MAYDAY, MAYDAY! Yellow vests +++ - Everybody's against Macron!

Hail, hail, the anti-Macron gang was all there! Populist "yellow vests" joined "black bloc" anarchists (aka "antifa"), members of the Front National, feminist activists and anti-climate change marchers, all joined the traditional union-organized May Day demonstrations in a show of solidarity against French president and darling of the progressive one-worlders, Emmanuel Macron.

Protests were held in 203 cities across France, drawing some 165,000 angry people. The main demonstration in Paris is said to have involved anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 in sometimes violent clashes with 7400 police and soldiers. There were clashes in the Montparnasse district of Paris where hundreds of anti-capitalist "black bloc" activists pushed to the front of the crowd. Bottles and other projectiles were reported to have been hurled at police with a parked police van set alight in the street. France's Minister of the Interior (the one responsible for what we call "homeland security") had warned that up to 2000 "radical activists" might try to hijack the Paris event and team up with "radicalized" protesters from within the yellow vest movement. (Not a word about "radicalized" followers of the Prophet though.)

The gendarmerie and other minions made liberal use (pun intended) of tear gas and rubber-pellet-spreading "sting" grenades in an effort to quell the minority of troublemakers who threw stones, overturned cars and erected flaming barricades in the streets. By early evening, authorities had detained more than 250 demonstrators who had "failed to respect our authoritie!", and carried out almost 13,000 "preventive searches" of people and cars. The show of strength comes on the heels of a recently enacted law that gives police the right to stop people and examine their bags and vehicles, and makes it a criminal offence for protesters to conceal their faces. (Muslims exempted, apparently.)

Last Thursday, M Macron took to the télé to make a surprise admission that the yellow vest movement, which began last November as a reaction to a new fuel tax and service cuts, had made some "just demands" and tapped into legitimate feelings of "anger and impatience for change." In response to their protests, he promised income tax cuts, a return to pension indexing, greater proportional representation and more referendums. Leaders of the gilets jaunes derided the plan of le Président as "too little, too late" and returned to the streets last Saturday, and again today.

Further reading and viewing:
"Marine Le Pen explains the Yellow Vest protests" (includes video), (WWW 27/12/18)
"What the 'Yellow Vests' want for France - good for us too?", (WWW 10/12/18)

France: Setback for le Front National; what if Islamists take over?

Walt admits to being not a little dismayed by the results of the runoff in France's regional elections, this past Sunday. Only a week before, I rejoiced -- a bit prematurely perhaps -- in the standings after the first round, which showed Marine Le Pen's Front National topping the polls, with as much as 40% of the popular vote. The remainder was split between the President François Hollande's socialists and the centre-right(ish) Union de la Droite, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Under the French system, where no-one gets a majority (50% + 1) in the first round of voting, another round is held, dropping off lesser candidates, until someone emerges a clear (majority) winner. It was widely believed -- or hoped, in some quarters including this one -- that Mme Le Pen had a good chance of winning the run-off in Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, her region in the northeast of France, as did her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who had won the first round in the southeastern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

Alas, it was not to be. What happened, in a nutshell, was that the socialists tanked, going so far as to actually withdraw their candidates in Mme Le Pen's region, telling their adherents to vote for the Union to stop the Front. Simple... and stupid... as that. So, the FN was defeated in all six regions where it had led the polls in the first round, and France is safe for democracy and multiculturalism. For now.

Let me draw an analogy here. Suppose Hellery Clinton gets the Democratic nomination -- hardly a long shot -- and Jeb beats out the Donald for the GOP nod, leaving Mr Trump to run as an Independent. And suppose Mr. Trump finishes first, with 40% of the vote, with Bush III second and Mrs. Bill third. What happened in France is like unto what would happen in the USA if there were a second round of voting and Queen Hillary told all the Democrats to get behind Jeb to stop Trump (thus to keep America democratic if not Democratic, etc). Got it?

For the French, there's always 2017, when it will be time once again for a presidential election. It may well come down to Hollande vs Sarkozy vs Le Pen. Then we'll see.

As long as we're supposing things about France, here's a thought. What if, by the time 2017 rolls around, enough Islamists are French citizens (or vice versa) that they can make or break one of the candidates. Maybe they could even form their own party and, supported by all those who denounce racism and celebrate diversity, win the election.

An Islamist government in France! What would that be like? In "What if the Islamists took France?", the National Post's Ian Hunter writes about Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission, set in France in 2022 (the year of the next presidential election after that of 2017). "The message I took from the novel Submission", he says, "is that it is already too late. Western civilization has lost its core beliefs, and its will to survive."

Hm. Maybe Submission should be on Walt's required reading list. Or maybe not. After all, it's possible to imagine an Islamist takeover of France, but not, surely, Britain... or Canada... or the United States of America.

Right wing parties win big -- really big -- in European elections

Much soiling of silky shorts in European corridors of power today, as one-worlders, socialists and "progressive thinkers" recoil in horror at the sweeping gains made in European Parliament elections by Eurosceptic and right-wing parties. BBC News headlines the story "Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections".

The aim of parties like France's Front National and Britain's United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is to slash the powers of the European Union or, even better, abolish it altogether. Their countries, they say, have all but completely ceded national sovereignty to the huge and unwieldy EU, making it impossible to determine their own destinies or even control their own borders. (If you think that means "restrict immigration", you're probably right!)

Yesterday, 21 of the EU's 28 nations held elections to choose representatives to the European Parliament. The other seven countries, including Britain and the Netherlands, had voted earlier in the week. And the big winner? ... May I have the envelope, please? ... Step forward France, where Marine Le Pen's Front National topped the polls with 26% support -— 4.1 million votes.

In her victory speech, Mme Le Pen said, "The sovereign people have spoken...acclaiming they want to take back the reins of their destiny!" She called the results "the first step in a long march to liberty." See "Against Islamization, the French send in La Marine!"

Need I tell you that the French government took a rather different view. Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the National Front win "more than a news alert...it is a shock, an earthquake." And President François Hollande is supposed to be holding a crisis meeting -- his office called it "urgent talks" -- with his top ministers even as Walt writes.

But France is not the only country experiencing widespread disillusionment with the EU and the Islamization of Europe. (Don't kid yourself. That's what this is really all about!) In Not-so-great Britain, Nigel Farage, leader of the fiercely Eurosceptical United Kingdom Independence Party, said, "It does look to me [like] UKIP is going to win this election and yes, that will be an earthquake, because never before in the history of British politics has a party that is seen to be an insurgent party ever topped the polls in a national election."

The first official results announced late Sunday had UKIP at about 30% -- 12% better than their result in the last European elections in 2009.
In Denmark, although the governing Social Democrats hung onto their five seats to remain the biggest Danish party in the European Parliament, the big winner was the populist Danish People's Party, which gained three seats for a total of four.

In Germany, a year-old party that wants that country to stop using the euro single currency reportedly won 6.7% of the vote.
In Greece, the leftist Eurosceptic Syriza party led with 26.49%, but the far-right Golden Dawn party finished a respectable third, with 9.33%.

In the Netherlands, however, the right-wing Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders surprisingly dropped a seat from five to four. As the Dutch voted in one representative each from a radical feminist party and an animal rights group, it's just possible that they didn't take the exercise very seriously. However, Mr. Wilders, optimistic as ever, said his party looked forward to working with Mme Le Pen, calling her "the next French president."

Are there any lessons in this for American and Canadian political parties? Probably not. Lamestream pundits in the USA are pushing the line that this year's mid-terms will show the Tea Party on the wane, with moderate Republicans moving the GOP towards the centre. And, as Ron Paul and a long line of others have found out, it's all but impossible to get Americans to actually vote for any group which the media call "extreme"... even if the "extremism" is in defence of liberty and personal freedom.

Canada is even worse. The old-line Conservative and Liberal parties are not nearly as far to the right or left as their names would suggest. Rather, they are parties of the "radical centre". Even the New [sic] Democratic Party, nominally of the left, hews so close to the centre that its members have changed the party anthem to "The Very Pale Pink Flag". Don't look for any political earthquakes in North America any time soon.