French Presidential Candidate Cheminade Responds to U.S. Elections, Trump Victory

After being informed of the results of the U.S. Presidential election, Jacques Cheminade, a French presidential candidate for 2017, made a short video statement on Nov. 9. A transcript of his remarks are below.

“The result of the U.S. election is a groundswell. It marks the rejection of the policy of Washington and Wall Streets, and of their incompetence and their constant social injustice.

“The voters therefore chose Trump, for want of a better candidate. They don’t believe he has the leadership qualities and the character to lead the United States, but they were given no other choice to express their rejection. Hillary Clinton self-destroyed by appearing as the candidate of Wall Street and of the corrupt circles in Washington, and as a warmonger supported by the neocons.

“In this situation, our American friends will tell the President elect: ‘Both the Republican and the Democratic parties decided to implement Glass-Steagall, (that is, the banking separation which François Hollande did not applied in France). You said you would do it. We call upon you to keep your promise.’ That’s what they will have to say to the President elect. And then, drawing upon the profound discontent of the American people, they will demand a different policy, one consistent with the Founding Fathers of the United States and with the dialogue of nations, with detente and understanding and cooperation among nations and peoples.

“In France, I can think I can be the catalyst of this discontent, provided you support me. We must not seek a Donald Trump, or a Marine Le Pen in France, to express this discontent. We need a National Unity, but one that embodies the spirit of the National Resistance Council, of Gaullism (of the Free French), of social Christianity, the spirit of Jaurès’ socialism which the socialists of today no longer represent.

“I shall fight to make that happen in France, at a time when the international situation affords us the extraordinary opportunity to finally be ourselves, to rediscover our memory and represent the party of the future, not one which says: things were better yesterday, but which says: it must be better tomorrow.”