Macron inauguration NurPhoto/Getty Images

Congratulations, President Macron – Now We Oppose You

Reasonable people understood that Emmanuel Macron ought to be supported against Marine Le Pen in the second round of France's presidential election. Now they understand that Macron’s policies will worsen the deflationary, regressive cycle that is Le Pen’s greatest ally.

ATHENS – Prior to the second round of the French Presidential election, DiEM25 (the pan-European movement of democrats, mostly of the left, that I helped to found) promised Emmanuel Macron that we would “mobilize fully to help” him defeat Marine Le Pen. This we did – incurring the wrath of many on the left – because maintaining “an equal distance between Macron and Le Pen,” we believed, was “inexcusable.”

But there was a second part to our promise to Macron: if he “becomes merely another functionary of Europe’s deep establishment,” pursuing dead-end, already-failed neoliberalism, we “will oppose him no less energetically than we are – or should be – opposing Le Pen now.”

Relieved that Macron won, and proud of our clear support for him, we must now fulfill the second part of the promise. No “honeymoon” period: we must oppose Macron immediately. Here’s why.

https://prosyn.org/2sPTE3u