The Altered State of France, by Boualem Sansal.
Something is new in France: A new system has been created for selecting the president of the republic. No longer quite a democracy, not a dictatorship either, it doesn’t yet have a name. An acronym or composite made up of “democracy,” “dictatorship” and “plutocracy” would do the trick nicely.
The mechanism worked like this: First, the leaders of major financial, industrial and commercial groups, as well as eminent advisers to the government, chose the future president of the republic — in this case, Emmanuel Macron — and instructed him on his mission. Then these oligarchs mobilized the state, the government, the law, the media, communicators, artists, freelancers, pollsters, bookmakers and civil society leaders to carry him to the highest office in the land. The machine went to work, and in a single rotation turned the applicant into the people’s candidate, the favorite, the unconquerable hero. Even he became convinced.
The rest was a simple formality: It was just a matter of eliminating the other candidates. …
The law then issued fatwas against the leading candidates who remained, and the press, the oligarchy’s secular arm, proceeded to hunt them down. François Fillon, of Les Républicains, and Marine Le Pen, of the National Front, were hounded for what, by the standards of French politics, amounts to shoplifting, their photographs plastered on the front pages of newspapers. …
Fillon was investigated for embezzlement, and French judges asked to lift Le Pen’s immunity as an European Union parliamentarian so they could look into charges that she diverted money. Yet they wouldn’t start an inquiry into Macron’s assets, even though many candidates called for one. …
France no longer governs itself anyway; Europe always has a say. And because of globalization, the world now turns only one way — the way of the banking cartel, which took over from the oil producers’ cartel, which had taken over from the mining cartel.
That’s why it was so important for globalized issues — Islamization, terrorism, climate change, migration, the erosion of international institutions — to be discussed during the campaign. Yet they were barely evoked. [That’s the power of the media for you.]
In other words, the ruling class of people who form opinion and thus policies — bureaucracy, academics, media, the PC tax-eaters — chose Macron and made him president. At least there are still elections.
