Sarkozy ousted, it is first of all a relief after his second round campaign completely inspired by the National Front and a nightmare five-year term that finally comes to an end. Sarkozy’s defeat is, however, less clear-cut than hoped, and our region remains largely dominated by the right, albeit in decline, but which the National Front electorate largely supported in the second round.
However, the aspirations for change also exist in our region, as evidenced by Hollande’s good results, with a clear majority in many working-class neighborhoods such as Ariane in Nice or the northern districts of Marseille.
For the most disadvantaged and for men and women from immigrant backgrounds, facing discrimination and stigmatizing remarks for too long, voting for Hollande represents both a breath of fresh air and the aspiration to live better, as well as the hope for respect and equal rights.
Alternation or alternative? Hollande proposes alternation, not an alternative: there is a fear that soon the pressures of the financial markets will render alternation devoid of any substance and will once again feed fatalism and a renunciation not only of the transformation of society but also of the few moderate change measures proposed by Hollande.
Faced with the radicalization of the right and the threat of the National Front, stagnation would be suicidal: it would only serve to strengthen them!
This is why the Alternatives and the Anti-Capitalist Left, who welcomed Mélenchon’s good first-round result and called to defeat the right in the second round, celebrate the electoral surge of the Greek radical left and reaffirm the necessity not just for simple alternation, but for a true left-wing alternative in France and across Europe.
Hollande stated that “change is now”. Bring it on!
For this, let’s prepare for great citizens’ mobilizations and powerful social movements to impose the necessary changes and reject resignation!
Let’s unite on the left, as Mélenchon’s campaign demonstrated, and gather the alternative left into a new political force!
The deep and multifaceted crisis (economic and financial, social, ecological, democratic) of capitalism has not disappeared, quite the opposite: its severity justifies more than ever the development of alternative and radical public policies, anti-capitalist and anti-productivist, which are far beyond mere alternation. Let’s forge the tools to pave the way for resistance to speculative financiers and facilitate employee takeovers of “abandoned” industrial sites.
The change of the President of the Republic is a first lock that has been removed. But many others must be tackled: the house of deputies, repressive laws, unworthy “administrative” directives…
This is the clear message that the alternative left will express from the legislative elections in June on a national scale and in our region.
