Too Late To Save France From The Far-Right?

France’s prime minister Gabriel Attal has called for calm across the country following a surge in violence against political candidates and campaigners in the run-up to Sunday’s second round of voting in the parliamentary election.

Posting a message to his X account, Mr Attal called on the French people to “reject the climate of violence and hatred that’s taking hold” across the country, condemning the attacks as “attacks of intolerable cowardice”.

The plea follows a campaigner for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance being attacked in the Paris suburbs, a National Rally candidate for the seat of Savoy in the south-east dropping out of the race after claiming to be attacked at a market, while a candidate for the republic party said he was assaulted by left-wing campaigners while hanging election posters in the Atlantic coast city of Cherbourg.

The surge in violence comes as it looks increasingly likely that the National Rally, a far right-wing anti-immigration, anti-European Union party led by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella and grizzled campaigner Marie Le Pen, will lead the next French parliament.

After the first round of voting, the National Rally won 33 percent of the vote followed by the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, on 28 percent.

The party, once on the fringes of French politics, sprouted from Le Pen’s father, Jean Marie, and the post-colonial nationalism movement of the 1970s and 80s has narrowed its focus from its anti-Semitic, racist past to stand on the edge of a monumental shift in French, European, and global politics.

Speaking with 360info’s Leave it to the Experts podcast, Associate Professor Jean Bogais from the University of Sydney says that the far right’s success is due to previous French governments’ inaction and failures to address growing social concerns.

“We are looking at history being made in French politics, the National Rally, the extreme right party under the control of Marine Le Pen,” Bogais said.

“We have a convergence between her new political views that she claims to have and also a situation of socio economics and politics in France, which is extremely complex and extremely negative.

“We have an electorate that is faced with cost of living, security and other factors on the one hand, and the parties have come and said ‘Well, we can address some of these issues’ and after 20 years it’s very clear that the government, being republic and socialist have actually not addressed anything. So it was only logical that this situation would happen and it certainly did happen. It’s happening now.”

This malaise within French society has been crystallising for a decade, with some pointing at the 2008 financial crash and the ensuing credit crisis in Europe for the trigger point.

Wages for the French middle class have stagnated, while the youth of the country and across Europe are increasingly angered by policies that they feel do not offer them a platform into a secure, better future.

The embodiment of this frustration in previous years was seen in protests against pension reform, COVID-19 lockdowns, tax increases, but in particular through the nationwide Yellow Vests movement.

Associate Professor Bogais believes that Emmanuel Macron effectively ignored the plight of the French people Marine Le Pen once described as “too poor to be rich and too rich to be poor”, a quote that struck a chord with a large part of French society that felt they were going backwards.

“I think because, out of the main centres, villages have been left vacant because industry is gone, agriculture is gone. Things, little things like railway stations are gone. So, you know, there is a demographic change, but it is also a socio-economic change that, emerged and developed over the last two decades, which now becomes untenable. And people just have to leave.

“They don’t have any work. They’ve got problems travelling. Even post offices are closed. And in France, because of the multiple cities and small towns, small villages. Those issues are important. And that is what, Marine Le Pen has been complaining about for years now in trying to bring people from the country, from former old and destroyed industries who are dissatisfied with their governments, onto her side of politics.”

If all that isn’t enough for one country to handle, in the next few weeks, Paris will be hosting the Olympic Games. One of the key concerns for organisers is civil unrest following the second round of election results.

Speaking to a podcast, Macron claimed that an electoral win for the far-right or far-left parties, the two largest after the first round of voting, could spark a civil war.

With the opening ceremony of the Olympics just weeks away, an event that has cost the French people around $US10 billion, the potential for Macron to be embarrassed in front of the world rises by the day.

As the clock ticks down to round two of the vote, some reports indicate Macron has been asked by his allies to stay silent, while the voice of the French people is heard whether he enjoys the result or not.

(Published under Creative Commons from 360info.org. Read the original article here)