About the leading four candidates on the eve of the first round

Here we are a few days before the first round of the French presidential election. These elections are very unusual, and unlike the left-right back and forth that existed up to now, the country is now in an unpredictable situation.

Clearly Benoît Hamon, the Socialist candidate, won’t make it to the second round. We are glad about that: the PS, historical party of social democracy, dropped below everyone else in the last five years. The reforms against our rights, wars abroad and intensifying repression showed the true face of this party. Even with a candidate marked as “left”, the PS is on the verge of explosion, its support has collapsed.

Four candidates are now neck and neck in the polls, and it is important to explain who they are, what their differences and similarities are.

François Fillon is the candidate of the right and center, he represents the Catholic right, conservative, openly despising the working classes. His whole character was built on an image of man of integrity, now torpedoed by scandals. François Fillon wants to be the French Thatcher: he advocates for an authoritarian control of French businesses by the bourgeoisie. His program is an economical “blitzkrieg”, it considers it necessary to destroy the rights of the proletariat as quickly as possible to put France back on track, crushing any protests.

For the right, this election coming after a disastrous five-year socialist term of office seemed to be impossible to lose. Yet, the scandals in addition to the rise of Emmanuel Macron has seriously endangered the campaign of François Fillon. The fact that he has 20% of intended votes indicates that a significant part of the Catholic bourgeoisie (especially after the homophobes “Manif pour Tous”) continues to support him, hoping to be able to place their pawns in Les Républicains party.

Emmanuel Macron, in appearance, presents a much more modern vision than François Fillon. Young, appearing above the left-right division, he represents “young dynamic cadres”, the smiling face of liberalism. Yet his plan is not very different from the one of François Fillon, especially in the economic field. Emmanuel Macron is a product of the current situation facing a decaying PS and a right in crisis, one that embodies a synthesis aiming to attract the disappointed from both sides. This is a marketing operation is straight from the playbook of François Hollande or Alain Juppé, but in a more presentable form. Emmanuel Macron supports, like the other candidates, French imperialism, the logic of war inside and outside the borders.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his movement, France Insoumise, is working to rebuild a social democratic pole capable of mobilizing the masses. This movement has a strong dynamic.Yet, beyond the reformist proposals around the plan of a “Sixth Republic”, Jean-Luc Mélenchon defends a social-chauvinist line. The Party purports that France must be “installed” on five continents to defend French imperialism (including his friend, the arms seller Dassault), have military presence in the colonies, and uphold the National memory. Compared to the 2012 elections, his speeches are even more centered on the nation, and even less about social class.

The heart of all our troubles should be Germany or the European Union, not the bourgeoisie. Jean-Luc Mélenchon represents a social-chauvinist petite bourgeoisie, particularly the labor aristocracy which hopes for a chauvinistic defense of its interests.

Finally, Marine Le Pen embodies the bourgeoisie’s most reactionary tendency. Her party, the National Front is the main representative of the fascist trend in France. Her program also corresponds to historical fascism: support for the imperialist bourgeoisie, war abroad, division of the people, military framing of the proletariat, glorification of the conquering nation. The “social” and “sovereignty” speech of the FN is made to disarm the working class and must be broken down and fought relentlessly. Marine Le Pen’s plan is that of a bourgeoisie terrorist dictatorship: it is likely that she will qualify for the second round but unlikely that she will come to power in 2017, but her camp is growing gradually, taking advantage of electoral logic to gather people disappointed with the other parties. The latest racist and negationist statements of this candidate show that she has changed anything in her plan.

The FN has strengthened throughout the last few years, and generates initiatives in all sectors of the society. It has secured the support of the police, important parts of the army, and is now breaking through to education, among senior officials, in the university. The bourgeoisie is more and more openly making the choice of fascism to stabilize a gradually collapsing regime.

We therefore say that the revolutionaries were right in 2012, saying that the inevitable fall of PS would result in a political crisis that would strengthen the social chauvinism and fascism. Today, the main candidates represent different social groups, but ultimately, they all serve the interests of the imperialist bourgeoisie by offering various strategic options for a “way out of the crisis”.

Three of the candidates openly defend the use of war and the destruction of our rights; the fourth, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, tries to seduce the proletariat, but he embodies the same trend.

No candidate opens a way for the people to take their destinies into their own hands. No one puts the brakes on the drive to war. No candidate represent us, none can prevent or even slow the progression of fascism and the worsening of the current crisis. Even their “anti-system” postures are sadly similar. Their programs are similar, complete each other, without proposing any solution to the current priorities: socialization of the economy, stopping the capitalist ecocide, ending the imperialist wars, the establishment of a just society, where everybody has a place.

What to do? Vote? Surely not! We want to embody a strong pole to propose a positive vision for the dignity of the people, for resistance and revolution. Against the despair, fascism and imperialism. Nobody will do it if the working class and the masses don’t.

It is therefore necessary to develop the campaign to boycott the 2017 elections, destroy everywhere the legitimacy of the presidential elections, to pave the way for the People’s War of tomorrow, the only solution of the proletariat to face the bourgeois war and to grasp power.

All to the streets on the evening of the first round!

Boycott the elections, prepare the People’s War!

Source: http://www.pcmaoiste.org/communique/a-propos-du-quatuor-de-tete-a-la-veille-du-premier-tour/