FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
ROUEN — Ultimately, the only one who does not seem to resign himself to the triumph of National Rally and he, Raphaël Glucksmann44 years old and a life on the side of Europe, a Paris e Strasbourg but also to Tbilisi and Kievagainst nationalism and friends of Vladimir Putin.
We meet him at «Paul», the oldest brasserie in Rouen in front of the cathedral painted by Monet, a few minutes from the rally that will close the first phase of the electoral campaign, awaiting tomorrow’s vote. «At the European Championships I was focusing everything on the enthusiasm and coherence of my project. Now I can not. I just think of the very serious danger we are running. The far right in power in France is a scary scenario.” Leader, with Francois Hollandeof the moderate current of New Popular FrontGlucksmann agreed to ally himself with the hard left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon «with enormous regret, and only until the second round on 7 July. Then a new political season will open.”
Glucksmann confirms himself as an atypical politician, because he is unable to feign confidence and optimism, at least not in the short term, and says he is «astonished by the television debates: great discussions on details, when we are on the eve of a turning point with no return, which could change for always the face of France.” Only three weeks ago, a political era now very distant, Glucksmann was the surprise of the European because his micro-party «Public place», supported by the socialists, had outclassed the rivals of the «rebellious France» by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, managing to «wrest the flag of Europeanism from Macron’s hands». On June 9th, for less than an hour, the man of the evening (apart from the obvious Jordan Bardella) it was him. Then Macron took back the scene: early electionsand immediately.
«An unforgivable betrayal, that evening Macron enjoyed playing Nero, intoxicated by the sight of Rome burning. Now Pontius Pilate is doing it: he put us in this situation, but he refuses to take a position between the far right bloc and us on the left. His “neither nor” policy born Bardella born Mélenchonit’s absurd. Because Mélenchon will never be prime minister, and we will never be able to reach an absolute majority, let’s face it. Bardella, on the other hand, can very well do it. I don’t even want to think about Bardella as prime minister and Thierry Mariani, the man from Moscowthe Kremlin’s little telegrapher, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Since April 21, 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen eliminated Lionel Jospin and qualified for the second round of the presidential elections, France has seen continuous “advances of the Front National”, which later became the “Rassemblement”. Its voters are happy about it, obviously. But the political and intellectual class now seems a bit accustomed to the idea: either because they think that once again, as always, Marine Le Pen really won’t get into power; or because they are ready to see the effect it has. “I hear many men close to Macron say ‘three years of Bardella, we’ll see’, but it doesn’t work like that, we can’t play with the future of France”.
In order to stop the RN – “the only priority now” – Glucksmann accepted the coalition with Mélenchon, overlooking weeks of anti-Semitic insults from militants of France Insoumise. He found himself with swastikas painted on his election posters, his cell phone number was circulated on the Telegram channels of the far right and the far left and he received hundreds of phone calls and text messages “dirty Jew” from both. And when he joined the Nouveau Front Populaire anyway, he also had to endure lessons in coherence from those who criticized him for his pact with Mélenchon.
«I only did it to stop Bardella», he repeats. Many accuse the left of a Pavlovian anti-RN reflex, a form of tired automatic opposition based on a presumed and self-proclaimed moral superiority, which is less and less justified given the derive pro-Hamas of the insoumis. Why then should we do this anti-RN barrage? And if it can participate in the elections, isn’t it now a party like the others? Glucksmann is convinced not. Because the Rassemblement national is that of maxi-loan from Moscowthe party that one day yes and one day no wants to leave NATO and reduce aid to Ukrainebut above all «it is what the selection of citizens wants to do, which is already targeting bi-nationals and French people of foreign origin who are said to be less French than the others». And theextreme right it is that of the evening serenely called Ausländer Raus («foreigners out», as the pro-Nazi sons of Sylt sang a month ago) organized tonight right here at the bar «Le Mora di Rouen» (then banned by the mayor), and it is also that of the inhabitants of Montargis filmed on video while for months they called their black neighbor «monkey», as they say in France, and shouted at her «go to bed» but Marine Le Pen he says that “it’s not racism.”
Glucksmann is not resigned to this and hopes that the hesitations of the other politicians will end on Sunday evening, “when they will take an even more memorable beating than the previous ones, and they will finally understand.” What will Macron do at that point? Will he tell his people to vote for the Nouveau Front Populaire in the second round just to avoid Bardella in Matignon? “I don’t know. I hope, however, that many men who until now were part of his majority will abandon him., and join us».
