Day by day, we witness the terrible sights emerging from Ukraine as Putin’s fascists continue their murderous invasion and we wonder what we can do about it. Not a lot, is the honest answer, save donating money (not to the Red Cross, please) and items needed by the people of Ukraine. We in the UK have already done our bit for Putin by voting to leave the EU, which will certainly have been greeted with huge cheers in the Kremlin, given his desire to see the west weakened and divided and now other countries are doing their best. First, Hungary re-elects the hard right Putin supporter Viktor Orban and now France stands on the brink of electing an actual fascist to be their next president. It can’t happen, can it? I’m afraid it can.
The final run-off will again be between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, with the hard left France Unbowed candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon having been narrowly eliminated in the first vote. And on the face of it, it should be a straightforward win for Macron. After all, those who voted for a left wing candidate are hardly going to vote for a fascist, are they? Well, take a look at this:
Unfortunately, my French lessons ended over 50 years ago so I am not best placed to give you a word-for-word translation, but the words ‘Les Mélenchonistes héstitent’ suggest that supporters of Mélenchon are reluctant to cast their vote for a centrist like Macron. It’s pure socialism or nothing. But that’s not the offer.
The real offer for the French electorate is a direct choice between Macron and an actual fascist. If those who claim to be of the left cannot bring themselves to vote for a centrist candidate, to quote the broadcaster and writer Ian Dunt, “You’re not really on the left at all. You’re on the side of fascism. Your moral infantalism has made you a collaborator with the far-right.” It’s a straight choice between democracy and authoritarianism. In a democracy, why would you vote to end it? But that’s literally what the French electorate could choose to do on 24th April.
It’s no good saying, “Ah well, that’s the French for you. It would never happen here.” In a way it did. In 2016, enough of us were persuaded by the lies of the ‘leavers’, to tear us away from our closest friends and allies across the channel. We know now that there are no benefits to Brexit, other to our competitors and our enemies, like Russia. Brexit, which is far from being ‘done’ as Boris Johnson once more lied in 2019 in order to secure a large parliamentary majority, will not be reversed so we need to make the best of a bad job by working closely with Europe and minimising the damage caused. But if Brexit was bad for Europe, as well as Britain, the election of a Putin-supporting fascist in France could be catastrophic.
This is not a time for political purism; it is the time for pragmatism. And the pragmatic choice for France is to vote for Macron. Not an abstention on the grounds of so called purity or even a vote for the fascists.
More than that, ask who Putin would want as the new French president? He got what he wanted with Brexit. France must not allow it to happen to them.
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