Both leader new to politics and both invented their own parties
A French election transposed on New Zealand would result in a victory for Gareth Morgan's new political party..
Interest in election outcome transfer has so far covered the British general election.
But a scrutiny of the result of the French presidential election won outright by Emmanuel Macron and then of the ensuing French parliamentary election also won outright by his party demonstrates a dream that on face value could only be achieved by Gareth Morgan.
Here now are the similarities:-
*President Macron had never stood before as a party political candidate – Neither has Mr Morgan
*President Macron invented his own polltical party, En Marche. Mr Morgan has also created his own party, the Opportunities Party
*President Macron’s background is in high finance. So is Mr Morgan’s
*En Marche is liberal centrist. So is Opportunities
*President Macron launched himself into the presidential election which he won, and the legislative election which he also won claiming that no existing political party was in a position to effect any positive change. Mr Morgan is saying the same thing.
In the event, President Macron re-cast the French political scene, causing to disappear as any force at all the ruling Socialist Party.
Will Mr Morgan accomplish the same sweeping reorganisation of the political landscape here?
A problem in contrast with seeking to transpose the British general election to New Zealand is that no reading can be taken, no tea leaves read, on the disrepute in which professional career politicians were regarded by the British electorate.
This is because they were all professional politicians who had all devoted their adult careers to politics.
So in the New Zealand general election the electorate in the form of Mr Morgan will be faced with this man-of-the-hour type drawn to the fray--- out of patriotism.
President Macron in his own election, and then in the En Marche dominated legislative (Parliamentary) election broke France’s endless party political electoral conveyor belt which runs from the City councils, through the regional/departmental councils by way of the European Parliament.
It could also be added that the two party names, the one in France, and the one in New Zealand mean pretty much the same thing in being code for a break with the past.
Beyond an agricultural focus and a shared Polynesian experience, the two nations are not immediately apparent as political mirror images.
In recent years however France has followed several New Zealand structural leads. It has cut its presidential political term from seven years to five – still much longer though than New Zealand’s quick-fire three year term.
In recent weeks there has been a strong groundswell in France in favour of proportional representation.
| From the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | Friday 6 June 2017 |||