Emmanuel Macron Chooses a Left-Wing Technocrat as Prime Minister
The announcement of Elisabeth Borne’s appointment did not arouse much enthusiasm in the French press. Her profile gives the impression of a default and very bureaucratic choice.
The announcement of Elisabeth Borne’s appointment did not arouse much enthusiasm in the French press. Her profile gives the impression of a default and very bureaucratic choice.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, together with the question of sanctions, has tended to divide both the political Right and Left. In the European context, a divide between different “Lefts” has manifested most clearly in Spain.
Political satire is at its best when it transcends the limitations of partisan thinking. “Don’t Look Up” fails to do this.
Of the three dominant types of welfare states, it is not easy to extract one that would be palatable to both social conservatives and social democrats—it is possible though. The path to a compromise can be found by navigating the dynamics between political methodology and political theory.
In our own time, we have seen the rise of calls for Burkean ideals on the Left. Think only of the Social Democrats in the UK, a party that had some influence in the 1980s but are almost entirely unknown today, who are against the wokeism dominating the current political debate, and who seek to preserve local customs, and use the very conservative sounding slogan “family, community, nation” as their header on their website.
The strategy of the super-woke failson anticipates resistance by using terms and premises that the establishment cannot rebuff without rebuffing its own basis. He acts as real-world, unpaid HR department officer. This is a means for proving his ambition and ability to police discourse, that is, his managerial competence. At bare minimum, this provides an escape valve for the frustrated failson to take his anger out on culturally deprivileged groups (‘hicks,’ ‘deplorables’) while reinforcing hegemonic discourse.
The Right in France finds its birth in the original trauma of the French Revolution. It is on the side of those who lost, of a history that will never be written again. The French Revolution was also a period of intense persecution of the Catholic religion, and a painful synthesis took place in people’s minds: a fallen monarchy united to the martyred faith. The right-wing remained affixed to this double cause to defend.
Until a few months ago, the French media believed that the presidential campaign would be a repeat of the 2017 campaign, with a second round that would pit Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen and end with the re-election of Emmanuel Macron. Today, nothing is written in stone, and the fundamentally unpredictable nature of political life gives us hope.
When people live in an ideological ‘echo chamber,’ it encourages them to become more intolerant of what other people think.