OPINION: When the mask slips, Le Pen’s party reveals its fundamental racism

The French far-right party’s new leader is smooth, handsome and plausible – writes John Lichfield – but when the mask slips we see that the party’s fundamental ideology remains deeply racist.

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Bardella’ performance in the first TV debate of this cursed election was impressive.
But the mask did slip a couple of times.
He accidentally admitted that the Rassemblement National’s alternative to the Macron pension reform – headline “retirement at 60 (for some)” – would mean many some other people retiring at 66 or 67. Whoops.
Bardella’s face at that moment was like that of a 12-year-old caught cheating at cards. Maybe, he is not a robot after all.
The Prime ministerial candidate of the Far Right Rassemblement National also refused to give any credit to the contribution to French life made by immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants.
Not the footballers, not the nurses, not the doctors, not the cleaners, not the scientists. Not even his Italian grandparents nor his Algerian great grand-parent.

The PM Gabriel Attal tried to push him on this point; so did the Left wing representative Manuel Bompard (not a man I like but a spokesman who defended his camp well).
Bardella refused to say a good word in favour of brown or black French people. He refused to acknowledge the ideological – and fundamentally – racist basis for the RN’s plans to exclude “dual nationals” from some senior government jobs.
Explained: the far-right’s plan to ban dual-nationals from certain jobs
In practise that will means marginalising Franco-Algerians or Franco-Moroccans, not Franco-Germans or Franco-Luxembourgers. There is no practical justification for this policy. It is a way of signalling that, if the RN came to power, the single, indivisible French Republic will end. There will be the white French people and there will be the rest.
Already, the prospect of the Far Right winning a majority in parliament over the next two weekends has produced a minor explosion of racist remarks in social media and on the street.

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Are all the 33-35 percent of French voters prepared to vote for Bardella and Le Pen racists? No, of course, they are not.
But race – and an exaggerated sense of threat to French identity – are an important part of this extraordinary mud-slide of support for the Far Right in the opinion polls.
READ ALSO: What is ‘national preference’ and how would it hurt foreigners in France?
There is also something else at work which is near-hysterical and difficult to combat. In the minds of many French voters, the Far Right has become the “antidote to Macronism”, the opposite to Emmanuel Macron and therefore “a good thing”.
It is as if many French people – including many who should know better including the editors of Le Figaro – have turned a blind eye to the history of Lepennism and much of its present.
Anything said to point out the residual racism of the RN and the anti-European charlatanry of its economic programme reinforces, rather than weakens their choice. Bardella and Le Pen are the opposite of all that has gone before. Bring it on.

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This is partly Emmanuel Macron’s fault. He promised to be a revolutionary and different kind of politician. He turned out to be another mainstream reformer. He made no effort to build a grassroots, political movement. He is given no credit for his successes (lower unemployment, cleaner air). He has become hated beyond all logic or reason but that, itself, is a calamitous failure for a politician.
By sweeping away what remained of the failed centre-right in and centre-left in 2017 Macron created a new political duality of Centre v Far Right. This served him well electorally through two presidential elections.
But the French are a people devoted to regular “alternance” ie detesting and frequently booting out their leaders. For many previously moderate voters, the only gut-satisfying alternative to the irrationally detested centre is now a cosmetically softened Far Right.
This is an absurd and unhealthy situation which will do France no good and could cause much permanent harm. Will the Far Right win a majority on July 7th?
The opinion polls suggest not. But they are drifting gradually in Bardella’s direction.
In June 2016, the UK took careful aim and shot itself in the foot. I fear that France may be about to shoot itself in the heart and the head.

#John Lichfield
#French elections
#Opinion
#Politics
#Marine Le Pen
#elections

Comments (2)

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Janet

2024/06/29 16:21

Nick, preventing dual-nationals — many of whom originate from countries previously colonized by the French! — has nothing to do with the “long-term dangers of uncontrolled immigration from outside Europe” and everything to do with France’s long history of racism against people of African origin. The far right is riding the wave of problems with influxes of immigrants and refugees and using those issues to scapegoat millions of people.

NICK GREENWOOD

2024/06/26 17:53

An absurdly woke, naive, EU-luvvie article. Totally ignoring the long-term dangers of uncontrolled immigration from outside Europe. Commentators such as Lichfield never see the other side of the argument; just blinded by their own self-belief as they preach to the converted. So much so innocent and plain wrong in that 1000word guff..

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The talented Monsieur Bardella wishes you well.
He wishes the poor well and he wishes the wealthy well. He wishes the old well and he wishes the young well. He wishes the Right well and he wishes the Left well.
His programme is partly populist Left, partly populist Right and now, bizarrely, includes several ideas copy-pasted from Macronism (formerly known as the blood-sucking elite).
Bardella is like a politician invented by AI: plausible to the point of being unctuous; all things to all people (except the brown or black ones); gently brutal-looking; programmed with information and disinformation that he can seamlessly access (unlike Marine Le Pen).
Is he possibly a robot?
Bardella’ performance in the first TV debate of this cursed election was impressive.
But the mask did slip a couple of times.
He accidentally admitted that the Rassemblement National’s alternative to the Macron pension reform – headline “retirement at 60 (for some)” – would mean many some other people retiring at 66 or 67. Whoops.
Bardella’s face at that moment was like that of a 12-year-old caught cheating at cards. Maybe, he is not a robot after all.
The Prime ministerial candidate of the Far Right Rassemblement National also refused to give any credit to the contribution to French life made by immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants.
Not the footballers, not the nurses, not the doctors, not the cleaners, not the scientists. Not even his Italian grandparents nor his Algerian great grand-parent.
The PM Gabriel Attal tried to push him on this point; so did the Left wing representative Manuel Bompard (not a man I like but a spokesman who defended his camp well).
Bardella refused to say a good word in favour of brown or black French people. He refused to acknowledge the ideological – and fundamentally – racist basis for the RN’s plans to exclude “dual nationals” from some senior government jobs.
Explained: the far-right’s plan to ban dual-nationals from certain jobs
In practise that will means marginalising Franco-Algerians or Franco-Moroccans, not Franco-Germans or Franco-Luxembourgers. There is no practical justification for this policy. It is a way of signalling that, if the RN came to power, the single, indivisible French Republic will end. There will be the white French people and there will be the rest.
Already, the prospect of the Far Right winning a majority in parliament over the next two weekends has produced a minor explosion of racist remarks in social media and on the street.
Are all the 33-35 percent of French voters prepared to vote for Bardella and Le Pen racists? No, of course, they are not.
But race – and an exaggerated sense of threat to French identity – are an important part of this extraordinary mud-slide of support for the Far Right in the opinion polls.
READ ALSO: What is ‘national preference’ and how would it hurt foreigners in France?
There is also something else at work which is near-hysterical and difficult to combat. In the minds of many French voters, the Far Right has become the “antidote to Macronism”, the opposite to Emmanuel Macron and therefore “a good thing”.
It is as if many French people – including many who should know better including the editors of Le Figaro – have turned a blind eye to the history of Lepennism and much of its present.
Anything said to point out the residual racism of the RN and the anti-European charlatanry of its economic programme reinforces, rather than weakens their choice. Bardella and Le Pen are the opposite of all that has gone before. Bring it on.
This is partly Emmanuel Macron’s fault. He promised to be a revolutionary and different kind of politician. He turned out to be another mainstream reformer. He made no effort to build a grassroots, political movement. He is given no credit for his successes (lower unemployment, cleaner air). He has become hated beyond all logic or reason but that, itself, is a calamitous failure for a politician.
By sweeping away what remained of the failed centre-right in and centre-left in 2017 Macron created a new political duality of Centre v Far Right. This served him well electorally through two presidential elections.
But the French are a people devoted to regular “alternance” ie detesting and frequently booting out their leaders. For many previously moderate voters, the only gut-satisfying alternative to the irrationally detested centre is now a cosmetically softened Far Right.
This is an absurd and unhealthy situation which will do France no good and could cause much permanent harm. Will the Far Right win a majority on July 7th?
The opinion polls suggest not. But they are drifting gradually in Bardella’s direction.
In June 2016, the UK took careful aim and shot itself in the foot. I fear that France may be about to shoot itself in the heart and the head.

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