Viewpoint. Former Secretary of State for the Budget Christian Eckert, who worked with Emmanuel Macron at Bercy, says here why it would be irresponsible to allow the current President of the Republic to serve a second term.
By Christian Eckert
The presidential campaign that has been gaining strength and vigor in the last few days leads me to take up a pen that I have neglected for a few weeks for various reasons that have no place here.
Some people are surprised to see me mentioned among the members of Anne Hidalgo’s team, candidate to the presidential election. It is obvious: we need an offer from a responsible and voluntary left, ambitious but realistic, humanist but demanding. None of the other candidates claiming to be of the left ticks these boxes. Christiane, a friend whom I adore, comes very late after 4 years of deafening silence. Jean-Luc Mélenchon locks himself into maximalist postures that are as seductive as they are inaccessible. The ecologists believe they can govern alone, imposing their ideas of degrowth on a society addicted to consumption.
Opportunistic socialists
Emmanuel Macron is of the right. He represents and defends the interests of the forces of money and the liberal economy. I perceived this from the beginning. He has attracted to him certain opportunist socialists and the classical right to take advantage of the errors of political life, orchestrated and amplified by the media, almost all of which are owned by a few oligarchs who always want more.
To win, even on the left, one must know how to take into account international realities and not promise the unattainable. France is not an island disconnected from its environment, populated more often by competitors than partners.
The major risk is to see this re-elected President, at the orders of his constituents, without restraint, because he is not eligible for re-election, put in place to :
- liquidate our Social Security for both health and pensions, to open these markets to banks and private insurance.
- to make school and university a market reserved for the most moneyed. No one had ever dared to mention making university studies fee-paying on the American model.
- to hand over public services such as the Post Office, the SNCF, electricity… to private interests, like the Française des Jeux, which has been sold off to shareholders who are more interested in profit than in ethics.
- to continue to denigrate and demolish the political debate by transforming it into a communication contest where personal postures replace collective projects.
How, then, can we not commit ourselves and resign ourselves to these major risks, which are ultimately destructive almost as much as the ideas of the extreme right? Too many left-wing voters no longer want to vote, even in the first round. The causes are diverse, but it doesn’t matter!
Disavow Macron
There may be too many candidates on the left to qualify for the second round. But disavowing Macron in the first round is an absolute necessity, to hold him back in his destructive intentions of our economic and social model. It is also a necessity to silence those who dream of seeing in these elections the end of the left capable of governing. Finally, it is a necessity to apprehend the deadlines that will follow.
Everyone on the left must overcome their disappointments, their resentments and their egos… And go and vote against Emmanuel Macron. For me, it will be by voting for Anne Hidalgo. Her project to which I modestly contributed is the only one that corresponds to my values.