Yet this election can still be more than just extremists enjoying a day in the spotlight. Already, French progressives have made ground that can be capitalised on in the near future.
The moderate left and centre have had a strong campaign and polled well. In the election first round, the left and centre took 48.8% of the vote to M. Sarkozy & Mme. Le Pen's combined 45.2% - and far from all of the voters of the right would be willing to vote tactically for either (BBC, 2012). Heading into the second round of voting the votes appear to be stacked against M. Sarkozy retaining the presidency.
And there is much in common across the left.
M. Hollande has held an anti-austerity focus throughout his campaign (Chrisafis, April 2012), including campaigning for a 75% top rate of tax to cover national shortfall. Further to his left ran M. Melenchon - as the face of the Left Front ticket, primarily opposing the policies of Mme. Le Pen's National Front. M. Melenchon has reportedly stated that the Left Front's policies ideals have been vindicated by the adoption of that 75% top rate of tax by the leading Socialist party contender (Chrisafis, March 2012).
To the centre and Democrat candidate M. Bayrou will be disappointed with polling just 9%, having hoped to better his 2007 performance of 18.57%. None-the-less, during a very fractured election he still secured a fair portion of the vote on a ticket that campaigned for more focus on education, with a decidedly pro-Europe stance (Schofield, 2012). M. Bayrou's group will however be the most difficult to align with a left and centre grouping because of its relatively pro-cuts position, having previously promised constitutional amendments guaranteeing balanced budgets.
Also on the left are The Greens; they are led by Mme. Joly who has personally campaigned against corruption and led this campaign on self-admitted difficult arguments for the times - climate change, nuclear phase-out and the protection of biodiversity (EGP News, 2012).
So while Mme. Le Pen has campaigned along a forcefully nationalistic line - her party has not managed to dominate public opinion, even if it has dominated the news. They have further made life hard for anyone trying to unify a vote from the right; essentially for M. Sarkozy.
Sober and sensible attitudes on the left - like the past cooperation across the left and centre in Canada and Lib-Lab pacts in the UK; not least the past of cooperation between French progressives, radicals, liberals, socialists and democrats - can make positive and progressive solutions come out of this election.
In particular, using the electoral progress made on this stage to create momentum for legislative elections of the near future. And the best way to do that is for the left and centre to do this effectively, will be through open discourse - as John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty (1859) about truth and its divided nature:
'Conflicting doctrines, instead of being one true and the other false, share the truth between them, and the nonconforming opinion is needed to supply the remainder of the truth.'
This will of course mean facing the rise of extremism with reason - breaking through the shallow but tough crust with facts and evidence. It is a proven method that has worked before in politics, notably for Asquith against Chamberlain's rhetoric on tariffs.
With a strong mandate regardless of the second round result, French moderates have an opportunity to speak to an audience prepared to listen. To set an example for progressive politicians the world over by openly & publicly debating with integrity the policies of progressive parties and using evidence to systematically dismantle the foundations of misinformation and fear that props up extremism.
==========
References:
==========
+ Lizzy Davies' 'France: Protests over pensions bring over a million onto boulevards'; in The Guardian; 7 September 2010.
+ Angelique Chrisafis' 'Francois Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election'; in The Guardian; 23 April 2012.
+ Angelique Chrisafis' 'Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon calls for a "civic insurrection" in France'; in The Guardian; 18 March 2012.
+ Hugh Schofield's 'Francois Bayrou - or the power of self-belief'; 25 January 2012.
+ EGP News' 'Joly "strong and dignified" France presidential campaign'; April 24 2012.
+ BBC's 'France election: Hollande takes lead into second round'; 23 April 2012.
+ John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty'; 1859.
No comments:
Post a Comment