Elections and Selections
On Saturday, on the 84 bus we passed the headquarters of the Socialist Party. It was quiet, still, no posters, no banners, no sense of excitement or urgency, so different from 2012 when Hollande was about to come to power and the country was full of hope and expectation. The mainstream parties are gone and the choice now is between the unknowable and the unthinkable.
Election fever in France is reflected in newspapersand magazines, in the kiosques and the tabacs, and on the shelves in bookshops.
Most people know they will vote for Macron – the alternative is unthinkable. But still there is canvassing to be done. Strolling past a metro station in the 17th we are handed a pamphlet by a young man, ‘Emmanuel Macron President – Programme’.
Around the corner, outside Monoprix another young person with a handful of pamphlets is talking to a prospective voter.
He seems to be everywhere, but there is a sense of surprise as if the media can’t quite believe it. Le Pen says, because Macron was a minister in Hollande’s government he is a socialist in disguise. If only. I think it’s rather more like Tony Blair’s claim to be a staunch Labour man. He came, he saw, he slid in. But he has to be better than the alternative.
And in the background the other unbelievable results, Trump and Brexit.
For some of us it is hard to understand how we have come to this. The world seemed to be moving slowly but surely towards a better life for all, a fairer life, where everyone was treated with respect and concern. But we find ourselves in a situation where certainties are gone and power is in the hands of the brazenly uncaring. The magazine Enterprise is right when it says ‘Between Trump and Brexit the world has enough to tremble about’. Let us hope the election on Sunday brings a bit of sanity to the situation.
the paris train 