Today France’s President Emmanuel Macron was handed a crushing defeat in the first round of the French parliamentary elections. His centrist coalition finished a distant third to Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, ahead in at least 297 of the 577 districts, and the leftist New Popular Front, leading in at least 153 districts. Macron’s “Ensemble” grouping leads in 65 of the districts. By the time the second round on July 7 determines the seats in the Assemblée Nationale, the Tories in Great Britain are expected to get a similar kick in the side of the head, from the July 4 polls. Both results should echo the across-the-board rejection of the Atlanticist candidates that occurred in the June 9 EU elections.
There are no heroes in these proceedings—just a simple, loud expression of rejection of the economic misery, the threat of perpetual war, the hatred of the reckless disregard by the so-called European leaders for the values and lives of the population. However, on July 1, the EU Council presidency is assumed by Hungary; and today Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced a new alliance in the EU Parliament, the “Patriots for Europe,” apparently designed to end the malaise. It was formed by his Fidesz party, by the Czech Republic’s ANO (their largest opposition bloc, headed by former Prime Minister Andrej Babis), and by the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), headed by Herbert Kickl. While all three parties cater to the rage against immigrants, they had more to say at today’s joint press conference.
Orbán stated that the June 9 election results were recognized by some EU countries, but “the Brussels elite is resisting because Brussels is not a democratic construct. In this situation, it is our duty to enforce the will of the voters. Three political parties are sitting here before you. The strongest Austrian party, the strongest Czech party and the strongest Hungarian party, and we take the responsibility to launch this new platform and new faction.... Today we are creating a political formation that I believe will very quickly become the largest faction of the European right-wing.” He added that EU policies need to yield to the results of the June 9 European Parliament elections, in which the ruling coalitions in Germany, France and Italy were effectively smashed. Orbán said the three parties were just the beginning, and that many other European parties would join, making theirs “the largest faction of the European right. It will happen within days.”
The “Patriots for Europe” stated that “the nations of Europe have reached a historical turning point. The European Union—which was once a dream project rooted in the desire for reconciliation after the devastation caused by two world wars and decades of division—has turned against Europeans…. The recent European Parliament elections in June therefore had both generational and existential significance. The political fault line is no longer between conservatives and liberals or right and left, but between centrists—who are the harbingers of a new European ‘superstate'—and patriots and sovereignists... Only through the victory and cooperation of the continent’s patriotic and sovereignist parties can we guarantee the inheritance of our children.”
They “believe in a Europe made up of strong, proud and independent nations; from nations that can freely decide to co-exist and cooperate in mutual agreement; they believe in a Europe that works together through institutions rooted in nations; through institutions that act on behalf of and are accountable to the people of Europe.… Committed to peace and dialogue, but at the same time ready to defend itself against any danger; it protects and celebrates its European identity, traditions and customs, the fruit of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage. It values the diversity inherent in its nations, their history and way of life.…”
Yesterday, Orbán had indicted Brussels bureaucrats for having “shot European companies in their feet with sanctions,” for driving inflation upwards, and for “imposing their own ideologies” on the EU’s population, instead of “looking after the interests of the people.” But there’s really no way for Orbán and his collaborators to fight their way back to normal trade with Russia and China. The stakes are higher.
The Belt and Road projects are on the table. The quality of political leadership to avoid the “imposed ideologies” and to meet the “historical turning point”—what Friedrich Schiller identified as the “punctum saliens”—is also there on the table, with the bold, clear interventions of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Ten Principles and of Independent U.S. Senate candidate in New York Diane Sare’s Fourth of July message.
That student of the American Revolution, Friedrich Schiller, revealed an important and timely lesson of the Fourth of July and the proper birth of a new world, and the horrendous tragedy involved in the failure to rise to the occasion. Let not a great moment in history find a little people.
