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European Studies Essays - The National Front

发布时间:2018-05-17
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Why has the National Front gained support from the French electorate since the mid-1970s?

There has been an increase in the number of extremist movements in Europe, using sensitive issues of identity, ethnicity and religion in pursuit of power (Bell, 2001). The National Front (NF) in France is an right-wing example, supporting issues not expressed by major parties and gaining support for their ideological policies based on race and faith. It has caused concern because of their empathy to a past Europe has not managed to accept (ibid). Since the mid-1980's, the NF has become relatively influencial in French politics. Although it has only gained the support of a minority of French voters, its impact is more widespread than simply electoral victories. The NF is notorious for its ability to organise a political movement which successfully draws on the anxieties and dissatisfaction of French voters, as well as drawing appeal from the broader constituency. The party is of interest because of links with the legacies of Vichy, as well as the legacy of the Revolution and the declaration of human rights. Its success in gaining support lies amongst various factors, including its charismatic leader, policies, tactics, support base and ideological appeal. It is these factors that will be analysed this essay.

The NF was founded through the Ordre Nouveau in 1972, whose members had strong links with the Vichy period. The party was one of several small extremist right-wing sects until the 1984 election for the European Parliament. Since it was founded, the NF has had one leader – Jean Marie Le-Pen. He has been convicted twice, once in 1965 for selling Nazi martial music. He was allegedly involved in torture in Algeria, where he served as a paratrooper and propagandist during the war (Singer, 1992, p. 315). Le Pen has been linked with the "shopkeepers'" revolt in the late 1950's and managed the unsuccessful political campaign of a former Vichy minister in 1965. As an agitator and a charismatic speaker, he has successfully commanded a political party which has risen in revere amongst a proportion of the French voters since the 1980s.

The NF’s rise as a political force arguably began in 1984 when the NF won 11.1% of the largely symbolic vote for the European Parliament. Le Pen won 14.4% of the vote in the first round of the 1988 presidential election, doing marginally better in the 1995 runoff. After 1985, the party's percentage of the vote in legislative elections ranged from 9.8% in the 1988 national elections to 13.9% in the 1992 regional elections. The party briefly held 35 seats in the National Assembly in 1986 but later lost almost all the seats when the proportional representation scheme under which their deputies were elected was abolished. Two key by-elections in November 1989 in Dreux and Marseille suggested the beginning of extreme right-wing favour. The votes of 42.5% in Dreux and 33% in Marseille for the NF were unforeseen. Other indicators of support can be seen in opinion polls reflecting favourable reaction to political issues significant to the NF. Voting intentions of usually 8-9%, rose to 11% in November 1989 and 12.5% the next month (Mayer, 2003). This abrupt growth can be explained by several socio-political factors.

The NF's popular and electoral support has continued to be higher and longer than that of preceding right-wing extremist parties (Weber, 1994, p. 427). Increasing support is a result of the mounting anxiety surrounding national identity. Leaders of the NF promote principles of white racial superiority and anti-Semitism. Le Pen has portrayed the Holocaust as a detail of history. Support for the NF declines whenever these dogmas have been too explicit, for example when Le Pen, who opposed France's participation in the Gulf War, visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1991 (Brechon and Mitra, 1992, p. 74). But their explicit principles have also been a source of strength to the party, which has appealed to some parts of the population through its specific and individual ideology.

The NF is most renowned and popular for its anti-immigration stance. In a 1991 national poll, 38% of the population supported the NF’s position on immigration (Wolfreys, 1993, p. 426). To varying extents, leading politicians in moderate conservative and centre parties and even some Socialists, including Mitterrand, have followed the NF's view on immigration. This is that immigrants, especially from developing countries, are the root cause of France's economic problems. In fact, legal immigration virtually ended in 1974; however, three million immigrants have entered France since the post-war period. The NF has been "careful to couch its racism in terms of the defense of Western culture rather than the superiority of the white race" (Fysh and Wolfreys, 1992, p. 321). Singer says that "the achievement of Le Pen has been to render racism almost respectable" (Singer, 1992, p. 379).

After rapid growth in the 1950's and 1960's, the French economy stagnated in the 1970's. France's GDP growth rate per capita was 2.2% between 1986-1991, which has been unevenly distributed across the economy. France also has the highest rate of unemployment (12.3%) in the industrialised world (Kraft, 1995, p. A1). The NF’s strong support is based in areas where high immigration and unemployment have coincided, such as Marseilles and in northern industrial areas. The party is especially strong in Dreux, an industrial suburb of Paris, where its candidate to the National Assembly won 61.3% of the vote in 1989. The party policy is to halt all illegal immigration, deny social benefits to legal immigrants, deport all convicted of a crime or who are unemployed, and reopen all post-1974 naturalisations. Brechon and Mitra say that "typical NF voters are poor whites of lower middle class origin who have ambitions for upward mobility but feel threatened by immigration" (Brechon, 1992, p. 70).

The intolerant program characteristics have resulted from tbe NF’s resistance to the status quo. In the 1980's and 1990's, "the system and the Establishment faced a crisis of credibility" (Weber, 1994, p. 426). Le Pen claimed to be simply saying out loud what many others thought. He blamed the existing power structure for failing to solve a long list of social problems, such as decaying schools and public services, sexual excesses and the AIDS epidemic, crime and high taxes. He blames not only immigrants but the inattention of those in power to the needs of the Frenchman. The NF is anti-American (but admiring of the American Right) and against egalitarianism, bureaucracy and elitism. Under its power the welfare state and income tax would be halted and nationalised industries would be privatised. Spending cuts would be made and social benefits reduced. Trade union powers including the right to strike would be limited. State power over the individual would be increased to assist in the imposition of law and order. The guillotine would be reintroduced for cases involving drug dealing, terrorism and murder.

Its economic policies are a combination of Reagan and Thatcherism, therefore differing from the "corporate state" doctrines of earlier forms of fascism. The party organised demonstrations against the Maastricht Treaty and opposes further movement toward European Union. It would increase tariffs to protect French businesses, workers and farmers. These policies have broadened the political base of the party to include such diverse support as Catholic integrationists (opposed to papal reforms), workers dissatisfied with the left, farmers, traders and the self-employed. The common cause is disappointment with the existing system. Weber says that the NF was "the first to articulate, formulate, anxieties, resentments and fears that the enlightened classes ignored" (Weber, 1994, p. 426).

In its cultural orientation, the NF reinforces traditional French concerns for family values and stresses the importance of "order, discipline and hierarchy" (Wolfreys, 1993, p. 426). This is Vichyism revisited with some new twists. The party claim to be able to reverse the nation's declining birth rate by outlawing contraception and abortion. It would grant additional subsidies for married couples and grant them housing priorities. Extra votes would be given to families based on the number of children. It would pay a maternal wage and provide mothers and housewives with retirement benefits. In the view of the NF, a woman's place is in the home. 1986 polls show that while 12% of the adult male population support the NF, only 7% of women do. The majority of French women consider the NF's views on the role of women "as a regression and a threat to the rights they have" (Levy, 1989, p. 102). In 1995, 79% regarded the party as a "danger to democracy" ("The Far Right Factor," 1995, p. 53).

The NF has borrowed a range of disruptive political strategies from other radical groups. Le Pen has been able to maintain party discipline and avoid fragmentation through rigorous leadership enforcement. The NF has made smart use of intellectual think-tanks to provide a pseudo-scientific basis for its theories of racial superiority. It has been innovative in its use of modern technology, such as by distributing its propaganda by video-cassette. Le Pen believes in the shock value of outrageous statements, such as his comments on Jews and homosexuals. The NF makes inflammatory statements whenever controversies arise, such as the national debate in 1989 over whether Islamic school girls should be permitted to wear traditional head dress, since French law prohibits all forms of religious display in state schools. Its criticisms of the way the government handled terrorist attacks in France have been malicious (Brechon, 1988, p. 32). These events have helped mobilise opinion in favour of the NF (Fysh & Wolfreys, 1992).

Due to media attention, all political parties and several associations for the defence of immigrants and human rights took up positions on this issue. The NF used the incident for political propaganda, arguing that the incident demonstrated a form of religious and cultural colonisation that threatened the identity of France. Since immigration was the cause of these problems, the NF argued most immigrants should be sent back to where they came from. That this incident could become so significance in the media and politics shows that it was only the visible tip of a larger and more sensitive conflict of values in French society. Such incidents symbolise the difficulties regarding the recognition of the position of the Islamic community in France, as well as the fear of the foreigner (Veugelers, 2005). These become explicit at a time of economic crisis and high unemployment. A section of the public viewed its protest against the headscarf as an act of resistance against the role of Islam in France. This incident helped to trigger the xenophobia of some sections of society which support the NF and see it as the defender of French identity.

The ‘headscarf’ incident also brought to the forefront the problem of the role of religion in French society (Brechon & Mitra, 1992). Should the state allow religion to incorporate itself into the state school system, or was religion to be treated as a private affair, excluded from state schools? The affair highlighted the conflict between respect to cultural diversity and the movement for the equality of status of women in French society (ibid). Should the state impose equality of the sexes regardless of race or ethnicity, or should it exempt from the application of the law communities whose practices were different from mainstream society?

The incident triggered French opinion on the position of immigrants, particularly those from North Africa. French opinion was already quite hostile to the immigrants. A poll taken by SOFRESin November 1984 (ibid) found that 68% of French people favoured the prohibition of the entry of new immigrants into France, 25% said they would like most immigrants to go back to where they came from, 74% were opposed to granting the right to vote in local elections to immigrants who have been living in France, 64% thought that the children of immigrants should adopt the customs and the values of French society, and 66% thought that there were "far too many North Africans in France." On the theme of immigration, the NF drew the support of a larger group than those who voted for the Party (Larkin, 1988).

The Algerian war (1954-62) was a struggle that tainted succeeding French governments. While conducting the war, they lifted basic constitutional guarantees both in France and in Algeria. The army resorted to torture, reprisals, the use of collective punishment and the execution without trial of suspects (Cohen, 2000). After employing such extreme measures and sacrificing its principles as a democratic and civilised country, France still lost the war. This is not a period of time the French are proud of. At the heart of the immigration issue is the position that French society was prepared to accord to immigrants, particularly to those of North African origin. Were they to be accepted on the condition that they assimilated French norms and culture, or was France ready to recognise the specific religious and cultural identity of the immigrants? The colonial connection has played a significant role in French life (Cohen, 1980). The arrival of the ‘pieds-noirs’, the ‘harkis’ and the Algerian migrant workers has had an impact on the demography of France which is argued by some to be a threat to France’s national identity.

The geographic composition of support for the NF is helpful in understanding the context in which the vote for the NF has found potential for rapid growth. The core areas of support are to be found on the Mediterranean coast, the Rhone region, a large region around Paris, Alsace, and Moselle (Brechon & Mitra, 1992). These correspond to the older industrial and urbanised areas of France, which contain the largest number of immigrants from North Africa, attracted during the years of expansion between 1950 and 1960. They have been severely affected by the economic crisis that has taken place since then. These are the areas of France where fear and general insecurity are highest – where the incidence of armed robberies, violent crime and resistance to arrest to high (Fysh & Wolfreys, 1992). Questions about the considerations taken when voting reveal the problem of immigration and the feeling of insecurity as the major factors.

The NF has had a divisive effect on the unity of conservative political action. Some attempts have been made to experiment with a united right-wing line up, but since 1989 the policy of leading moderates such as Chirac has been to avoid alliances with the NF. Various attempts have been made by the parties on the left to mobilise public opinion against the NF, but they have had little effect on its hardcore supporters. The NF has expanded its political base, as French politics have swung to the right in recent years. It poses a significant challenge to the existing political system which has become somewhat inflexible. It is unlikely to generate much broader support unless the party moves away from its anti-democratic and racist doctrines. Such a change is inconceivable so long as Le Pen remains in charge.

The vexed issue of national identity in France has both economic and social causes. But its outlet is through xenophobia of non-indigenous races and religions, as shown by increasing support of the NF. Immigration has become the popular excuse for the wrongs in France – and the positive contributions of immigration have been forgotten. The regions which have experienced rapid economic development have witnessed a series of social problems, including the arrival of a poorly integrated immigrant population, unemployment, the deterioration of public facilities, delinquency, and the clash of cultures in everyday life (Larkin, 1988). Immigrants then become targets of hostility. Yet it is not only the presence of immigrants but the fear of the immigrant population which is the cause of xenophobia. This is more likely to be the case in districts with a heavy concentration of immigrants, as seen by Marseille in the 1986 elections (Mayer, 2003). Middle and lower middle classes neighbourhoods, close to areas with heavy concentrations of immigrants, are areas where the NF vote is at its maximum. They hold immigrants responsible for everything that is not right. These people, who live in fear of immigrants, express their resentment by voting for the NF.

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