Tribune. Sunday, April 24, I will deposit an Emmanuel Macron bulletin in the ballot box to prevent Marine Le Pen and the far right from gaining power in our country. As I indicated on the very evening of the first round, I will do so without hesitation, without ambiguity, with complete clarity.
If I reiterate here this call for Republican mobilization, it is because nothing reassures me in this between-two-turns. Anger and weariness have become powerful drivers of extreme voting and abstention that polls cannot measure. In reality, nothing guarantees a defeat of the extreme right on April 24.
To abstain, to vote blank or null is to make possible the victory of Marine Le Pen. It is not a question here of making people feel guilty, nor of delegitimizing the accumulated distrust of politics, after so many years of betrayed promises and powerlessness to anticipate and resolve the deep crises with which we are confronted. But to take responsibility for the democratic essentials that are being played out on Sunday.
Foreign interference
Some politicians, sometimes so quick to evoke “History”, with a capital H, pretend to forget the lessons: when the far-right bloc exceeds 30% in the first round, praising the “ni-nor” returns to play Russian roulette. And betting on the responsibility of others to flatter part of one’s electorate is not up to the challenge of civilization that arises. No one should minimize the risk of a victory for Marine Le Pen, which would be fatal for our democracy, for civil peace, for the climate, for solidarity, for dignity. The extreme right in power is another world, the opposite of the one we dream of and that we intend to build.
Another world where the far right never returns power other than in violence and chaos. Donald Trump supporters’ coup attempt, Jair Bolsonaro’s military parades to intimidate Brazilians at the prospect of a Lula victory [président de gauche au pouvoir au Brésil de 2003 à 2011]the disappearance of all means of free information in Hungary under the rule of Viktor Orban, of the independence of justice in Poland under that of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the attacks against the rights of workers, women, LGBT, minorities ethnic… should remind us of this evidence: the extreme right is never a democratic alternation or a temporary impasse.
Should we also remember, as the martyrdom of the Ukrainian people continues through rape, bombardment, torture and exile, the former complicity, even financial dependence, of Marine Le Pen and the National Front/ National rally against Vladimir Putin? I repeat: the complacency with regard to the head of the Kremlin does not arise from simple disagreements on foreign policy. They underline the importance that everyone attaches to democracy, freedoms and dignity. To let Marine Le Pen win is to leave a free hand to Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, against our security and freedom in Europe, it is to put our country under foreign interference.
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