Let me begin by saying that I am no politician and I am definitely no expert on the internal politics of France. That said I have to admit I am a big admirer of President Emmanuel Macron ever since he appeared to capture the imagination of the French people – and many around the world – through his En Marche movement in 2016. Despite this admiration I recently began to see an element of arrogance creeping into his tone when talking internal policy and that is something I did not like. It actually follows an increasing pattern nowadays where politicians begin to disconnect with the electorate once in power; I see it more profoundly with our BREXIT saga in Britain. I do NOT understand that at this day-and-age with all political development’s over centuries we cannot come up with a more inclusive system of governance where there continues to be engagement at every level to voices/concerns at the main street level – a 2 way path rather a 1 way path from the top down. By the way this phenomenon is NOT restricted to matters of governance but even political parties – the majority that I’ve seen – function in this top-down fashion when formulating policy. So as a layman when it comes to politics there needs to a rethink of this archaic model we’re using and come up with better ways that ensures continued engagement with public in policy formulation and continued accountability of leaders post election day where there are ways for the public to recall leaders if they go off track without the administrative hurdles in Parliament or at least remove these hurdles altogether.
Now in terms of the recent escalation of the Gilets Jaune movement I think the concessions by President Macron are a step in the right direction. Some may call it weakness, but I actually prefer weakness driven by public outcry rather than recklessness irrespective of public outcry. So my humble message to the leaders of the Gilets Jaune movement and to all my truly dearest French people is just peek across the channel – or La Manche if you prefer – at our political hacks in Britain who are running the country, so please put some context and don’t over do it. The world has changed quite a bit since 2016 and we need leaders like President Macron to face up to the extremist policy ideologues out there who are keen to destroy our value system from the roots and are using these internal conflicts to drive through their own narrow agenda’s as they’ve done in the UK, Italy and other places. This not to mention the foreign political meddling that takes on all forms and we’re merely scratching the surface to understand it and develop the proper defences. So I can only urge caution and a deliberate approach in establishing context for our challenges while engaging constructively with the French government to help resolve policy issues of concern.
I certainly hope this makes sense, and if not well we can all blame it on BREXIT 🙂