Aux armes, citoyens! These famous blood-curdling words from La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, call for armed insurrection amid the tumult of revolution.
But they might also be a taste of the immediate future for France, a country on the verge of meltdown.
There are five days left to save not just the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, but the political stability of the nation.
The President himself has admitted that France could be heading for disorder, rioting – and even civil war if, as seems overwhelmingly likely, Marine Le Pen and her Right-wing nationalists entrench a handsome majority in the National Assembly this weekend.
Parisian shops and government offices are barricading their premises. Police leave has been cancelled.
It seems overwhelmingly likely, Marine Le Pen and her Right-wing nationalists entrench a handsome majority in the National Assembly this weekend
On Sunday night, thousands of Left-wing demonstrators took to the streets in Paris and other French cities in protest at a Le Pen victory
Macron has already thrown away his majority in the National Assembly thanks to last Sunday’s hastily called general election – in which his party, Renaissance (previously En Marche) and its coalition supporters were humiliated by Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).
Now France’s sans-culottes are preparing to vote again in a second, decisive round which will determine the final allocation of parliamentary seats.
The polls show Macron heading towards another crushing defeat – and the likelihood of bloodshed or worse as far-Left agitators revolt against the surge of support for the Right.
This is no exaggeration. France remains proud of its revolutionary past in which Louis XVI’s Ancien Regime was overthrown by the people – with the terrible help of the guillotine.
The country has seen an increase in violence and social unrest in recent years, including the 2005 riots in the suburbs of Paris and the long-running ‘gilets jaunes’ movement.
On Sunday night, thousands of Left-wing demonstrators took to the streets in Paris and other French cities in protest at a Le Pen victory.
Millions of visitors arriving for the Olympic Games starting in a little over three weeks’ time could be greeted with the sight of street battles and the stench of tear gas rather than insouciant waiters and expensive patisseries.
But if Macron – often described as Napoleon reincarnated – has finally met his Waterloo, he only has himself to blame.
It was his own petulant choice to dissolve the National Assembly after his party made a poor showing in last month’s elections for the European Parliament.
A barricade is set on fire as protesters demonstrate against the National Rally party
The president gambled that the French voters would turn their backs decisively on Le Pen when it came to a general (rather than a European) election – but he lost, decisively.
There are four likely scenarios for when the votes are counted this weekend – and all of them are troubling.
The first – and most likely – is that Le Pen’s RN will win again but narrowly fail to secure an absolute majority.
This is a recipe for political disaster. France’s parliament will be plunged into chaos and the country will become ungovernable.
Why? Because if no government is formed, the unelected ‘Council of State’ comprising superannuated politicians – many of them Macronites – would oversee the running of daily government business but lack the authority to implement new measures. This would mean political paralysis, financial turmoil, voter frustration – and, quite possibly, given the yawning democratic deficit – battles on the street.
The second case is that the RN does win an absolute majority and forms a government – but that this triggers a widespread insurrection by the so-called ‘black bloc’ of the hard-Left. Again, widespread violence, looting and attacks on the police can be expected.
Left-wing unions have already threatened to strike in the event of an RN victory, shutting down public transport and government services.
Hundreds of civil servants have pledged to disobey such a government, which they hysterically call ‘fascist’. The third scenario is worse still. In this, the Left, which is infested with extremists, engineers its way to a majority by striking shadowy deals behind closed doors with the remnants of Macron’s battered party.
This, too, guarantees political instability because it would be another blatant rebuke for the democratic choice made by voters.
However it is achieved, a Left-wing victory is likely to push the country into a financial crisis as nervous bond markets withdraw support for the nation’s nearly € 3 trillion national debt.
Inevitably, this will only heighten the potential for social unrest.
Finally, the sinister possibility that a desperate, cornered Macron declares a ‘state of emergency’ and seizes absolute power for himself under Article 16 of the Constitution – amid warnings of armed conflict.
I am not exaggerating: even Macron admits that France is a powder keg.
In a bizarre podcast interview last week, the president claimed that his political opponents had stoked tensions between communities and ‘push[ed] people towards civil war’.
Yet if anyone is pushing the country into conflict, it’s Macron himself.
The one-time wonderboy of the globalist consensus, memorably pictured walking on water on the cover of The Economist magazine, is now witnessing his legacy drown in the polluted waters of the Seine.
The results of last Sunday’s ballot speak for themselves. His centrist political philosophy, founded on his own personality, is finished.
How bitterly Macron must now regret his vainglorious decision to call the election. Was it merely a gross political miscalculation, a bet gone horribly wrong?
Or, I wonder, has an ingrained and narcissistic personality flaw caused Macron to lose touch with reality?
The President certainly believes himself intellectually superior to others, warning at the start of his presidency that his thoughts were ‘too subtle’ to be understood by ordinary mortals.
Famously comparing himself to Jupiter, king of the Gods, Macron believes himself special and unique, a man who can only be understood by other special or high-status people. Much good this attitude has done him.
France, where I have lived for more than 20 years, is a delightful nation which has given the world so much in culture, science and the arts.
But time after time, it has been plunged into the abyss by the vanity, incompetence and insouciance of its leaders, including Louis XVI (who had a fateful appointment with Madame Guillotine), Napoleon and Nazi collaborator Marshal Petain, to name but a few.
Ending in both personal failure and national catastrophe, Macron’s own career is now following the same sordid path.
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