With four candidates for two spots, the level of uncertainty for this presidential election is unprecedented. And, whether we like it or not, strategic voting will play a big role, ultimately condemning Benoît Hamon, the primary winner, who made the unforgivable mistake of negotiating with those who did not participate in the primary at the expense of those he had defeated in the common contest.
There are thus four candidates among whom one must choose right from the first round. For my part, as with the vast majority of left-wing radicals in the 06 region and PACA (with the exception of a few friends still voting for Hamon based on their given word, mostly former supporters of Valls), this choice is not really one at all.
There is no question of voting for Le Pen, that representative of the xenophobic and anti-Semitic far-right, hysterically anti-European, who scorns the justice of her country.
There is no question of voting for Fillon, the candidate of the Manif pour tous who plans to dismantle our social model with a deadly bloodletting in public service and a questioning of our social security. A candidate who could only be a discredited president due to his lies and shaky ethics.
There is no question of voting for Mélenchon, whose objective is to blow up Europe (even Hamon says so) in favor of unlikely anti-NATO alliances with Cuba, the Venezuela of his model Chavez, and… Iran. Not to mention his naïve pacifism in the midst of a war against Islamic totalitarianism. Mélenchon is also, and above all, an economic program that is an improbable stack of socially appealing measures but at prohibitive costs (208 billion euros in additional public spending, 85 billion in additional taxes). Regarding these measures, Hamon is again critical, calling them “fables” and fairy tales. Mélenchon also has cumbersome allies in the fight against communitarianism and a constitutional program that, for the best of reasons, risks institutionalizing populism.
Remaining is Macron, the only truly European candidate in the quartet, advocating a social model similar to that of the CFDT, the country’s leading union, while maintaining a calm perspective on French society.
Of course, there is no question of giving the future president a blank check. Thus, the question of alliances in view of crucial legislative elections, if we want to avoid a paralyzing cohabitation, will be very important. On substance, I for one will be very vigilant on the issue of combating communitarianism, which is not a strong point of candidate Macron’s program. I will also be very attentive to the political will to develop a social-democratic project with a true balance between the economic and the social.
But everything in its time: after the election, political life will continue with its debates, mobilizations, and negotiations. A context in which the protest left (Mélenchon, Hamon, Montebourg…) and the anti-communitarian left (Valls) will regain strength and vigor in the necessary democratic debate.
by Patrick Mottard
