On 21 April 2002, I was 18 years old and my friends and I were about to vote for the very first time. And not just in any election, we were going to vote in the presidential election.
The euphoria of this first vote, however, was quickly dampened.
Jean Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen, came second in the first round with 16.8% of the votes, qualifying for the second round. The euphoria was over.
On social media, I see my friends from that period posting today “We said ‘never again’”. Twenty years ago, we were – as were a great number of French people – absolutely stunned by the results of the first round. Our disbelief, our sorrow, was immense.
Headlines screamed from the front pages of newspapers: “Le choc” (The shock) in Le Parisien, “Le tremblement de terre” (The earthquake) in Le Figaro and “Non” (No) in Libération.
We, the youth, but also a large number of French citizens, felt we had to mobilise and show our dismay. France had nothing to do with Le Pen and his fascist ideas. And we were going to prove it.
The right to vote, the right to be a full citizen, had briefly become a vocation.
Around 1.3 million anti-Le Pen demonstrators turned out on 1 May 2002, while all the left-wing parties called for a vote for President Jacques Chirac, and young people understood the reality and transformed it into a barrage vote. A “vote utile” (useful vote).
It didn’t matter which party was in power as long as it wasn’t Le Pen’s Front national (FN). And that is how, on 5 May, Chirac was elected with 82.2% of the votes.
Fast-forward to today and history has repeated itself. But not our youthful dismay. Even less our common front against the far-right. A Le Pen in the second round has become routine.
In 2017, in the first round of the presidential election, Marine Le Pen came second with 21.30% of the votes against Emmanuel Macron. Two weeks ago, she came second again with 23.1% against Macron (27.8%).
And who is still shocked by her strong showing today? Who is outraged by it? Very few…
What was unthinkable 20 years ago has become commonplace.
Meanwhile, the thin net that separates us from Marine Le Pen in power becomes thinner and thinner with each election. In 2017, Macron won the second round with 66.1% of the vote; today, the polls predict a victory of between 51 and 55%.
A few days ago, on the evening of the first round, not all left-wing parties agreed to clearly call on people to vote for Macron.
“We must not give a single vote to Ms Le Pen,” far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeated several times. As for the youth, it is only a few hundred students who have shown their discontent. And abstention is their leitmotiv…
In 2022, a swing in favour of Le Pen is possible.
The far-right has manoeuvred to smooth out its edges. Marine Le Pen talks to the French everyman and all those who feel misunderstood by the Parisian elite, politicians and journalists alike.
She talks to them about purchasing power when others are quibbling about European treaties.
She promises more security, while others go on about protecting the environment. She appeals to the disappointed from all sides.
One could talk for hours about the inconsistencies or infeasibility of her programme but what comes across to voters is that she is listening to their main concerns, their immediate problems, and their most urgent needs. So why not give her a chance?
This is what has changed in 20 years.
Jean-Marie Le Pen was associated with hate; Marine Le Pen is synonymous with hope.
On 24 April, Macron may be re-elected, but we must not forget the 45 to 49% of voters who will vote for Marine Le Pen.
Whether or not their problems and their fatigue are taken into account will no doubt determine the far right’s performance in 2027. Perhaps even earlier, in the June parliamentary election.
Mainstream politicians urgently need to “Look up”!
The Roundup
Incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right contender Marine Le Pen clashed over the current practice of taking into account the partner’s income when calculating the allowance for disabled adults in a debate ahead of their final face-off on Sunday (24 April).
‘Frexit’ may be off the menu offered by Marine Le Pen ahead of Sunday’s crucial presidential run-off against incumbent Emmanuel Macron but the threat of a seismic shift to France’s position in Europe looms large ahead of polling day.
European Council President Charles Michel made an effort to open Russian President Vladimir Putin’s eyes to his country’s losses in Ukraine and to the effect of sanctions in a phone call on Friday.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will host Ukraine-focused defence talks with allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany next week, the Pentagon said on Thursday (21 April) as Russia continues to increase its armed forces as part of its eastern offensive in the Donbas.
A Russian general declared on Friday that Moscow wants to seize all of southern and eastern Ukraine, far wider war aims than it had acknowledged as it presses on with a new offensive after its campaign to capture the capital Kyiv collapsed last month.
With the EU’s plan for Ukraine’s recovery in the making, the president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Werner Hoyer warned that the country’s reconstruction will require huge investments from both public budgets and private capital.
Meanwhile, Washington is promoting a declaration on the future of the internet, outlining a series of democratic principles in an initiative set to receive the support of the EU and other Western allies.
Europe endured record extreme weather in 2021, from the hottest day and the warmest summer to deadly wildfires and flooding, the European Union’s climate monitoring service reported Friday.
While the EU is still waiting for the European Commission to propose a common framework for promoting farming practices that help remove carbon from the atmosphere, Slovakia has charged ahead and drawn up a new land-use climate fund.
In other news, new research suggests that the main cause of mental health decline during the COVID-19 pandemic was social distancing rules.
In the Balkans, Kosovo and Serbia have failed to agree on the issue of license plates, an issue that sparked unrest along the border in September 2021, after the deadline expired on Thursday (21 April).
Finally, don’t miss our latest Digital and Agrifood Briefs for a roundup of weekly news.
Look out for…
- Second round of the French presidential elections on Sunday (24 April).
- Parliamentary elections in Slovenia.
- Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vĕra Jourová meets with Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Noel Curran, Director General of the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva on Monday (25 April)
Views are the author’s.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
