European elections on June 9 in France handed a major victory to the fascist Marine Le Pen. Her party gained 31.4 percent of votes, as opposed to 23.3 percent five years ago. President Macron’s party got only 14.6 percent. Most observers were shocked when Macron then promptly announced snap parliamentary elections for the end of June. He is hoping to get his parliamentary majority back, and ready to take the risk of reinforcing fascism further.
Last Sunday’s were the first significant elections since Macron won a second term as president but lost his absolute majority in the parliament (in 2022). They were also the first elections since the historic explosion of creative class struggle in 2023, in opposition to the raising of the retirement age, a movement which despite its dynamism and huge popularity went down in defeat as national union leaders refused to organize a general strike.
At the last European elections in 2019, there were forty-seven million people registered to vote. Twenty-four million stayed home. Five million voted for the fascists, five million for Macron and his allies, two million for other right wingers, three million for the ecologists. one and a half million for the radical left France Insoumise (France in Revolt; hereafter “FI”), one and a half million for the Socialist party and its allies, and a million ballot papers were spoiled.
This time, Le Pen’s National Rally (formerly the National Front) received well over seven million votes. Macron’s list got less than half that. The alliance around the Socialist Party is around 13.8 percent and the radical left FI 8.9 percent. The traditional right wing Republicans are estimated at 7.2 percent. The Communist Party only got 2.4 percent, the ecologists 5.5 percent. Another fascist group, Reconquest, led by Eric Zemmour, and openly to the right of Le Pen, also got 5.5 percent.
The left campaign
On the left, the Socialist Party is slowly trying to rebuild from its historic collapse due to its time in government organizing neoliberal attacks on workers. In 2022 it was down to under 2% of votes in the Presidentials. The lesson for us is no doubt that Blairite politics can always bounce back, particularly if mass social movements do not bring clear victories. Its vision of society is strongly supported by the mainstream media, and voters are tempted to be satisfied with a slower, less harsh version of the dictatorship of the market, rather than any real alternative.
By far the most valuable left campaign was that led by Manon Aubry of FI, a party of radical left reformers calling for “a citizens’ revolution.” A dynamic campaign of door-to-door canvassing around the country (not a habitual part of French electoral politics) involved many new activists. Successful mass meetings often needed to open overflow halls, as was the case in the multiethnic working class suburb Garges les Gonesse last week. Candidates toured the universities, while regular education weekends are training a new generation of political leaders. The FI campaign slogan was “the strength to change everything” and key proposals are a rise in the minimum wage, a return to retirement at age 60, a price freeze on basic foodstuffs and other necessities, and a ban on arms sales to Israel.
The campaign foregrounded opposition to the genocide in Gaza, and refused to dismiss Hamas attacks on Israel as “terrorism”. As a result, several meetings were banned by police authorities, and one FI leader, Rima Hassan (who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp), is under police investigation for “defending terrorism”. Every day in the media, Mélenchon and other FI leaders are accused of hating Jews, and many people believe these lies.
Based on this programme, the France Insoumise increased its vote across the country from 6.3% in the last European elections to 9.9%. In the multiethnic working class suburbs around Paris it often achieved votes over 30% (58% in La Courneuve, 51% in Saint Denis, 53% in Bobigny). This shows that radical left politics can win votes.
The FI leadership (with whom Marxists like myself have plenty of disagreements) has held firm on key questions in the last year or so, and is on a sharply radical path. When young people rioted in dozens of towns after a racist police murder last year, Mélenchon, principal leader of the FI, declared “We have been told to appeal for calm. We appeal for justice!” Further, the FI has maintained a principled anticolonialist position on the present crisis in Kanaky New Caledonia, and loudly denounces racism against Muslims
Le Pen
The far right National Rally (Rassemblement National, hereafter “RN”), Marine Le Pen’s party, is building around a racist idea of defending French values against the supposed danger of immigrants and Muslims. Just recently Le Pen said that the Muslim headscarf should be banned in all public places. Nevertheless, in the last few years the National Rally, now presided over by young well-dressed fascist Jordan Bardella, has been extremely successful in persuading most people that it is just a political party like any others. To portray this image, Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, was thrown out of the organization, and the eighty-two MPs the RN has are in general tremendously careful to avoid controversy (while attending every car boot sale in town, shaking hands and trying to look normal). Recently the RN, pretending to be shocked, broke most of its links with the AfD party in Germany after one of its leaders made positive comments about the SS.
The RN is claiming to defend the ordinary people of France, despite having voted against raising the national minimum wage (in 2022) and against a rent freeze (in 2023). Its elected representatives have voted against easier access to abortion (2015) and against increasing resources to help victims of domestic violence (2016). They have voted against many green regulations, and against reinforcing business responsibility to avoid environmental damage (2021). Its MPs have supported most of Macron’s neoliberal reforms. The RN campaigns in favour of nuclear energy and against wind power. It promises to slash inheritance taxes for the rich and to reserve social housing for people of French nationality. It aims at increasing prison sentences and making it even harder to prosecute killer cops.
A duet, not a duel!
The rise and rise of the RN has been crucially helped by Macron repeatedly supporting its vision by passing Islamophobic laws and banning Muslim legal defense organizations, as well as by supporting vicious police repression. Macron’s ministers, screaming about universities being “controlled by islamoleftists,” and Macron’s trigger-happy cops killing young Arab men are just what the fascists need to build their influence further.
These days, endless government training courses for civil servants on “defending secularism” aim at making mistrusting all Muslims a national sport, and they mostly help the far right. Macron further pushed Marine Le Pen into centre stage last week by agreeing to a one on one TV debate between his Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal and RN leader Jordan Bardella, thus pushing the idea that the left doesn’t matter: it’s just Macron’s band against the extremists. In the debate, Attal carefully avoided mentioning racism or fascism.
The fascists are hoping to consolidate their gains in the parliamentary elections in three weeks’ time. The organization is still having great difficulty building a party machine, and throughout the European elections campaign had only eight public meetings, far fewer than other parties. But the urgency of a large-scale national antifascist campaign is ever more evident.
Macron will be presenting his party yet again as the only alternative to “extremism” of the right and of the left. But this discourse, covering his neoliberal attacks on pensions and unemployment benefits, convinces fewer people every year. The left must present a radical alternative. As I write, negotiations are going on between left forces about the possibility of a united left front for the parliamentary elections. The Socialist Party would like an alliance based on soft neoliberalism and no support for Palestine. The France Insoumise wants an alliance based on a radical left programme. A dynamic left electoral campaign is needed to push the fascists back.
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