British Elections: May And Corbyn, Leaders

On June 8, 2017, the British elect a new parliament. At the top of the polls are Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party (left) and Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May (right).

The British Prime Minister Theresa May, who convened new elections to consolidate his majority in view of the Brexit, leads the Conservatives against Labor's Jeremy Corbyn troops. Between the two sexagenarians, eight years apart, paths singularly different and two visions almost antagonistic of what should be the British society.

And if they have spoken relatively discreetly on the Brexit issue before the referendum of June 23, 2016, one of them will have to lead the UK out of the European Union this summer. Portraits crossed.

On the right, a laying of the Conservative Party. Daughter of pastor (as Angela Merkel is often compared) Anglican, passed by Oxford then by the Bank of England in his younger years, early support of former Prime Minister David Cameron, Respectful of the dogma of economic austerity, long Minister of the Interior.

On the left, an illustrious stranger, placed under the spotlight two years ago, vegetarian ascetic with a bustling past of trade union activist and radical activist, self-taught who stops studying at 18, son of a couple of pacifists of The British middle class.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, respectively, are no different. One of their only common points is that they both have a chance to rule the UK in the troubled waters of Brexit.

The British Prime Minister and the leader of the Labor Party face each other regularly in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, and the exchanges are often tense. However, they never clashed on a television set, as Theresa May has always dismissed this option - whether it be a duel or an exercise involving all the leaders of the parties in the legislative elections of 8 June.




Even if they are reluctant to play the game of media coverage, whether political or tabloid, the leaders of the two parties that have structured British political life for decades have a certain reputation. The British are in any case questioned about what they think of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. As evidenced by YouGov's study, May is considered to be more intelligent, stronger, firmer, and categorical than his rival. Her stature as a stateswoman and her elegance are also saluted. Conversely, Corbyn seems more accessible, ordinary and honest to the respondents than the Prime Minister.

The YouGov site offers adjectives to those surveyed who should say if they would tend to use them to qualify Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn

Political views diametrically opposed

Since his first election as a member of Parliament in 1983, Jeremy Corbyn has never left the benches of Westminster, where he sits as a representative of a northern Greater London district. Yet this has never prevented him from campaigning in the streets, as he has always done, alongside trade unions and associations that defend the causes that are dear to him. For example, he was arrested during a protest against apartheid in South Africa in 1984.

Among other revolts, it also militates against the war in all its forms: it is of all the pacifist manifestations, that they are organized against the intervention in Vietnam or in Iraq. An eminent member of the association Stop the War, the Labor also advocates a complete denuclearization of the planet and openly described the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 of " tragedy  " because it should have been judged, according to him.

As recalled by the short documentary [ in English ] of Channel 4, these stances are worth Jeremy Corbyn being described by his critics as "  idealistic surrounded by ideologues  ." Neither is it despicable to remind him of his past vicissitudes with members of Sinn Fein, an Irish independence movement, who are also close to the terrorist group IRA. Corbyn always replied that he did not take part, but that he was just trying to participate in the pre-peace talks. Nonetheless, his anti-monarchism and his republicanism detonated in the British political landscape.

"Jeremy Corbyn entered politics by chance when he became Labor's leader. Previously, he belonged to a different environment: that of militancy [protest, ed], recalls the former feather of Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, Philip Collins to Chanel 4. Conversely, Theresa May is "  a product of the Conservative party, "according to journalist and member of the same party Paul Goodman, also interviewed by Channel 4 in a documentary [ in English ] devoted to the First Minister.

Theresa May very early, like her rival, joined the party she runs today. But where Corbyn led the indoor swing against the Labor leaders - led by Tony Blair, not enough left to his liking - relying on unions and associations, May has shown Loyalty to David Cameron. This fidelity enabled him, after having held several positions in the "  shadow cabinet  "Of Cameron from 2005, to become a member of his government after taking office. Thus, from 2010 to 2016, Theresa May led the British Ministry of the Interior - an unprecedented longevity in this position.

In the interior, Theresa May distinguished itself by its fight against immigration: it ended family reunification, refused the quotas of refugees proposed by the European Union and made the expulsion of Islamist preachers a battleground. Jeremy Corbyn, for his part, has always defended the opening of the British borders.

Red ties against multicolored shoes

The common denominator of these two personalities is their refusal to publicize their private lives. For example, in a brief interview with British public broadcaster BBC, Jeremy Corbyn explains that he hates personal issues related to his privacy and hobbies. Father of three children, married three times - his last wife is twenty years his junior - we know of Labor that he drinks little, does not eat meat by the refusal of animal suffering, and that, according to the newspaper Le Monde, the lowest expenses of all members of the British Parliament.



At Westminster, he was soon noticed as an iconoclast, long refusing to wear the tie, as he had already explained in the mid-1980s at the BBC, proudly wearing his beard from his first years as a member of parliament.

As for style, Theresa May is no exception, since her shoes, the only daring (clothing) that the current Prime Minister is allowing himself, are the subject of regular comments. But on the privacy side, fashion is there also rather at discretion. In order to break its cold and hard image, the curator invited her husband, Philip May, on a plateau, during the election campaign for the first time for a joint interview. Sir, also a member of the Conservative party at the time of their meeting in Oxford, takes out the trash, Madam cooks well, and both make tea. This is in the main lines what can be retained from the sequence.

The "May team" against "corbynism"

Theresa May announced early elections on April 18 - a first in the UK since the 1970s. This decision surprised some of the country's political class. The campaign conducted drums for two months, left room for Labor and Conservatives. Liberal-Democrats of Tim Farron have not been heard; The extreme right-wing European party UKIP no longer found any reason for being since the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union will be with or without him.

Since mid-April, the Conservatives' intentions to vote have steadily declined. In advance of 20 lengths on Labor, the Tories are now only a few points from their forever rivals. Despite the attacks on May 22 and June 3 in Manchester and London, May's security and anti-immigration seems less and less convincing. The fault may be to the austerity she advocates, following in the footsteps of her predecessor David Cameron.

The lack of a dull even completely missed electoral campaign by the new iron lady: minimalist communication to the media, no televised debate, no big meetings ... Observers talk about one of the worst election campaigns ever Led by a working Prime Minister, even though the campaign is focused on the "  strong and stable  " personality of the British government chief: his posters refer to "the May team" rather than the Conservative Party.

Yet, Jeremy Corbyn, a pariah among the governing bodies of his party, did not assure victory. Winner surprised in the first round when their new leader was elected by Labor in September 2015, even though he had almost failed to obtain the necessary sponsorships from his peers in Parliament, according to Polls, Jeremy Corbyn is today promised to defeat. And even if his interventionist discourse and his style of old leftists worthy of Old Labor (prior to the takeover of the Labor party by Tony Blair) seem to attract a growing share of the electorate - this is the popular vote Which allowed him to impose himself at the head of his party. His recent comeback in the polls could attest: