Jean-Luc Mélenchon has no model, but he clearly enjoys the candidate to the White House Bernie Sanders, defined always as “socialist”, a rarity in the American political landscape. By declaring his candidacy for the next presidential TF1, he confessed “to learn from the method that was that Bernie Sanders” and have such “rented the same platform” as the rival Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary
It is obviously not talking about political platform, but web platform (and in reality, these are not the same: the providers of both platforms are different, but whatever)..
it is understood that Mélenchon is recognized in Sanders: this old but valiant fighter of the people, inspired, lonely, with unchanged principles, which fights left of the political spectrum … And who knows successes: n has he not gotten the better of the favorite Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire on February 9?
“Progressive” rather than “socialist”
Before becoming a big fan, the leader of the Left Party should not however forget that if Sanders is defined as “socialist”, he is deeply social democratic reality, as recalled these products from Salon.com or New Republic. Certainly Sanders criticizes the power of large groups of Wall Street, inequality, the poverty of health insurance, the weight of money on politics … but it is far from being anti-capitalist and principle, think the means of production should remain in the private domain. He himself said that he was much more use of the “democratic socialist” label. A Stephen Colbert, host of a satirical program on CBS, he said that he preferred that of “progressive”.
We do not see Sanders associating with communists for an election campaign, or brag about Cuba. For him, communism as it was known in the twentieth century is primarily a “perverse dictatorship” that made “millions of deaths.”
When he praises its “democratic socialism,” Sanders continually refers to the Scandinavian reformist model: an open capitalist system in which competition is sacred, but is tempered by strong utilities ensuring solidarity between people (social security, child care, free education …). All in all, if Sanders had to look like a French politician, it is rather Lionel Jospin: “even progressive ideas, same depth, the same lack of charisma,” said a French living in the US
. “Powerful entrepreneurship”
“Wall Street Journal,” Sanders gave last November a definition of its democratic socialism that could easily take a good French Socialist complexion or even Emmanuel Macron
for me, the democratic socialism is to maintain the strong entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes this country to continue to generate wealth, but by ensuring that this wealth is redistributed more than this is currently the case. “
Sanders has always remained in the orbit of the Democratic party, voting consistently with him in Congress. In 2004, he did not campaign for the candidate of the left of the left, Ralph Nader, but against him: his candidate was Democrat John Kerry, he fully supported.
Finally, as Mayor of Burlington, as Salon.com reminds, he took care to cut taxes. And when protesters tried to block the entrance to the GE factory, he did not hesitate to make them stop …
Friend of Israel
On terms of foreign policy, the two men are not exactly on the same line. Sanders, the son of Jewish Polish immigrants, having spent some months in a kibbutz in the 1960s, is not about anti-Israeli positions that generally defends the radical left. He certainly condemned on several occasions Israeli brutality vis-à-vis the Palestinians. But voting in the state aid budgets of Israel and supported the Israeli intervention in Gaza in 2014. According to him, from the time or the missiles were sent “by Hamas from populated areas in Gaza “this intervention was legitimate. But he is critical of the government Netanhayou, he is “not a big fan.”
Sanders did not too emotional when it comes to support some US military interventions. He supported the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO in 1999, then Senator Mélenchon denounced as ill-conceived operation “initiative of Americans and everyone is obliged to follow.” Sanders voted to send troops to Afghanistan in 2001. And recently, he supported Obama’s budget, which provides for increased military spending by 5% …
Pascal Riche
No comments:
Post a Comment