…in France?
A lot of folks on the liberal left are breathing a sigh of relief after the votes in France came in with Macron defeating Le Pen by such a huge margin: 66% to her 34%. But your Eyewitness isn’t so sure they have much to celebrate.
Forget all the headlines claiming that Le Pen’s “populist” wings were clipped. First of all, the people she and her father represent are nothing more than racists and fascists in the classic European mould. And what Marine Le Pen’s done is practically double the votes her father received back in 2002 – when everyone thought French liberal values were crumbling! Her garnering more than one-third of the votes in the country that brought us “Liberty! Equality! and Fraternity!!” is a direct repudiation of those values when we consider the French presidential elections.
Here, all the parties – including the two “traditional” Liberal and Socialist ones – field candidates, and in the end it came down to Emmanuel Macron being the one to take on Le Pen. It means that Macron’s going to be President with the very soft support that only came together under his 1-year-old tent in a bid to stop Le Pen. The latter therefore remains the most coherent and united force in France today, and Macron was smart enough to acknowledge that after the elections.
The real test will come in the years ahead. For many analysts, the situation in France is eerily reminiscent of Hitler’s rise to the top in Germany after 1932, when Hindenburg was elected President after the second runoff and Hitler was defeated; but not for long. In successive Federal elections, the Nazis picked up votes and Hitler had to be made Chancellor a year later.
The manoeuvrings of Britain to cut ties with the EU in their Brexit gambit will provide Le Pen with a lot of ammunition in the next two years.
In the meantime, while the French haven’t made an issue of their new President, Macron having a wife who was his high school music teacher will certainly loom its head higher in those two years. The British tabloids are certainly agog!! The point they make is that, if a male teacher – say, the one in the US who ran away with a 15-year-old girl – is dubbed a “paedophile”, what’s so different about the 40-year-old married teacher Brigette having a relationship with the then 15-year-old Macron?? Was it a case of “grooming”?? Even in the “sexually free” French society, Le Pen will make hay of this gift.
During a campaign debate, she pointedly told Macron not to lecture her like a pupil!!
…on taxation??
Bisram’s a fella who obviously likes to get under the Government’s skin. The ethnic question is his forte to reveal discrimination and such like against Indians. Now he’s decided to broaden his scope, and suggested in a missive that Government should cut spending rather than increasing taxes on the longsuffering Guyanese people!!
Cut taxation?? Damned heresy!! Bisram obviously hasn’t the slightest clue of how PNC economics operates!! In their “Iron Law of Taxation”, enunciated by then Finance Minister Carl Greenidge back in the eighties – when Jordan was a lowly clerk in Finance – it was clearly stated: “Spending shall be automatically increased on Jobs for the Boys to match ever-increasing taxes”.
Jordan just boasted of the G$5 billion extra TAXES extracted over last year; and of course he has ensured the second part of the equation is balanced – Jobs for the Boys!
Did you notice the 5 high-paid legal geezers hired to help the hapless AG?? On top of all the hundreds of military advisers to the Government??
…in drug shortages
The Chairman of the Board of GHPC just came up with a new excuse for the drug shortages: folks are going around to the various health centres, collecting drugs and HOARDING THEM!!
Why?? Why ask?? Just blame the people!!