Andrew Coates on the Rassemblement National
Far-Right France: Le Pen, Bardella and the Future of Europe by Victor Mallet published by Hurst
In the French local elections in March, the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) was defeated in Marseille, Toulon and Nîmes, cities that seemed within grasp. But the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella deepened its hold in France’s southeast and northeast by winning dozens of mayoralties. Journalist Victor Mallet looks at the rise of the far right in France, past, present and future. He seeks to understand why the RN is popular, why it is a serious contender for the 2027 Presidential elections, and the basis for its support, above all in provincial France.
RN leader Marine Le Pen won more than 13 million votes in the 2022 Presidential election, and the party gained 89 seats in the following legislative elections, becoming the largest parliamentary opposition group. Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the RN’s predecessor, the Front National, out of a galaxy of extreme right groups. These included remnants of the Pétainist collaboration, Poujadist populists (Le Pen was an MP for Poujade’s Union de défense des commerçants et artisans in 1956) and those nostalgic for French colonialism.
The older Le Pen had a minor electoral breakthrough in 1983, when he was aligned with the classical right for a by-election in the Northern France town of Dreux. But it was not until 2002 that he scored a real success, coming second after Jacques Chirac’s 19.88% of the vote in the presidential contest. At 16.9%, Le Pen was just ahead of Socialist candidate and outgoing prime minister Lionel Jospin on 16.2%.
The FN chief was defeated by the unity of all other parties behind the Gaullist right-winger Jacques Chirac for the second round. Nevertheless, Mallet observes, people he encountered at the time, in former Socialist and Communist working class areas, the deindustrialised “rustbelt”, sympathised with Le Pen. Their feelings were not translated into votes for MPs: in the following legislative election, the FN won not a single seat.
Far-Right France however, does not focus on the “Dédiabolisation“, or normalisation of the FN, beginning with the expulsion of Marine’s father Jean-Marie in 2015 and culminating in its name change to Rassemblement National in 2018. Nor does it cover the party’s continued contacts with the radical ‘identitarian’ right, with which a youthful Jordan Bardella, now RN Party president, Mallet notes, associated. The influence of its intellectual wing, can be seen in Sarah Knafo’s Reconquête! candidacy for Paris Mayor. She got 10.4% while the RN backed list candidate obtained 1.6%.
Instead, one of Mallet’s focuses is the basis for the far-right party’s support, above all in post-industrial areas. One chapter covers a visit to the RN stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, in the ‘heart of the old northern French coal belt’. Mallet cites Sylvain Crépon on Marine Le Pen: “Despite being a Parisian apparatchik and the daughter of a millionaire, she manages to appear as a spokesperson for the ‘simple’ people of the North.”
There are many reflections on the division of France into (relatively) thriving urban areas and the left-behind or ‘peripheral’ ones, as described in La France périphérique: comment on a sacrifié les classes populaires (Christophe Guilluy 2014) and Return to Reims (Didier Erbion 2009), which includes, in autobiographical form, an account of the desertion of the working class from the left, and will be in many people’s minds, but not cited.
Jordan Bardella, to his admirers a “young and dynamic” leader, has been President of the RN since 2022 and may well be a candidate for the French presidency in 2027. Marine le Pen’s struggles with the courts over misuse of European Union funds have led to her conviction for embezzlement. The judgment on her appeal has still to be announced. If it is confirmed and she is sentenced, she cannot run.
Mallet has written a valuable study, strengthened by first-hand reporting. It should find a readership not just amongst those interested in French politics but a wider audience concerned about the rise of right wing populism. He begins by saying, “My argument is that the far right is likely to come to power, in one way or another, in the years ahead”. Towards the end, he observes “The RN, despite being the most popular party in France, has been kept out of power by a combination of its pariah status and the country’s two-round electoral system…”
The “if and when” of this judgment remains uncertain. It is not just the RN’s difficulty in coming to terms with “globalisation and modern life” that renders it problematic. Giving preference to French nationals in jobs and housing, “priorité nationale”, protection of French “identity”, and the use of the plebiscite, disguised as Référendum d’Initiative Citoyenne, would pose a threat to democratic institutions. There are plenty of people on the left and the centre, even the classical right, who will do all they can to keep the party an outcast.