“Can the unthinkable happen? », wondered an editorialist from the New York Review of Books seven weeks before Donald Trump, against all odds, won the American presidential election on November 8, 2016. Less than five months earlier, on the eve of the Brexit referendum, one could honestly doubt that our pragmatic British neighbors would choose to jump into the void by voting to leave the European Union (EU). On June 23, however, they decided so by 51.89%.
If such unexpected scenarios, or even “unthinkable” deserve to be recalled on the eve of the second round of the French presidential election, it is that they come from a political context presenting disturbing similarities with that of the new Macron-Le Pen duel. And that, in the United States as in the United Kingdom, the “unthinkable” occurred when the camp supposed to embody “reason” was almost certain to win.
“Patriots against globalists”, “ordinary people against lesson givers”, the poster for our 2022 presidential election was already that of the contest in which supporters and opponents of Brexit clashed in the United Kingdom six years ago. On the one hand, nationalists exploiting nostalgia for a grandiose mythologized past and the need to “regain border control” to justify the break with the EU. On the other, economic and intellectual elites attached to international cooperation.
Already the spring of immigration was central. Just as the closing of borders and the banning of foreigners command almost the entire program of Marine Le Pen, who promises to “to give back to the French their country”Nigel Farage, the British far-right leader, repeated « We want our country back ! » (“Give us back our country!”). Exulting at the announcement of Brexit’s success, Farage had hailed “the victory of ordinary people, honest people”. Expressions, which, found in the mouth of the leader of the RN, exclude foreigners or those whom she perceives as such.
Sleight of hand
Like Mme Le Pen, who makes a point of lowering the French budgetary contribution to the EU to relieve public finances, Boris Johnson promised to finance the public health system with the money “saved” by leaving the Union. He did not hesitate to brandish the threat of waiting lists in hospitals in the event of remaining in the EU. Lies uncovered during the Covid-19 crisis.
Et yes Mme Today Le Pen hides his resentment against the EU behind the project of a “alliance of european nations”, the time is not so far away, the day after the Brexit victory, when she “vibrated with the British who seized this extraordinary opportunity to come out of bondage”. An enthusiasm that she has since put away: the British economy is suffering from the exit from the EU and the so-called “Global Britain” is suffering from isolation.
You have 49.83% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.