Whither UDC � A contribution to the debate on the current state of the UDC (Part 2)

There are those like the Sunday Standard columnist Spencer Mogapi who argue that the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) has exhausted its progressive potential and even urged Ndaba Gaolathe to form a party. Emmanuel Macron of France who on the basis of the experience built a party within a year and proceeded to win a landslide electoral victory. In our view such analysis is seriously flawed and simplistic. It fails to take into account France’s much longer and democratic political tradition of over two centuries which implies a much more politically conscious electorate.

In the second place it ignores the particular conditions which gave rise to the Macron phenomenon.