Describe and explain the varying significance of the Far Right in the French Fifth Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy

Résumé du document

The first round of the French Presidential elections on April 21st, 2002, was a clap of thunder in the political landscape. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the candidate of "National Front", the Far Right leading party, won a staggering 16.86 % of the votes, eliminating from the run-off, the outgoing socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and opposing in the second round the incumbent President Jacques Chirac. This political earthquake was the first dazzling success for the mounting Far Right parties in Europe since the 1970s. In this essay we shall adopt a comparative perspective to study the revival of the Far Right, considering examples and establishing similarities and differences among the Far Rights in the French Fifth Republic, and the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy. Situated on the Far Right of the political spectrum and originally opposed to the values of the democratic Revolution of 1789, this anti-mainstream political force is characterized by highly nationalist and populist stances, tough law-and-order and anti-immigration platforms and traditional moral and family values

Extraits

[...] Pascal Perrineau points out the tribune function historically rooted in the Gracchus Brothers in Ancient Rome of the Far Right, most notably since the weakening of the Communist party as of the 1980s. Third the extent to which the Far Right is successful also depends on its perception as “respectable” or not and its recognition by adversarial parties as a legitimate partner or opponent. In Germany notably the haunting memory of the rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich Regime is very strong and inhibits the pull of the Far Right. [...]

[...] Describe and explain the varying significance of the Far Right in the French Fifth Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy April 21st the first round of the French Presidential election, was a clap of thunder in the political landscape. Jean-Marie Le Pen, candidate of “National Front”, the Far Right leading party, won a staggering of the votes, eliminating from the run-off the outgoing socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and opposing in the second round the incumbent President Jacques Chirac. [...]

[...] To conclude reducing the significance of the Far Right to the revival of a fascist-like activity would be totally irrelevant. In the wake of the works of Iganzi, Betz and Perrineau it should be said that the Far Right is not the reminiscence of a feature of the past but a product of post modern politics responding to changes in society and in the value system in the 1970s and onwards. The strength of the Far Right is a mean to assess the ability of the conventional parties to adapt and address the issues of the time. [...]

[...] In first place, the term "post- materialism" and the related concept of "the silent revolution" was made rather notorious in political and social sciences by Ronald Inglehart since the beginning of the seventies. (From Wikipedia, article “Postmaterialism”) Ronald Inglehart, “From Class-Based to Value Based Politics” in Peter Mair, The West European Party System, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 266-282). Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties. See also, Pascal Perrineau, Les croisés de la société fermée, l'Europe des extrêmes, (Paris, Editions de l'Aube, 2001). [...]

[...] Pietro Ignazi, Challenges: Postmaterialism and the Extreme Right” in Rhodes, Heywood and Wright in Developments in West European Politics (London: Macmillan) chapter 2007. Ronald Inglehart, “From Class-Based to Value Based Politics” in Peter Mair, The West European Party System, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 266-282). Pascal Perrineau, Les croisés de la société fermée, l'Europe des extrêmes, (Paris, Editions de l'Aube, 2001). Lectures Notes/Study Pack, Pr. Peter Humphreys Revision Guide, Pr. Peter Humphreys Pietro Ignazi, silent counter-revolution : hypotheses on the emergence of extreme right-wing parties in Europe” in European Journal of Political Research, July 1992. [...]