KATIE HOPKINS:
Macron may have won by a landslide but in the resigned Paris I visited last night it didn’t feel like many people were celebrating a triumph for the globalists
By Katie Hopkins for MailOnline
PUBLISHED: 06:45 EDT, 8 May 2017 | UPDATED: 07:10 EDT, 8 May 2017
I walked back to my hotel though the streets of Paris from Macron's party at the Louvre wondering why I felt strange.
Wondering if it was because I suddenly felt very foreign in a city I once spent some time calling home.
Wondering if it was because I wasn't part of the happy crowd gathered on the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, cheering at cars streaming past, horns blaring.
An outsider.
And I realised.
This is how it feels when you feel you are alone amongst the madness.
Ironically, the same feeling shared by Remainers in London, who believed in the Europe project, and watched it made uncertain by the rest of the UK, by people like me. Londoners suddenly strangely foreign in a country they call home.
It's not that anyone expected a Le Pen win. This was never going to be a Brexit moment. Or an American-style ambush of the Establishment. Marine is no Trump.
There was never any doubt about the result, confirmed by the immaculately planned staging at the Louvre for a candidate guaranteed a win.
Instead, there was something horribly inevitable about it all. A sterile representation of democracy following a script.
I joined the crowds to the Louvre, somehow ending up in front of his stage, stood with the rest waiting politely with their phones to film Macron's coronation.
The crowd dutifully waved their flags with an enthusiasm that lasted as long as the cameras were on them
I joined the crowds to the Louvre, somehow ending up in front of his stage, stood with the rest waiting politely with their phones to film Macron's coronation +12
The choreography of it all was disturbing. I realised I had a bag, three Macron t-shirts and two flags in my hands before I had spoken to a soul and asked why people were here.
From the massive screens, TV anchors panned to the crowds as they gathered, and the crowd dutifully waved their flags with an enthusiasm that lasted as long as the cameras were on them. And failed just as fast.
Even the solitary DJ - wheeled out to animate the masses for the watching audiences at home - struggled to connect. The audience jumped about when he encouraged them to. But stood silent when there was a power-cut and the music failed.
A strange game of political musical statues. Empowered by attention. Otherwise inert.
This was a masterclass in manipulation for the watching world. 'Screen-bites' for those with ADD.
Two blocks away from the Louvre, the cars and the people jumping about for the TV cameras, the rest of Paris was calm and still.
Twinkling lights, the warmth of the heaters for the smokers in their twos, conspiratorial couples whispering in bars. Two minutes from the choreographed celebrations - no one seemed to care.
I have never known such superficiality. This politics is skin deep. Scratch the surface and this lot would bleed if they thought it would get them attention.
I reflected on the mass protests in Venezuela, the ferocity of the Arab Spring, the defiance of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. And wished these people shared such passion.
No-one expected a Le Pen win. This was never going to be a Brexit moment. Or an American-style ambush of the Establishment. Marine is no Trump
And Le Pen is gaining hard - she won 10.7million votes. How much longer can the press call a party with 11 million votes 'extreme?'
I sat in a bar and watched Macron walk the long walk to the stage at the Louvre. I remembered the film Dead man walking. This will be a lonely walk for him one day in the other direction.
He chose the EU national anthem - Ode to Joy - for his walk. More messaging, more subservience to the globalists. It told me everything I needed to know. The crowd waved their EU flags in appreciation. Right on cue.
And I thought back to my England on June 23. To the lady who told me she danced around her kitchen with her elderly husband, to my friend stood on the roundabout - waving her Leave banner like a maniac, to the hot pubs and pavements up and down the UK where grown men were suddenly made proud to be British and an elderly caller to my show said he cried to get back the country he fought to defend.
People with battered Union flags flung over shoulders, memories of blue passports, proud of their pound, pictures in their wallet of their grandad in his service uniform. Deep connections to a time before.
Fear of 'the other' has led Metropolitan France to make a hollow decision. It has no roots in something deeper. No authentic foundation. It is oil on water, pretty to look at all the same.
The division between Paris and the rest of France is as searing as London and the rest of the UK. And the West coast liberals versus real America.
The rest of France voted very differently to Paris. They live with the daily reality of the decisions made by wealthy politicians.
The division between Paris and the rest of France is as searing as London and the rest of the UK +12
I absolutely accept Macron won this election. He took 20.6million votes. But it is an illusion to imagine 20.6 million voted for Macron. Many voted against Le Pen
A full ten percent of France are unemployed under labour laws created by Macron to deliver growth. The migrant camps are overwhelming, and many are not so quick to forget the slaughter at the Bataclan or the horror of the terrorist truck on Bastille day, or the recent shooting of the policeman on the Champs Elyse .
I absolutely accept Macron won this election. He took 20.6million votes.
Others pledged support with noses held.
There is only Macron and the movement he invented. The legislative elections are in one month and at present he doesn't have a single representative.
And Le Pen is gaining hard - she won 10.7million votes. (How much longer can the press call a party with 11 million votes 'extreme?')
In truth, she actually came third. 12 million voters abstained and another 4.2 million did not mark their ballot or spoiled their paper - refusing to vote for either candidate.
Macron's biggest rivals are a right-wing woman with a solid core of 11 million ardent supporters and over 16 million people who believe in democracy but would rather not vote at all than give Macron a mandate to lead.
He says he is about unity? He has his work cut out.
I reflected on the mass protests in Venezuela (pictured) and wished these people shared such passion
The perfect puppet on stage, has Merkel as his master. And the brand of EM - Emmanuel Macron / En Marche is an illusion, just like the crowd conjured up to dance for the watching world.
On stage he told the crowd, waving flags they didn't think to bring, all the things he wasn't and all the things he wouldn't be.
I was reminded of the Pussy March speeches in Washington which had the same empty rhetoric; ''We are women. And you are we. And we are you".
Macron shouted at the crowd: "We are what we are. We are the future. We will not give in. Tonight I am doing what I must do".
When he got to "France is France", I had had my fill.
I asked the barman if he was happy, if the right guy had won.
He made the special French face expressing utter disdain of all things, and said "it is better this way".
Better.
I gave him the Macron t-shirt from my bag and wished him the very best of luck.
He is going to need it
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