Vive la République

In the absence of any sensational speeches or interviews over the weekend this side of the Channel, it is hard not to defer to our French neighbours for something exciting in the world of politics.  The Tories may be dreaming of how many seats they can grab from Labour and the SNP; Labour may be dreaming of former leaders keeping their opinions to themselves and the Lib Dems may be dreaming of winning 50% of the vote, forming a majority government and reversing Article 50 (well, we can all dream..) but none of them is living the dream as much as clear favourite for the Élysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron.

The energy and passion of this gallic Obama-style political fledgling (En Marche is barely a year old) is certainly inspiring and it is hard to see any of our contenders firing up as much energy as Monsieur Macron but then that is not their style.  He will most likely be President of France in a matter of days, maybe more due to a default anti Marine Le Pen vote than to political popularity (over 40% of voters chose either far right or far left candidates) and he would do well to recall the Presidency of last anti-Le Pen vote in the form of Jacques Chirac against Marine’s father Jean-Marie in 2002.

Marine Le Pen is a formidable and experienced opponent and nothing should be left to chance or taken for granted, not least given the political surprises of last year, and early gaffes such as premature celebrations before the final vote should be avoided.

One thing – France gets all this fun and frivolity over in two weeks…we have another six to go!

Luan de Burgh

April 2017

Luan de Burgh is a speaker, writer and founder of The de Burgh Group – a specialist business communication training provider dedicated to helping people perform at their highest potential.