The far-right on the threshold of power in France

Radicaldanger

 Prepared by: Musa Ashrashour

The rise of the National Rally candidate, Marine Le Pen, to the second round of the presidential elections in France was not surprising to observers and public opinion, as it happened in the 2017 elections and before that, with her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the 200 200 elections. It was highly anticipated because it came after an election campaign that was overshadowed by unprecedented populist and xenophobic rhetoric. It is imperativethat all candidates, including President IeMaunel Macron, first of all determine their position on immigration, national identity and Islam, before delving into any other topic.

This campaign took place in an atmosphere of bidding that forced the victory of the extreme right. Because, regardless of the results of the second round scheduled for 24 APReil, the right-wing populist discourse has been able to enshrine its concepts and statements in the French political scene and push officials, regardless of their ideological orientations and backgrounds, to adopt a radical political approach, to say the least, reckless, towards immigrants and the Muslim community in particular.

Between the first and second rounds, most of the commentary and analysis focused on the danger to France, motherand civilization, if the far-right candidate, who seems to have the same chances of success as the current president, wins.

The miracle of Marine Le Pen

Columnist Jean-Marie Colombani, former director of  the popular daily Le Monde, sounds the alarm on Slate  , warning against underestimating the far-right candidate's chances of winning. He wrote: "The French, and  with them all  of  France, stand up at this moment to their responsibilities. In two weeks, a victory for the far right will be possible.  Marine Le Pen's miracle was not only that she was able to make people forget her name - "Elect Marin" - but also  and above all the nature of her program, which meets all the characteristicsof the traditional far-right. WithCZatha is also in the fact that his campaign, which focused entirely   on  The purchasing  power, while ignoring this demand, succeeded in polishing its image withcunning."

Le  Monde's current director, wrote in an editorial in the  issue issued the day after the announcement of the results of the first round, warning of the possibility of the National Rally candidate winning and its repercussions. "For the second time in a row,  the  RND candidate Marine Le Penhas a good chance of participating in the second round. For the first time, if opinion polls are   to be  believed, the  chances of winning a far-right platform exist.Of course  , no judgment should be rushed  to be made on the veracity of  these hypotheses, which should be treated withall caution."   We read many comments on  the reasons for the unprecedented situation in which she found herself  the candidateof the National Rally. The prevailing view is that she owes a lot  to the presence of her rival and the other candidate ofthe extreme right, Eric Zemmour, who is now contributing against his will, after failing to overthrow her, to  give her   the credibility she wants  and to improve her image through his exaggerated rhetoric and exaggeration. He also prepared for her  an undreamed  stock of votes for the second round."

In the same vein, the  Swiss French-language daily Le Temps  wrote  commenting on the seismic event  that the French elections produced "two French or two countries facing each other  " that are difficult to reconcile, one of which was decided in the April 24 round. "On April 10, unsurprisingly, two FransYan came  out of the polls. The firstis Emmanuel Macron's France,  who expresses  his desire to face the future alongside his European partners, convinced that the saying "no matter what" cannot continue indefinitely.    France's second, Marine Le Pen's, believes it is time for the president toheal the  social fissures that tear the country apart.  ethat thebelldan is very far from each other. Their dissonance between the two rounds is the basis of the new election campaign that began on Sunday evening."

The same vision with the same concepts came out of the French liberal daily "Le Penion", which talks about a conflict between Marcon France and Le Pen's France, considering that the second role that will bring together the candidates repeats the scenario of the 2017 elections, but several factors make the return fight more dangerous for the president than the first fight.

In the tone of the people, the French Communist Party's  L'Humanité  daily wrote that the risk of Le Pen winning the presidency was no longerimpossible. In her analysis, she cites the numbers. "We are approaching a new April 21," she says. It is the third in 20 years since Jean-Marie Le Pen advanced to the second round in 2002. Since that day, the phrase has become common in everyday conversations, but the current political  situation  is different. Jean-Marie Le Pen's descendant, who won 23.3% of the vote, succeeded in consolidating her position and surpassing the percentage achieved in the first round of the 2017 elections (21.3%). Within five years, however, the situation had changed radically. The victory of the far-right is no longer surrealor imaginary like it once was. According to the polling institute Ifop, its score will not be less than 49% in the second round, with an estimated margin of error."

The author continues his analysis: "There are several elements that support thisominous thesis. Some of them are the media about  far-right topics, which led  to their generalization andnature. Another  example   was the emergence of the candidate PietNe (named after Marshal Peiten, who allied himself with Nazi Germany during World War II), who greatly helped to expand the base of the  nationalist camp, providing   Marine Le Pen with A significant stock of votes for the first time. Third, there is the  authoritarian andunpopular policy thatprevailed during Macron's tenure  and opened awide path for  the head ofthe National Front."

Sociological and cultural division

Political expert Jérôme Frauquet, director of the "  Opinions" department at  the IFOP Institute, argues in an analysis of the election results  that there are "two sociological and cultural blocs that are facing each other." In an interview with the daily "Le Figaro", he says  theRight-wing, the results of the vote in the first round "confirmed the reshaping of the French political scene." In his view, the traditional right/left classification is no longer valid to be replaced by a new classification that divides the French into two categories: the French of the upper classes and the French of the lower classes."

In response to a question about the deep-rooted scenario written in 2017, the expert believes that the second rise of the Macron/Le Pen duo confirms that what happened five years ago was not an emergency incident. These exits are likened to the deep layers of the earth that control the movements of earthquakes and thatcontinue to reshape the political landscape from its foundation. In his view, there are "two sociological and cultural blocs facing off on the ground." A bloc represented by E.MaMel Macron includes retirees. This group is known for its commitment to stability and maintaining the status quo, and is afraid of the  future and the collapse of the  economy. Another bloc led by Marine Le Pen, includes the working classes and employees Those who aspire to more gains without risking their interests, and are urgently, as demonstrated by the "yellow vest" demonstrations in 2020 and 2021, to redistribute incomes more fairly to citizens and to reduce the tax burden on those with low incomes."

 Political thinker Erwin Lecourt, a specialist on the far right, said the French are now living in a "historic moment".  "We have been talking for several years about the tripartite polarization of political life,  and today we are dealing with  it," he says. The talk about the  left and the rightn will end [...] Because today we have three blocs: a conservative, reactionary and nationalist bloc, a liberal bloc with Emmanuel Macron, and a bloc that  has not yet been formed politically but that Mélenchon has tried to build and we can call  it the  socio-environmental bloc."

Erwan Lekour warns of the fact that the far-right  in Europe continues togain new positions and gain leadership positions in  more than one country, even under the current conditions of the war between Russia and Ukraine. In this regard, he recalls the victory  of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, and the victory of the Serbian president, who is known for his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He sums it up by saying:  "Putin is helping his allies triumph in Europe." What also makes this researcher not rule out any surprise on the night of April 24, is that the factor of spontaneous popular hostility to President Macron, the emotional reaction  of voters, and the abstention rate will determine the fate of the battle. 

How does the far right work to win the battle of ideas? In a forward-looking article published two months before the election in  the columns of La Dépêche, he argued that the far-right candidates, Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, were anxious above all to win the battle of ideas. This battle is based on a concept invented and developed by the famous Italian communist intellectual Gramsci, based on the principle of "cultural hegemony" according to which whoever wants to seize power must first contain public opinion.   The concept has long been used  by the left, and was at the heart of the research of a research center on European civilization  in the seventies that appeared in Greece, a  laboratory of nationalist ideas overseen by  the philosopher Alain de Benoist, director of the magazine  "Elements", and worked extensively on the development of the so-called "right-wing Gramscianism."".

 The  idea developed  and was even adopted  by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007: "I was convinced of the validity of the theory of G.Ramchi that onewinspower through ideas.  This is the first time a right-wing man has fought this battle."A  battle  fought next by Marion Maréchal, granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and one of the most promising right-wing voices defending the idea of uniting the ranks of the nationalist right under one flag. It says that the battle must be "metapolitical"  before it can be purely electoral. For this purpose, a scientific institution has been established to deepen research on the subject, the Institute of Social, Economic and Political Sciences (ISSEP).

In a study published a few months ago, the Jean-Jaurès Institute predicted the  victory of Marine Le Pen, or at least  her passage to the second round, in the most difficult and dangerous presidential election in France's history. In the opinion of the research group that prepared the report, the hypothesis of Marine Le Pen's victory in the presidential elections is not excluded in  one case, which is the disintegration of the "Republican Front" that  in 2002  stood as a man and postponed in the face of the representative of the nationalist right and crushed him in the second round, from which former President Jacques Chirac came out by more than 80 percent. The highest percentage ever obtained by a female presidential candidate was in France. In the past, rhetoric exaggerating the danger of the far right to the future of democracy and republican values resonated widely among the elite and society alike. But the situation has changed today, as evidenced by the fact that Marine Le Pen's victory in the first round did not stir the French street and did not provoke a wave of panic. This is the first loophole exploited by the nationalist right on its way to the throne. 

Researcher: Presidential elections will enshrine normalization with the extreme right

Emilien Howard Vial, a researcher  specializing  in right-wing history, warned  that  the  nominations of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour took place  in a context where   far-right ideas were "normalized" by some media outlets and political leaders, paving the way for a possible victory "in the next few years."

"For nearly forty years, the far right has been one of the main poles of French political life. He was    more repulsive than charismatic, everyone sought to isolate him rather than integrate him into institutions, but  no one could ignore him despite everything. Today, through three of his candidates (Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-iNyon),  he represents almost a third of the  electoral pot. Regardless of the ongoing polarization movement in support of the ranks and any expected results, we can consider that the 2022 presidential elections will represent another kind  of victory, the victory of normalization, from two angles.

On the one hand, the  extreme right has become familiar since it became no longer a political  force unlike the rest of the political forces that are active in the LLD, and it  is constantly forced to prove its innocence and justify its recent deviations. This same applies to  his own strategy,  which  is to seek,  for fifty years,  to  integrate into the electoral game, aware of the limits of his rhetoric and his usual methods of work. That is why we find that Marine Le Pen has been gradually getting rid  of her father's provocative methods to feela kind of  The opposition is "the soft".

On the other hand, the extreme right has become a normal entity where its themes, visions and even ideas have become thenorms governing public debate. This phenomenon is old for Lemen, from the Basquea laws to the candidacy of Eric Ciotti, through theMinistry of Immigration and National Identity. To extend and include today the middle in its broad sense. In 2021 alone, the government passed  the "comprehensive security", "terrorism and the badge" and "Islamic separatism" laws, at a time when Ministers Jean-Michel Blanquer and Frédéric Vidal  were waging war on what is known in the media  as  the "Islamic left", and  he orshe originally coined the term. They are  the leaders of the far right.

M.A.