First modification:
In recent years, the French extreme right has been gaining more and more strength in the Gallic political scene, to the point of contesting the presidential race several times. A change of discourse to give an appearance of moderation and the political and social context have been the key factors for this marginal group in its birth in the early 1970s to become something so important.
The rise of the vote towards the French extreme right in the first round of the presidential elections has been one of the most analyzed in recent days. In fact, one of the parties that represents this ideological current, the National Group of Marine Le Pen, will be the one to face the president and candidate Emmanuel Macron again in the ballot on April 24.
An electoral result that has ceased, long ago, to be something anecdotal. But where does the strength of the French extreme right come from and what has been its journey to become a real alternative to the presidency?
Its origins go back to the early 1970s. Since the end of the Second World War, the extreme right had been practically marginalized from the political system, but Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of the current candidate Marine Le Pen, managed to gather under the same umbrella people disappointed with the role of the state in the Algerian War of Independence, nostalgic for the collaborationist regime with Nazi Germany known as Vichy France, and traditional ultra-conservatives.
Something that, however, did not serve to bring together a large number of supports. During the first 10 years this far-right formation received residual votes due to the radicalism of some of its members. Postures that bordered on anti-Semitism or racism alienated the majority of the electorate of the time.
Slow electoral ascent
But the situation began to change slowly in the mid-1980s. Around this time, the French welfare state began to suffer its first setbacks and industrial reconversion caused thousands of people to lose their jobs. In this context, a climate of distrust and disappointment began to emerge in a part of the French electorate that felt dissatisfied with the system.
This alternative vote, which to date had always been picked up by the Communist Party of France, began to gain strength in favor of the National Front.Vote by vote Jean-Marie Le Pen managed to get close to 14.5% of the ballots in 1988 and 15% in 1995.
The second round of 2002 against Jacques Chirac
This is how from the 1990s the National Front began to be a real alternative for millions of French. And this was reflected in the 2002 elections. Jean-Marie Le Pen managed to reach the second presidential round for the first time thanks to a considerable drop in the vote for the Socialist Party and through a deeply anti-immigration and anti-French political establishment discourse. .
However, in the second round, the so-called Republican Front, a cordon sanitaire of all parties against the extreme right, made his rival Jacques Chirac obtain more than 82% of the vote and win re-election.
But the 2002 election only served to show what the electoral ceiling of this formation was. The following elections in 2007 were not good and that is when his daughter and surrogate Marine Le Pen came into action. She was aware that through the traditionally radical discourse that the formation had had, it would be impossible to opt for anything, so she changed her image and that of the party in some aspects to broaden the electoral base. Although this whitewashing of image did not distance the National Front from the postulates of the extreme right.
The beginning of the era of Marine Le Pen
The political context benefited Marine Le Pen. The European Union began to suffer a series of economic crises and discredit among part of the citizenry that gave wings to different far-right and Eurosceptic parties on the continent.
In addition, the migration crisis of 2015 accelerated this, since it produced a strong debate in the old continent about what to do with the millions of refugees who arrived that year from the Middle East and North Africa. His speech fostered fear of the future, uncertainty or immigration permeated a good part of the French.
fight for the presidency
His increase in votes meant that in the 2017 presidential elections the National Front reached the ballot against Emmanuel Macron. Marine Le Pen got better data than her father’s in 2002. More than a third of French voters opted for her in the second round.
A historic result that would bring consequences. The first: change the name of the formation from the National Front to the National Group. The second: to further moderate the discourse in a context of total decline of the traditional French parties that would allow them to absorb part of their old votes.
The National Association became a party with a strong presence in rural and semi-rural areas. Its strength resides mainly in the east of the country, but it comes from two very different currents. In the north it receives the votes of industrial and rural regions in decline, while on the Mediterranean coast it obtains the vote of conservative upper-middle classes critical of immigration. However, their presence on the Atlantic coast or overseas territories is limited.
This more moderate and critical discourse of the establishment seems to have worked for him again in 2022. Although Le Pen lost the most radical voters, who opted for the ultra candidate Éric Zemmour, he has managed to absorb a good part of the Republican vote and for the second round will receive the support of former candidate Zemmour. A strategy that can make the political contest with Emmanuel Macron much more close this time and that depends on the vote chosen by those who preferred the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round.
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