The headline news is that the neo-Facist National Front was trounced in the second round of France’s municipal elections on Sunday. But any celebrations that this poisonous party with its anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim agenda has been roundly defeated are premature. People need to keep reading down below the headlines.
It is not all good news by any means. There is of course relief that the National Front did not consolidate its strong showing in the previous Sunday’s first round, when, with 40 percent of the total vote, it was clearly the strongest party. That gave NF leader Marinne Le Pen and her bigoted close supporters grounds to believe that they could triumph in at least some of the 13 regional governments. In the event they won none. Le Pen herself was beaten in the northern department she contested by the candidate of Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right Republican party.
But closer attention needs to be given to how the NF was kept from regional power. In the seat Le Pen contested, President Franciois Hollande’s socialists withdrew and encouraged their supporters to vote for the Republican candidate. Indeed, Hollande made this plea in every seat where Socialists were knocked out in the first round. Thus the Republican party won with support from part of the electorate that would never normally have considered voting for it.
Moreover it is clear that this was not a campaign mounted by the Republicans and Socialists against the odious policies of the NF. It was rather a battle by these two traditional parties against the upsurge of a dangerous challenger. This was about political power, not about crushing neo-Fascism in France. Evidence of this comes from the unpleasant fact that, in an attempt to woo voters seduced by the NF’s blatantly racist message, Sarkozy has pushed his party to the right, stealing some of Le Pen’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Republican party candidates reminded voters that when he was president, Sarkozy had been tough on young Muslim rioters and had banned the wearing of the Hijab in schools.
And there is something else. Le Pen has long claimed that France’s established political elite from both left and right, was ganging up to stop the NF from gaining power. Her claims of a conspiracy have now been borne out. Now she can redouble her claims of victimhood. She can really major on the sinister message that ordinary French voters are being robbed of their voices by the political establishment that is intent on clinging to power. She will redouble her efforts to cast the NF as the only party that will speak out against what it claims are the pernicious effects of both the EU and immigrants. As France continues to grapple with the effects of prolonged recession and as the EU itself toughens its stance against the tidal wave of migrant from war-torn countries, including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, Le Pen will be hoping to benefit from a voter backlash.
And that backlash is already there, as the results of the first round of the local government elections showed. A significant proportion of French voters bought into the NF’s bigotry. Le Pen was only stopped this time by a rare combining of supporters from the two main parties, which may not happen again.
