The National Rally came first in the first round of the legislative elections in France on Sunday. While the other parties will do everything this week to block its path, questions arise: what is the “extreme right” and can the RN really be qualified as an “extreme right” party? ? We take stock.
33% of the votes
With more than 33% of the vote and 10.6 million votes, the National Rally (RN) and its allies obtained their best score in the first round of a vote. The party elected 39 deputies, starting with its figurehead Marine Le Pen.
The Popular Front, which brings together left-wing groups, won nearly 28% of the votes and already has 32 elected officials.
Emmanuel Macron’s presidential camp confirms the rout of the European elections and comes in third position with only 20%.
The RN has asked the French to give it an absolute majority in the second round next Sunday, which will be “one of the most decisive in the entire history of the Fifth Republic” of France, founded in 1958, declared the young president of the RN, Jordan Bardella.
AFP
Jordan Bardella in a polling station.
The French “rendered a final verdict,” the 28-year-old rejoiced on Sunday evening.
• Read also: 5 Things to Know About Jordan Bardella, the Possible Far-Right French Prime Minister
Is the RN a “far right” party?
The expression “extreme right” is often used with the aim of discrediting parties or politicians by associating them, in a more or less justified way, “with Italian fascism and German Nazism”, immediately underlines Julien Tourreille, researcher. in strategic and diplomatic studies at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
For the researcher, however, there is no doubt: the RN belongs to the extreme right. Marine Le Pen’s political party puts forward policies and adheres to ideas that are associated with this movement. He lists four.
1) Immigration as a threat to identity
“Our civilization can die if we do not quickly regain control of our migration policy. It can die because the migratory submersion will have changed our culture, with no turning back possible.”
These words are those of the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, who could soon become Prime Minister of France. In this declaration, the politician expresses a strong idea of the RN (and the far right), that immigration would be a threat to the identity of French civilization.
“There is this vision of a people who would be a homogeneous entity and that it would be necessary to preserve this united character on racial, historical, traditional bases. It would be necessary to protect society against migratory waves that would change the composition and identity of society,” explains Julien Tourreille.
The researcher also recalls that the RN defends the principle of “national preference”, according to which the citizens of a country should be privileged over foreigners in matters of housing, employment, health care and education.
2) Racism as a driving force
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen and the founder of the National Front, which became the National Rally, was openly racist and anti-Semitic. Even if he no longer leads the party, his legacy cannot be ignored, says Julien Tourreille.
“The RN still has many racist voters and leaders, particularly towards the Arab and black Muslim communities,” says the researcher, while recalling that racism is linked to the extreme right.
Last January, an RN MP was accused of racism. Speaking about the fate of migrants arriving by boat in Europe, he said: “Let them go back to Africa!”
AFP
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella
3) The State must get involved in justice
For the National Rally, the best way to make France more secure is to increase the role of the State in the justice system.
“They want a much stricter justice system, with political power taking control of the judiciary. A bit like we saw in Hungary with Viktor Orban, and like Trump would like to do if he were elected in the United States,” illustrates Julien Tourreille.
Such a desire calls into question the principle of the separation of political and judicial powers, at the heart of our democracies.
RN elected officials would also like there to be more police officers on the streets of France to carry out “more actions based on racial profiling in sensitive neighborhoods,” says the researcher.
4) Control of the press and journalists
Influential members of the RN, led by Marine Le Pen, do not hesitate to fuel the distrust of a section of the electorate towards the media in order to gain points.
“They say it quite clearly that they want to better control journalists. They want journalists to be more accountable for their actions and thus take advantage of the anti-media and anti-elite electorate,” maintains Julien Tourreille.
– With AFP
