by Ramin Mazaheri and cross-posted with PressTV
France’s election season finally got interesting, but only marginally.
Even though his brutal repression of the Yellow Vests should disqualify him from being a public servant ever again, Emmanuel Macron was re-elected president, incredibly. However, he has finally been reprimanded at the voting booth – his parliamentary coalition just lost its absolute majority.
The Yellow Vests can claim wresting yet another concession. Unfortunately – like most of their concessions – it’s rather minor.
The Mainstream Media is in a tizzy over an allegedly “hung parliament”, but don’t they always do that when the working-poor class rebels against Western Liberalist diktats?
The man initially hailed as the “new leader of the free world” by Politico (how badly does that hold up four years later?), and who then obviously became a “liberal strongman”, now has to actually acknowledge the National Assembly’s existence after ruling by executive order for five years.
This is such a bad thing? The entire start of modern global politics, in 1789, was the move away from absolute monarchy via the demand for a parliament – a representative body which can, finally, exert some influence over the policy-making of the executive branch.
To the Western elite: yes, this is a very bad thing.
They don’t want absolute autocracy anymore, but they certainly don’t want the poor, working-poor and middle classes exerting any influence over policy-making. They are continually appalled at how the French masses – from the Yellow Vests, to the 2005 “No” vote on the European Constitution, to the election of anti-austerity candidates like Francois Hollande and Francois Mitterrand – keep rejecting the “bourgeois bloc’s” insistence that neoliberalism is the greatest thing since pockets.
The dominant analysis in France now is that it is divided into three blocs: the far-right of Le Pen, a left wing (represented by the NUPES “popular front”, which just over-promised and under-delivered) and a “center” of Macronistas. This is wrong. The best description of French divisions is between a bourgeois bloc (the 25% which supports Macron) and everyone else (the 75% which supported the Yellow Vests/the 70% which didn’t want Macron to have another absolute majority in parliament).
The bourgeois bloc is obviously full of pro-elite, pro-privilege, right-wing ideas – neo-imperialism, free market economics, perpetual austerity, a poor social safety net, regressive taxes on the average person but tax evasion for the rich and corporations, the idea that citizens should vote once every 4 or 5 years for elite politicians and then stop being involved in politics – but what it is actually presented as is “radical centrism”. Much like the idea of the “bourgeois bloc”, such terms are gaining popularity in recent years.
“Radical centrism” is the idea that mainstream Western thought is the only “right” way to view reality. The ideology of Liberalism is “centrist”, or so they allege, but they definitely make this claim with a virulence that is truly radical.
This started post-1991 with TINA – There Is No Alternative. The great unsaid to that popular phrase is that There Is No Alternative to Neoliberalism and Neo-imperialism. Radical centrism has become – to them – “the truth”. Criticise their policies – such as the false benevolence, and certainly the false success, of the pan-European project – and you are classified as “disinformation”. Affirm these policies and you’re a blue-checked “expert” and “independent”.
It’s all nonsense of course, but ever since 1789 created a bourgeois bloc they have always been out of touch with the average person’s experiences and beliefs.
This brings us back to the legislative vote: the Western MSM, owned by the bourgeois bloc in a West which eschews state media, is now worried that without an absolute majority Macron won’t be able to force through his “radical centrist” policies as easily as he did for the past five years.
The Western MSM is, of course, totally unconcerned about the fact that Macron forced through his policies only on top of the broken bones, lost eyes and blood of the Yellow Vests. They only worry about protesters in right-wing places like Hong Kong, or Ukraine, or the MKO, etc.
The intellectual state of France has now been established – are the MSM’s worries justified? Does the vote signify a huge change?
No, but not for the reasons expected by people who don’t closely follow French politics.
Firstly, ignore the usual French drama: Of course newspapers want to sell papers by inflaming the results. The far-right’s Marine Le Pen wants to act like 15% is a parliamentary majority, leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon wants to believe that 25% of seats earns him the prime minister post, and the mainstream conservative Republicans are talking about “still being an opposition party” but these are all lies, exaggerations and self-delusions.
The biggest delusion outside of France since 2017 is that Macron was ever a “centrist”. His subsequent legalisation of Islamophobia and the state of emergency, his far-right economic policies and his authoritarian style all disproved that indisputably.
Macron was always a mainstream conservative, just with a new logo and of his generation. Somehow this eluded many commentators, and I attribute this – among the misled older commentators – to a generation gap.
Macron’s generation was raised to be entirely pro-Europhile, and also to reject xenophobia. Some in the mainstream conservative party are pro-globalisation and some aren’t so much, and some in the mainstream conservative party are Islamophobic and some aren’t so much, but those in les Républicains haven’t joined the National Front (now the National Rally) for a reason, and that reason is: these are not their main issues.
So we should add together the seats of Macron’s coalition and those of the mainstream conservatives – and we get an absolute majority of 53%. Thus, on all issues involving far-right economics, neoliberalism and the pan-European project Macron will proceed without parliamentary difficulty.
People are acting like Les Républicains haven’t been going along with pan-European project diktats since Nicolas Sarkozy? It’s crazy. He’s the one who engineered the passage of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, which was rejected in that 2005 vote mentioned above, and which put the installation of the European Union in the hands of national parliaments (run by the bourgeois bloc) and not in the hands of voters.
Macron’s coalition won enough seats to avoid a crisis. He’ll be able to win over just 2/3rds of Republicans (or 44 seats) for a majority on anything of economic and political importance to conservatives (and to pan-Euroepans).
However, one must realise that Macron will also win over many in the Socialist Party and the Green Party, as well! They are plenty of them who are totally on board with neoliberalism and the pan-European project. The NUPES left-green alliance is already fracturing.
Allow me a short victory lap: in already-published chapters of my new book (France’s Yellow Vests: Western Repression of the West’s Best Values – out July 1) I predicted the formation of AND the failure of the NUPES “popular front”. I understand Western fake-leftism – what can I say? This electoral alliance was always just that – to win votes – and it’s already breaking apart. Many in NUPES only put away their Europhilia to keep their seat, after all.
This certainly cannot be argued with, as well: There simply has not been a huge influx of parliamentarians who are anti-EU, anti-Liberalist, anti-austerity and anti-bourgeois bloc, and certainly not any majority. It will be business as usual in Western Liberal Democracy.
However, all of these facts are entirely moot!
You haven’t wasted your time, however, but you do need to please read Part 2 of this column, out soon.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. His new book is ‘France’s Yellow Vests: Western Repression of the West’s Best Values’. He is also the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’, which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.
Historically, not only in France, the so called socialists and / or socialdemocrats managed to pass neoliberal reforms which even the most conservatives would not have dared to propose.
It is clear that Macron may count with many more votes in parliament, than his own, to pass on neliberal forced reforms. That is a consequence of wide spread corruption in all political parties.
But wait few months and we will see the final combined consequences of the COVID lockdowns, backfiring Russia sanctions and “green” unsustainable plans.
What will Macron do in a France of two digit inflation, much higher energy costs and supply chain disruptions?
If this is not enough, what will Macron do when Russia enforces a security framework in Europe, making the American controlled NATO irrelevant.
We are in revolutionary times.
Yes, revolutionary times, but with weak people that don’t do the revolution, prefer to stay at home watching USA propaganda on Netflix, and only get out to give money to NeoLiberal-Uber on their way to change-nothing-manifestations of Identity Politics, created by NeoLib and assimilated by stupid “Left”-wingers just to make sure Thatcher’s dream became true: no longer a society with union, just individuals – and now separated from each other in an even easier way with tele-work/home-office and Zoom meetings and all those social-media with their bubble-creating-algorythms and servers in USA under Patriot Act…
It’s a Capitalist animal farm, and the piglets are all clapping in joy for the arrival of the sausage producer!
Revolutionary times, indeed. But no revolutionaries in sight… And it’s even worse, as Marx predicted, the new small bourgeois (closer to poverty than to be a millionaire) replaced the blue-collar factory workers and farmers, and in defense of their little increase in standard-of-living level, they’re voluntarily on the front line of the defense of the current regime.
«So we should add together the seats of Macron’s coalition and those of the mainstream conservatives – and we get an absolute majority of 53%. Thus, on all issues involving far-right economics, neoliberalism and the pan-European project Macron will proceed without parliamentary difficulty.»
I predicted this, only by looking at the results once, and knowing the ideologies of those 4 parties/coalitions. It took me 5 minutes to reach the same conclusion, and I’m a Portuguese that sees 0% French media. I predicted Macron will have a technical majority thanks to the “violent abstention” of the Republicans/Conservatives in the things that matter to them: more NeoLiberalism, Pinochet style…
«and it’s already breaking apart. Many in NUPES only put away their Europhilia to keep their seat, after all.
This certainly cannot be argued with, as well: There simply has not been a huge influx of parliamentarians who are anti-EU, anti-Liberalist, anti-austerity and anti-bourgeois bloc, and certainly not any majority. It will be business as usual in Western Liberal Democracy.»
Another very easy conclusion to reach. What is harder to guess is the outcome for those turncloaks, the exact extension of Republicans/Conservatives to Macron’s government, and how long this legislature will last. After all, in one year, Europe’s economy may be collapsing, the 2nd Euro Zone crisis making us wish we were all Greeks in 2012, and a renewed Yellow vest movement now supported by much more people.
As for the REAL left-wing of NUPES (Mélenchon and Communists and the NON-turncloaks of greens and “socialists”), they have one year to show they’re the ones deserving a majority, to show, with their different votes in the Parliament, who is with the people, as opposed to who is there just to occupy the seats and vote along with the Macronists.
The same can be said, unfortunately, about the Far-Right. That will also be competing with Zemmour on their Further-Far-Right flank. Just like Fratelli d’Italia did with Lega in Italy. Dangerous times…
If these two corners of the Parliament play it wrong or too far (and it’s a really hard balance to make), then Republicans/Conservatives can be seen as the “responsible” ones that assured a governable France. And in a “Liberal Democracy” with a “free press” like we have nowadays in the Collective West, it will be so easy for the propagandists to paint it like this for the audience to see. All in the name of reinforcing the pro-establishment “center”.
As for NATO, if we had stupidity for 30 years (NATO expansion, USA wars/coups backed by Europe) leading us all to this chaos and provoked proxy-war against Russia, then why would the ones with all the power in their hands, change anything now? Actually, the dices have already been thrown for the next proxy-war in Taiwan. One of these days, the Collective West will wake up completely isolated not just from Russia, but from the entire Non-Western World. And then what? Then the stupidity will go on until the very end, because the implosion of Empires never looks pretty…
Marx wrote poems to satan. Read the Book of Revelation to see
how it ends.
I like Satan. He’s the imaginary being that would punish current Western “elites” and their Nazi friends for eternity, if he existed.
Marx wrote poems to Satan? Now I like Marx even more. Thanks for letting me know.
Putin said something like: a country is either sovereign, or a colony.
I agree. That was already my ideology before Putin said it. So it’s actually Putin that’s agreeing with me! ;-)
In the same way, INSIDE countries, that battle also exists: the working people of a country either have their “proletarian dictatorship” (a true Socialist Democracy), or the bourgeois dictatorship (aka “Liberal Democracy”).
Although, these Nordic guys created their own Nordic Model (mixed economy), with a Ghent system (lots of workers in strong unions), and they actually live well. Very well. I guess they figured a way to combine the not so bad part of “Liberal Democracy”, with the economical lessons of Das Kapital and the “proletarian dictatorship” best ideas (you know, like good workers rights, healthcare and education for all, etc, all those this the NeoLiberals hate and want to destroy).
That’s why although I like Marx, I’m not a Socialist, but instead a Nordic Model Social-Democrat. And being pro-sovereignty, I like Norway and Iceland the most (own currencies, out of EU), then Denmark and Sweden in the middle (because they entered in EU), and Finland at the bottom (because they entered in EU and also accepted the €uro dictatorship).
As to the Book of Revelation, I won’t read it. I never read and never will read any religious texts. I don’t like that kind of fiction literature created just to control the masses/folks that are not the sharpest toll in the shed… as somebody once told me.
I am and always will be a science believer, because it has a method that allows us to know when it’s right, and when it’s wrong, and allows us to change and make corrections, with permanent progress.
That’s why at the same time I am pro-vaccines, but refused a covid-19 “emergency approved” vaccine. I saw the studies, and while I understand they saved lives of older people, I was in a situation where I didn’t need them.
On the other side, the pro-covid-vaccine movement became almost a religion, some even wanted to made them mandatory, and some even vaccinated small children! And, as in The Crusades, attacked the ones that didn’t have the same religion… And Pfizer was the Pope. And the MainStream Media were the churches. Just horrible!
I am not just an Atheist of the Secularist kind. I’m anti-religion. I don’t like freedom of religion, and I barely tolerate religious people. The written history of mankind would be a much better story without the religious fanatics and their wars, without the Inquisition and nowadays ultra-Conservative religious views that want to take freedom away from other people.
As far as I’m concerned, parents should NOT have the right to introduce children to religious events. And participation in religions should be like in elections, sex consent, or drinking alcoholic beverages: only for 18 years old and above.
And this is me being moderate and thinking only in the short term. In the long term, my ideal society is one where the only trace of religion are old dusty books (bible, torah, al-quran) kept in public libraries as any other books, to preserve the history. NOTHING else.
“We are in revolutionary times.”
Could be. But as always, not before people are hungry and/or freezing. The cops know where the money comes from and they will be the last poors priviledged by the “bourgeois”: there will be blood on the street. Who wants to be the first?
Excellent summary Mr Mazheri, depressing conclusion.
Dominion (Hersteller von Wahlbetrugstechnologie) hat eine Niederlassung in Serbien, die nicht nur Betrugssoftware entwickelt hat, sondern auch in den osteuropäischen „Hinterhöfen“ der EU für EU-freundliche Wahlergebnisse gesorgt. Darauf gibt es eine Vielzahl von Hinweisen, die hauptsächlich in den USA in Zusammenhang mit Bidens Wahlbetrug aufgedeckt wurden.
Im Visier sind auch “The Delian Project”, „International Foundation for Electoral Systems“ und besonders „Association of European Election Officials“ (ACEEEO). Es scheint, als sei ein großer Teil der Wahlen in Europa seit Jahren gefälscht worden.
Im Namen „sauberer Wahlen“ nach „internationalen Standarts“ wurde eine Art Konglomerat gebildet. Beteiligt sind „NGOs“ von Wahlbeamten und von Soros, die Hersteller von „Demokratietechnologie“, die EU, ein UNO-Projekt, Verbindungen zu den DEMs der USA, dem britischen Geheimdienst, und wohl noch mehr, ich kenne sie ja nicht alle. Die üblichen Verdächtigen also, von nun an kurz „Zentrale“ genannt.
Steht irgendwo eine Regierung unter Druck, möchte nicht weiter in die Schußlinie, also saubere, OSZE-konforme Wahlen nach „internationalen Standarts“. Die Zentrale installiert zumindest Teile ihrer „Demokratietechnologie“. Da sind Hintertüren drin, es wird ein wenig gedreht, und irgendwann verliert die Regierung. Dann installiert die Zentrale alles, was sie hat, und das neue Regime ist mit demokratischen Mitteln nicht mehr loszuwerden.
In den EU-Ländern ist dieses System voll etabliert. Der Wahlaufruf von Olaf Scholz, Pedro Sanchez und António Costa für Macron konnte und sollte keine Wähler überzeugen, sondern das Signal der Zentrale geben: „Demokratietechnologie“ volles Rohr, alles ist erlaubt, sonst wird es Le Pen. Ähnlich waren auch Bidens seltsame Äußerungen zu verstehen:
“I don’t need you to get me elected”
“Democrats had put together the most ‘extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization’ in the history of American politics.”
“Wir beschließen etwas, stellen das dann in den Raum und warten einige Zeit ab, was passiert. Wenn es dann kein großes Geschrei gibt und keine Aufstände, weil die meisten gar nicht begreifen, was da beschlossen wurde, dann machen wir weiter – Schritt für Schritt, bis es kein Zurück mehr gibt.”
– Jean Claude Juncker, in Die Brüsseler Republik, Der Spiegel, 27. Dezember 1999.
Das gilt in der EU auch für die „Wahlergebnisse“.
Translation Yandex:
Dominion (manufacturer of election fraud technology) has a branch in Serbia, which has not only developed fraud software, but also provided EU-friendly election results in the Eastern European “backyards” of the EU. There are a large number of references to this, which were revealed mainly in the USA in connection with Biden’s election fraud.
Also in the sights are “The Delian Project”, “International Foundation for Electoral Systems” and especially “Association of European Election Officials” (ACEEEO). It seems that a large part of the elections in Europe have been falsified for years.
In the name of “clean elections” according to “international standards”, a kind of conglomerate was formed. There are “NGOs” of election officials and of Soros involved, the manufacturers of “democracy technology”, the EU, an UN project, connections to the DEMs of the USA, the British secret service, and probably even more, I don’t know them all. So the usual suspects, from now on called “headquarters” for short.
If a government is under pressure somewhere, it does not want to get further into the firing line, i.e. clean, OSCE-compliant elections according to “international standards”. The headquarters installs at least parts of its “democracy technology”. There are backdoors in there, it gets turned around a little bit, and eventually the government loses. Then the headquarters installs everything it has, and the new regime can no longer be got rid of by democratic means.
In the EU countries, this system is fully established. The election appeal of Olaf Scholz, Pedro Sanchez and António Costa for Macron could not and should not convince voters, but give the signal of the headquarters: “Democracy technology” full pipe, everything is allowed, otherwise it will be Le Pen. Similarly, Biden’s strange remarks were also understandable:
“I don’t need you to get me elected”
“Democrats had put together the most ‘extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization’ in the history of American politics.”
“We decide something, then put it in the room and wait for some time to see what happens. If there is no great shouting and no uprisings, because most of them do not even understand what was decided, then we will continue – step by step, until there is no turning back.”
– Jean Claude Juncker, in Die Brüsseler Republik, Der Spiegel, December 27, 1999.
This also applies to the “election results” in the EU.
How does “democracy technology” work?
Manila Times, June 21, 2016
Never again! …to Smartmatic
By this time, only the truly uninformed would still find Smartmatic’s combination of PCOS/VCM (Precinct Count Optical Scan/Vote Counting Machine) and CCS (canvassing and consolidation system) an acceptable solution to the automation of Philippine elections. We used this solution in the last three National and Local Elections (NLE) and in all three, we experienced “glitches” and lack of transparency that convinced us of the system’s unreliability and its vulnerability to tampering.
Consider the following incidents: (…)
Toward the end of the canvassing in 2013, the votes went up and down by the millions, without any explanation being given by Smartmatic. Nor by Comelec. What? The voters did not have a say in the results?!
https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/06/21/opinion/columnists/never-again-to-smartmatic/269238/
i don’t know why so many don’t people don’t believe that machines owned and manufactured by oligarchs and run by party crooks wouldn’t manipulate the vote.
maybe because it is so very depressing and void of hope.
No one can believe that Macron has been re-elected by the people, the French elite decided to have him as a puppet for a while longer and now a campaign is beginning against him to demand more action against Russia and the sending of money and weapons to the Ukrainian Nazis.
Being French and a long-time Saker readers, I’m getting a bit tired of reading Ramin analysis of French Politics. His “yellow vest” prism is distorting his capacity to understand the situation. At most, at its peak Yellow vests represented 15-20 % of French people. But now I would hardly find anyone claiming this affiliation.
Time to move on Ramin. Forget about your book, forget about France specifically, broaden your horizon, compare France with other European country, think about what the world need, think about what could be done to reform Europe and make it defends Europeans people interest into the new multipolar world that is emerging.
I agree. Yellow vest aren’t such a big deal. To some they are the lower middle class that wants to keep on living the american dream some more : cheap fuel, higher wage and many leisurely years with full state support . Give them a few bucks and they’ll be on their way home. Few among them have an actual clue on the massive spoliation, the economic devastation and the demographic catastrophe that’s is being unleashed on European countries by the oligarchs and the US/UK alliance.
It was indeed surprising that Macron would be elected, pocketing that many votes (25%) in the first round. I was in a large town polling office that day and I could double check that it was more or less accurate. Now the second round was most likely another story. Nobody here, among those remaining with an active brain, doubts that the second round was rigged. They even played it live on national TV… All in all, Macron was not elected for the second time : it was a coup. The first time around probably was too, btw.
Oui, le 2eme tour des élections était clairement truqué. C’est toujours le cas depuis des décennies en France, et tout le monde le sait. . . Mais ça passe !
Les politiques, les instituts de sondage et les médias s’entendent pour que seul le candidat étiqueté “extrême droite” reste en lice au 2eme tour. Alors se met en place une comédie qui consiste à le décrédibiliser, le calomnier, et harceler les electeurs en leur représentant les risques qu’ils feraient courir au pays en ne “faisant pas barrage à l’extrême droite”. Les sceptiques ont vu dans cette manœuvre l’action d’un ” parti des castors”. L’astuce consiste à présenter comme “non républicain” un parti politique qui se soumet aux élections, qui a des représentants élus dans toutes les assemblées, et à ne pas l’interdire ! Malgré les efforts de Marine Le Pen pour être fréquentable, on fait en sorte de la rejeter hors des circuits bancaires ouverts aux autres candidats, aussi avait-elle dû pour les élections précédentes faire un emprunt auprès d’une banque russe. Voilà précisément où on l’attendait ! ” Comment, vous voteriez pour une candidate de l’étranger, une amie de Poutine ” martelaient les médias en 2022 ? Aux précédentes élections présidentielles, en 2017, à la veille des élections, Macron s’etait rendu pour un hommage à Oradour-sur-glane, un village dont les nazis avaient brûlé l’église après y avoir enfermé la population , son but étant alors d’associer Marine Le Pen aux nazis ! Mais le stratagème qui a effectivement fonctionné pour les présidentielles n’a pas marché pour les élections législatives, et le parti de Marine Le Pen a eu 89 députés élus à l’Assemblée. Du coup, ce parti et le parti de gauche de Jean-Luc Mélenchon sont maintenant exclus parce que n’etant pas des “partis de gouvernement”. On voit bien que la superbe “démocratie”française connaît les nuances pour écarter du pouvoir les gêneurs de tout bord. Bravo à Ramonville ! Il a parfaitement compris !
Oui, the 2nd round of the choices is clearly cleat. This touches the decoys in France, and all the world on the site. . . But what a pass!
Policies, polling institutes and the media are intended to ensure that each candidate is labeled ‘extreme right’ in the second round. All that takes place is a comedy that consists of decriminalizing, calibrating, and harnessing the electors in order to represent the risks which they often fall into if they do not ’cause extreme loading’. The skeptics were in this maneuver the action of a ‘castor party’. The bullet consists of being presented as ‘non-public’ a political party which is subject to elections, which’s representatives in all assemblies, and does not interfere! Marine Le Pen’s efforts to make it more frequent, in order to make it easier for the bank to open open circuits to other candidates, also to create the preceding choices to make a start over a Russian bank. Precisely on the stage! ‘Comment, you vote for a foreign candidate, a friend of Putin’ is the media in 2022? With its preceding presidential elections, in 2017, in the wake of the elections, Macron did not rush to pay homage to Oradour-sur-Glane, a village whose Nazis built the church to cut through and avoid the population, but the population to associate Marine Le Pen with the Nazis! But the strategy that effectively works for presidents not to run for legislative choices, and the Marine Le Pen party and 89 deputies to the Assembly. The coup, this part and the gauze part of Jean-Luc Mélenchon remain the only part that does not belong to the ‘part of government’. On the other hand, the super French ‘democracy’ knows the nuances to get rid of all the generators on the board. Bravo à Ramonville! Il parfaitement compris!
I agree Gwen. He is off base on this. The Yellow-vests do not represent mainstream France.
” compare France with other European country”
I am a Britisher, and when I compare our regime with that of France or other European countries I see the same smug “bourgeois block” (what Ibsen called “the damned compact majority”) paralysed and parasitised by a dominant but incompetent Oligarchy. The only difference is that France has “Les Gilets Jaunes” as a sort of public opposition; whereas the opposition in other European countries is a chaotic collection of individuals: in other words, a mob. But, unfortunately, a mob without pitchforks. Even the Yellow Vests are far too polite: sans cullottes mais aussi sans guillotine. Helas!
“What is to be done?”. Lenin answered his own question, with words written on flesh.
Perhaps Ramin can remind us once again how his own non-European country managed to break the shackles of Anglo Zionazi Capitalism, and establish Socialism with Islamic characteristics? Europe might pick up a few tips on how to establish Socialism with Christian characteristics.
I am French and I have been quite pleased to see someone appreciate the Yellow Vests as much as Mr Mazaheri.
When the Yellow Vests began I don’t know anyone who did not say “I am a Yellow Vest”. Not one!
We can say that they failed, but we cannot say they stopped representing the average person. They did not fail, truly – they were attacked over and over again.
I think Mazaheri is right that all the polls showed a majority of France supported the Yellow Vests, and probably still do. Of course, they don’t dare ask polls about them for years now.
Je suis française, et j’apprécie beaucoup l’analyse de Ramin. Au contraire, j’espère qu’il continuera à observer comment l’oligarchie française, qui a multiplié par 3 ses revenus avec Macron se sert de ce gouvernement pour sa domination. Quant à l’Europe, les Français avaient voté en 2005 pour dire ce qu’ils en attendaient. Un vote dont il n’a pas été tenu compte ! Comment s’étonner aujourd’hui du niveau de l’abstention ?
I’m French, and I really appreciate Ramin’s analysis. On the contrary, I hope he will continue to observe how the French oligarchy, which has multiplied by 3 its income with Macron, uses this government for its domination. As for Europe, the French voted in 2005 to say what they expected of it. A vote that was not taken into account! How can we be surprised at the level of abstention today?
Just one note. TINA was enunciated by Margaret Thatcher as her answer to a general strike against her. She won by discrediting the leaders of the strike. Now the Brits have BoJo and are “be woke or else”.