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Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau: when brutal neoliberalism tries to re-brand itself through fresh faces

This is a picture of a doctrine that is about to die and tries to stay alive through cheap tricks


Neoliberalism has a human face with France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau. The pair has been presented as young innovators, saviors from the evils of populism.

But what about the substance which is their policies. Are their policies progressive or innovative?

Trudeau talks about climate change, but has pushed for new pipelines carrying oil from Alberta's tar sands and supported Trump's approval for Keystone.

The Canadian leader said Canada would welcome Muslims, but affected by Trump's travel ban and refused to raise country's refugee intake.

Macron has just been elected president, yet as France's economy minister he pushed the pro-business labor reform that caused outrage among unions and workers in the country.

The former Rothschild investment banker's campaign was funded by France's wealthiest, including those who moved to Belgium in order to pay less taxes.

Both leaders have come under fire for their racist comments.

While media heap praise Trudeau and Macron for their looks, what these leaders actually doing, is neither new, nor attractive.


This is the new face of neoliberalism that struggles to survive by promoting itself as the only 'solution' against right and left populism. The establishment apparatus presents leftist leaders as something equally bad with the far right threat. It doesn't seem to work if we look Sanders' popularity in the US, the rise of Corbyn and Melenchon in the UK and France, despite the fierce attacks by the mainstream media.

Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau are examples of another attempt of neoliberalism to trick the masses by disguising itself as the 'new'. In reality this is the old, bankrupt doctrine which has far more similarities with the far right than with the real left. Besides, this is the reason for which the leftist leaders are treated with such a hostility by the establishment press. It's because they are the real threat against what neoliberalism stands for.

But people won't be tricked so easily this time by these cheap and obsolete tactics.

As mentioned, Macron should remember the thousands in the streets of the French cities when his 'Socialist' buddy, Francois Hollande, dared to pass the anti-labor bill. The Socialists have been wiped out from the French political map, but Macron will face a new round of unprecedented popular uprise in the streets, once he will try to finish the job for the elites. And it will happen, despite the unprecedented repression under the pretext of terrorism.

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