ON THE LATEST REACTIONARY ELECTIONS IN THE EU, FRANCE AND THE UK
As we know, elections were held on June 9 for the European Parliament, the parliament of the imperialist alliance of the European Union (EU), on June 30 the first round of early elections for the National Assembly in France took place, and on July 7 the second round, which is the important one for its formation, took place, and on July 4 the elections for the Parliament and the Prime Minister took place in the United Kingdom.
As an introduction from Lenin we quote:
“How is capitalism made compatible with democracy? Through the indirect exercise of the absolute power of capital! There are two economic means for this: 1) direct bribery; 2) the alliance of the government with the stock market. (In our theses this is expressed in the following words: under the bourgeois regime, financial capital "will freely buy and bribe any government and its officials.")
In the first part of the quote, Lenin refers to how the contradiction between the economic regime and the political superstructure is made compatible in capitalism, both in the pre-monopoly stage and in the monopoly or imperialist stage, and in the part in parentheses, he specifies how democracy is made compatible with imperialism in the theses of the Bolshevik party program.
BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY CANNOT DO WITHOUT ELECTIONS; IT CANNOT DO WITHOUT THE MASSES
We consider it necessary to continue with the subject of reactionary elections in order to give a more realistic picture of their results and to add some comments to those already made in previous notes, because reactionary elections are of great importance for the bourgeois dictatorship:
- For the replacement of reactionary authorities and the distribution of political perks and privileges corresponding to the economic ones, among its co-opted servants from the upper layers of the workers and the petite bourgeoisie.
- To harness the masses to the chariot of the State of bourgeois dictatorship, through their participation in reactionary elections. “In this sense the mechanism of political democracy acts. One cannot do without elections; one cannot do without the masses” (Lenin).
- To manipulate the masses, to lead them along with a widely ramified, systematically applied and solidly organized system of flattery, lies, shady dealings, sleight of hand with popular and fashionable words, promises left and right of all kinds of reforms and benefits for the workers, to sow illusions about a change in their situation within the present system and to renounce the revolution.
- To manipulate the masses they count on the collaboration of the opportunists, to sow illusions in elections, in parliaments (parliamentary cretinism), to embellish imperialism and to conceal the deepest contradictions of imperialism. The opportunists are, objectively, a part of the petty bourgeoisie and some layers of the working class, a part bribed by imperialist super-profits, turned into a mastiff of capitalism, into a corrupting element of the workers' movement. Without a fight against them, there can be no talk of a fight against imperialism, of Marxism, of a socialist workers' movement (Lenin).
- In order to manipulate the masses and harness them to the bourgeois state by their participation in reactionary elections, fear is sown by different mechanisms, according to the reactionary thinking and interests of the different factions and groups of the big imperialist bourgeoisie, such as “defence of democracy”, “against fascism”, “against illegal immigration”, “against immigrants”, for the “defence of identity and culture”, against “fundamentalism”, etc.
Elections are of great importance in the class struggle, therefore, the class and its advanced representatives cannot ignore them, which is why they participate by calling for an active boycott of reactionary elections, marching to meet the spontaneous rejection of reactionary elections by the masses. The rejection of elections, as shown by the recent elections, means that the masses do not allow themselves to be harnessed to the bourgeois state because it does not correspond to their interests and needs. That bourgeois democracy is democracy for a tiny minority and dictatorship for the vast majority of the population.
The events recorded in the last elections in question, their results, show how the subjective situation, the level of consciousness of the masses, develops in correspondence with the development of the objective situation: a revolutionary situation in uneven development. “Necessity teaches” (Lenin). That is, the masses are ready, the masses learn out of their own necessity, they reject the system of oppression and exploitation, they increase their struggles but they need the communist party to make the leap from the development of their spontaneous action to conscious action for the socialist revolution. The need for a communist party, for the concentric construction of the three instruments of the revolution. Going to the deepest and most profound part of the masses, following the only Marxist tactic of irreconcilable struggle against opportunism.
BOURGEOIS ELECTIONS AND THE DECOMPOSITION OF IMPERIALISM
The election results are one more expression of the process of decomposition of imperialism, of how its decomposition deepens and grows. This is expressed at all levels, as has been the case in the last elections. The process of reactionary state of the bourgeois state, centralization of power in the executive branch, growth of the armed forces and bureaucracy, parties as state organizations,
Crisis of bourgeois democracy - crisis of parliamentarism.
Everything is decided above or below parliament, see how governments are determined and the process followed by the approval of laws, the parliamentary assembly are sessions where after some interventions agreed upon by the parliamentary factions, the rest only limit themselves to raising their hands, to give yes or no. Political misery of the bourgeois leaders or their opportunistic servants. Parliamentary work is carried out in the commissions where the great number of parliamentary advisors, professionals who have not been elected, are those who prepare the laws and the reports.
Lenin, on the process of reaction of the capitalist States, says that these follow the process of centralization of power, of strengthening of the “executive power”, of its bureaucratic and military machine to the detriment of parliament as its common characteristic features, in a process that is repeated in the 19th century and continues in the 20th century, although, with the passage from pre-monopoly capitalism or free competition to monopoly capitalism, in a more varied, slow and extensive way.
Decomposition of its party system.
The difference between the reactionary parties, which represent the different factions of the imperialist bourgeoisie, bourgeois democrats or more reactionary, is erased; on the basis of the monopoly in the economy there can be nothing else but the monopoly in politics, the different factions rot alive. This is clearly expressed in the decomposition of the parties giving rise to their division, which fight for the same electorate as in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, etc.
We quote, as an example of the many that all these elections offer us, from the article: Six conclusions from the British elections. Enrique Feás. DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP // Published on 08 Jul 2024 by the Royal El Cano Institute of the Spanish imperialist state, the following:
“ (...) that Keir Starmer's victory cannot be attributed to a particularly exciting or concrete program. The Labour leader has maintained a very discreet attitude during the campaign, with surprising approximations to the language of his adversaries such as his statements against immigration or the assertion that, “as long as he lives”, the United Kingdom will not return to the European Union (EU). It can be said that Starmer has concentrated on the campaign in not making mistakes, letting the conservatives hand him the majority on a silver platter (...) The conservative division, with Farage competing for the same electorate, has had a lot to do with these results.”
The economic crisis, the corruption inherent in the bourgeois state (see Lenin quote) has increased the discontent and protest of the masses.
The unprecedented and scandalous enrichment of a handful of large monopolists and rulers and officials from top to bottom in the Cov-19 pandemic with the negotiation of vaccines, health and protective equipment, medicines and “aid” packages for the economy, is one of the ingredients that has further increased the anger of the masses and the rejection not only against the government but against all institutions and representatives of the State. The aforementioned article states thus:
“ (…) that the conservative collapse must be attributed to multiple factors, such as the economic crisis, the management of the pandemic and, of course, the failure of Brexit: in fact, the greatest falls in conservative support have occurred in the constituencies where there were more votes in favor of leaving the EU in 2016.”
The fiction of the majority.
In all these elections, which we have mentioned in the first paragraph, the number and percentage of non-voters has exceeded the votes of the parties or coalitions that received the most votes. In all these, the protest vote and the vote of fear (of the “danger of fascism” or “danger of the immigrant”) have been expressed. In all the elections, the governing parties have been voted out. In all these elections, the decomposition of the traditional parties and, as part of them, the opportunist parties can be seen.
Examples:
1. France (second round, June 9)
36.37% did not vote
Composition of the National Assembly
There are 289 seats in the Assembly that must be attended to have the majority.
No party or coalition has obtained an absolute majority.
TENDANCE POLITIQUE
SIÈGES
NFP
182 sièges
Ensemble
168 sièges
RN (dont LR-RN)
143 sièges
LR
46 sièges
Droite
14 sièges
Gauche
13 sièges
Centre
6 sièges
Régionalistes
4 sièges
Divers
1 siège
Extrême gauche
0 siège
Reconquête
0 siège
Extrême droite
0 siège
DONNÉE
TAUX
PARTICIPATION
66,63 %
28 867 759
VOTES BLANCS
4,14 %
1 194 970
VOTES NULS
1,36 %
393 07
Source : Ministère de l’intérieur / étiquetage Le Monde
The RN, led by Marine Le Pen's go-between Bardelle, won around 10.7 million French voters in the second round, 9.1 million voted for the NFP and seven million for Ensemble.
Bear these results in mind with a view to the 2027 presidential election.
2. In the United Kingdom:
"The 2024 election ended with the election of the Labour Party as the majority party, thus electing Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. A largely fictitious "landslide victory" decided entirely by the ruling class through its monopoly on the media.
The so-called Labour "flop" actually meant losing more than half a million votes compared to 2019. The "strong democratic mandate" that Keir Starmer claims to have received came from only 14% of the population.
It was one of the lowest turnouts in modern history, at less than 60%".
The EDITORIAL: On the election of Keir Starmer and the road ahead from Red Flag News, which we have collected from Red Herald on July 13, with first-hand data, clearly and forcefully denounces the electoral farce and the majority election of the new prime minister and his parliamentary majority.
Below we quote from the article, "Six conclusions from the British elections. …", which despite not presenting data on electoral participation and not offering absolute figures on the last two elections, complements the information from the comrades of Red Flag News, cited above, considering the victory of the Labour Party as a product of the partisan decomposition and the English electoral system, when referring to the results, it says:
„In essence, it was more a breakdown of the Conservative majority than a massive shift of the electorate towards Labour.
Firstly, the result in terms of seats is misleading. Without undermining their important victory, Labour won 34% of the vote, that is, only 1.6 points more than in 2019, but which, by virtue of the particular British electoral system, have been transformed into more than 200 additional seats. In essence, it was more a breakdown of the Conservative majority than a massive shift of the electorate towards Labour. Nigel Farage's far-right, Reform UK, which won more than 14% of the vote, only won four seats. With a smaller percentage, just 12% of the vote (many of them in the south of the country), the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats. It is clear that first past the post (FPP) voting may be a very effective system in eliminating marginal parties, but it produces quite surprising and disproportionate results when the political spectrum is fragmented into a few parties with a sufficient percentage of the vote
Figure 1. UK election results in 2024 and comparison with 2019
|
2024 |
2019 |
Dif. 2024/2019 |
||||
|
Votos (%) |
Escaños |
Votos (%) |
Escaños |
Votos (%) |
Escaños |
|
|
Laboristas |
33,8 |
411 |
32,2 |
202 |
+1,6 |
+209 |
|
Conservadores |
23,7 |
121 |
43,6 |
365 |
-19,9 |
-244 |
|
Reform UK |
14,3 |
5 |
0,0 |
0 |
+14,3 |
+5 |
|
LibDem |
12,2 |
72 |
11,6 |
11 |
+0,6 |
+61 |
|
Verdes |
6,8 |
4 |
2,7 |
1 |
+4,1 |
+3 |
|
SNP |
2,5 |
9 |
3,9 |
48 |
-1,4 |
-39 |
|
Plaid
Cymru |
0,7 |
4 |
0,5 |
4 |
+0,2 |
+0 |
|
DUP |
0,6 |
5 |
0,8 |
8 |
-0,2 |
-3 |
|
Sinn Fein |
0,6 |
7 |
0,7 |
7 |
-0,1 |
+0 |
|
Resto |
4,8 |
12 |
4,1 |
4 |
+0,7 |
+8 |
|
TOTAL |
100,0 |
650 |
100,0 |
650 |
||
"
The representatives elected to parliaments and government posts (or to the executive) in none of the elections in question have been elected by the majority of citizens. They are the result of electoral systems designed to create the fiction that their election is an expression of the majority will expressed in the citizen vote. Thus, not only because of their class character – as representatives of a class dictatorship of a minority (financial oligarchy), increasingly reduced to a few and increasingly powerful, who concentrate the majority of national and global wealth; but also because of the way they obtain their representative mandates, they are parliaments of minorities. Democracy of a tiny minority of the population against the interests of the vast majority.