![]() I can’t tell you what the official Republican economic program is, because the party doesn’t have one - in fact, it has made a point of not saying what it will do if it regains power. But there is some genuine populism - advocacy of policies that might actually help workers - in her platform.Ĭompare that with the positions taken by prominent U.S. If she wins, the consequences for France, Europe and the world will be terrifying. Le Pen, by contrast, actually wants to reduce the retirement age for some workers. He is, however, trying to trim some benefits, notably by raising the retirement age. Macron isn’t challenging the fundamentals of that system. progressives: universal health care, huge family benefits and more. France provides social benefits on a scale beyond the wildest dreams of U.S. Now, it’s important to understand the context. On economic policy, however, Le Pen is if anything to the left of President Emmanuel Macron. And on social issues it is in particular, the party is largely defined by its hostility to immigrants and the alleged threat they pose to France’s national identity. ![]() Her party, National Rally - previously called the National Front - is often described as right-wing. To understand the puzzle, consider the policy positions of Marine Le Pen, who has a serious chance of becoming France’s next president. has become a full-on antidemocratic party, why has it also remained the party of plutocrats and the enemy of any policy that might help its many working-class supporters? ethnonationalists raises some interesting questions. Still, the comparison of European and U.S. And while I’m quite willing to believe, for example, that Ron DeSantis would be Florida’s Orban if he could, state governors don’t have as much repressive power as rulers of sovereign nations. ![]() Agreed! But that wasn’t the point of my argument. In response, I received mail from Europeans to the effect that American democracy is also under threat and that some of our right-wing politicians are every bit as bad as Orban. Germany hasn’t just been weak-kneed in its response to Vladimir Putin it and other European nations have stood by and even continued to provide economic aid to Hungary while Viktor Orban dismantles democracy. I recently wrote about how international trade has made some Western nations - Germany in particular - unwilling to confront autocracy.
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