In France, the first round of the Legislative elections confirmed the good score of the National Rally party in the European elections. After the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron, it was almost obvious that the RN was going to amplify its results to continue its march towards power. This June 30, twelve million French voters voted for a party which will be the first political force at the Palais Bourbon if it does not obtain the absolute majority to govern the country for the first time.

Read the column – The corrective memory of PSK

Facing them, despite the astonishment, the opponents of the RN have, as soon as the dissolution was announced, tried to organize themselves to block it. The Macron system, which disrupted French political life in 2017, is coming to an end in troubled and unprecedented conditions. Emmanuel Macron was a dazzling meteor in French political life. Enarque (Senghor Promotion), investment banker, Secretary General of the Élysée and short-lived Minister of the Economy, the man is an atypical case in political science. Having never been elected before, he managed to make a takeover bid on the 7th world power by betraying the one who put his foot in the door, François Hollande, to succeed him. He said he was “neither left nor right”. His frames of reference orient observers towards a liberal, pro-business profile, in favour of a start-up nation. It was intended to make the old French political class accustomed to the left-right divide out of date. He will be the one who brought 89 far-right deputies into the French National Assembly and passed a law on immigration welcomed by…the far-right.

Read the column – Mansour Seck, the Essential Friend

Looking at the RN scores over the last fifteen years, we see its dizzying progression. In 2007, this party, which was still headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, only managed to elect one deputy. In 2012, the party managed to elect two deputies. In 2017, they were eight. The 2022 legislative elections, after 5 years in power of Emmanuel Macron, 89 elected officials enter the National Assembly. The current level of the RN hardly surprises observers familiar with the French political scene.  The party has been normalized, its themes relating to immigration, security and Islam are at the heart of French public debate. A rigorous Gramscian would say that the RN has won the cultural battle, because now it is on its themes that the political class and intellectuals’ debate in the media. There is a normalization of racist and xenophobic speech in France, very often directing, through complicit media, outrageous speech towards Arab and black populations. We must not make a mistake in the analysis nor want to adopt a politically correct verb to attenuate the racist motive in the RN vote.  In the survey, 84% of RN voters directly identified immigration (legal and illegal) as the main cause of insecurity in France. Asked whether they were racist, 54% of RN voters answered « rather » or « a little ». Just over half (51%) of RN voters say that French people of the Muslim faith are not « French citizens like any others ». The RN is a dangerous party for its theses normalizing the inequality of citizens before the law and before opportunities.  The statements made by its leaders on dual-national French citizens – which directly affect us, given our large diaspora in this country – are symptomatic of a policy that the far right pursues when it is in charge. The significant rise in racist acts during the legislative elections campaign says a lot about the climate in France. To consider the impact of an RN victory on the liberation of racist speech and acts is chilling.

Read the column – I Never Read Paul Auster

Like all populist parties, the RN has no serious, credible economic program. It surfs on fears, accentuates social fractures, flatters outrageous postures and polarizes the rejection of the institutionalization of power by the elites. The RN points the finger at the other party as responsible for the misfortunes of workers, pensioners and all the precarious people to whom the left no longer caters.  The far-right party attracted 57% of the working-class vote, while the left-wing coalition won just 21% of the same segment.

 

Everywhere populists are rising, coming to power and tearing the social fabric apart through fear, verbal and physical violence and the trivialization of racism and xenophobia. Their DNA is rejection, instead of “mixing” as Jean-Pierre Chevènement puts it. This was the case recently in other countries including ours. The RN will certainly one day come to power. But it should only be noted that in France, faced with this possibility, there is still a press, academics and an intellectual elite who are blocking it. There, faced with the hydra of fascism, they stood up, deploying energy, commitment and talent. Faced with the brown plague, spirits armed with the republican promise, flew the flag of our people, we, supporters of freedom and equality everywhere. This was not the case for Senegal, where a collection of journalists and intellectuals chose the dishonour of collaboration to make the worst happen.

 

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH