The international community monitors the French Presidential Election closely mainly because of the constitutional power of the President! Usually, the world ignores the French Parliamentary Polls and most of the people are not even aware of the European Parliament (EP) Elections. However, the year 2024 is an exception. The Far-Rights triggered a sensation across the globe by winning the EP Elections in June (2024). Soon after the EP Elections, France held the First Round of Parliamentary Elections in which Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen’s Far-Right National Rally (RN) and its allies bagged 31% of votes to finish top. While the Left-Wing New Popular Front, under the leadership of Jean-Luc Melenchon, secured the second position in the First Round, the Centrist Ensemble coalition, led by President Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron’s Renaissance (RE) Party, managed to finish third.

Interestingly, all the major political outfits tried their best to beat the Centrist alliance led by President Macron’s RE Party in the First Round. However, the scenario completely changed ahead of the Second Round as defeating the Far-Rights became the main target (of other parties)! The Left-Wing and the Centrist parties formed a Republican Front in order to throw a strong challenge to the Far-Rights. With this move, the Left-Wings and the Centrists avoided a three-way contest in the Second Round. They adopted the one against one strategy in those constituencies where the RN had a strong support base. The Left-Wing and the Centrist alliances reportedly withdrew their candidates from at least 185 seats, creating troubles for the Far-Right RN!

The strategy paid dividends as the Left-Wing New Popular Front won 188 seats (32.6% of votes) to emerge as the single largest alliance, while the Centrist Ensemble coalition secured the second position with 161 seats (27.9% of votes) and the Far-Right RN (and its allies) finished third with 142 seats (24.6% of votes)! The 2024 French Parliamentary Elections have become an example to the global community of how to defeat Neo-Fascism by forming a larger Democratic Coalition. Such a strategy has a positive, as well as a negative, effect. One should not forget that the Far-Right RN has got the maximum number of seats to emerge as the single largest party in the Lower House of the bicameral French Parliament, with Le Pen’s party bagging the maximum percentage (32.05) of votes! How the Far-Rights has become so powerful in a country where the French Revolution had taken place can be understood by looking back to the past.

There is nothing new in the rise of the Far-Rights in France. One can trace the roots of the Far-Right-Wing politics in the Western European country in the second half of the 19th Century. Adolf Hitler installed a puppet government in Vichy under the leadership of Marshal Philippe Pétain (April 24, 1856 – July 23, 1951) during the Second World War. In the 1970s, Jean-Marie Le Pen (born on June 20, 1928), the father of Marine Le Pen, popularised Neo-Fascism in France. Its influence increased gradually as Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party won 35 out of a total of 577 seats in the National Assembly (the Lower House) in 1986 Parliamentary Elections. The Era of Mass Unemployment began in France at that period of time. Jean-Marie Le Pen blamed the immigrants for this crisis! Since then, Far-Right politics has evolved on the basis of the immigration issue.

Jean-Marie Le Pen reportedly stressed on social issues, like unemployment and poverty, in the electoral manifesto of his party. Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa, the winner of the 2007 Presidential Election, used Jean-Marie Le Pen’s agendas during his campaign to win the election! This was the first time when mainstream French politics accepted the racist political ideology of the Far-Rights! Later, Marine Le Pen arrived at the scene, claiming that “The real fight has begun!” As Sarközy’s popularity continued to decline, Marine Le Pen became the popular face of Far-Right politics. She reached the Final Round of the Presidential Election twice in a row (2017 and 2022), and renamed her father’s Comités Jeanne Party (or Jeanne Committees) as Rassemblement National (or National Rally). She further brought forward young Jordan Bardella (as the President of the RN since 2022) in an attempt to hide the negative image of the name Le Pen!

Once, Marine Le Pen had mentioned that what her party “speaks is actually the thoughts of millions of French people. They just cannot say those words“! She was right! That is why her RN performed really well in the EP Elections in June (2024). Far-Right-Wing politics is no longer a potential threat for French society, but a stark reality now. Fear is the mainstay of their policy. Their political strategy is to create an atmosphere of fear around any particular issue, including Left-Wing politics, immigration, feminism, race, religion, unemployment and the like.

Although the New Popular Front and the Ensemble coalition have managed to stop the RN from coming to power this time, the future of both the Left-Wing and Centrist alliances is uncertain! One should not forget that most of the Left parties and their leaders are staunchly anti-Macron. Far-Left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon sounded desperate after the announcement of election results. Such a rigid attitude would certainly create troubles for the Republican Front in the coming days. Now, the Far-Lefts have only two options… Forming the government by making some compromises with President Macron’s Centrist bloc or triggering the fall of the Coalition Government by prioritising their own agendas only.

President Macron has become the ultimate gainer after the 2024 Parliamentary Elections. He has successfully managed to keep the Far-Rights at bay with the help of Left-Wing parties. However, he is with comparatively lesser responsibilities to form the government. Now, Melenchon has to take that responsibility! Of course, Melenchon is well aware of the fact that he has to be flexible to his partners, like the Socialists, Communists, Centrists and the environmentalists.

In actuality, the 2024 French Parliamentary Election was just a trailer! The story of the real movie shall begin to unfold!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das