Peoples of the United World

In 1965, Henry Kissinger wrote a book entitled The Tacted Partnership, in which he analyzed tensions involving the transatlantic alliance during the Cold War. A stable international order, he argued, sought the leadership of the United States a powerful model for democracy in the world based on strong ties to Europe. Kissinger had probably never imagined that less than six decades later, the US would play the opposite role as a new version of the darkest transatlantic alliances emerge.

Consider the meeting of last week's Far Right National Front in France. As he was re-elected to the party's helm, Marine Le Pen announced that the party would get the new name Rassemblement National (The National Opposition). The guest of honour at this important event was former Prime Minister Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon.

“All the great historical facts in the world and characters appear, twice,” wrote Carl Marks, the first “the first time as a tragedy, the second time the farce”. It would be easy to call the meeting in Lee as the “phars category”. After all, Le Pen and Bannon are both politically refused.
Le Pen lost the French presidential election to Emmanuel Macron by a flood of votes. Furthermore, she is now being challenged from within her party by the youngest and most intelligent granddaughter, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who spoke on the Political Conservator Action Committee before the Zv. American President Mike Pence in Washington.

As for Bannon, he was dismissed without ceremony from Trump in August 2017. To add shame, Trump published a statement saying Bannon had little to do with Trump's victory in the presidential election and that he had lost not only his job but also “the memory of” when it was fired.
Bannon's presence at the Lee event was paradoxical. After all, his rest was partly behind his extremism, while Le Pen is currently trying to expand its party support by softening the image. In another sense, however, his participation was justified, as he reflected the actual development of the transatlantic populist coalition, a grim variation on the geographical “ ” where the Cold War alliance was based.

Despite Bannon's political problems, he says the “wave of history” is inevitably moving towards populists. From his perspective, with Trump securing the American presidency a development that has destabilised the world order that Bannon and his son want to burn is only a matter of time before Europe follows American steps.

It would be dangerous to reject Bannon's vision as boasting. Macron may have won in France, but Trump's election victory was no accident. Nor did the strong domination of populist parties in Italy's elections this month, where the anti-imgrition League party and the Five Anti-Estabilisation Star Movement jointly secured about 50% of the vote.

Germany too has somehow fallen victim to populist forces. Of course, a new major government coalition has been formed with Merkel's party and the bavarese sister Union Christian and the Social Democratic Party. But it took more than five months for parties to agree, and the largest opposition party is now the alternative for far-right Germany. In a country that seems to have been vaccinated against populism from Nazi history, this is a disturbing development. Democracy is more fragile than has ever been seen and should never be taken for good.

How can we lower the populist wave? To begin with, political elites on both sides of the Atlantic who still believe in liberal democracy must acknowledge that they are responsible for increasing the wave of populism, due to their failure to respond properly to the electorate's concerns. They must work hard to find real solutions to problems, from migration inequality, which has promoted support for the populist forces. These elections should address not only the technical challenges but also the feelings of citizens who are well seized by populists for loss of identity and discrimination.

Of course, the American Democrats must find an imposing candidate to run against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. And France and Germany must advance European integration. Here, France has a special responsibility under the direction of Macro

And don't be mistaken: unlike what Bannon said in Leelle, it's Macron no Le Pen and her newly appointed party the one who holds the key to the future in French democracy. If it fails to make the system function for most electorates, France could go on the US road, setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of Europe. In such a scenario, the transatlantic alliance would be in big trouble and so would the world order that it has its base.

/ Project Syndicate