Statement by Olivier Besancenot on election of Sarkozy 6th May 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy has been just elected president of the republic with approximately 53% of the votes. With him, it is the programme of the MEDEF (the French employers’ organisation) which is now in government. New tax gifts to companies and the rich, new privatisations of public services, the hunting out of ‘sans papier’ children, challenging fundamental social and democratic rights like the right to strike or unlimited job contracts are on the agenda of the new president of the Republic. This evening, the UMP state once again has central political power. The populist demagogy used in this campaign will lead to anti-social, repressive and antidemocratic measures, which will undoubtedly provoke very broad resistance and struggles. The LCR will now concentrate all its strength on building these mobilisations. It proposes a united front of all the social and democratic forces is immediately built to organise a response faced to the extreme neoliberal and repressive programme of Sarkozy. The LCR will take all the initiatives possible in this direction in the next days. It has also been shown that a social-liberal
left, which tried up to the very end to make an alliance with the UDF of
Bayrou, is not a very effective protection against a hard and authoritarian
right.
More than ever the building of a powerful anti-capitalist force, implanted in the workplaces, the public services and the popular districts, is necessary to make it possible to win against the right and the MEDEF in the struggles and in the ballot boxes. This was the message of Olivier Besancenot¹s and how the LCR intends To continue: to bring together the anticapitalist forces on a basis of independence from the Socialist Party leadership. It is on this base that we are standing in the parliamentary elections, presenting a programme of urgent social and democratic demands. Olivier Besancenot was candidate for
the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR - French section of the Fourth
International) at the French presidential elections in 2002 and 2007.
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