After decades of softening their image, the far-right in France have surged one-step closer to power, winning a landslide victory in the first of two rounds of national elections.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won 33 per cent of the vote, the country’s interior ministry confirmed yesterday evening, after president Emmanuel Macron called a surprise snap election at the start of June.
His own centrist Together coalition slumped to a meagre third place with just a 20 per cent share of the vote, while the leftwing New Popular Front (NFP) won around 28 per cent.
With far-right politics sweeping across Europe – in Italy, Hungary and Slovakia most notably – The Independent looks at the possible ramifications of yet another populist firebrand winning power on the continent.
Should National Rally win a majority at the second round of elections on 7 July, an outcome that looks distinctly possible, one of the European Union’s two driving members would suddenly be run by a party keen to wrest power from Brussels.
National Rally’s 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella, personally picked to run the party by Ms Le Pen and who is likely to become the next prime minister of France, has vowed to “defend [France’s] interests” on the European stage.
“Our arrival in office will mark France’s return to the European stage – to defend its interests,” he said last month.
Leaving the bloc is no longer a feature of RN’s manifesto – they were summarily defeated by Mr Macron in the 2017 presidential elections, the last time they included such a promise – but they have been nonetheless clear in their opposition to Brussels.
Mr Bardella said his party was ready to negotiate “exceptions” to a number of EU rules for France, including aims to legislate a “national preference” for French businesses and agriculture, in breach of the rules of the European single market.
He also spoke of pushing for a review of EU free trade agreements that do not “respect” France and preventing any further enlargement of the EU.
The Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank, suggested that such moves would render the European legal order “increasingly shaky” at a time when unity – in the face of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and populism – is vital.
“And if France is no longer willing to follow EU rules or faithfully implement decisions taken by the European Council of Ministers, then it is doubtful that the EU can continue to function as it has for the past few decades,” they wrote, noting that France, alongside Germany, is the driving force of the bloc.
Further cause for concern for Brussels will be National Rally’s stance on immigration and Islam; their views have regularly been criticised as discriminatory, redolent of a Hungarian administration, for example, that has turned Budapest into the bogeyman of the bloc.
National Rally’s “national preference” ideology extends to prioritising French-born citizens for healthcare and state benefits, while they also intend to introduce a law to combat “Islamist ideologies” by making it easier to close mosques and deport imams who are deemed to be radicalised.
In terms of French relations with the United Kingdom, which looks set to come under Labour control at the end of this week, it remains uncertain how the parties will coordinate.
Speaking today about the first round results in France, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “The lesson I take from nationalism and populism wherever it is, across Europe or across the world, is that we need to address the everyday concerns of people.
“We need to show in the UK on Thursday and across the world that only progressives have the answers, but we also need to understand why people feel disaffected with politics and explain why politics is a force for good.”
Regarding the Paris Olympic Games, which starts 19 days after the second round of voting, officials have promised that politics will have no impact on the competition.
Paris 2024 organisers said they were ready to deliver the Games after seven years of preparation and to help unite the nation.
“With just a few weeks to go before the Games, we have entered a highly operational phase. All the major decisions have been taken a long time ago,” the statement read.
“The state is obviously a key player, but we know that we can count on their full engagement and that of our public services, even in the context of these early elections, to move forward on the remaining issues,” it added.