What sort of self-respecting anarchist stands for elected office?
« JE SUIS PRÊT À ASSUMER D'ALLER À L'ELYSÉE [SIC] »*
["I AM READY TO ASSUME THE JOURNEY TO THE PRESIDENCY"]
June 14, 2006 (Libération ) - In an interview granted to Libération, the peasant leader José Bové explains why he considers himself the best choice to head the presidential campaign of 2007 in the name of the left of the left [gauche de la gauche].L: Then you are a candidate for president?
JB: I am the uniting candidate: the left of the PS, the left antiliberal, ecological, antiproductivist and ant-globalist. And I am ready to assume the responsibility to go to the Elysée [sic]. But I enter myself in a collective movement. It follows from the dynamics created by the campaign that brought about the vote of May 29, 2005. It is clear that the socialist candidacy emerges from the right-hand side of the PS and opens a space for an antiliberal candidacy from the left of the PS.
L: Why do you consider yourself better positioned than Olivier Besancenot [Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, LCR] or Marie-George Buffet [Parti communiste français, PCF] to carry this candidacy?
JB: Today, within the framework of a broad front, there are political parties, associations, movements, trade unionists. These people, including a majority of the green electorate, are ready to set in motion this dynamic. Within this group, there is a competition between the PCF and the LCR. Each one thinks that he is best positioned to take the leadership. But neither head of these two organizations is capable of uniting the entire breadth of this front. To surpass this competition, I am ready to be a candidate. If this decision is collective and carried by all, I will go all the way.
L: Does the dynamic around Ségolène Royal reinforce your determination?
JB: With Royal Ségolène, it is the right of the PS that is represented. Someone who clearly supports the liberal economic model.
[Hat tip: ¡No Pasarán !]
José Bové, like many self-invented anarchists, has no structured thinking or approach to the problems that beset France. He has a collection of bizarre notions, fond hopes, pet hates, and conspiracy theories** with which he feels adequately equipped to govern on the fly. M. Bové offers the French people a government of stunts. For instance, he might hide all the cocktail sauce at a G8 summit in an attempt to force trade or labor concessions from the United States.
As the French presidency comes with inexhaustible media coverage, it is the perfect -- nay, natural -- venue for the pranking M. Bové.
* You see, M. Bové has not always been ready:
INTERVIEW WITH JOSE BOVE
January 6, 2002 (Organic Consumers Association)
Interviewer: Any truth to the rumors that you were planning to run for president?JB: No. Those were false rumors put out by people who thought I could
present an alternative. But I'd rather devote my energy to developing political opposition than to trying to unite the votes of the disaffected.
** Wouldn't you know, it's the Jews:
JB: Who profits from the crime [of synagogue burnings]? The Israeli government and its secret services [Mossad] have an interest in creating a certain psychosis, in making believe that there is a climate of antisemitism in France, in order to distract attention from what they are doing.
PFFT (What is this?): Big moustache 5 | Big ideas 0 | Rayonnement français 0
