if you're talking about it, we're talking about it today's news talk radio T N T. Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to this live broadcast and Patrick King's here host was still now number one. Thank you so much for joining us. Now we're going to pivot to a couple of things. Of course, is European affairs. As you've seen the election results right across Europe and also elsewhere. There's a lot of commotion, a lot of hand waving about the so called far right. I don't think it's that far to the right, but taking control getting huge results in European elections, of course, in the United Kingdom as well and elsewhere. What does this mean? We'll get into that with our next guest specifically with France. France is a really important EU country. Wherever France goes, Brussels is going to have to react to it. So a very important European country as well as what's happening on the NATO front. Some interesting developments there. Let's bring on to the program are a de facto European correspondent, independent researcher, journalist Freddie Ponton joining us right now from France. Hello, Freddie. How are you? Yeah, I'm very good, Patrick. Good to be on the show as always. It's great to have you as well, Freddie and we're all trying to make sense of what's going on regarding the European elections. It seems Freddie, anyway, from top to bottom from Germany to France and elsewhere. We're seeing this, at least the media are talking about this surge in the, quote, far right or the right wing, making huge gains specifically in France, potentially throwing the Macron regime into turmoil and maybe the agenda that came along with the wave of elite and banker support to install a manual Macron into power some years ago. Looks like a potential change of tact here, but tell us where we are right now with the French elections. Why is this so important as well? There's a lot going on in France and especially in relation to Brussels and the EU where France goes, Europe goes. Freddie, what do we need to know? Well, at this stage, I think we're following the track of the European elections where the national rally seems to have a make an impressive score. So the first round was a bit of a confirmation, if you will, of these legislative elections after Macron's basically dissolved the national assembly and call for his snap election. People in France wanted to know where we stand. So I think that was a great test, this first round to establish the rule of engagement, if you will, from a political point of view. So at this moment in time, very interesting first round, indeed Patrick, with last Sunday, the national rally basically doubling down and showing clearly that they are ahead of everyone. It's quite clear that France has already pretty much is decisions that it will be supporting the national rally for these legislative elections with 33.15%. In terms of a score and just behind that, you have not Macron, but you have the new popular France, kind of a coalition of the left, if you will, from the central left all the way down to the far left with Milanchon and the score pretty good as well in this first round with 27.9% of the votes in their favor. So we can clearly see that now on song with Renaissance and all these parties on the ensemble with Macron and the prime minister Gabriel Eletale is in the third position. So they are clearly weakening. So the game has changed now. This is no more about selling an agenda, a program. This is really about now stopping blocking the national rally. And that is pretty much what we've seen over the last few days since the result came on Sunday night. We saw the macro on the centuries and then the left is coming together and discussing various ideas on how to block the national rally. And it's very interesting what kind of possibility has been entertained of various rulers and then actually the fact and where we are today. So it's an interesting time because we literally four days away from the second round where we will eventually find out who is the lead, whether the national rally will secure a first place uncontested first place which will allow them to govern and basically unroll their program. So that's going to be very interesting to see what's going to happen over the next few days, what's going to be the next moves. But we already have a glimpse into that. And it's very interesting to tell us if you would Freddie what brought about this change, this shift in the electoral decision making of the voters choosing the national rally will bring this up on screen. We've seen a lot of this in the media recently a talk about Macron being toxic. I could bring up about 10 articles from different mainstream media and they all use the word Macron toxic, toxic, Macron, Macron is toxic. This is clearly kind of a talking point. As it were, I know it sort of probably comes from a statement made by another French official. But is it merely because Macron is the public's become tired with him? Or are we looking at a major reaction to issues like immigration, a poor economy, et cetera? What's brought about the big change in the way people are voting Freddie? Well, first because Macron's way of ruling is something that doesn't work with the French and the French knows that very well, someone that has been ruling using basically emergency power all along. So if you will, that is not connected with the French people. It connects with super national bodies like the European Union, the WHO or NATO. That's the people that connect with this oligarchy groups that seems to be backing up with everything it does and financing everything it does. But the dialogue with the French people is not basically returns. It's not returns. And because of that, all the major crisis, social crisis, insecurity, all the topics that matters to the French people have not been addressed. And they've been basically set aside, if you will. And under the disguise of political discourse, a lot of kind of two-hour stock where we've no takeaway whatsoever for anybody. So when this kind of connection does not exist, it's very hard to rebuild it, especially if it was never there in the first place. And I think what we are saying at the moment is the expressions of the French citizenry about a fed up and overall fed up sentiments that have not been heard, that their suffering has not been heard. And it's getting worse and worse. We're getting into more deaths and our life is not getting any better. It's getting worse and worse. And I think the French has drawn the line right now and they're saying, we need changes. So that is a call for a serious change. And they feel that the national rally is the best party. The way it's been presented to the people and the way they've been talking to the French people for many years seems to have paid off, I think marrying up and strategy to step back a little bit and let a younger candidate like Jordan Bardela, 28 years old, extremely bright. It doesn't matter if we lack his ideas or not. You don't get a dis-level in politics at this age unless you're extremely bright. And I think they were a bore to really connect with the French and also address the topics that matter to the French people. And we'll go for that in a moment. But I think they have a better connections and I think also, if you look a bit further down in this reflection, I think you can see also the French starting to be fed up with the European Union and sovereignty, nationalism, all these kind of topics are starting to get more and more traction, the idea of moving away from the Euro, moving away from NATO, moving away from the United Nations WHO. All that kind of things is very kind of it becomes very fluent. People are more and more interesting in understanding what will be the impact of France doing that, getting away from these super national bodies and regain our sovereignty. So all that I think is what the French people wants to hear and more importantly, we want to hear about the ability of our countries and our leaders to be able to govern on behalf of France and not following the directives of the European Union. Because whatever we have as a government, it doesn't matter if we are still in the European Union, we're still going to be under the pressure to dictate of the European Union. And that is just a sentiment at the moment the French are very uncomfortable with. It's interesting when you look at the demographic breakdown of Emmanuel Macron with this really sort of flimsy percentile that he's still holding on to in his party. His biggest appeal is with the older voters, the over 70s. And this really kind of speaks to a shift in demographics in France, partly because of immigration, but not just that, that the sort of values of these sort of things that someone like a Macron represents, a total establishment candidate how disconnected he is with the majority of the population starting to reflect in the voting results. Now it's becoming obvious for people to see. And it doesn't seem like that the establishment, their candidate in Macron or whoever Freddie has much to offer anybody who's younger age brackets, they're just not speaking to them. What are these people missing? Clearly, the economy has to factor in hugely for younger people trying to make the cost of living each month. It's increasingly impossible on the current wage bracket. What are some of the biggest issues here that the National Rally is going to have to somehow tackle? Well, it's mainly the purchasing power, the immigration, the security, some aspect with regards to the agriculture, the health issues. There is many aspect that matters to the standard French person, which wants to find the doctors in his city. We cannot find it. He has to travel hundreds of kilometers to find a doctor or specialist for his treatments. As far as security is concerned, there is a kind of laxity for delinquents and troublemakers and criminals. It seems that they never go to jail. They never get punished. They just get a slap on the risk and next thing we know they are out. And then there's the big kind of a block of discussions around immigrations. And that's what the National Rally is doing. He's going after reducing legal and illegal immigrations and expilling foreign troublemakers. That simply shouldn't be in France. They were granted basically asylum or they were granted the possibility of saying in France. But they're just not acting in respect with our traditions and so on. So these people are the target for the National Rally because they are troublemakers and they interact with the French in manners that are displeasing often. And that's something that a lot of French people have complained about it. And then of course, as you mentioned, the purchasing power, you know, Badella was very clear from day one, he said, I'm elected. The first thing I will do is to lower the tax, the VAT from 20% to 5.5% on all energy and fuel and motor fuel, oil and so on. So, you know, for those that use their car on a regular basis, that's going to make a huge difference as well. And then you saw over the last past six months, even a year, we saw the agriculture, the farmers, the complaints, the unfair competition with the French farmers. So that's also something where the French can resonate and that's part of the agenda for the National Rally which are coming with a proposal to develop short supply chains and of course combat unfair competition. So it's well put together program, you know, now whether they're going to be able to act upon it's a completely different subject. But in itself, I would say that they were very good at pinpointing what the French wants and what they want to be addressed now, the issue that needs to be addressed right now. And a lot of us to do with security, immigration, purchasing power and health and agriculture. And what about the issue of Ukraine? I mean, where is this? What is the National Rally? If they ever let's say I'm working majority in the French assembly, what could you expect to see in terms of any shift on policy vis-a-vis Ukraine? How proactive France would be in NATO? Macron was very proactive when the Ukrainian conflict broke out, maybe less so now. But talk of conscription a couple of weeks ago, that conversation was coming up, not very popular, of course, that's not going to win any votes. Where is the National Rally and Le Pen Bredella on this issue of Ukraine? Well, it's a bit bizarre because Marion Le Pen was very clear she's always been poor Russian in many ways and she's never saw Russia as an enemy at all, actually to the contrary, but Bredella is slightly a little bit different, has a different approach, I think, in terms of presenting more on a gender that would be about looking for peace, rather than to exacerbate, if you will, this conflict, trying to find a solution towards an end. But without being pro-Russian, not being pro-Ukraine, just perhaps looking for something that is more stabilizing on the back, out of Europe. So I think he's not really understanding that for the French, this debate is not a priority. It's really about pure domestic issues we're talking about. This has to do with foreign policies, this is about NATO, this is about the United States, UK. France is more a bit of a spectator, if you will, in one science, and they've been watching Macron's doing stupid things, and no one is agreeing about basically signing troops to Ukraine. That's something that simply doesn't fly in France whatsoever. No one is, as expressed, the sentiment is no support in the press. It's not something that populist movements entertain for one second. This is really not under, I would say, on the show, at the moment. It's not irrelevant, but it's not what's going to trigger the balance between having the national rally as a government, or keeping the old machine with Macron, and perhaps even the left, growing up a little bit, and getting a little bit more traction in the national assembly. So, again, the foreign policy, I don't think they impact very much the religious slaters. They have more impact on the presidential elections, but on the religious slaters, this is really about the domestic issues, Patrick. So what about, we've got a couple of minutes left, before we go to break, Freddie, but we have heard noises from the left in France, Melin Chiang, talking about perhaps an alliance with Macron. Of course, you know the old trope. We need to stop the far right. We need to come together to stop the far right. Is there any, is there going to be any traction on this? What have you heard on that front? Sure. Well, there's two aspects you need to consider. First, there was a rumor about Macron and LFE, you know, that France ends to me is with Melin Chiang, radical left, coming together, as forming a coalition in order to counteract the national rally. Well, that's just rumors, and very quickly on Monday morning, Melin Chiang came to the price, Macron came to the price, and very clearly stated that there was no such a thing to be entertained. There was never going to be a coalition with the radical left, or with Melin Chiang, LFE, not in a million years. Now, the possibility of a coalition being formed with the rest, you know, there are other many parties in between center left and far left that could come into this equation that perhaps the Macron and on some could consider as potential partner within a coalition, but it will exclude a Melin Chiang. The problem is the numbers don't simply add up, even if you were to do that without Melin Chiang, which has the biggest ball, and that attract the most voters, if you exclude them, you will not be able to get a majority. And if you cannot get a majority, what's the point of doing that? So that has to be disregarded. Now, what they've done from a strategic point of view, the centrist and the left and the far left, has come together with a strategy which is basically the withdrawal instructions. So let me explain basically by the weekend and the close on Tuesday, the left has withdrawn more than 130 candidates from their list, you know, across France and the presidential camp, Macron, more than 80 from their list, especially in constituencies where the national rally has kind of a pretty much a serious chance to win, if you will. Now, the idea behind that is to offer less choice so that the voters have basically instructions not to vote for their preference, their preferred candidate, but to vote for someone that's going to be basically directly competing with Marine Le Pen and the national rally. So they took out a lot of candidate and reinforced basically a major candidate position in powerful cities where they need to win if they want to basically counteract the national rally. So it's a strategy that could work in principles, but on the other hand, you're going to have French electors that have been voting in this particular camp for all their life and you're telling them, well, you have to disregard that and you might have to vote for someone you don't like, but it's not about what you like, it's about stopping the national rally. So there's a very bizarre election because this is not anymore about politics. Politics is about, you know, the view, the program, what you stand for, the values, and you support a candidate because you can relate, well, this is out of the window now. It's about voting to block the national rally. So it's a different form of politics. This is purely voting strategy messing around with the ballots and making sure that, you know, your voters are going to vote where you're telling them to vote. That is the only point of contact between the centrist and the left. That's where they basically agreed upon that is the best way to destroy at least to ruin the possibility of the national rally to have a complete majority and therefore to be able to govern. I think that's the demand strategy at this moment in time, Patrick. Wow. So taking on the tactical voting as it's sometimes called. And again, this is really a tragedy of politics because then it's not about, as you say, Freddie, it's not about the issues, it's not about, you know, solving the problems that the countries need. It's about stopping one party or stopping the national rally. And in America, the Democrats would employ similar tactics to stop Donald Trump, for instance. So you get a sort of degradation of the political conversation into, it's like the old Groucho Mark song, whatever it is, I'm against it, you know, basically doesn't care. I'm against it. It's from the national rally. You're against it, etc. So polarization of politics, not necessarily good for the electorate or the country when you get to that stage. It means that the key issues are not going to be addressed in the way they should. Yeah, it's also on the small scale, if you will, this is about the balance of power. You know, either power will be in the ends of the far right on Sunday night, or whether the power will be back into the parliament, if you will. And that's really that balance of power demitigating at moments. That is what's happening. It's not about what you believe in, it's about the power. Where does the power lies within these governments in France? And this is a very important decision because the ramification of these votes on Sunday will decide the stability of the European Union, or the instability in the European Union. So as I say, anything that happened in France, because it is an important act in the European Union, so much Germany, if France can be stabilized in a certain way, it works for the European Union, for you to have on the line, which is going to be reelected, of course. So having a destabilizing factor, which is getting support out of European Union, out of European election, and now that has literally the possibility of going in France, this will definitely destabilize the plan of those behind the power at stake in these super national organizations. No, absolutely, absolutely it will. And as the old saying goes, when France gets a cold Europe sneezes basically, or the other way around, I think, but France very pivotal in the destiny of Europe and Brussels, of course, so we'll be looking closely at that. Listen, we're going to take a break now. We're going to come back. I want to talk to you, Freddy, about the issue of Ukraine. NATO has been some interesting developments there. I know you've been paying close attention to this when it gets your thoughts and insights on that. We're going to take a break right now with TNT today's news talk. I'm Patrick Kennington, your host. We'll be back in just a few moments. Stay with us.
