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Launched by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972, the National Front has become synonymous with anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant and protectionist in five decades, drawing its base of support from disenfranchised French voters with the rallying cry “People first”. Seems familiar?
In this edition of Perspective de Paris, we take a look at the state of the French far right National gathering, the newly renamed version on National Front led by party leader and double presidential candidate Marine Le Pen – daughter of the party’s founding father.
Since he took charge of the National Front from her father in 2011, Marine Le Pen fought to reposition the far-right political entity that she inherited from the French political fringes towards mainstream politics, while maintaining the fundamental values of the party – Patriotism: Family values : Anti-immigration: economic protectionism.
These are attractive notions for some, who feel that their “traditional” way of life in France is under attack by outside influences. But the French far right is a composite affair, with multiple actors, embracing different sentimentalities that come and go with populist sentiments among the electorate. Just a year before France goes to the polls to elect a new president and a new parliament, the National gathering is the main opposition force that the centrist of President Emmanuel Macron The Republic in March faces in April 2022.
Fear of local Islamist separatism, following the beheading of high school teacher Samuel Paty in October, has revived bitter disputes in France over immigration and the threat of Islamism.
Paty was killed by an 18-year-old Chechen immigrant in a Paris suburb after showing satirical caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a civic education class on free speech.
This in turn has placed the country’s strict form of secularism under international control and has compounded the unease and helplessness felt across France since the Covid-19 pandemic triggered the first lockdown in March 2020.
Bruno Gollnisch is an academic, former MEP and long-time National Front politician who was running for the party 10 years ago. An accomplished academic in Asian studies and long-time president of the European parliamentary group “Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty”, Gollnisch was an integral part of the inner circle of the French far right.
After Paty’s murder, Macron’s government passes a “Separatism Law“or an anti-separatism bill which, while trying to address the threat of Islamist separatism in France, would say the bill is draconian. Others say it does not go far enough.
Gollnisch is not surprised by comments that Macron’s law on policing local Islamism did not steal thunder from the far right.
“There is no patent on political ideas. I think the situation in France is so serious now that it is impossible for anyone NOT to face this problem. Two years ago, Marine Le Pen repeated the dangers of massive immigration, of an uncontrolled immigration policy, especially with people from different cultures, ”says Gollnisch.
For the veteran far-right politician, culture clash has always been inevitable when it comes to migration, with people coming to France “from a different ethnicity.” One day or another we will endanger our national identity, your values.
“We [have been branded] as a racist, xenophobic and all that sort of thing. But no one can reasonably say that there is no such problem in France. For him, the beheading of Professor Patty is only “the tip of the iceberg”.
Is the economy stupid … or the economy stupid?
However, in addition to relying on fears of Islamism and insecurity, the French far right has always targeted an electorate that has borne the brunt of industrial decline and a globalized economy. Marine Le Pen’s economic strategy has often been pilloried as being “simplistic”, with the National Rally offering nothing but being “anti-Macron”.
For Bruno Gollnisch, it is precisely this direct opposition to Macron’s policy that is at the heart of the Gatheringsuccess at the polls in 2022.
“Our economic policy which would be the exact opposite of what has been done so far. I would say until the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, things will change. Macron himself was absolutely in favor of free- absolute exchange, no barriers … We have lost our industry, our best [players], the possibility of manufacturing drugs. For months, it was impossible for our industry to manufacture a vaccine, ”says Gollnisch.
For him, the European Union is to blame for having opened the economy and the market of France to foreign competition which does not have the same regulations or fiscal charges.
“The result is that we have lost half of our industry in the last 20 years. We want to do the exact opposite.” For France to prosper, says Gollnisch, the French must benefit from a less constrained economy at home, with “reasonable borders” and taxes on products that have been made by people who earn 50 times less than the French worker. way.
But as the 2022 elections loom on the horizon, some political experts in France are wondering if it is certain that Marine Le Pen will lead the National Rally to agitation.
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, waits backstage with a more populist and conservative brand of the French far-right aiming to embrace the traditionally center-right Republicans and incorporate the savvy “young influencers vote” of social media.
Looking at what happened in the United States in 2016, maybe this is where we see people like Steve Bannon, former Trump campaign manager and alternative right-wing media guru coming out of the cold for make things happen. Can we expect other populist “agent provocateurs” to revolve around the election campaign in 2022?
For Gollnisch, he would be very happy to see far-right support come from outside the country, as he was the campaign manager for Jean-Marie Le Pen when the Front National leader pushed him to the second round. of the 2002 presidential election to face. against Jacques Chirac.
“I wouldn’t mind Mr. Bannon coming to visit us. Not at all. But what I’m waiting for is more people from different countries because it’s amazing. [We have support] not only from people in Europe, or North or South America, but also in Asia and Africa, who fully share our views. ”
He cites the example of the parliamentary president of the DRC Vital Kamhere, who is now chief of staff to outgoing Congolese president Félix Tshisikedi, who is said to have opened his party’s congress by reading a message from Jean-Marie Le Pen.
For Gollnisch, the French far-right sets an example for like-minded people abroad, “because we want to keep our independence, our freedom, our identity, and we fully understand why others want it. do too.
And this goes to the heart of the problem of populism. African leaders, like Tanzanian John Magufuli, sing at the top of the populist anthem, as this can be a very effective tool in rallying a restless population to their cause.
The same could be said of Egypt under General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who acknowledged that by bringing together social media influencers, the perception of young people would be softened compared to its authoritarian regime. It truly is the populist playbook of the 2020s.
France and the rabbit hole on social networks
With the United States emerging from the Trump administration’s four years of ‘Fire and Fury’, the world is a more cynical place with the seeds of fear, suspicion, and disbelief in politics. dominant and the media have taken hold.
Lately, you could say that some French media are following the same downward trajectory as the conservative American media that propelled Trump to the presidency, fueled by propaganda from the alternative right and Fox News. The studio participation of “analysts” and “experts” using shock tactics has steadily increased in France. So, is the 24/7 media cycle in France chasing the “odds rabbit” in the echo chamber burrow?
The problem for Gollnisch is that the media and institutions in France are already inclined to give a voice to the far right. “It would be very difficult for you, for anyone, for any commentator, to give me two or three names of conservative teachers at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, because it is run entirely by left-wing academics or liberals. “
It is because of this perception of the media run by a liberal elite that led to the creation of alternative news sources in America such as Breitbart and why Fox News jumped on it. But that has evolved over the last 10 years in the United States – and today, if you want to hear Conservative news, you can get Conservative news. Is the concept of impartial information now dead in 2021?
“I think we have a little more pluralism [in France]. When I started my political career, I was a perfectly respected politician, I was elected in a perfectly normal vote. I have always been peaceful. But I was not invited to any public radio station, nor to any television channel. I was banned. “
The same was true of Le Pen, according to Gollnisch, who at one point was only invited once to appear on French state television for an entire year. Indeed, it is this recurring theme of the “victim fighting elite” that resonates across the planet for people who feel sidelined by golobalisation, multilateralism and the political status quo, and serenaded by the promises to take control of their destiny, while living a connected world where cause and effect influence everyone’s decisions. France in 2022 will be no exception.
Watch the video here
This edition was produced and presented by David Coffey
Sound engineer – Nicolas Doreau
Vision Mixing & Editing – Vincent Pora
Bruno Gollnisch is an academic, politician and former MEP
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