The high-stakes 2022 French Presidential elections will end on April 24th. It was one of the most competitive and controversial elections in France to date. After much anticipation, it was announced that President Macron won the election incumbent Marie Le Pen. Le Pen beat out the other candidates in the first round of the elections that occurred on April 10th, running as a member of the far-right, conservative French nationalist party called the National Rally (RN). Meanwhile, Macron ran as a member of the center-left political party La République en Marche which he founded when he first got elected as president back in the 2017 elections. His campaign (and his presidency overall) was focused on Pro-Europeanism, continuing France’s position as an active member of NATO, and liberal/left-leaning policies overall.
On the other hand, Le Pen ran a campaign centered around extreme right ideologies that included France potentially pulling out of NATO, anti-Europeanism and pro-French nationalism, and extreme anti-immigration policies, particularly against Muslims. As the West breathes a sigh of relief that Macron won by an approximately 17% margin, the success of Le Pen’s campaign in the first place as well as those of multiple other candidates in this election is proof of France’s alarming rise of the far right. Macron will continue to serve as president for the next five years, but the world must keep monitoring right wing extremists in France for many years to come.
White nationalism and alt-right politics has steadily become a growing trend in Europe over the last decade, but it has undoubtedly grown the most rapidly in France. Not only was France the subject of many terrorist attacks in a short period of time, but they have a principle of secularism built into their founding constitution that has ended up creating a lot of Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, and overall Xenophobic policies and rhetoric. Laicite is the concept of secularism in France that prevents religious symbols (clothes, head scarfs, necklaces with pendants, etc) from being displayed/worn in public. Naturally, this particularly targets Muslims in France and has been used to justify immense amounts of Islamophobia and even hate crimes.
This election serves as further proof of that rhetoric as two candidates in particular ran campaigns that would have greatly endangered the lives and freedoms of minority groups in France if they had been elected. First, Marie Le Pen is the daughter of two of France’s most infamous politicians who were holocaust deniers whose political stances were rooted in fascism and racism. Le Pen has worked throughout her career to prevent herself from being labelled racist or anti-semitic, but her policies and beliefs show otherwise. She is extremely anti-immigration; according to BBC news, she stated in a speech about immigrants, “If you come to our country, don’t expect to be taken care of, to be looked after, that your children will be educated without charge. . . playtime is over.” This was about her revoking the access to France’s free education system for the children of undocumented immigrants and potentially refugees, and she also believes France should put native French nationals above foreigners and immigrants. Le Pen sees a ‘blurred line’ between Islam and Islamic extremism and has indicated that Islam “denounces the values of the Republic,” a view also held by many of her associates within the party of which she has been president.
Additionally, she holds extreme nationalist views as well and has promised an EU referendum in France if she had been elected, similar to Brexit, a decision which she praises highly. Despite her extremist views, she tried to pull the votes of the more mainstream minded voters as well by claiming she is not all that right-leaning at all and is ‘for the working class French people’ in order to appeal to the center as well. This is where she differs from the other most notable candidate in this election, who did not make it into the second round of the elections, Eric Zemmour.
Eric Zemmour is the face and founder of the new Reconquête party (R!) which is the most far-right party France currently has. Although he was born and raised in Algeria and is actually of Jewish descent himself, he is an extremist with anti-semitic, anti-islam, homophobic, and anti-immigration beliefs, some of which border on or actually are based in conspiracy theories. According to NPR he has publicly used hate speech multiple times in recent years and recently he stated that immigrant children are “thieves, killers, they’re rapists. That’s all they are. We should send them back.” He is currently being sued by at least six different LGBT organizations in France, his supporters include members of Nazi alt-right organizations both in France and around Europe, and if he had been elected he would have pulled France out of nearly all of their alliances including NATO.
Between his moderately successful campaign and the campaign of Marie Le Pen that nearly won the election, this shows a dark road of hatred and bigotry that France seems to be heading down, which is creating a terrifying reality for minorities there. They are more protected under a Macron presidency than they would have been by the other candidates, but for how long? And just because the other two lost the election doesn’t change how many supporters they have that agree with those ideas, which also puts the lives and freedoms of immigrants and Muslims especially at risk. Additionally, it is a major threat to the west that one of the founding nations of NATO almost elected leaders that would have pulled France out of the alliance if they had been elected, especially given the current crisis in Russia-Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has proved that NATO needs to be more united than ever and has been the first major test of NATO in many decades. With President Biden and other leaders of the West focused on uniting NATO and US allies, these candidates in France are showing a threat to that unity and a disregard for their alliances. This is a major threat as the world has watched Ukraine descend into a violent war and a major human rights concern.
The rise of the far right, nationalism, and white supremacy is alarming in whatever country it is seen in, but it is incredibly important that President Macron uses the next five years of his presidency to make France’s alliances strong and to combat the rhetoric and ideologies of the candidates he won against. France must protect the lives of minority groups living there and more specifically, they must protect Muslim communities who are the targets of so much hatred in France. The more France marginalizes Muslims, especially Muslim youth and immigrants, the greater the radicalization problem will become as more and more youth will become angry with the way they are treated. It is the duty of the French government to combat Islamophobia and xenophobia to the best of their ability to maintain peace, to combat terrorism, and to prevent a far-right candidate from being able to win the next election.
France owes it to their immigrant population seeing as many of these immigrants come from countries that France previously colonized therefore they have French culture and ties in their roots as well. If France didn’t want this many Muslim immigrants maybe they shouldn’t have colonized the Middle East and North Africa so heavily. In terms of what can be done from a U.S. standpoint, President Joe Biden and President Macron must continue to have a good relationship and work together on global issues.
The focus of NATO during the remainder of both their presidencies needs to be centered on global peace and combating global threats such as Russia, China, and North Korea. The two presidents should also heavily focus on climate change initiatives because, as the climate crisis gets worse, there will be even more problems with refugees and immigrants that will cause more backlash in both countries. This is a key time for the U.S. to be working in conjunction with France. The U.S. is also a country where many are fearful because of the rise of the far right. It is also at risk for far-right politicians gaining a lot of support in the next elections as well.
