s Ensemble secured 168, and the New Popular Front won 182. Although the NR won 37 per cent of the votes, far more than any other party, tactical voting in a two-round system meant it was locked out of power. Here’s the problem, however. Blocking Le Pen also meant handing a huge increase in power to a New Popular Front dominated by Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed. And ironically, it is even more extreme than the NR.
In reality, the Popular Front’s manifesto makes Jeremy Corbyn look like a moderate. It promised 150 billion euros in extra public spending, increasing public sector salaries by 10 per cent immediately, making transport free, and lowering the retirement age back to 62, with longer term plans to hire more teachers and healthcare workers and invest more in green energy. It would pay for all of that with higher corporate taxes, with a wealth tax, and by borrowing more money.
No comments:
Post a Comment