The euro is killing liberalism
Not hapless President Hollande and his Socialists, surely? No. They are down to 21 percent in the polls. Nor is it the centre-Right Gaullistes, who are on measly 22 percent – and have scarcely ever been less popular.
The shocking truth is that the most popular political party in France, according to one recent poll, is the Front National, supported by almost one in four French voters.
The Front National is beyond the pale. They are not simply a protest party, but extreme. Their political philosophy, in so far as they have one, seems to me to derive from a reading of Jean Raspail’s dystopian novel, the Camp of the Saints. Pessimistic, they seem to lack any uplifting vision of France or the future.
So why are they doing so well?
It can’t simply be immigration. France has had higher levels of immigration in the past than she does today – and the Front National then remained in single digits. Some might suggest that France’s bigger problem today is in fact emigration – with her brightest and best moving to London, America and elsewhere.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that France is run by a remote, technocratic elite – the énarques? But France has been run that way – for good or ill – for generations. It does not explain this sudden upsurge in support for an anti-establishment – I would suggest an anti-everything – party.
The real reason I suspect that the Front National is doing well in France is the euro.
Joining the single currency did not just mean giving up the right to issue French francs. It means, ultimately, that the French public lost the right to determine French public policy in key areas.
Tax and spend decisions in France – and indeed in Greece and elsewhere – are no longer made those the voters elect, but by Eurocrats. So French – and Greek – voters and politicians no longer have responsibility for making the big political choices.
And if you take responsibility away from the people, they behave irresponsibly.
So in France a growing number vote for the Front National and in Greece some for the Golden Dawn.
How odd if a political project that was supposed to seal the triumph of the liberal democratic order in Europe seems to be undermining it. How tragic if the Euro, rather than providing Europe with prosperity and political stability, produced the very opposite.
Douglas Carswell is the Member of Parliament for Clacton. This blog first appeared on TalkCarswell.com
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