Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Last Sunday, an extreme right-wing and racist candidate won 42% of the vote for the French presidency. France is a nuclear power and the second most powerful nation in the European Union. There needs to be debate and reflection as to why this was the case. France is often portrayed as a society with a strong tradition of revolution and left-wing politics but it is also a country with a history of imperialism, the racism that goes with that, and right-wing traditions. Le Pen, like her father before her, taps into those traditions. The cost of living was a significant issue in the campaign. In France, as in Ireland, the crisis has been addressed at Government level merely by piecemeal measures that have failed to seriously relieve the suffering of the people. The failure of the self-described extreme centrist, Macron, left an opening for both the far right and the radical left. Another factor was how Le Pen's opponent was widely, and in my view correctly, seen as a president of the rich or the 1%. Malcolm X once stated, "You cannot have capitalism without racism." The far right cannot be seriously combated by a more moderate right which upholds that system which funnels wealth upwards and leaves the majority to scrap among themselves for a limited number of services, houses and jobs. To really fight the radical right, one needs a radical left that is prepared to challenge that system and unite all of the oppressed in fighting for change. That is the key lesson of the French presidential election. What is the view of the Taoiseach in that regard?

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