France: The Perils of an Election
by Amir Taheri • July 7, 2024 at 4:00 am
[Jean-Marie Le Pen] learned from General Boulanger's strategy of merging the monarchist right with the radical revolutionary left by working on two key constituencies: the urban working class increasingly disillusioned with Stalinist and social democratic parties, and the dwindling farming communities that felt threatened by free trade and globalization.
The Le Pen-ist movement turned the fight against immigration into the launching pad in its quest for power.
The tactic proved especially profitable in terms of getting votes in parts of France that had almost no or few immigrant communities. However, that wasn't enough either. Thus, National Rally cast the European Union as "the other" in the "them-and-us" discourse, to the point of calling for leaving the Schengen Agreement and the Euro-zone in 2017.
The [National Rally] party's program for government reads like the inventory of a candy store, full of goodies but not clear where and when they might be served.
What is certain is that NR is now the France's largest political party, backed by about 40 percent of voters. Even if it does not win a majority in the new parliament, it would be the key player in French politics for the foreseeable future.
Some pundits see it as a threat to French democracy. Maybe. But demonizing it is an even bigger threat.
Barring a surprise, which is still possible, today France may have its first elected ultra-right government led by Marine Le Pen's National Rally (formerly National Front). The only other time that that brand of politics emerged as government in France was in the 1940s under Marshal Petain during the German occupation.
At a broader level, this would be the second time since the general election in the Weimar Republic in Germany in 1932 that an ultra-right party wins a straight parliamentary majority in a major European democracy.
Should we rush to join those on the ultra-left who are crying wolf about "fascism" seizing control of France?
I think not.
To be sure, the National Rally does share a number of attributes with ur-fascism, e.g. a narrow understanding of nationhood, a xenophobic tone, and a cult of the leader. However, the National Rally is heir to a political tradition with deep roots in modern French history.
