We are just a few days far from the most decisive elections in the modern history of Europe, the second round of the French presidential elections. There are many different things that I'd like to express here, I could probably write like 4 or 5 posts, but I have no time for that, so I'll summarize it all together in this chaotic writing.
I don't know to what extent people in the whole of this continent are aware of what is at stake. If Le Pen were to win this Sunday, the European Union is over. I hardly can imagine a world without European Union. A world were I would have to ask for a Visa to go to Berlin or Paris. A world were I could not opt to a job position in one city that I love because I was born in "the wrong place". We are used to other people having to suffer these constraints, to feel pity for them and relief for us, for being so lucky to be Europeans in the XXI century, to be the "easyjet generation"... free to travel and to find a place we like and have the possibility of staying there. All that would be over. That's the first, more direct consequence, but then would come the worse. Countries would withdraw and close on themselves, and us, the citizens, would do so. Nationalism would be back, stronger and more stinky and repulsive than ever, and with Nationalism, sooner or later, would come war.
You think I'm overstating? Just take a look at our history... Alsace-Lorraine comes to mind as a "nice" pretext for a Franco-Prusian war v.3.0. And there would be many more pretexts. Above all, the brutal economical crisis that would come with the death of the European Union would cause such internal turmoil that starting a war would be the best way to distract the population and make them address their hatred to an "external enemy" rather than the internal beasts that caused this disaster. In a multipolar world where our small countries of 80, 60, 40, 10... millions inhabitants are just nothing compared to USA, Russia, China, India, Brasil... what a better way to feel important again and find our new place in the world that trying to beat our neighbour in a senseless war...
Honestly, when the results of the elections of the first round were announced with the good news of Emmanuel Macron arriving on the first position, I thought the problem was almost fixed. I assumed everyone would join on the second round to vote Macron to defeat the Le Pen clan. It's what happened in 2002, when every normal citizen voted for Chirac (even if they had to cover their nose) to defeat Le Pen (the father). To my horror (and the horror of so many normal citizens that can not understand how lost and stupid one part of the population is), this has not happened. This time there has not been a Front Republicain to defeat the FN. Sure the socialist party has called to vote for Macron without any sort of doubt or ambiguity. Most of the main figures in Les Républicains have also done so (Fillon, in an act that manages to dignify a bit such a gloomy individual, Alain Juppé, Sarkozy), but the party itself has not taken an official stance. The serious issue comes with "the radical Left". Jean Luc Melenchon, the LEADER (I put it in uppercase because I sense quite a sort of stalinist personality cult around him) of that new far-left movement called "La France Insoumise" has shamefully opted for the "ni-ni" (neither Macron nor Le Pen). He has not asked to vote for Macron, he has just asked not to vote for Le Pen. This is a disgusting act of irresponsability (at the best) or a meditated, machiavelic political plan for the next elections (make Macron weak for having obtained a minimum victory, or just let Le Pen reach power so that chaos starts and people cry for their 'Left savior") at the worst. Everybody knows that not a single Le Pen sympathizer will fail to put his nauseating vote in the polling box, so abstention or voting blank is not an option at all. Melenchon says to want to keep his vote secret and not to want to force people's vote, but with his continuous critics to Macron "he's the candidate of the banks, he's the candidate of the financial system..." he's indeed pushing the electorat of the France Insoumise to abstention/blank vote (or even worse, bearing in mind that a 10% of these alleged "revolutionaries" intend to vote for Le Pen...). Melenchon has just become a collabo like Pétain in the WWII.
Hopefully, some of the political organizations that make up "la France Insoumise": the PCF and the Front de Gauche, have asked to vote for Macron with slogans like "first let's defeat Le Pen, then let's fight against Macron", but based on what I could see in Paris the other day and what I can read on the news, it does not seem like they are having too much effect... This leads us to the next level in human stupidity, some of the "left radicals" that either voted for "les insoumis" or for other worse political sects like NPA or LO (or that directly did not vote) and are now trying to convince others to abstain. These "saviours of humanity" that in some cases make up the rangs of the infamous "black block" that ruins legitimate demonstrations attacking the police and destroying public property. These "left warriors" that have converted the Antifa movement in France in something close to a terrorist organization. These "freedom fighters" already took to the streets as soon as the results of the first round were announced to protest against Macron and Le Pen likewise (and to take the opportunity to destroy public property and attack the police once again). When these idiots put both candidates at the same level, using phrases like "neither finances dictatorship nor fascist dictatorship", "neither plague nor cholera", "capitalism == fascism", they are putting our society at risk, cause there are other idiots that will believe their crap and decide not to vote for Macron just to feel rebellious and cool, just because it's becoming trendy... These criminals are just planning "to fight Le Pen on the streets" if she wins... cool... Are they plannig to do like last Monday in Paris, setting a policeman on fire??? Interesting that last time I saw someone being burnt alive it had been ISIS the author. Bearing in mind that a certain part of the "far-left" is sympathetic with (when not openly defends) Islamists, it's not so odd that they learn "battle techniques" from them...
If I had the French nationality I would have already voted for Macron in the first round. It's not that I were entusiastic about him, I would have preferred a hard guy like Manuel Valls or Sarkozy (unfortunately both had been kicked out in the respective primary elections of their parties) that would have a harder stance towards Islam and criminality, but all in all I think he can be a pretty good president for this country and a great asset in order to help to put the European project back on track. For sure my political views have changed enormously in the last years. I have nothing to do with the "left radical Asturian nationalist" that I used to be just a few years ago, but I'm pretty sure that even if I were still lost in such ideological nonsense, in a situation like this I would have voted for who I would have considered "the lesser evil".
I belong to a generation that has been lucky to never have lived a war on its territory (and which parents enjoyed also that privilege), and suddenly, these days waiting for the results on Sunday evening, it seems a bit like what other generations had to feel the days before an imminent call to arms or the signature of a treaty that would avoid the conflict. Next Monday, the aftermath of this dramatic election, it's the 8th of may. On this date France celebrates "Victoire", the victory over fascism in the WWII. I really hope this year we'll be able to do a double celebration.
I pretty liked this article by Marjane Satrapi (the author of Persepolis). As someone that found refuge in France after having to flee her birth country to escape a dictatorship she can not understand that people will decide not use their vote as a weapon against horror. I'll reuse the last lines of her post to close this one:
Votez Emmanuel Macron!
Vive la Liberté!
Vive l’Egalité!
Vive la Fraternité!
Et vive la France!
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