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3 EDITORIAL
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The velvet coup? — Poul Funder Larsen different countries.
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The spider unravels its web
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33 LATIN AMERICA
The socialism syndrome — Frei Betto
36 MARCH 8
International Women's Day, 1993
Eva Nikell and Penny Duggan
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International Viewpoint #244 April 1993
DESPITE the fact that the results were entirely predictable, the French elections of March 21 and 28 represent a major political upset of disturbing dimensions. Given the importance of the elections, we have given this month's editorial page over to the Political Bureau of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International.
T HE right has returned in force.
The tidal wave has produced the most rightwing parliament of the Fifth Republic founded by De Gaulle in 1958. The Republican Asssembly Party (RPR) of Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac has 247 deputies and the Democratic Union of France (UDF) of former President Valery Giscard D'Estaing 213 (thus 460 for the Patriotic Union of France coalition, UPF) which, with 24 "diverse right" deputies makes 484 seats.
On the other side are 70 Socialists (PS) and allies and 23 Communists (PCF).
In fact, however, the enormous triumph of the UPF is not the result in the rise of the number of votes cast for the UDF and RPR. The moving factor in the whole electoral panorama is the collapse of the PS. millions of voters who turned out for that party in 1988 changed their vote this time, many abstaining or casting blank ballots
This is a straightforward punishment for the policies pursued by the PS in government in recent years. Over time, the frustration has built up. It seems that the number one issue was unemployment. This Socialists, despite their promises did nothing to tackle this problem, allowing job losses to mount up to top the three million barrier.
On all fronts, the rise of racism, ecological questions — which are increasingly a part of political consciousness — during the Gulf War or over the Maastricht Treaty, the Socialist regime showed no sign of having any original or effective ideas that would meet the concerns of the bulk of the popula-
The overall balance-sheet is stark. While profits have risen spectacularly, unemployment and inequality have risen inexorably. On top of all this were the scan-
EDITOrIAL
La débâcle
dals. The obscure financing of the PS, the accusations of personal gain of some PS bosses and the contaminated blood affair all created a feeling of pervading disgust.
These things were made more unbearable in that this was all proof that, at a time when the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies was hurting many, money was still easy for those in the circles of power. This is the context that led the left's habitual voters to repudiate the "red rose elite".
It seemed at one point as if the ecologists would benefit from the PS' problems as a refuge for left voters. At one point the alliance of Ecology Generation (GS) and the Greens was getting 19% support in the opinion polls - ahead of the PS. Their final score of 7% is thus a big failure and a cruel
The chest-thumping by former Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard about a "big bang" to realign the left — bringing together Socialists, ecologists and centrists in a new organization - did not succeed in halting the PS debacle, despite plenty of media attention. Nor did it save Rocard
The Communist Party, meanwhile, despite a slight decline, has kept its parliamentary group resting on its remaining bastions in some working class areas. The far left got its usual scores, small without being deriso-
Candidates representing currents critical of the PS or the PCF leadership did less well than might have been expected on the basis of the recent regional elections. No breakthrough from this side of the chess
Only the right and far right benefited from the desire to punish the Socialists. The electoral system amplifies the movement — the RPR/UDF alliance got 40% of the votes
PLANTE in the first round, but 80% of the seats in the second. Nonetheless, it remains the fact that the right and far right got 63% of the votes in the second round and that the right now controls all the levers of power and occupies all the key institutional positions apart from the presidency.
The most worrying is the result for the far right National Front (NF). Contrary to all the reassuring talk about its decline, it got 13% in the first round, and, while it did not win any seats, it got 100 or so candidates through the second round, some of which got 30 to 40% of the vote. The FN remains a serious threat and will be ready to take advantage of the inevitable setbacks of the new right majority.
In 1981 a period in which the left was the "natural party of government" opened up — made possible by the previous decade of the Union of the Left which united the PS and PCF and other forces. This is now over. We are in a new period of rightwing domination. The right will have to control its appetites and its desire for revenge to win the forthcoming presidential elections.
But very soon it is going to have to govern and face up to big challenges. As everybody has been saying, unemployment is the number one problem: what will the right do about it? Against a backdrop of recession and monetary problems, Maastricht and the future of European union will return to centre stage. The right is seriously split on this question - with much of the RPR opposed to Maastricht.
Such questions were eliminated from the pre-election debates, dominated by the sins of the Socialists. But they will now return with a vengeance.
The left meanwhile faces an ambitious task: its overall reconstruction.*
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