France's landslide of hope
Early Sunday, the news was out: Emmanuel Macron, the centrist candidate in the French presidential election, had defeated Marine Le Pen, the isolationist-leaning right-wing National Front candidate, in an election characterized by many as a choice between nothing less than light and darkness. The vote has positioned Macron, 39, to become the youngest president in the history of France, and its youngest leader since — wait for it — Napoleon.
In an election that was a statistical landslide — Macron beat Le Pen 65 percent to 35 percent, give or take — the French Republic made a presidential choice that was both a dramatic generational change and a strong signal that France, symbolized by its youngest leader in modern times, will very much contend for a leadership role in the shaping of what’s ultimately forged in the crucible that is Brexit-era Europe.
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Stephen Bannon, White House Trump consiglieri, suffers a straight-up repudiation of his plans, via his Breitbart News empire, to templatize the nativist perspective, starting with new web sites based in Germany and France late last year. First step in a global ALEC.
Last year, Bannon was the height of confidence when he talked to The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone, who quoted Bannon from a conversation in July: “So, we look at themes globally as the center-right populist revolt against the permanent political class. Whether that’s [conservative author and political consultant] Peter Schweizer hitting on crony capitalism, or our guys in London following Front National in France. It’s all of one theme. We think that (pro-Brexit UK politician) Nigel Farage will be a politician that rises one day, Donald Trump the next. But it’s a bigger, tectonic plate.”
“And that’s why we kind of laugh at, particularly cable news and sometimes other sites that, they sit there and they’re so wrong on everything.
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It’s not all over yet. Ryan Cooper reports in The Week: “There are legislative elections next month, where the National Assembly will be selected. If Macron or parties sympathetic to him don't win a majority, President Macron could be in 'cohabitation' with an unfriendly parliament — akin to divided government in the United States, and similar in terms of the resulting gridlock.” More widely, the German elections are set for September; a victory for the anti-immigration populists there would elevate their status in the one European nation that, on the basis of history, has a powerful vested interest in resisting such a slide back into intolerance. Such an event could reinvigorate populist fear-mongering in other elections across the continent.
But for now, it seems, the weight of recent events, the pendulum-swing apparent, is moving the other way. Macron’s victory in France is more than just a win for a charismatic, forward-thinking leader, as impressive as it was. It’s also a victory for the idea that such a resounding, uplifting win is still possible in a time of deep skepticism and corrosive fear.
France just got buried by a landslide of hope. What’s not to love?
Image credits: Macron: Via Los Angeles Daily News. Bannon: Carol Allegri/Reuters.
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