Image source, Reuters
In our roundup of newspapers today, we cover the results of the first round of legislative elections in France, the rise of the far right, the similarities between Trump and Netanyahu, and the decline of democracy in the United States and Europe.
We start with the British newspaper The Guardian, where the results of the first round of legislative elections in France, which resulted in the advance of the far right, dominated the editorials of British newspapers. In our review of the newspapers, we will discuss the Guardian’s editorial, which came under the title “Early elections in France: when the unthinkable became possible.”
The newspaper says that if French President Emmanuel Macron still held out hope that his decision to hand Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, early parliamentary elections would bear fruit, “those hopes have certainly been dashed now.”
“Macron recklessly gambled” that the National Rally’s historic levels of support would evaporate once protesting voters faced the prospect of a far-right government for the first time in post-war history, the newspaper says, “but that gamble didn’t pay off.”
She added that the high turnout in the first round on Sunday led to the National Front party winning comfortably first place with 33.1 percent of the vote, and this is the first time that the party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen has broken the 20 percent barrier in a legislative election.
By comparison, the hastily assembled New Popular Front, which includes left-wing forces, won 28 percent of the vote, the newspaper said. Macron’s centrist Together coalition came in third with 20.8 percent.
In recent years, the newspaper says, “Le Pen has skillfully rebranded and normalized her father’s party, distancing it from its anti-Semitic and neo-fascist roots and targeting the discontent of workers in economically deprived areas.”
During the current election campaign, Bardella has begun to back away from big spending commitments that would spook markets, but “the party’s deeply authoritarian, xenophobic spirit, its historical raison d’être, has not changed,” the paper says.
The National Rally’s plans to exclude dual nationals from sensitive professions, in a country with one of the largest ethnic minority populations in Europe, point to a “political project that seeks to marginalize and stigmatize non-white French-born citizens,” the newspaper says.
The newspaper believes that the proposed law to combat “Islamic ideologies” and the proposal to ban the hijab in public places reveal the extent to which “Islamophobia is at the forefront of an exclusionary cultural agenda.”
The newspaper believes that on a broader scale, the government led by the National Front party, “will seek to undermine the values of the European Union from within, in the name of anti-immigrant nationalism.”
“The power of those without principles”
Image source, Getty Images
We move to the opinion page of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and an article by Nehemiah Strassler, entitled “Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump: A force of unprincipled politicians working against democracy.”
The writer says that it is astonishing that out of 340 million American citizens, the greatest superpower on earth was able to choose two “unqualified” candidates for the presidency: one “without principles” and the other “confused.”
The author says that anyone would be extremely concerned to realize that the person responsible for the nuclear red button would be either “unprincipled, irresponsible, a pathological liar, or an old man.”
The writer points out that during their first debate last week, Trump won. The writer says, “Donald Trump has lied endlessly and made up the truth, but in this new world we live in, the truth means nothing.”
In contrast, he says, “Biden came across as honest and well-intentioned. He told the truth, but he looked tired… He was confused, he stammered, he spoke slowly and hoarsely, and he sometimes had trouble completing a sentence.”
The writer believes that “it is difficult for an ordinary person to defeat someone who lacks principles,” he says.
“It is difficult to withstand a flood of lies, and this is precisely the secret of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s power,” he adds, describing him as “unprincipled.”
The writer says that Netanyahu “is working against democracy, inciting against the media, the courts, academia and the left.”
The writer explains that Netanyahu, like Trump, “has no problem with volatility. Before the 2009 elections, he said, ‘We will topple the terrorist rule of Hamas.’ But when he was elected prime minister, he did exactly the opposite. He strengthened Hamas and made sure to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to it, which it then used to dig tunnels and obtain weapons to use against us.”
He adds that last week, the National Committee of Inquiry into the submarine purchase delivered a strongly worded warning letter to Netanyahu, writing that he “endangers national security and harms Israel’s foreign relations and economic interests.” He says this is “a harsh and unprecedented accusation, and requires his immediate resignation.”
“The disintegration of Western democracy”
Image source, Getty Images
We move on to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, and an article by Amr Hamzawy, entitled “How is Western democracy disintegrating in domestic politics?”
The writer says that the United States of America and European countries are facing a severe crisis represented by the “organized assault on the democratic idea and its values,” and this comes “in extremely dangerous repercussions linked to the rise of extremist forces and movements that want to bypass the democratic model in managing the affairs of citizens, societies, and countries.”
He adds that the results of the first round of parliamentary elections in France show this once again.
The writer believes that what he describes as “setbacks to the rule of law” continue due to “the tendency of elected governments in the American and European West to encroach on the security and intelligence of the citizen and subject him, openly or secretly, to various types of permanent surveillance.”
The author adds that democracy in the United States and Europe “excludes broad popular sectors, some of which are framed within labor and professional unions, political parties, and civil society organizations, from public decision-making and public policy processes.”
The author explains that democracy is violated by “forests of walls and barriers, sometimes constructed with legal and political tools and sometimes with bureaucratic and procedural tools, to separate the elected legislative and executive institutions from the citizens.”
The writer explains that “the dominance of elites and major interests over elected legislative and executive institutions, and the blatant arrogance in dealing with the citizen and his role in decision-making” are things that undermine Western democracy.
He adds that citizens in the West are now facing “economic, social and living gaps between the rich and the well-off and the poor, the low-income and the vulnerable among illegal immigrants.” These gaps are increasing because “the majority of Western governments have turned against welfare policies and abandoned many components and measures of social justice.”
The writer also says that “the party, political and administrative elites, along with economic and financial interests, impose their grip on the public sphere through the facts of wealth, influence and private ownership of the media, publishing houses and others.”
ظهرت في الأصل على www.bbc.com