With the actual crisis, the timing is almost perfect…For sure, at the next election; this brand-new-second-hand party will be quite successful. Located on the very left of the French political shield, the NPA (Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste / New Anti-capitalist Party) is already dreaming about a victory on the European level…even if for them, the European Union is the devil…
This is now official: the French left wing has a new competitor. The NPA. Bad news for the socialist party (still in war after the presidential defeat in 2007) and the communist one (almost dead, only surviving thanks to the help from the socialist party). With its name; New Anti-capitalist Party, the program is quite clear: they want to change a lot of thing is our world, especially in Europe. Because, yes, they will run for it.
In the introduction, I used the expression “brand-new-second-hand”, not because I wanted to be funny, but because this NPA, is just a new LCR (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire / Revolutionary Communist Party), a party already existing for many and many years…
All the ideas are quite similar, nothing has changed, but this creation was the occasion to merger with some others small Marxist organizations and change the name. The new one is quite good for marketing communication, especially with the economic atmosphere…
The leader of this party is the most famous postman of France: Olivier Besancesnot, around 35years old, former spokesman of the LCR, and candidate at the French Presidential election in 2002 and 2007. Very good public speaker and very popular in France. Which is quite easy for him, because he is always promising a lot of money and good job to everyone…
Besancesnot was one of the NO-guy is 2005. His slogan was: We want another Europe. According to him, the Constitution was not social enough, and it was not a problem to vote no, Europe had a Plan B…. Actually, we are still waiting for this PlanB and this other Europe (Lisbon Treaty? Take the Constitution, copy/paste, and you have it).
The strategy for 2009 is quite simple: use the crisis and propose to change the EU from the inside. What kind of thing do they want for the EU?
- 30hours of work per week,
- Retirement at 60 years old for everyone (60years would be the very maximum),
- 1500 euros per months as the minimum salary in France. And the equivalent in term of purchasing power in the rest of Europe.
- Popular control on all the companies and banks. Especially on the ECB,
- Fair cooperation with the rest of the world (?),
- No more armies in Europe,
- Reform of the European system. They want something like: Socialists United States of Europe.
- End of the liberalizations in Europe.
- Nationalization of many companies.
- End of the private property.
- Canceled of many agreements like Shengen. Too liberal and help the social dumping…
If you read the official document of the party, it says that they want to fight against « the capitalist’ exploitation and oppression ». They also recognize that the Stalinism was not so good for people, but when you read the text, the program is still quite similar.
Experts on French politics think that this party could be able to catch 9-10% of the votes at the European elections…After the UMP (Sarkozy’s party), the Socialist Party and the Modem (Center), NPA could be the fourth political party in France (it will really depends on the Front National, the extreme right one, which is having problem since Sarkozy is stealing its voters…). If we add the probable result of the Communist Party, 13% of the citizens will vote for an extreme left party. On the very right side, the situation is not better: around 15% (divided between three or four parties).
Why such radicalization of French people? Several reasons:
- the eternal fight in the Socialist Party, not able to build a real opposition to Sarkozy,
- the crisis, which is giving more legitimacy to extreme left parties, asking for a new economic system (do not forget that France had a strong communist party after the WWII but we have never experimented the reality of the communist system),
- the national reflex: the globalization seems to fail, let go back to our old national reference,
- almost two years after the Presidential election… people are starting to be disappointed. It is true that the crisis is not helping him that much…
- usually we do not use the proportional system of vote (bad souvenirs from the IVth Republic). Our national system encourages people to vote for strong parties (two-ballot uninominal majority poll – in the French parliament, only five parties represented…it is nothing when you know that 12 parties were running for the Presidential elections in 2007). So, this election seems to be a good opportunity to express a different voice.
- French people do not understand all the issues of this election, thinking that is not so important, so we can use this elections as a way to punish traditional parties.
- The socialist party and the UMP are not involved enough in this campaign. Not yet. They do not want to have a long campaign, thinking that anyway, they will win…
So, dear people of Europe, get ready, France will probably send to Brussels, quite important number of extreme deputies, not really in love with the EU. At least, in the hemicycle, it will debate…
(22 votes, average: 3.95 out of 5)
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I noticed that this is not the first time at all that you write about this topic. Why have you chosen it again?