The European Crisis, the rise of the far right appears unstoppable across Europe, Marine Le Pen may win the President of France, Geert Wilders may become Dutch leader; the collapse of the EU is gaining pace as more people reject the global elite in favour of national identity politics, civil war remains possible as free speech is attacked, Europe is a powder keg waiting to explode

Dear All

The election of Donald Trump was a shock to the political elite in Europe, they backed Hillary Clinton to the hilt, when the result came, they were in shock, Donald Trump won enough electoral college votes to win.

The Trump Campaign was clever and positive, the Clinton campaign was negative and dire; Clinton herself was a liability.

I would like you to watch this video, the image of the Clintons and their Clinton Foundation has certainly taken a hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PeO0SfCw5s

Basically, protestors are calling the Clintons and the Foundation crooks!

The public image of the Clintons is held in stark contrast with people who have had dealings with them, how do you square up the situation of what happened in Haiti?

In Scotland, unpopular Nicola Sturgeon jumped on the Clinton bandwagon and disgraced her position as First Minister by backing Clinton when she should have stayed neutral. The result by the people of America was a slap right across her face as the humiliation worked its way through. Instead of being gracious which is frankly beyond someone as common as Nicola Sturgeon, she post defeat decided to carry on her snide antics, the jolly fat man Alex Salmond on the other hand also getting it wrong, decided to play ‘good cop’ to Sturgeon’s ‘bad cop’, the sycophantic Salmond on his belly saying ‘let’s give Trump a chance’ was enough to give the dry boak. Also in Scotland, the Scottish Labour leader managed to do her image damage by not only supporting Clinton but by personally going to campaign for her.

Leaders in Europe also got their judgement wrong as the mood for change and the backlash against the political elite is spreading across Europe, the rise of the right isn’t unexpected, it was always going to happen. In Germany and in Austria, the far right is making real gains, and in France, perhaps we might see a watershed moment in French politics. I think at present it is too early to tell but French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has stormed into a shock lead over her presidential rivals, the election it is said for her to lose.

One thing which is a shock is that former French President Sarkozy has been knocked out as a candidate for the election, this is very interesting; the rise of the far right is in part due to terror attacks. The terror attacks in Paris and Nice has rocked a country known as friendly and welcoming, the French are a world power sitting at the heart of Europe. The shock lead by Marine Le Pen is more credible by the fact that this is part of a trend in France with a series of surveys suggesting the Front National chief will lay waste to all the conservative candidates in the first round of the race to become the next leader of France.

As she is a Eurosceptic Ms Le Pen, has vowed to lead the country out of the EU, this looks like Brussels is in danger of the entire EU project collapsing, the political elite have overstepped the mark, they have made people angry and they want revenge and justice over the harm that has been done to them. The EU as we know it may be finished as an entity, the Dutch people have also expressed their interest in leaving, and as we know Britain is leaving after a decisive vote.

The current lead by Marine Le Pen is aid to be in the region of between four and nine per cent higher than her rivals but it isn’t plain sailing, she still faces an uphill task to clinch the top job because of the nature of France’s voting system. In France, candidates are required to win more than 50 per cent of the electorate over a two-round process, if Le Pen crosses that hurdle, she is President.  

She gets the keys to the Elysee Palace and the political map of Europe changes dramatically as the sands start to shift.

America has moved, Austria is getting moblised, Germany is seeing a new kind of politics become mainstream, Italy, the Netherlands is in uproar about having their Brexit vote and even in Britain, there is a collapse of the vote for the ‘fake’ left, the staunch anti Brexit campaigners. Labour MP Owen Smith’s comment about ignoring the democratic will of the people is very telling indeed, it shows that in Britain there is a fifth column whose loyalty is not to the people.

I am not sure whether Marine Le Pen can at this point in time manage to create the sustained momentum need to carry her all the way to the Elysee Palace and to be the next President of France, but she has to be considered more of a serious contender than she has previously been.

Finally, the shift to the right is so noticeable now that the Germans are clamping down on free speech, last night, I bumped into an Austrian in Glasgow who told me about this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHoG3KStuzc

The woman in the video is an American who stayed in Germany, after her video; the German Police wish to question her about her views. The content of her video is pretty forceful and right in your face, but free speech it appears is dying in Germany; this will lead to a powder keg situation which will explode at some point. The trial of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands is another example of free speech being tested by law and it is possible that he and his party could end up the ruling party come the next election.

The EU wants an army, there is only one reason for this; it is to crush internal dissent in EU countries.

How long can it be before the backlash makes the mainstream press and Europe is plunged into civil war?

Something to think about is it not?

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University