Western political and media establishment aghast at success of democratic socialism in France.

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The biggest political group in the UK election were the millions who refused to participate in the coronation of Starmer – France shows that a different future is possible.

Nobody expected the left wing alliance to triumph in the French elections. Europe was braced for a rejection of Macron’s neoliberal alliance in favour of a turn towards the openly racist right.

That this didn’t happen is no thanks to Macron who has offered exactly the same fealty to the 1% , Israel, the U.S. / NATO and the corporate media as Starmer.

Macron is an extremist just as Starmer is an extremist: both reliable tools of a genocidal and ecologically toxic elite.

No, as the spectre of fascism loomed over France, its people went in record numbers to vote for an actual alternative and returned a socialist grouping as the clear winners.

The British and European political and media establishment are naturally more aghast at a triumph for socialism than they would have been had Marine Le Pen been preparing for government this morning.

Fascism represents no real problem for the status quo, as it threatens nothing they care about. As both Starmer and Sunak demonstrated in the UK election, the supposed ‘moderates’ are quite happy to deploy openly racist tropes.

Fascism represents a power management quandary for the establishment, but not much of an ideological challenge. Via its pan-European support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the ‘centrist’ camouflage is blown, showing that fascism dovetails perfectly with western neoliberal imperialism. What the usual suspects really fear is socialism.

The fear and loathing for the French left was on display this morning from the panoply of sameness that is western churnalism.

Despite the fact that Macron’s ‘centrists’ lost the election to a socialist alliance, the media are (with typical slipperiness) painting the election as a victory for ‘progressives’, so as to claim some reflected glory for Macron in defeating the far right.

This is gaslighting of course. It is the ‘centrist’ swamp that created the preconditions for the far right via their empty politics of societal decay, moral vacuum and aloof arrogance. There is nothing ‘progressive’ about Macron’s vulture capitalist cronies but this was the only way the media can smudge the triumph of the left.

Macron has asked centrist flunky Gabriel Attal to remain in post as Prime Minister despite the election result. The media are agitating for any coalition that will keep socialists out of government. Quelle surprise. The establishment loves democracy only when it delivers no challenge to the status quo.

Macron is saying that the Attal must remain “for the stability of the country”. Perhaps the “stability of the country” might be better served by respecting the result of the election? Nah. When democracy doesn’t deliver the ‘right’ result, ‘centrists’ lose all interest in it.

The BBC is deploying all the coded signals to its audience that they must be very afraid of the success of socialists in France. “What just happened?” it asks in bewilderment.

Ah yes – firebrand, extremist, hard left, where we have heard all this before and why would Mélenchon need to delay ‘claiming’ victory? His alliance has won the most votes and the most seats, which is how you win elections. To the eyes of a BBC hack though, such a ‘claim’ is naturally deemed illegitimate and unseemly when coming from the mouth of a socialist.

Can you imagine? Socialists and Communists and even Trotskyists (eek!) and people voted for them! Their victory is closer to being able to govern than Macron but they won’t mention that part.

The rest of the BBC’s coverage drips with condescension about the ‘gridlock’ of French politics. This is part of a long standing snobbery directed from the English upper class towards European politics. Far neater and tidier to have a proper British democracy, that offers the electorate no choice at all: reliably delivering widespread apathy and a conveyor belt of decisive victories for inherited wealth and power.

In France, the electoral system gives voters an actual choice and politicians have to work together to work things out. The English oligarchy and big business prefer stage managed coronations of vetted media-bots like Starmer.

The French election turnout, at 66.63%, was the highest in a parliamentary second round since 1997. The UK election turnout by contrast was the second lowest since 1885 and the landslide winners got less than 20% of the eligible vote. The only turn out that was lower was the other non-choice between Cameron and Milliband in 2010.

All this shows you exactly why the truly powerful in the UK will NEVER embrace proportional representation until forced. The first past the post electoral system in the UK is purposely designed to prevent democratic socialism from taking root. On the odd occasion when an outsider breaches the velvet ropes (as with Corbyn) the entirety of the media / political complex works night and day to exclude them again.

[The unbridled joy of The Guardian over Starmer is the victory roll of an empiric class restoring what they regard as the proper order of things. It also explains why Starmer moved so quickly to force out the Labour left and to stamp out the overall democratisation of the Labour movement, so as to prevent any chance of another Corbyn.]

Macron and his billionaire friends will now work ceaselessly to try and stamp out this flare up of socialist hope in France, deploying every lever to prevent the winners of the election from gaining any foothold in government. In doing so they are playing with fire, as the French streets will soon show.

As the western media blows every gasket today to smear and diminish the victory of the French Left and to pour scorn on the French electoral system, do remember these days: for this is true commitment that the West has to their oft touted values of freedom and democracy.

When the sheep can be bamboozled into going through the proper right-wing gates, then the usual suspects beam with champagne delight; when things take a socialist turn, they claim that democracy is faulty and set about fixing the result.

No matter how much the media complex spin it (and they will), if Macron tries to cling to power in France he will plunge the country into chaos. That chaos will not be the fault of the left nor of the French electoral system, but of a cabal of corrupt people who regard power as their right and democracy as an unwelcome intrusion.

British audiences should take careful note of the French electoral result of 2024.

Once it becomes clear that Starmer bats 100% for the same 1% that the other Tories do, a lot of people are going to be very angry and disillusioned. If the UK is then to avoid Farage (or someone like him) succeeding where Marine Le Pen has (for now) failed, it is essential that we launch a new party of progressive socialism that insists on electoral reform.

France has shown that another future is possible: we should all take heart from that.