Critically assess available explanations of the rise of the National Front, and assess and explain its impact on French politics

Résumé du document

The National Front was founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen and since the 1980s has managed to enter French political life. The European elections of 1984 saw the National Front gain 11% of votes, and in the parliamentary elections of 1986 and 1988, the National Front won 10%. The presidential elections of 1988 saw the National Front benefit from 14.4% of the votes cast in the first ballot. More recently, the presidential elections of 2002 saw Jean-Marie Le Pen face to face with Jacques Chirac. Many countries in Western Europe have experienced a significant rise in extreme right wing parties' popularity and some countries such as Austria and Italy have even witnessed such parties come to power in coalition governments. Several reasons can be evoked when trying to assess why there has been such a rise of the National Front in France, namely, political, social and economic factors, as well as an identity crisis, and other factors grouped into a cultural context. One of the greatest impacts of the rise of the National Front is the changing of the political agenda, which now has a greater focus on immigration issues.

Extraits

[...] The National Front at last affects the European construction and to a greater extent the other far right movements in Europe Paul Hainsworth and Paul Mitchell claim that the National Front has been of the key political parties in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century wave of extreme-right wing successes across Western Europe”. Since the National Front's electoral success in the early 1980s, it has served as beacon of hope for other like-minded movements” and has played a predominant role in French and European politics and society since the 1980s and 1990s. publicity generated by the Le Pen success is planting seeds in the UK, the rest of Europe and around the world”. The vocabulary of the English National Front also owes much to that of the French National Front. [...]

[...] Within the discourse of the National Front, France is constructed as a community sharing the same race, culture, language, history and religion and whose integrity is threatened by waves of foreign invaders”. The globalised economy along with European institutions such as the EU also add to the identity crisis according to National Front advocates as they frequently use words such as “invasion, colonisation, marée, naufrage, and catastrophe” to describe these processes. Although simple in form, this differentiation between insiders and outsiders proves very effective, as often the complex notions of globalisation and the international organisation of bodies such as the EU and integration overwhelm citizens and they are more able to relate to a straightforward explanation for things, which are happening to them, which they do not fully comprehend. [...]

[...] The medias and their coverage of the political campaigns along with the impacts produced can also be seen as a factor of influence on the rise of the National Front vote. In the run-up to the presidential campaign of 2002, there was a proliferation of violence. These included “hold ups, attacks against security guards and against police stations, carnage in the municipal council room of Nanterre, followed by a new wave of anti-Semitic violence against French Jews, synagogues, schools and buses”. [...]

[...] In conclusion, the explanations accounting for the rise of the National Front seem plausible, valid and real as not only France has experienced these economic and political disillusions, but most Western European countries have also encountered such problems. The charismatic leader of the National Front also seems to play a role as he is able to capture the attention of his audience and the party's short powerful lines stick in the minds of the electorate especially when in difficult periods. [...]

[...] Moreover, the National Front proved very talented at making its program fit the electorate's expectations. The National Front thus started out pro-market but has now evolved into a protectionist anti-market position - at least in words attracting the working class. The rise in votes in favour of the National Front, are not new votes, and so one must keep in mind that these are votes from the Left and Right. Indeed, due to the continuous tensions between the Right and the Left as well as their ineffectiveness in office, the French were searching for a way to manifest their discontent. [...]