Melenchon, who is polling at about 9 percent, is the most virulent in his attacks. An admirer of Hugo Chavez, he has taken to calling the United States “the empire” and its European allies “vassals.”
The American model for the economy, based on limitless consumption and military spending, is a “deadly contraption” that remains the “main cause of the crisis of human civilization,” he writes in his best-selling essay “Qu’ils s’en aillent tous.” (Translation: Let’s kick them all out.)…
“We’ve always followed the United States, a few years behind, but for me it is the worst kind of model,” said Francine Pietka, a participant in the “Indignes” movement, France’s version of Occupy Wall Street, who was at a rally protesting austerity measures in Greece.
“They represent the worst of many areas: their politics, their lack of a social safety net, their meddling in many countries, their expansionism.”
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