PARIS — As it slouches toward a second Trump administration, the United States is demonstrating a great country’s capacity for self-destruction. France, another great nation, isahead of elections Sunday that could hand control of the government to a party with pro-Nazi historical roots and a contemporary agenda that remains nationalist and racist.
On Thursday, British voters overwhelmingly punished the Conservative Party, which birthed Brexit in 2016. In one of the country’s most lopsided general elections, the Labour Party won more than three times more seats in Parliament than the Conservatives. After 14 years in opposition, Labor will return to power and install as prime minister its leader, Keir Starmer, whose candidacy made a virtue of disciplined under-promising.
France’s voters are now in a vengeful mood, poised to unleash their anger on Macron, just as Britain’s did Thursday on Sunak. Each leader is seen as an elitist champion of the rich. Both countries,, are awash in “a tidal wave of discontent against governments led by smartly dressed forty-something men overwhelmingly perceived as toxic and out of touch.