It hasn’t taken long for the Tories to try to turn Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France to their advantage in this election.
At first glance, the triumph of the pro-EU Macron—the warm up music for his victory address was the Ode to Joy, not the Marseillaise—who has talked about luring British business and research to France post-Brexit doesn’t seem like a great result for Theresa May. Indeed, at very senior levels, the UK government wanted the more pragmatic Francois Fillon to win the French presidency.
But when life gives you lemons, claim that Macron’s election shows that Britain needs a leader with just as strong a mandate and someone who can stand up to powerful EU leaders. In other words, Theresa May, not Jeremy Corbyn as Boris Johnson argues in a fundraising letter the Tories have sent to their supporters this evening.
Those intimately involved in drawing up the Tories’ campaign strategy have long been clear that they regard the question of who do you want negotiating with the EU as their trump card. So, any event that allows them to raise this, they can turn to their advantage.
Macron’s victory has also led to much soul searching on the British centre-left. There are a number of Labour figures wondering whether the success of Macron’s new movement shows that they should quit Labour after this election, especially if the hard left retain control.
Now. The British electoral system is far harder on new parties than the French presidential system which requires just one candidate and has two rounds of voting. But if the moderates can’t regain control of the party even after a seismic defeat, and this is what Labour is heading to according to the latest ICM poll, then I would expect some of them to make the Macron jump and set up a new party.
Comments