Andrew Bolt: Macron’s tantrum driven by the far-Right politics

You’d think Labor would have figured there’s something nutty about how French President Emmanuel Macron is ranting against Scott Morrison.

You’d think Labor would have figured there’s something nutty about how French President Emmanuel Macron is ranting against Scott Morrison.

It’s not normal for a president to be a drama queen, calling our Prime Minister a liar and backstabber. Yes, Australia had a contract with France to build diesel subs, but that contact had a get-out clause if Australia didn’t like what we were getting.

We didn’t. So Morrison cancelled the deal and went instead for better nuclear subs from the US and Britain – which Labor supported. End of story.

But then came this hysterical French over-reaction, and now Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong is siding with Macron, saying “nobody believes Scott Morrison is sincere”. What Wong doesn’t realise is that Macron’s tantrum is driven by the far-Right politics that Labor should loathe.

Macron faces an election next year, and France is divided. It’s had huge terrorist attacks and many riots in its Muslim areas.

France's President Emmanuel Macron. Picture: AFP

Early this year, 20 retired generals signed an open letter to Macron, warning: “Civil war will break upon this growing chaos, and the deaths, for which you will be responsible, will number among the thousands.”

Then 2000 serving soldiers signed another open letter to Macron: “We are talking about the survival of our country.”

Call them extremists, but many French voters fear their country has lost not just its old glory but even identity. To stay president, Macron must win a run-off next year against either Marine Le Pen, leader of the Right-wing National Rally, or the even more Right-wing Eric Zemmour.

Zemmour is a commentator from an Algerian Jewish family who has shot to second in the polls by preaching a radical French nationalism, and both he and Le Pen have exploited the failed subs deal with Australia to make Macron seem a weak leader who cannot make France great again.

Zemmour, the “French Donald Trump”, even put out a video saying France’s secret services should have known about the deal Australia signed instead with the US and Britain, and painting Macron as the dupe of “Anglo-Saxons” – France’s traditional great bogey.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: AFP

“Some say, whisper, that Emmanuel Macron had known since last June, and that he waited for the most favourable moment to announce this catastrophe and this snub that our Anglo-Saxon allies have inflicted on us.”

See now why Macron is acting so crazy about Australia? He must show far-Right voters that he’s tough, too, against wicked Anglo-Saxons.

So why is Labor on his side?