According to an article appearing in today’s Le Monde,
Marine Le Pen is in buoyant mood following the publication of an Ispsos poll of
French public opinion in yesterday’s edition of the paper. Why? Well, in Le
Pen’s own words, it shows that “the French think like us”. Specifically, it
would appear that Front National attitudes and policies with respect to
immigration, Islam, globalisation and economic protectionism strike a strong
chord with the French electorate.
Overall, the French public is not in an ebullient mood, with
the poll suggesting the prevalence of a distinctly pessimistic worldview. That
this should be so ought to come as no surprise, for France, like the UK, does
not currently find itself in a happy situation either economically or socially.
The pie charts reproduced below provide a striking summary of the twin mood of
economic and cultural decline that appears to have taken root: 55% of
respondents thought that French economic power “has declined a great deal” and
a further 35% believe that it “has declined a little”, with only 7% thinking
that the economy “has progressed a little”. In the cultural sphere, the mood
remains negative, but not in quite so pronounced a fashion as with respect to
the economy: 23% thought that French cultural influence “had declined a lot”
with a further 40% stating “that it had declined a little”.
In factually rather than politically correct fashion, 74% of respondents in the poll subscribed to the notion that Islam was an “intolerant”
religion; 77% stated that “religious fundamentalism” (code for Islam) was a matter of concern to them; 57% were of the opinion that “anti-white racism is
quite common in France”, and 62% “no longer feel at home in France”. Data are
not provided with respect to ethnic and faith differences amongst respondents,
but the results clearly indicate that France is a cleft society, with a
significant proportion of indigenous French citizens feeling a distinct sense
of cultural alienation from their own homeland because of the momentous changes
wrought by mass immigration in recent decades. My sympathies on this score lie
with the French. Whether or not the French have lost Paris as the English (or
indeed, the British) have lost London, I do not know, but similar processes
driven by the twin ideologies of globalism and permeable borders are leading to
a crisis of national self-identity in both countries. However, to express this
sense of alienation from one’s own homeland and the political class who
implement and advocate the policies that lead to this dispossession is to run
the risk in both the UK and France of being branded a ‘far-right extremist’,
which is of course a deeply malicious and wounding slur upon the part of those
who level it.
One commentator – Michel Winock – described by Le Monde as a
“specialist in the history of politics and ideology in modern France” has used
the findings of this poll to make tired and lazy comparisons with France in the
1930s, raising the hoary old spectre of recrudescent ‘fascism’ that is so often
wheeled out by defenders of mass immigration and state-sponsored
multiculturalism on either side of La Manche when confronted by popular
distaste for these two elite-sponsored projects. To equate a desire for
national self-preservation and cultural distinctiveness with ‘fascism’ is
repugnant, but that does not prevent the likes of Winock from seeking to firmly
implant this false association in the public mind with the assistance of a
largely eager and compliant mass media.
In conclusion, the policies forwarded by the Front National
chime strongly with the concerns of native French voters, but thus far the
party has not been able to make a significant electoral breakthrough. What
then, will it take for French voters to give voice to their dissatisfaction by
voting for a party that offers policies that they favour, and for them to
overcome their aversion to voting for Le Pen inculcated by many years of deeply
hostile coverage of the FN?
The actual number of seats gained by the FN in the Assemblée Nationale or at local or cantonal level does not actually reflect the support they enjoy amongst the population. Apparently there are all kinds of ruses the more left leaning and mainstream parties (PS, UMP, Ecolo-Verts etc.) resort to to prevent the FN from gaining seats (they literally "gang up" against them). In my view the FN have become almost a mainstream party anyway - they espouse "republican values" like all the rest and have long since been overtaken on the right by the Identitaires who have a more regional orientation.
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