Even in places where « republican pacts » where not set up and triangular ballots took place, Le Pen’s party was rejected.
Marine Le Pen’s National Front did’nt make it. On the second round of the French regional elections, last Sunday, it failed everywhere : even in the Greater Northern Region, where Marine Le Pen herself was leading by a wide margin on the first ballot, or in Provence-Côte d’Azur, where her niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a 26 years old political prodigy, was also a frontruner.
The hard fact is that there is a nationwide 60 % to 70 % majority in France which will not support the National Front whatever the circumstances. While abstention fell from 50 % to 41 %, the National Front stayed put at less than 28 % of the global vote. The classic Right (Nicolas Sarkozy’s Republican Party and its centrist allies) rose from 34 % to almost 41 %. The Left as a whole fell from over 36 % to over 31 %, due to Far Left’s lack of discipline, but president François Hollande’s Socialist Party actually rose from 23 % to 29 %.
The Left and the Left were even prepared to engage into momentary « republican pacts » to block the National Front’s rise in some places. In the Greater Northern Region, most of the Left lent its support to Xavier Bertrand, the conservative candidate, who won by almost 58 % of the vote against Marine Le Pen. The same happened in Provence, where Christian Estrosi, another conservative, eventually defeated the younger Miss Le Pen by 55 % against 45 %.
Even in places where « republican pacts » where not set up and triangular ballots took place (Right, Left, National Front), Le Pen’s party was rejected. Take the Greater Eastern Region for instance, where the conservatives (48 %) won both against the Left (15 %) and a quite powerful National Front (36 %). Or Burgundy, where the socialists (34,6 %) won both against the conservatives (32,8 %) and the National Front (32,4 %).
Marine Le Pen’s initial reaction was to blame the « system » and to warn that French politics are turning from now on into a manichean fight between « patriots » (herself and her supporters) and « internationalists » (all other parties). It may energize the National Front’s militant core for a while. However, it runs against the softer and more democratic rhetorics Marine Le Pen has been using so successfully since she took over the National Front from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011.
Even if French Jews have been turning to the Right over the past years, they remain largely suspicious of Marine Le Pen’s ultimate views, both on domestic and international issues. Her reversion to manichean clichés is not likely to dispell such feelings.
© Michel Gurfinkiel & The Jewish Chronicle, 2015