The French Far Right Won Big This Weekend

Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, on the campaign trail.

After far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen placed second in France’s 2002 presidential elections, the country's left lost its collective shit. Two million people took to the streets to voice their outrage at the success of the Front National (FN) party. It was definitely a disturbing moment—a Holocaust denier who once described Nazi gas chambers as a “mere [historical] detail” had just picked up more than 17 percent of the national vote.

It's been a decade, but the FN still isn't going away. Sunday’s local elections saw the party—now fronted by Jean-Marie’s daughter, Marine—claim their biggest-ever victory, with 12 of its candidates winning mayoral elections. Notably, the midterm election also saw record-low turnout, with one in four people not bothering to vote at all. It was a disaster for President Francois Hollande’s Parti Socialiste (PS), which lost control of 155 towns, and yet another victory for the FN, which has been steadily increasing its influence on French society—its slick PR campaign and the loyalty of its supporters has led to the party becoming the public face of French nationalism.

According to Jean-Yves Camus, an expert in far-right French politics, the election results can be partly explained as the people rejecting the country's political class. "The main political parties in France have been involved in several scandals over these past few months,” he told me. “So they are discredited in the eyes of the population… A recent poll showed that only 8 percent of French people trust political parties.”

Oh, right, the scandals: A year ago, Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac was forced from his position after repeatedly lying about a secret offshore bank account; the government is under pressure for failing to deal with rising unemployment; its fiscal reforms have been controversial, as demonstrated during the wave of “bonnets rouges” protests; and Hollande’s approval rating is currently sitting at a pathetic 23 percent. Things are not going well for the people who run France, and the FN represents an alternative.

Bonnets Rouges protesters clash with police in Brittany last year.

Far-right parties have also capitalized on the recent radicalization of moderate right-wingers. Several FN bigwigs joined protesters during the anti-same-sex marriage demonstrations at the end of last year, and more recently, the Jour de Colère (the "Day of Anger") on January 26 drew around 17,000 ultra-droite (ultra-right) protesters, who were there to shout about everything from Hollande, unemployment, the media, and taxes to abortion rights, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, Jews, and Satan.

"We're witnessing the formation of a reactionary right, similar to the Tea Party in the US," said Alexis Corbière, the national secretary of the democratic socialist Parti de Gauche ("the Left Party").

Jean-Yves Camus believes that the FN’s relative lack of success in the past has also done them some favors. “Since the Front National has never properly been in power, they’ve got a clean sheet on that level,” he said. “It’s neither positive or negative, just blank.”

So where the PS can no longer be trusted, the FN and other far-right parties are unknown quantities. This holds particularly true in places like Hénin-Beaumont, a former mining town in northern France with a high unemployment rate. Last year, a former mayor, a PS member, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling public funds and accepting bribes.

"Right or left, it’s always the same thing—nothing ever changes," explained Jean-Paul, a 63-year-old from Hénin-Beaumont. He used to vote for left-wing parties, but this year he backed Steeve Briois, the newly-elected FN mayor.

"Briois has been at Hénin for the past 19 years—we always see him around," said Jean-Paul. I asked him how he felt about voting for a party whose members are regularly accused of racism. “There’s no racism here,” he replied. “That’s all talk to try and exclude us from the political debate. People try to discredit the Front National, but the reality is that it’s a party like any other. In my [area], you know, there are some foreigners. They’re there and I speak to them. They’re part of the scenery now."

Protesters clash with police during the "Day of Anger" earlier this year.

I wasn’t convinced. I have vivid memories of watching Jean-Marie Le Pen’s anti-Semitic rants on TV when I was a kid, and more recently he accused Roma people of being “naturally” inclined to rob people. Le Pen has been condemned for his racist and violent outbursts plenty of times before, so now that his daughter Marine Le Pen has taken over leadership of the party (with Jean-Marie remaining its honorary president), a lot of effort has been put in to massaging the FN’s image. Marine has even vowed to sue those who label the FN as an “extreme right” party.

"We are not extremists," said Nicolas Bay, FN's campaign manager. “What defines us is patriotism. We are here to defend the vital interests of France and its people." Well, that and cutting immigration from about 180,000 to 10,000 migrants per year, outlawing protests that support undocumented migrants, instituting a “national priority” policy, and reinstating the death penalty.

Candidates from French far-right parties don’t win local elections very often, but when they do they've occasionally ended up doing some pretty stupid stuff. For example, in 1997, the Mouvement National Républicain (MNR)—a party founded by former FN members—won control of Vitrolles, a town in the south of the country. The newly elected mayor dramatically slashed public spending on welfare and culture, equiped the town’s police with nice new shoes, and introduced a special 5,000-franc allowance for babies born to at least one parent of French (or EU) nationality—a measure that later ruled illegal.

Any street name that sounded too left-wing was changed to something a bit more palatable to the average MNR supporter. Nelson Mandela Square, for instance, was renamed, and Salvador Allende Street—named after the Chilean Marxist—became Mother Theresa Street. An avenue was even dedicated to Jean-Pierre Stirbois, an influential figure in Front National history.

"The FN is a reactionary force of hard right ideology that believes we need to reduce public and welfare spending,” explained Corbière. “In today’s context of rising unemployment, this is going to be disastrous for the cities it took over [in the recent elections].”

Camus, however, thinks the electoral success might signal that the FN is a legitimate party. “We have a political machine in the making,” he said. “The British far right is outlandish in comparison; the [British Nationalist Party] won a few council seats, sometimes with very good scores. They got three [Members of European Parliament] elected, but it remains a very unprofessional party. From the moment you have a number of cities falling into the hands of the FN, the training of a new militant elite that could become elected representatives will develop.”

The next chance for France's far right to capture more power will be May’s European elections, where the FN will hope to capitalize on this weekend's results, riding on the wave of fear and subsequent nationalism that always swells in times of crisis.

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