We shall not know until the\u00a0second round completes in a fortnight. The two visions of France are at odds with each other in the battle between Macron and Le Pen. \u00a0Le Pen has the simpler, many say simplistic, programme for reform; France for the French, leave the euro, halt immigration, Frexit referendum and so on. Macron is more hopeful and uplifting, liberal and pro-Europe, but less specific. Both are riding a high tide of discontent, but it is not clear that either has chartered a reliable course to calmer waters.<\/p>\n
France’s problems are structural as much as economic and social as much as political. With\u00a0its social model, the euro is over valued, causing France\u00a0to become less competitive. On the other hand its rival and neighbour, Germany, has enjoyed a devaluation, because the euro is much lower than an independent D-mark. This has made\u00a0German\u00a0goods cheap, because it has by far the most efficient economy and it has prospered as never before. But it was France who suggested the euro as a means of curbing German power. In the end it has had the opposite effect. Germany is now the economic and political powerhouse of Europe. Eventually\u00a0it will be decisions taken in Berlin which will decide the fate of France.<\/p>\n
There is\u00a0little that either Macron or Le Pen can do about that. Both have offered\u00a0a new dawn. Whoever wins will\u00a0not be able to deliver that promised sunrise, because, as before, the French people will not support the reforms necessary to make it happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We shall not know until the\u00a0second round completes in a fortnight. The two visions of France are at odds with each other in the battle between Macron and Le Pen. \u00a0Le Pen has the simpler, many say simplistic, programme for reform; France for the French, leave the euro, halt immigration, Frexit referendum and so on. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malcolm-blair-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11972"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11980,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11972\/revisions\/11980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcolmblair-robinson.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}