



The authoritarian mechanisms of the global neoliberal establishment will be certainly in alarm mode one more time because of the oncoming French presidential election and the unexpected rapid rise of the Leftist leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.









The last three weeks have seen a quick progression of the candidate of Rebellious France in the polls for the presidential election: from being fifth with around 11% to being third with over 18% now. This rapid rise has been accompanied with a slow but steady decrease in the voting intentions for the two candidates at the top, the far right Le Pen (from a peak of 28% down to 24) and the liberal Thatcherite Macron (from a peak of 26% down to 23). This means that, Melenchon has a fighting chance of making it into the second round. This has led to panic in the ruling class, in France and internationally.





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The possibility of a second round pitching Le Pen against Melenchon has been described by the The Economist as the “nightmare option”. The polls show that Melenchon would beat Le Pen with 57 percent against 43. Reflecting the fears of the ruling class, the spread between French and German bonds has shot up to 75 basis points (from around 30 at the end of last year). The Financial Times points out that this “election is already the most unpredictable in a generation” and adds that “the three leading candidates in the polls now come from outside the mainstream political parties.”





One of the main French bourgeois papers, Le Figaro dedicates its whole alarmist front page to attack Melenchon. “The delirant project of the French Chavez” screams one headline. “Maximilien Illich Melenchon” shouts the editorial. “Castro, Chavez … Melenchon, the apostle of revolutionary dictators”. The articles go on to compare Melenchon with Robespierre, Lenin, Trotsky and Fidel Castro.





The situation in France resembles very much of what happened with Bernie Sanders before the US election. As described in previous article





If you really want to find who was the real threat for the establishment, go back and review the whole story of the Democratic primaries. At the beginning, the media pundits were certain that Hillary would easily prevail by just walking to the finish line against Bernie Sanders. They were nearly making fun of him. But then, things got really serious. Bernie was building a mass movement outside their corrupted 'control room'.





Especially the American youth was pushing Bernie to the top, really fast, by attending massively his rallies and promoting him through social media. The internet independent media also contributed significantly on introducing Bernie Sanders to as many people as possible. You see, the system is indeed powerful, but not unbeatable. There are some things it can't control.





Then, you could witness the first signs of fear and embarrassment on pundits' voices and faces, when they were monitoring the rapid rise of Bernie against Hillary. And then, consider this: why they were constantly monitoring Bernie's and Hillary's strength against Trump's, with such an anxiety? They were doing this quite long before knowing the final result of the Democratic primaries. The answer is simple: because they wanted to see whether they should act seriously to put Bernie out of the game by all means.





When they saw with terror that Bernie was beating Trump by a far more significant percentage than Hillary, they knew that they had to get rid of him.





Now, it's Melenchon's turn to alarm the establishment. The neoliberal authoritarian regime sees with terror that the anti-socialism narratives don't work anymore. Melenchon wins the French audience at the debates and this is depicted on his rapid rise as well as his crowded rallies, despite his 'radical Left' rhetoric.





The markets have been compromised with the possibility of Marine Le Pen going to the next round and even winning the election. Besides, she is not someone who couldn't handle, exactly as it happened with Donald Trump. Just remember what Trump was saying before the election and look where he ended already: a totally devoted puppet of the US neoliberal/neocon agenda.





Yet, the markets can't imagine a possible radical Left leader in power. This is what the capitalist elites truly afraid.





However, there are no primaries and no time left for the elites to declare full war against Melenchon. What will happen if he manage to go to the second round of the election? What kind of dirty tricks and propaganda could possibly get him out of the game? If he manage to make the surprise, what kind of dirty war will be launched by the establishment against him to make him compromise, as it happened with Alexis Tsipras in Greece?



