Intransigent neoliberalism and a French President who wishes to ignore an election result - a combination that can only help the far right.

Emmanuel Macron. A new era for absolutism?

In February 2024, the former UK housing minister, Michael Gove warned the rise in populist politics risked tarnishing the idea of democracy. “If people think markets are rigged and a democracy isn’t listening to them, then you get - and this a worrying thing for me - an increasing number of young people saying “I don’t believe in democracy. I don’t believe in markets.”

One senses it was the lack of faith in markets that was Gove’s predominant concern, especially given the long history of neoliberal politicians showing outward contempt for democracy. Even the way Gove attempts to frame the issue here could be seen as a contradictory rhetorical device to claim markets are essential to democracy, yet that the same time also trying to imply, in another sense, that democracy and markets should be regarded as separate realms.

The rise of populist leaders has been strengthened by the intransigence of a neoliberal elite. Across Western economies, major political parties only offer piecemeal deviations from the kind of economy demanded by foreign investors, and still attempt to preach the gospel of globalisation even when globalisation is showing clear signs of retreat. As meaningful change is thwarted by a neoliberal elite, populist leaders on both the left and the right gain ground, especially among younger voters.

While the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and the coronavirus pandemic led to a shift away from a neoliberal economic orthodoxy, this only went so far. Too often ‘saving the economy’ meant saving the status quo, even when it is no longer working for a growing number of people. In 2008-9, despite significant public funds being devoted to a bailout of banks and other financial institutions, regulation of global financial activities largely resembled the continuation of the ‘light touch’ regulation model that helped cause the financial crisis in the first place. Despite its failures, neoliberal economics managed to rise from the grave.

The latest example is the refusal of the French President to appoint a Prime Minister from the New Popular Front Alliance (NFP), despite the fact the NFP won the most seats in the last legislative election, held on 7 July 2024. Macron’s so called ‘centrists’ got second, but his centre-right allies remain the ‘caretaker’ government. The national co-ordinator of the left wing France Unbowed movement (LFI), Manuel Bompard, described Macron’s actions as “an unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.