Both Sides of the Channel

Emmanuel Macron was once seen as a wunderkind in French politics who could breathe life into the old Hexagon when he was elected president of France in 2017.  That bloom has long disappeared from the rose.  Last week by-elections that Macron called were held in France to try to shore up his centrist base in the French parliament.  It ended up getting wiped out by extremist factions - mostly right-wing extremists, who were supporters of Popular Front leader Marine Le Pen - due to continuing economic instability in the country.

The elections in France were indicative of the increasing popularity of right-wing politics in continental Europe.  Not the raw American strain - French women don't get fat, and they don't have to worry about losing their reproductive rights either - but still a virulent strain of reactionism that is hostile to immigration, fair trade,  free markets and fearu of the economic realities of the post-COVID fallout.  What's going on in Hungary is only getting more popular in Germany and Italy as well as France.

Meanwhile, the British threw out the Conservatives and their leader, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, sweeping in Labour and their leader Keir Starmer to power with an historic majority in the House of Commons.  Prime Minister Starmer takes office as a technocrat who ran on policy as a message to revive Britain's sluggish economy, suggesting that the Brits are bucking an increasingly global trend and taking a more pragmatic approach to solving problems.

There is one disturbing common trend between Britain and France - in both cases, the incumbents lost.  that trend has dark forebodings for the American elections in November.