© Associated PressEmmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen
On Sunday French voters went to the polls and chose Emmanuel Macron rather than Marine Le Pen to be France's next president. Macron, a former investment banker and economics minister in the hugely unpopular government of President Francois Hollande, was endorsed by Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and the rest of the global elite who favor the unfettered reign of global capital. As economics minister, he succeeded in passing anti-labor legislation that caused rioting in French streets. He supports the privatization of social services like health care and education, NATO hostilities on Russia's border, and President Donald Trump's direct missile strikes on the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.
Marine Le Pen called for France's departure from both NATO and the European Union, restoration of the French franc as its currency, and "intelligent protectionism" to defend the living standards of French farmers and workers. She favors detente with Russia, she condemned Trump's missile strikes on Syria, and she has pushed for restricting immigration and deporting citizens of other nations who are on France's terrorist watch list. She was endorsed by prominent British Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and praised by Donald Trump.
Both Macron and Le Pen called for prison capacity expansion, but Macron was reported to have called for fewer new cells than Le Pen.
American author and Counterpunch writer Diana Johnstone says that elites whipped up mass hysteria that Le Pen is a fascist to put the neoliberal globalist Macron in power. I spoke to Diana in Paris where she has lived most of her adult life.
Comment: With America seemingly imploding in on itself, the unipolar world ruled by American hegemony is ending.
Welcome to the new multi-polar world.