What way forward in the struggle against Macron?
9 May 2017
French President-elect Emmanuel Macron’s actions immediately after his election Sunday night have exposed the fraudulent claims that he would defend democracy and block the rise of the neo-fascist National Front (FN). Macron began his victory speech on Sunday with a full-throated “Republican salute” to the FN and its defeated candidate Marine Le Pen, delivered in the name of “national unity.”
Yesterday, his transition team began outlining his reactionary agenda, which expands upon that of the Socialist Party (PS) government of outgoing President François Hollande in which Macron was a minister. He will intensify police deployments under France’s state of emergency, which suspends basic democratic rights. He plans to cut taxes for the wealthy, boost the number of policemen and prison beds by 10,000 and 15,000, respectively, and continue the wars in Syria, Iraq and Mali.
The figures Macron is considering as potential prime ministers make clear that he is preparing a right-wing government. They include the Gaullist mayor of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe; Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund; and Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Socialist Party government’s defense minister, who worked closely with Hollande on the PS’ extrajudicial assassination program.
Above all, Macron is planning a confrontation with the working class, unilaterally imposing decrees based on the PS labor law—rammed through in the face of mass protests and overwhelming popular opposition—to shred contracts, lengthen working hours and cut social spending.
Macron’s salute to the heirs of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime is an exposure of the true physiognomy of the French bourgeoisie: always ready to collaborate…